10 Things I did this summer

• Walked across the brooklyn bridge, waited for pizza at Grimaldi's, had icecream from brooklyn ice factory in the meantime, admired the manhattan skyline from the other side and walked back in perfect weather. Better description here and here.
• Had burgers at Shake shack in Madison square park (I love these!) and ambled over to listen to a brazilian jazz performance. Great weather, good company and excellent background music. Wrote about it here.
• Spent girl time - this is a big deal for me as it has been really really long since I have had a close girl friend living in the same city. But one of my closest friends moved to NYC last year and this summer I went shopping with her, we met up for brunch and went for Mama Mia, very girly day and I had a fantastic time! There is something very freeing about talking to a person who already knows you so well that nothing is out of bounds.
• Dark Knight - I know it is just a movie and I saw countless others over the summer but I have to document this one. I absolutely loved it and it is something since I usually don't like superhero or 'violent' movies but as I try to explain to everyone - it hardly falls into any of those categories. The psychological aspect on which the movie works is far above most of the movies I have seen (admittedly haven't seen Silence of the Lambs - too scared) and the dialogues are phenomenal. " Either you die a hero....or u live long enough to see yourself turn into a Villan... " - oh totally cool!
• Went for Pilobolus - S' university gave us free tickets for a show and to be honest we had no idea what it was. Somehow none of us got time to read much about it either so we went a little anxious after our Burlesque experience. The first act was weird - less dance and more facial expressions by which they were trying to convey something which I totally didn't get and told S that we will leave after act 2 if it doesn't get better. But boy, did it get better. The gravity defying dance that the link talks about started and we were pretty much spell bound for rest of the show. How do they do it!
• Attended a wedding in Breckenridge, which is a ski resort in Denver. It was beautiful - the wedding was outside and the backdrop was snow covered peaks. Met up with with old school friends, went for long drives in the mountains, did a mini trek. Managed to pack in quite a bit in the 3-day memorial day weekend! The town itself was beautiful and very European with cobbled streets (I love these!) and small cafes. Our room was like a ski lodge with a fireplace and heavy wood furniture. We had crepes for breakfast in one of the cafes down the road from our hotel. One evening as we set out to explore town, we discovered these tiny stands selling waffles and crepes with a small fire lit around which you could gather and eat those choc dripping delicacies. It was perfect!
• Tried new restaurants - ilili, Himalayan café, Angon, Indian Bread co., Popover café, Hudson hotel bar, ayurveda café, Barrio Chino, Grimaldis, Supper. Ideally, I should have posted the reviews of all these places here but have been too lazy. If I had to recommend one, it'll probably be Ilili - we went here for restaurant week and rarely have I found such an excellent combination of food, ambience and service. The place is quite big by manahattan standards so you are not jostling for room with your next door neighbour. I still remember the fresh from the oven pita. While it is too expensive for me to go here outside of restaurant week - I would definitely recommend you to make reservations early for the winter restaurant week. Oh - for anyone missing the Delhi University momos - Himalyan café is the place for you.
• La Bayadere Ballet performance - One of my friends booked the tickets for this perfromance at the Lincoln center and I just went along. I am glad I did. La Bayadere which means Temple Dancer is a Russian ballet based on an Indian story. It seemed like a hindi movie with colourful costumes, melodrama n all just that everyone was doing ballet - it was beautiful!
• Went to Bahamas - while this in no way is a ranked list, Bahamas still comes relatively low in the list as we realized that we are done with beach-y vacations. There were 2 lessons learnt from this trip - one, there is only so much lying on the beach doing nothing I can take. I started craving activity after day 2 and there weren't many walking spots in this country and two, I don't have the palate to appreciate fresh seafood if it is served without much seasoning. We found a local joint famous for Bahamian dishes and as fresh as it can get seafood. My bong husband gobbled up the steamed fish they served while I craved for more salt, more pepper, possibly even chili powder and garam masala on mine! :)
• Walked - I know I am ashamed that I am scrambling to put down 10 things but there are so many small things which I had fun doing which I am not sure count for one whole point in this list. Like the time we went to a friends house for dinner on the upper east time and had a great time. Anyway, I digress - so I love walking and given how lazy S is I usually have to drag him even to walk 2 blocks. However, this summer we walked all over the city - maybe because it didn't get oppressively hot and the intermittent rains kept the weather just perfect. We had plenty of after dinner walks, after brunch walks, evening walks and no purpose walks! NYC is one of the best places for people watching and the city comes to life in the summer. Every bit of sidewalk gets converted to 'outdoor seating' for restaurants and you can get to know what is the in-thing this summer by simple people watching around the park. Of course - this summer it was dresses (just when I managed to complete my skirt collection!) and gladiator sandals.