Happy 4th of July!

Jason and I were so happy to have the 4th of July off work (being a Wednesday) and since Lindsay and Matt were still in town we decided to meet up for a picnic in NYC.

What is more American than having a picnic in the park with friends?

First off, here's a little something to get you in the patriotic mood!!

Ok, now on with the blog post...

Matt had some old friends from college that lived in Brooklyn, so off to Prospect Park we went...

It was a beautiful day, but definitely HOT!

We found a nice spot in the shade, Lindsay and Matt brought lunch from Dean and Deluca (so fancy!) and we all enjoyed each other's company!

Matt, our ultimate cocktail connoisseur made drinks with a his makeshift bar...  

Old Fashioned, just for Jason!!

So Patriotic!

After it got a little too hot, and the baby got a little too cranky, we said our goodbyes to Matt's friends and made our way to explore Prospect Park.  It definitely had a different feel compared to Central Park... a little more rugged... a little more, shall we say... Brooklyn?

Jason found a fort under a tree...

Then we all stumbled upon a lake, well, pond, well, really it was just a lot of pond scum!

I love Lindsay's horrified look.  That is really how we felt when we saw the scum moving, then realizing it was frogs beneath the layers!  Eeewww.

We decided before we melted in the heat we needed to find some air-conditioning and more drinks.  Matt came up with the Slovakian burger house in the East Village that specializes in deep fried burgers!

Let me say that again...

Deep. Fried. Burgers.

My stomach hurts just writing that.

Because it was July 4th, the place was pretty quiet and what do you know, they give the waiters the day off so we were graced with the presence of the "interesting" head chef Steven!

He was incredible and gave us all samplers of the burgers which were AMAZING!

They were not greasy, not fatty, just SO GOOD!

For dessert, his specialty was a bacon nutella crepe thing with jalapeño jam on top.

Just think about that for a second.

We loved the burgers, but were a little iffy about the dessert...

It really was not that bad.  We all shared one and ate it all if that says anything!

Ok, by now anyone reading this probably thinks Jason and I have just been stuffing our faces every weekend since we got here.  When I look through all my pictures I realize what a high percentage there is of food themed pics! You know what? Who cares?  It is just all such great food!

And on that note... Our next stop was the Big Gay Ice Cream Shop...

the mama of the Big Gay Ice Cream Truck!

Of course there was a line down the street!

I decided I needed some apparel, I don't think I will be wearing it to work though!

Matt's look says it all...YUM.

Ditto to the YUM.

By now were were FULL and we decided our next stop was probably the most American thing we could do besides standing with an obscene amount of people for hours to see the fireworks.

Amateur Night.  Harlem.  Apollo Theatre!

Jason and I kept looking at each other thinking "what the heck are we doing here?"

But in all honesty, it was so much fun!  We saw some really great acts, and some really not so great ones that were of course boo'd off the stage.

It felt so appropriate to go to such a culturally historical place on America's Birthday!

We had such a great time with Lindsay and Matt this week and miss them so much already!

Thank you guys for a great time!

Current Location:

Stamford, Connecticut