Our new week began with some uncommon but pleasant visitors. Our neighbors cats made their way up the fire ladder and we rewarded them with some tuna (which secretively was the attempt to get them into our apartment but that failed). Wednesday was a showcase of “American engineering”. Heavy rainfalls caused a water leak on the roof which poured right into our living room. This was supposedly fixed before but turned out not to be too effective. To recover from the stress, we rewarded ourselves with trying a new (and now favorite) Thai spot in the East Village: Soothr. On Thursday, Franzi picked up some equipment for our upcoming camping trip over July 4th.
Camping in Beacon, NY
On Friday, we got a „mental health day“ off from our company, which we were really grateful for. We packed up our motorcycles and got on the road early. After a quick stop at Le Bouchon in Cold Spring we made our way to Maloufs Mountain Campground in Beacon, Upstate New York.
We chose this hike-in only campground to get as far away from civilization as possible. We were allowed to park our bikes at the owners house and then hiked up for about 15 minutes. We arrived and set up just in time before an intense rain shower. After everything was dry again, we threw our food on the fire and enjoyed a cozy dinner.
Refreshed from a good night’s sleep with no light pollution or big city noise, we got ready for a hike. We barely met any people and spent a couple of hours hiking the Fishskill Ridge Trail. Afterwards we drove to Cold Spring for a revitalizing ice cream by the river. In the evening we had a BBQ again and watched the 4th of July fireworks down in the valley from the campground.
The next day, we decided to take a motorcycle tour. We drove using only backroads to Kent where we stopped for lunch. A surprisingly good cucumber mint soup and some sandwiches got us ready for our way back. We stopped at Canopus Lake for a a refreshing swim and made some burgers in the evening.
On Monday we made our way back home and ended the day with some drawing for Alex’s first piece of commissioned work and cooking.
Our new roomie moving in
After a short work week, Saturday was a very exciting day! We biked up to East Harlem to pick up our first foster cat from the ACC (Animal Care Centers of NYC), Choco. The organization strives to find loving homes for homeless and abandoned domestic animals. While animals wait for their forever home, they go into foster homes to get used to families and have more space than in the shelter. We spent the day getting used to each other and Alex spent some time sketching with ink and watercolor in the evening.
On Sunday, our plans were turned over a bit. We originally booked a sailing boat to sail around Manhattan with some friends. Unfortunately, the skipper tangled the rope in the engine when mooring. We spent about an hour on the boat until it was clear that a diver had to come to untangle the rope and at that point we decided to make our way back home.
After the next work week, we visited our colleague and friend Kushal in Brooklyn downtown. We had a sundowner on his roof, enjoyed the views and got some dinner afterwards.
On Saturday, we enjoyed the weather and did some shopping. Then we headed to the upper west side to visit Fabi and Char. We had an appetizer on their roof and a lovely dinner at The Consulate. SInce we were so full we decided to walk down about 50 blocks, which was quite eye-opening. At the late hour, it was very apparent how badly the city was affected by COVD-19. There were many many homeless people sleeping on the streets, especially around Times Square. Sunday we spent enjoying Choco´s company and Alex spent some more time drawing.
The next week began with a witnessing the first Zoom wedding of Franzi´s good friend Arber in Pakistan – a shame it couldn’t be in person! On Friday, we met Mark and Elena at Tre and enjoyed a couple of Aperol Spritz’s. Saturday was a slow day where Franzi finally finished her puzzle and made some English Muffins from scratch.
Birthday time!
On Sunday the 26th, it was Franzi´s birthday. We got up very early and drove to Fort Tilden beach to enjoy the ocean before the heat kicked in. We met a fisher at the beach who caught a baby shark – since he was going to set him free Alex got lucky and could hold him and let him go back into the ocean. He felt like a string of only muscles already – hope the dude grows big!
After being back home at around 10 AM, we went for brunch at Ruby’s. Afterwards it was present-unpacking-time with Franzi’s family on Facetime. They were in Italy at the time, where we were supposed to be as well. But we made the best of it and could at least be together virtually. The rest of the day, we wandered around a bit, had a Foccacia and St. Pellegrino Lemonade from Eataly in Madison Square Park and relaxed at home. In the evening, we did a fancy Pizza night and played with Choco.
A fairly uneventful week
The next week, Alex´s new custom-made summer motorcycle suit arrived in the mail from Germany. Luckily the color and the fit were just right. On Thursday, we managed to have an in-week dinner at Mogador and on Saturday Franzi finally got a fresh haircut. Meanwhile Alex visited some new motorcycle friends – Matias and Daniel. He read the book „Two wheels South“ recently which describes Matias´ motorcycle trip from Brooklyn to Ushuaia on a 1984 R80 BMW GS. Alex wrote Matias on Instagram and they decided to meet up for some 80´s motorcycle expertise and a beer since Daniel also rides the same BMW as Alex. To round off the weekend, Alex went on a quick trip upstate with Fabi on Sunday.
