Life Lately | Governors Island, Fort Lee, & Horses

September has been a month of ups and downs (the latter due to work and personal family stuff) but I'm choosing to focus on the good (at least on the blog ☺)!  It's funny, I felt like most of my August weekends were spent lazying about at home but then this month was a total 180. It's been packed with friend and family fun and it's been exactly what I needed. 

Governors Island

I'd never been to Governors Island before so I was excited when Carina suggested spending a Saturday there. We drove into the city and then took a short ferry ride from South Street Seaport to the island. It took less than 10 mins plus it's free before noon! And I must say, I was so surprised when we got there.  It's this little oasis in the middle of the city that's perfect for taking a break. The entire island is basically a free-for-all to picnic anywhere you want (grills are even available to rent), relax (there's a hammock grove), and explore. We didn't see the whole thing but we checked out the food trucks for lunch, rented a surrey bike (which is harder than it looks so I'm quite proud of how we handled it!), and just enjoyed walking and talking while taking in the views. 

Fort Lee

For my aunt's birthday we went to Fort Lee to have lunch at Soup Dumplings Plus. I love when we go because we order family style and it gives us a chance to have a little bit of everything (their crunchy noodles and scallion pancakes are my fave!). Afterwards, we ended up walking around Fort Lee for a bit and checked out this little market they had going on. I got a beautiful print from Soo Soo Studios and my cousins bought a few things from the various food stalls. Now that I know the market is right next to Paris Baguette, I'd love to go back again (I love supporting local businesses!)

NJ Day with Alexa

This past weekend, Alexa came to NJ to hangout and what a day! We grabbed breakfast a Tick Tock (my favorite local diner) and then drove to the Garret Mountain Equestrian Center for an hour long trail ride. We did this once before, 8 years ago, so it was fun to experience it again together and it was even more fun this time around. Our guide was this super nice, charismatic guy (Cowboy Kirk!) who did a fabulous job of explaining the basics to us and really made us feel at ease with our horses, Wesson and Chandler. He took us on a beautiful trail and we enjoyed ourselves so much. Now, I'm considering taking lessons for fun and really let my inner #horsegirl out but we'll see! 

After that, we got ice cream at APEM Creamery (highly recommend) and we went shopping! We went to Montclair to check out our favorite boutiques and deVINE Plantery, a plant shop I've been wanting to see for months. And as always, we ended the day at Barnes & Nobles. It really was a lovely day. 

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What have you been up to lately?