Blizzard 2016 in New York

We. Love. Snow.

But let's start from the beginning.

So Friday night, about 4 hours pre-blizzard, I ran over to the Sheep Meadow to the location of Winter Jam. It turns out they cancelled it because of the blizzard that was heading our way.

Just a small hill remained from the snow they had already made before they cancelled it. Winter Jam is amazing - snowboarding, skiing, halfpipes, jumps, cross country skiing, sledding, and even quidditch this year. All cancelled. Because of snow. :/

I had to run fast (I got three personal records on this run) because I had dinner plans with Isa. We went to Delmonico's down in the Financial District because it's restaurant week so we can afford it - it was AMAZING. We both had the Filet Mignon. Plus appetizers plus dessert. For under $100. And we sat in the exclusive "Board Room."

We love food. So we loved Delmonicos.

Then we went up to Lincoln Center and watched The Big Short. Interesting and good. We definitely liked it, although we're not completely sure we understood everything. But it was entertaining.

By the time we got out of the movie, it was already snowing. :) I was very excited, so I set my alarm for 7am to go running in Central Park at sunrise before tourists got there and before CP plowed the paths. We finally went to bed around 2am.

I woke up before my alarm. Can you tell how excited I was?

I didn't set my Strava to record because I knew how much not-running I'd be doing. I didn't want the GPS to kill the phone before I got back. Basically I started at the Great Lawn, ran down through the Ramble to the Mall and out past the Sheep Meadow. It was wonderful.

Just look at these completely untouched paths in the Ramble!

Such a winter wonderland!!

At the bottom tip of the Ramble, it opens up to a view across the frozen lake to Bethesda Fountain and Terrace. You almost can't even see that far!

Finding the Mall empty is usually impossible. This shot only took about 10 minutes of waiting.

As I crossed the top of the Sheep Meadow, I looked south toward the Midtown skyline.

You can barely see the trees on the far side of the meadow. The buildings are gone!

I cut across 66th to go check and see if Church needed to be shoveled.

Church was good, so I headed down to Times Square.

Unfortunately, I was here a little too early to see Casey Neistat snowboard through.

We ate a great lunch at Jacob's Pickles, and by the time we were done the City had been effectively shut down. All non-emergency vehicles were ordered to stay off the roads. Subways were still running underground, but no outside or elevated stations. New York slowly came to a peaceful halt, and everyone came outside to play in the snow.

Everywhere we went, people were smiling, laughing, and being friendly. It was the most pleasant atmosphere I've ever experienced in the City. Not only was everyone in a great mood, but they were all relaxed and stress-free. Nobody had anything to do, anywhere to be.

Everyone was loving life.

We took a ton of photos out here - way too many for the blog. I put up an album on Facebook so you can see more.

We finished the day at a friend's apartment with hot chocolate and games. Walking home, Broadway was still closed and serene.

The next morning, the great digging out began.

We headed down to Church. Most of the sidewalks and roads were plowed and dug out, but some places were still buried. Like the seating area for Wafels and Dinges in Lincoln Square.

Such a fun blizzard! We love all this snow!!

Fleet Week!

I've never really cared about Fleet Week, but for some reason, I think it's fun to see lots of people walking around in uniforms.

Have you guys heard of Fleet Week? New York's been doing it for years, since I was a kid at least. It starts a few days before Memorial Day with the Parade of Ships - a bunch of battle ships and air craft carriers cruise up the Hudson and park next to the Intrepid at Pier 86.

This pic was lovingly stolen from NYDailyNews.com :)

After the ships dock, the public can tour them for free, and over the next week the City holds lots of events and demonstrations. Like today, Isa and I happened to be wandering around Times Square (because unlike the vast majority of New Yorkers, we like Times Square, probably because there's always something fun happening there), and we saw them creating sand masterpieces in honor of the military:

And behind the sand sculptors was a stage, and the Navy was singing.

Yeah. Fun stuff. If you want to see the ships, watch the Marines put on a demonstration, or watch Top Gun on the flight deck of an air craft carrier (yeah, how ridiculously cool is that?!), check out the full Fleet Week Schedule.

Revlon Run/Walk

Isa and I woke up before the sun this morning, and we found ourselves in Times Square at 6:45am. Do you realize how early that is? We haven't been up at that hour since our trip to Australia, and that time it was forced upon us. Needless to say, we are not morning people.

But we did it today for several reasons. The main one, I guess, is to cure cancer. But seeing Matthew Bomer (from White Collar) and Jessica Alba (:)) - it's hard to put a smiley face in parenthesis - but anyway, seeing all the celebrities and all-you-can-eat Dunkin Donuts and lots of free shwag, all that stuff helped too. But still, it was early. And cold. (And my phone said the weather was going to be "Sunny and Delightful." Have you ever heard a weather report say delightful?)

Isa and I participated in the 14th annual Revlon Run/Walk to help cure breast cancer. It's a 5k trek from Times Square up through Central Park, with lots of festivities before and after the race. It ended up being a good thing we got there so early, because we were front row at the stage to see all the celebrities, with 25,000 people standing behind us.

I took pictures of all the celebrities, which were too many to put them all in here (they're all on my facebook album, if you want to see them) but here's the list:

• Karen Duffy (ex-MTV vj), 
• Matt Bomer (Neil Caffrey from White Collar - Isa's not-so-secret crush)
• Dr. OZ (who, it turns out, is a real doctor, although he also plays one on TV)
• Nate Berkus (something about interior design and Oprah - I think he's the male version of Martha Stewart)
• Jessica Beil
• With musical guest, Keyshia Cole
• Jimmy Fallon!! (hysterical)
• and Jessica Alba (who I didn't realize I had a crush on until I saw her and freaked out like a little girl who just saw Justin Bieber, especially when she looked straight at me and melted my heart:)

My zoom isn't very good, but she's definitely looking at me.
Or at the teleprompter above my head. But I think it was me.

And I guess, to be fair, because this is everything Brisa, not just about me, here's Matt Bomer:

I didn't zoom in on him.

Jimmy Fallon led us in a countdown to the start of the race, and confetti cannons went off and soon the whole square looked like a party:

It really was incredible to see this many people walking.

And people were still crossing the finish line 25 minutes later.

After the race, we wandered around the bandstand area of Central Park and picked up free Veggie Chips, Pop Chips (soo good!), Hint Water, lipstick, pens, and lots of other random stuff. And then we happened upon a secret area labeled "Survivors." Which, you probably don't know because I rarely tell anybody, I am. This secret area gave us totebags, a rose, chocolate-filled croisants, cereal, granola bars, and even more goodies, our favorite being these expensively delicious cupcakes:

Mmmmm.....

Yeah, so overall, it was a pretty good morning. And hopefully the donations given today will help find a cure for cancer (have you heard about Halaven, btw? Pretty exciting stuff!)

If you'd like to donate, click this link. Or just text WALK to 50555 to donate $10 to fight women's cancers.