Some of the best parts of traveling are the meals you get to have. Here are some of the places we ate last week while in New York City:

You’ve already seen this shot of us on the roof deck of Ample Hills Creamery in Brooklyn, just down the street from our hotel. It’s really lucky that their hours only worked with our schedule one day out of the three. My cone was Snap Mallow Pop (a deconstructed Rice Krispie treat) and Nonna D’s Oatmeal Lace (a brown sugar ice cream with oatmeal lace cookies in it). Rudi opted for double chocolate and fresh strawberry.

Between visiting Prospect Park and having supper at a burger joint, we stopped at The Kings Beer Hall, a beer garden we were walking past after finding an open bike dock for Rudi’s bike (I totally dock blocked him and another girl). We were their last outdoor customers of the day, and really enjoyed the gigantic pretzel (served on a baking sheet) that came out of the oven after I took this shot. They also had a pinball machine inside, which made us both really happy.

Wednesday morning, we went to Runner & Stone, a bakery just around the corner from our hotel that Rudi had discovered on a trip to the City in December. This is one of the best chocolate almond croissants I’ve ever had. We came back on our final morning as well, and had peach tarts.

We headed into Manhattan for the play, but had left enough time to stop at the Greenmarket at Union Square for lunch. We wandered around, sampling jams, cheese, and alcohol; purchased some grains to bring home; and built ourselves a picnic lunch of baguette and peppercorn chèvre, strawberries, drinkable yogurt, chocolate milk, cider doughnuts, and potato chips (which we didn’t end up eating there after all).

I have no picture of the rather mediocre pizza we got down in Hells Kitchen between parts 1 and 2 of the show, but we got to eat it outside on the High Line with a view of the Hudson.

On Thursday after checking out of our hotel, Rudi wanted to go to a bike shop a couple blocks away and see if they had pads for his helmet and I found a couple bookstores nearby, so we parted ways. After checking out one of them, I turned up the hill to find this sight:

This is the Brooklyn outpost of Doughnut Plant, an independent doughnut shop. Check out the mosaics that make up their seating! I bought several doughnuts, some of which we ate that day and some of which we ate after we got home. I think the highlight was the coconut cream, made each day from fresh coconuts, but Rudi may have a different opinion.

After Rudi and I met up again, we walked over to the other bookstore, pausing at NuNu Chocolates, when the wafting chocolate scent pulled me in off the street.

We ended our trip with lunch at Sky Ice, a Thai restaurant that serves food from a variety of regions of Thailand. I had the lunch special and Rudi had a northern Thai curry. It was all so filling (and we were running later than we’d hoped for our bus home), that we nearly turned down the scoop of ice cream that came with my lunch. But we took it to go and finished it on the way back to grab our luggage and hit the subway.

It was a delicious trip. Good thing we got so much walking in!

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday asks us to consider ten books that we may have given up on too soon. I have a whole category of book in Goodreads called On Hiatus (currently hovering around 90 books) and while sometimes that category includes books that have needed to go back to the library before I could finish them, more often than not those books are never going to be cycled back to without prompting. Here are some I’ve reconsidered:

1. Walden & Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau: Karen and I were going to slog through this book together, but I kept abandoning it on her.
2. Donna Tartt’s The Secret History: Jenn sent me a copy of this, but like many literary darlings, it’s darker than I like and seemed to take itself awfully seriously.
3. Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! by Richard Feynman: Because I do science for a living (and because it’s not a passion of mine), reading about it in my spare time feels like work. It’s a funny book, though, and I will return to it someday when I’m no longer doing science.
4. Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan: I will often abandon books when they reach a turning point where the choice characters seem likely to make seems ominous. (It does not always follow that the decision is ominous, it turns out, according to some other books I’ve returned to after a time out.)
5. Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury: This was just a wrong book at the wrong time. I suspect I will actually like this one, based on what I’d read, and do plan to get back to it.
6. Mindy Kalig’s Is Everyone Hanging Out without Me?: I tried to listen to this after finishing Tina Fey’s and Amy Pohler’s books and should have given myself more time before starting another comedian’s memoir. She’s a funny woman and I’d like to give it another listen at some point.
7. Girl Waits with Gun by Amy Stewart: I think this must have dropped into this category because I had to return the book to the library and the holds list was long. I enjoyed the part I read, and I should probably pick it back up and give it another shot, since they’re going to make a tv series (or movie maybe?) based on it.
8. Jason Reynolds’ When I Was the Greatest: This was another turning point put-down. However, since I’ve liked every other Jason Reynolds book I’ve read, I should at least give it another try (not the least because it features a character learning to knit to deal with stress).
9. Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders: Ultimately, I’m hoping this is a format problem and that switching to the paper book, rather than trying to listen to it, may fix it.
10. Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South: I was listening to a podcast reading of this and then I just pretty much ceased listening to podcasts. I do still listen to audiobooks, though, so I should just request this one from the library.

How about you? Do you give up on books, even when they become a slog? Do you second guess that decision at all? And if yes, what books have you reconsidered giving another shot to?

Well, that was a weekend, wasn’t it?

After catching our first outdoor movie of the summer, I really expected the weekend to be chock full of activity. And, yet, despite my having my usual game plan, it just wasn’t.

Some of it, I realize, was a reaction to having just spent a number of days in activity. Some of it was caused by having this major project launching tomorrow, which necessitated going into the office on a Saturday night. It certainly wasn’t helped by today’s steady rain and yesterday’s steady mizzle. But I think most of it was just bad attitude and lethargy.

The weekend wasn’t wholly a loss. As I said, I got quite a bit of work done that would otherwise have needed to be done tomorrow morning. I did stop by the garden, where I picked lettuce, strawberries, and peas (which are all flourishing thanks to all this rain), and the library, where I returned some of the overdue items.

I tried out a new dessert shop, where I had a delicious piece of key lime pie at the recommendation of the woman who waited on me and who also offered to refill my tea cup without prompting.

I wandered down to where there was supposed to be a pre-Stanley Cup concert by Sting and Shaggy, stood around for a while, before deciding they must have performed before my arrival. I then went and tried on clothes for a bit. Several things fit well enough, but didn’t wow me. I didn’t need anything (although really wouldn’t have minded some new additions to my wardrobe) and try never to buy things I feel only so-so about unless there is a pressing need. So, I left, gift card still intact, and returned to the office to productively power through my work.

I fixed some things that needed repairing, including some things I’d broken in my prior two days at work. And then I escaped the office via a bus that must have pulled away just before gleeful hockey fans descended, since it was nearly empty when I boarded.

This morning we had a damp stroll through the farmers market, where it was obvious that other people had chosen to remain home, given the full stands hours into the day. The poor farmers were devising rain specials, and Rudi and I came home with a flat of strawberries for a remarkably reasonable price (cheaper than I could have picked them for, and without the achy back that accompanies hours of bending over ground plants).

We came home, changed back into pjs from our wet clothes, and enjoyed hot beverages and tasty treats. We also watched a surprising amount of television. I finished one of my overdue books and spoke with my parents. Then we ate a very tasty pizza Rudi made, and I cut up and froze slightly more than half the berries while listening first to music (because getting going on tasks I don’t enjoy are always helped by sing-along ’80s music) and then to the audiobook I’m currently enjoying.

And that’s it. There’s really nothing to do with a disappointing weekend, but to acknowledge it’s gone sideways and then bid it adieu, knowing that you only have to get through a hand’s worth of days until the next one, which once again holds the golden promise of untold quantities of fun and accomplishment.

Onward!

Thunderstorms were threatening last night — again — as The Post concluded. The Army Navy Club looked particularly menacing hovering over Farragut Square.

It seems like we’ve had a very stormy spring this year. I certainly wouldn’t prefer a drought, but wouldn’t mind some moderation moving forward.

It’s going to be a rainy weekend here in D.C., so there won’t be a ton of outdoor activities on this week’s list. But I don’t think it’s going to thunderstorm anymore, so they won’t be precluded altogether.

I was supposed to start this weekend with an author event, Viet Thanh Nguyen’s talk about the D.C. Reads book, The Refugees. Unfortunately, I got stuck late at work and wasn’t able to attend. I managed to wrap up by 8, though, so Rudi and I met at a local park, where they were showing The Post, the movie about Katharine Graham and Ben Bradlee and the battle over whether The Washington Post should print the Pentagon Papers. When we missed seeing it in the theater, I’d intentionally held off watching it until our outdoor film season, figuring it was a logical choice for a number of them to pick. So we watched the film two blocks from the White House (currently occupied by another president who wants to actively erode the Freedom of the Press) and four from the former Post building and had the film introduced by former Post reporter and editor Len Downie, who had advised the film production. (He tearfully admitted the film set of Graham’s Georgetown home was so accurate that it was hard to be there and not believe she wouldn’t just walk around the corner.)

Speaking of walking, tomorrow is the Dupont-Kalorama art walk, which is when several neighborhood museums open their doors to the public for free. The event has shrunk over the years, but there are still two museums on the list I haven’t visited (one of which is in Georgetown, but who’s counting).

I have things that are overdue to the library, so I’ll be making a trip over there.

I also need to stop at the garden to pick peas and strawberries and lettuce. I was hoping to finish assessing which of my herbs need replacing and to plant beans, flower, and squash seeds, but that might need to wait until slightly drier days.

If the thunderstorms do hold off, I should probably hit the pool. Going last week made it plain that while my legs were up to the task of swimming, my arms had become jelly-filled over the winter and need exercising.

I’ve got several books on the go and a sock that’s hovering at the heel turn (I took a different project to New York because I somehow thought I might finish and have no knitting to replace it) I’d like to wrap up.

I’m mulling a trip to a local farm to pick strawberries, but think I might hold off until next weekend when Sarah is back from her vacation. But I do have berries in the fridge that I need to deal with (ice cream, I think), as well as some rhubarb (which could get paired with the strawberries, but instead I’m thinking about a rhubarb-lavendar crumble I just saw a recipe for).

I’m also contemplating a trip to the office. I’m launching a website on Monday afternoon and made some necessary changes last Friday that had a ripple effect on the way the site appears to some of my coworkers, and I might feel better about things if I do an hour or two of last-minute checks that today’s work repaired the problems.

Household chores were carried over from last weekend. I have a bag to unpack, clothes to put away, more laundry to do, a kitchen floor to wash, and, if rain keeps Rudi home on Sunday, a closet that requires two to reorganize properly. (He tried to tackle it on his own a couple weeks ago and conceded that it would be easier with a partner.) I should also take some of the books we’ve culled out of the house, either to the library (come to think of it, they might be collecting books for an upcoming Friends’ sale tomorrow) or one of the Little Free Libraries around the area. Oh! And the tea canisters need refilling. I love tea day!

I hope your weekend includes lots of fun or necessary tasks. What do you have planned on your agenda?

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. How could this not top the list???

2. As we were standing at the Union Square subway station ticket kiosk trying to figure out how to reload our metro passes, an older woman took the time to walk me through it. Having been that person before, I was unbelievably grateful for her patience with tourists.

3. It has been years since Rudi and I took a trip that didn’t involve visiting my family or his. Lovely as that is, it’s not the same as going someplace where it’s just the two of us the entire time. I hope we plan more such excursions.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world lately?