Weekend Fun, Chase Style

Nathan and I really enjoyed this past weekend. We try to do at least one fun adventure a weekend if we can. Of course, it's us, so we aren't always doing the typical "tourist" or "NYer" kind of thing. By that I mean, we're not big foodies (trying to save the $$) and we're not big shoppers (same reason). So, I work hard to find things to do that are free and fun. This weekend was no exception.

After sleeping in on Saturday, we decided to head to the beach. We didn't want to go to the major tourist section of Coney Island, so instead we stayed on the more local part of the beach called Brighton Beach. It was packed, but not too overwhelming. We were surrounded by Eastern Europeans. I didn't hear any English speakers for over an hour of being there. So crazy! I loved it. I packed a lunch and snacks for us (in a cooler that Nathan found for free. Haha!). Nate went out and got a couple towels because we only had bath ones. Anyway, all in all, after about a 30 minute subway ride, we were on the shore, soaking in the sun. Yay! Here are a couple pix of us on the beach.




Then, we came home and Nathan offered to cook for me. After deciding that we both were in the mood for something different than the usual, Nathan headed to Whole Foods to buy ingredients to make pulled pork tacos...AKA carnitas of some kind. When he got back, we looked more closely at the recipe realizing that it actually called for cooking the pork for TWO HOURS. We made it anyway (tried to play RISK while waiting for different things to be ready), eating at midnight. It was the best meal we ever made. So good. Seriously spicey (thanks to the Chipotle chili's in the meat). We're Definitely making it again. Oh, and Nathan made a mango guacamole that was so good. Here's a picture of the meal complete with the black bean side.



We woke up early after the crazy dinner fun to go on a bike ride around the island of Manhattan. We've wanted to do this ride for a while, but didn't set aside the time for it. I reserved my bike with the Downtown Alliance for Sunday morning because all the other slots were full. So, we biked for 4 hours and went about 28 miles. It was an adventure for sure since a bunch of the NYC Greenway isn't finished yet so we had to go on random city streets and such. Anyway, it was a lot of fun, especially rounding the top of the island and going down the West side finally. Below is a picture of Nathan when we were by the new Yankees stadium. What a fun weekend!