Author: Leigh Anne Zinsmeister

Currently: April 2016

Leave a comment

I’m coming at you live from NEW YORK CITY this month – the first extra-long weekend this year I’ve not spent travelling. I’m very much looking forward to spending the entirety of my favorite month in my favorite city, and I have so many adventures planned already. Stay tuned!

Reading: After plowing through SIX books in March (more on those soon!), I’m currently struggling to get into my next read – I’m one chapter in to several different books, hoping to find one that sticks. We’ll see!

Wearing: As much orange as possible, because it’s currently Saturday evening and Syracuse is playing in the Final Four tonight! My best friend went to Syracuse and we’re off to a ‘cuse bar in the city tonight to watch the action.

Buying: As little as possible, because March got a little out of control.

Listening to: Nothing! I know, I’m so boring this month!

Eating: I just downed a Shake Shack burger and half a pint of Ben & Jerry’s, so real healthy stuff.

Watching: I spent last night, the first of April, catching up on Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and then, since I missed television so much during my March break, I watched the first few episodes of Happy Endings. I may have found my next binge!

Planning: So many springtime excursions for April! Botanic gardens, birthday festivities, brunches and ice cream shops and Smorgasburg (it’s baaaaack!)

Excited for: This entire month, if you couldn’t tell.

Hoping: That Syracuse wins tonight! I didn’t go to a basketball school, so it’s really fun to have a team to root for.

Books read: 13/52

Trips taken: 5/12

This month’s challenge: Eat a serving of vegetables every day. I roasted a bunch of veggies yesterday that I ate for dinner last night, and then for… breakfast today, so I wouldn’t have to think about it and scramble for a carrot or something at 11 p.m. Nailed it!

And how is YOUR April going?

A delightful guide to San Francisco

Leave a comment

Like in D.C., my four days in San Francisco weren’t nearly enough to put together a definitive guide. Luckily, I have plenty of friends who live there, and even more who are just as obsessed with visiting as I am! I flew to the west coast with a lengthy list of recommendations, now featured below for your own use. If a place is listed in bold, it indicates I went there myself and can personally vouch!  Enjoy.

Avocado toast and latte at Reveille Coffee Co. in San Francisco

Avocado toast and latte at Reveille Coffee Co.

Coffee

Breakfast and Irish coffee at Buena Vista in San Francisco

Breakfast and Irish coffee at Buena Vista

Breakfast

Mac and Cheese Grilled Cheese sandwich at American Grilled Cheese Kitchen in San Francisco

Mac and Cheese Grilled Cheese sandwich at American Grilled Cheese Kitchen

Lunch

Dinner at House of Nanking in San Francisco

Dinner at House of Nanking

Dinner

Dessert

Cocktail at The View in San Franciso

Cocktail at The View

Drinks

Parks

At the Cable Car Museum in San Francisco

At the Cable Car Museum

Do/See

A week in Phoenix, Arizona

9 Comments

Every time I visit Phoenix I feel a bit like I’m being pulled in a hundred different directions: I want to catch up with friends and family, and meet everyone’s new dog/cat/baby (that was a new one this time around!) and visit all of my favorite haunts while checking out the hottest new places. Last week’s trip was complicated by the fact that I also wanted to hit up some spring-training baseball games – in fact, it’s the whole reason I planned my vacation for March.

Miraculously, though, I always seem to pack it all in and return to New York feeling refreshed and accomplished. Here’s a little peek at what I got up to during my homecoming.

Cheeseburger at In-N-Out, Phoenix, Arizona

As soon as I climbed into my brother’s car at the airport, I announced that I was hungry for an In-N-Out cheeseburger. Nevermind that it was 10 a.m., next thing I knew we were stuffing our faces, surrounded by baseball fans and hungover frat boys. Who knew greasy burgers were so popular on Sunday mornings?!

Texas Rangers at Surprise Stadium, Arizona

I made it to three baseball games during the week, thanks to my awesome parents who joined me on this trip and footed some little things like game tickets and a hotel room 😉 First up was my beloved Texas Rangers, who put on a hilarious comedy of errors in an entertaining, if disappointing, loss.

View of downtown Phoenix, Arizona

This was the view from our hotel room and encompassed everything I love about Phoenix and Arizona: The mountains, the palm trees, the blue skies.

Pug

I spent much of National Puppy Day curled up on my best friend’s couch with her pugs, Jak and Sheena. This one here is Jak – Sheena wasn’t quite as fond of the camera (or me, to be honest).

Mac and Cheese at Lux, downtown Phoenix, Arizona

Lux is my favorite coffee shop in Phoenix and has been for years – I used to spend entire days there, going from coffee to mac and cheese to cocktails, curling up with a book or working on school projects or catching up with friends. A return trip seemed necessary, and although they’ve raised their prices, Lux will always have a special spot in my heart.

Street art mural in downtown Phoenix, Arizona

My brother declared that I wouldn’t even recognize downtown Phoenix, the neighborhood I called home for six years. While that wasn’t quite the case, I was surprised at all of the street art and local restaurants that have popped up in the fifteen months since my last visit. Dare I say it feels like San Francisco?! Just a little warmer and a lot less crowded!

Sunset over downtown Phoenix, Arizona

Of course what I miss most about the Arizona landscape is the beautiful sunsets. They’re just not the same on the east coast! I actually got up in the middle of happy hour to take this picture – shoutout to patient and understanding friends!

All in all, a successful trip – my fifth of 2016! You can read about my past Phoenix adventures here.

Two years in New York City

1 Comment

Weirdly enough, when I was first preparing to move to New York City, my number one concern was about making friends.

This was the third big move I would make as an adult, after six years in Phoenix and a whopping two months in Orlando. After both of those moves, it took me a lot of time to find my “squad,” as the kids are calling it these days. I’m pretty timid by nature, and I’m also an introvert – meaning I’m more inclined to spend my weekends watching Netflix than out at the bars. But after so many nights in a row, that can get real old – and lonely.

I didn’t want to experience loneliness in New York City, which is often called the most lonely city in the world. Ironic, considering the population is over 8 million. But when you’re surrounded by so many strangers, a lack of friendship can really stand out. As I said goodbye to my people in Phoenix, I vowed that I wouldn’t experience that loneliness again: I was going to put myself out there, to attend events and have experiences and meet interesting people along the way.

New York City as seen from the Top of the Rock

I’m not sure I really believed it myself, but New York was what I had always dreamed of, and I didn’t want to mess it up. I wanted to be happy, and I wanted real friends.

A week and a half into my new stint as a New Yorker, I visited a church. It was hard: It seemed like everyone knew each other. I said hello to a handful of very nice people, sat through worship, and went home. But even though it was hard, I did it again and again, week in and week out, until it wasn’t as hard. And before I knew it, I realized that I wasn’t anxious anymore. Every week I would see someone I recognized – and they recognized me too.

Two years later, these people are more than a squad – they’re my family. Earlier this month we all boarded a plane to the Bahamas together and did nothing but lie on the beach and drink tequila for three days. But it’s not just about the vacations. The truth is, living in New York is hard – but these people make it seem easy. When my pipes froze and I didn’t have water for two days, someone let me shower at her apartment and come over whenever I had to use the toilet (glamorous, right?) When my sister was sick, a group came over and cooked me dinner and did my dishes. They’re the first to hug me when I’m sad and cheer with me when I’m happy.

12832352_10153674810933451_8459288648694035377_n

Last year on this date, I wrote what was more or less a love letter to New York City. This year, I know that the city is great but the people are better. Moving here was the second best thing I ever did; putting myself out there and building a community was the first.

Happy anniversary, New York!

Behind the scenes at the New York Public Library

1 Comment

As much as I love to travel and have experiences in new places, I also love to explore my own backyard. Knowing this, and also about my love for books, my friend Kathryn invited me to spend a recent Saturday going behind the scenes of the New York Public Library with the New York Adventure Club.

I’m embarrassed to admit that in almost two years of living in New York City, I had never been to the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building – the iconic structure in midtown that usually springs to mind when the term “library” is thrown around. The Schwarzman building is one of four research libraries in the NYPL system (there are also 88 circulation libraries between Manhattan, Staten Island and the Bronx – Brooklyn and Queens have separate library systems). While you can’t check books out of the Schwarzman building, it is filled with research rooms, reading rooms and rotating exhibits. The famous Rose Reading Room closed for restoration only a couple months after I moved here, so I’m especially anxious to go back and see it when it reopens!

Behind the scenes at the New York Public LibraryBehind the scenes at the New York Public LibraryBehind the scenes at the New York Public LibraryBehind the scenes at the New York Public LibraryBehind the scenes at the New York Public LibraryBehind the scenes at the New York Public LibraryBehind the scenes at the New York Public Library

To the surprise of absolutely no one, the map room was my favorite.

Behind the scenes at the New York Public LibraryBehind the scenes at the New York Public Library

Above is the McGraw Rotunda, filled with murals illustrating the history of the printed word, starting with Moses coming down from Mount Sinai with the tablet.

Behind the scenes at the New York Public LibraryBehind the scenes at the New York Public Library

The diary of Elizabeth DeHart Bleecker, containing one of the only written records of the death of Alexander Hamilton in 1804.

Behind the scenes at the New York Public LibraryBehind the scenes at the New York Public Library

Old menus, transit passes and photos from New York City. This was my favorite part of the tour, especially when our guide went out of his way to mention that the NYPL focuses on “cultural history, not highbrow history.” They really want to document the day-to-day life of New York City – a mission I can get behind! You can browse some of their menus online here.