As thrilled as I am to have settled into a life and a routine here in New York City, sometimes I get an itch for an adventure. It’s the sort of craving that, when I lived in Phoenix, required packing up the car and heading into the mountains for the day, or to the beach if I had more than a day to work with. Now, though, I can grab my purse, hop on the train, and be in a completely different world within an hour – and without leaving the city! So when I realized a couple weeks ago that life was feeling a little stale, that’s exactly what I did: Took the C train from my central Brooklyn apartment to a Manhattan neighborhood I’d barely touched on yet – the Upper West Side.

It was a bit of a drab day involving quite a bit of snow (slushy snow, not pretty snow), and it ended with some pretty serious retail therapy at Columbus Circle, but I still had a chance to explore the stunning Riverside Park, and can’t wait to go back in a different season!