I have a deep love of New York City, and if you know me, you know that’s true. If given the opportunity, I will ALWAYS choose to go to New York. I can’t fully tell you the reason. Maybe it’s the delicious food, the cool small businesses, the way that people support each other in this giant city. The bridges are definitely a solid reason why I love it, too.
If you know me, you also know that I love to ride my bike. When I discovered the Five Boro Bike Tour via Instagram last year (see guys, it works) – I knew I had to do it. As soon as registration opened, I registered myself. Chris wasn’t sure he wanted to do it (truthfully, we thought it was a timed race and quickly found out it wasn’t when we arrived in New York). For those that don’t know, the Five Boro Bike Tour centers around streets in the city shutting down so you can ride 40 miles through all five boroughs. There were spots that I’d never seen before – paired with iconic locations like riding right by Radio City Music Hall. Bike New York puts it on – and does an awesome job. It was so well executed.
It was a dream. It was awesome. I’m going again next year – it’s already been decided. This time Chris is riding with me – and whoever else wants to come. There were 32,000 people there to make it happen, and it was incredible.
The Five Boro Bike Tour was about more than riding bikes, though.
Chris and I explored the city a ton while we were in town for the weekend. If I’ve got the opportunity, I’ve always got to see the Brooklyn Bridge – even if we don’t cross it all the way. There’s just something about it. We usually stay in Brooklyn, but this time, we opted to be closer to the start line, so we walked there on the first night in town.
Day 2 was all about food and shopping
One of the coolest parts of the trip was stumbling upon Pop’s Bagels Nolita. We met Pop himself – on accident! I was taking photos of his logo, and he turned around and said – looks like someone? And I realized it was him! He sat and chatted with me and Chris for a while, and talked about opening this spot with his daughter. You know wherever I’m at, I’m always finding small businesses – and this time, I didn’t even mean to. One of the best pieces of advice he gave us? He said life is just about experiences and memories, and if that’s why I don’t love to travel, I don’t know what is. For what it’s worth – the bagels were great.
I’ve always wanted to hit up Brooklyn Flea, so we left and went there first. I bought a film camera and some cool jewelry. Then we took the ferry to Williamsburg to hit up Smorgasburg, which is the best place to get so much good food all in one place. And of course – I found the street corn. It’s my favorite part of any food truck.
When I think of all the reasons that I love what I do, and why I own a small business? It’s all the stuff you see in this blog. I wanted to have a life. I wanted to create a life for myself and my family. I wanted to have those memories and experiences that Pop at the bagel shop was talking about. Beyond that? I want to do it for other people, too. That’s what gives what we do so much purpose and so much meaning.
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