Aka The Weekend I Stuffed My Face With Food.  Aka The Weekend Where I Waited in Every Line Imaginable. 

How have you been?  This one might be long so I’m going to get started right away!

The Hubs and I had the BEST weekend planned!  The forecast was calling for hot and sunny weather and I knew we had to make the most of it!

We started out Saturday morning heading to one of our favorite annual events: The Big Apple BBQ.  Now, normally I’m all about eating healthy and working out but I don’t believe life is worth living if you can’t enjoy it a little from time to time.  This event is one of those enjoy-yourself-events.  Nothing here is healthy!

The Big Apple BBQ is essentially a huge block party that shuts down several streets surrounding Madison Square Park.  Pitmasters from around the country fly into NYC with their big BBQ pits to cook up their best stuff and serve it to thousands of hungry New Yorkers.

Although I generally stick with veggies, chicken, pasta and ground turkey, I do love a little meat from time to time and there was certainly an abundance of it at the Big Apple BBQ!

Brisket, whole hog, pulled pork. sausage, ribs…every type of barbecued meat you can imagine was there for the taking.  I am positive this is honestly one of the Hubs’ favorite events the whole year.  Some of the more famous pitmasters have extremely long lines with people lining up for ages just to get a taste of their meat.  We always buy fastpasses to jump the line a bit, but even with those passes, some of the more famous pitmasters still get massive lines!

My favorite part of the event is the fried pie.  I didn’t think pie could get any more unhealthy than it already is but it is so incredibly amazing.  It is also the only dessert being offered at Big Apple BBQ, so you can imagine how busy this vendor gets.  We waited in line for about two hours to get this pie!  I kid you not!  The line was an entire block long and moved slower than a turtle!

So worth it in my opinion.  The pie is in an empanda like casing except lighter and more crumbly and the inside is a delicious pie filling.  I had the cherry and it was beyond delicious.  I kind of want some right now just typing this.  I joked that we should have bought the rest of them and started selling them for $10 a piece–I could be rich right now!

It was such a beautiful afternoon to stuff our faces on the grass of Madison Square Park with live music playing on the stage.  I can’t remember the last time I just lied on a blanket and stared up at the blue sky!

After spending a day at the BBQ, Pete and I headed home to get spruced up because we had tickets to the New York City Ballet’s production of A Midsummer’s Night Dream on Saturday night.  I think Lincoln Center is one of the most gorgeous places in NYC.  When we arrived at dusk there was symphonic music playing in the courtyard as people gathered to attend various performances including the ballet, opera and others or to just relax by the fountain.

I couldn’t take any photos during the performance, which was so hard because I absolutely loved every second of this performance and the costumes and theater were so ornate and beautiful!  I took ballet lessons for about 20 years and was in a dance company in college, so this performance really brought me back to my dancing days.  Dancers are such talented artists and I think they don’t get enough recognition for their talent.  If you are in NYC, go see the NYCB! (Note- these photos are from NYCB’s website)

I LOVED the performance!

Sunday morning started bright and early with a tennis game at 8am!

Don’t worry, we decided to cancel out our healthy tennis game with another round of stuffing our faces in Brooklyn at Smorgasburg!

Smorgasburg is another annual favorite of ours.  It is essentially a huge market of food vendors with amazing food!  There are really high standards for the vendors to participate in Smorgasburg and those standards are completely evident in the quality of food.

Previously the event has held in Williamsburg but this year the organizers switched it to Brooklyn Bridge Park.  I love BBP because it is huge, full of great amenities and on the water with great views but it is also extremely crowded!  I think I waited in line for about half an hour to use the restrooms.

It was so worth it though because the food was incredibly delicious!  The Hubs waited on line for about a half hour for a Ramen Burger.  This was by far the most popular item at the market.

It’s basically a burger but instead of a bun there are two ramen noodle patties.  The burger comes with some amazing Asian sauces and the burger just melts in your mouth.

I went south of the border with a cemita.  It’s a Mexican sandwich made with cheese, avocado, picked onion, tomato, lettuce, your choice of meat (mine was chipotle chicken), mayo and black beans.  Holy guacamole!  It was so delicious!  Spicy and filing.  I loved it!

The photo above is of a sambora, which is kind of like non-alcoholic sangria and the best drink ever!

It was almost 90 degrees in the park and the Hubs and I were practically melting after our lunch so I had to check out my favorite cool treat– People’s Pops!

They have all these really interesting flavors.  I got the Strawberry Lemongrass and it totally hit the spot!

Afer stuffing our faces for the second time in 24 hours, we decided we should walk off our lunch a bit.  There was so much to see!

Beach volleyball in the middle of Brooklyn anyone?  How crazy is is that they actually have sand in the middle of the city!?

That wasn’t the only sand around either.  There is a “beach” in Brooklyn Bridge Park where people can lay in the land, go Stand Up Paddleboarding and kayaking.  To be clear, there is no way I would touch the East River with a ten foot poll.  I think if even the slighest bit got on my body, I would admit myself to the hospital to be tested for every type of disease and washed down completely.  I know of at least one dead body that was found in that water in the past 6 months.  Eeeeew!

The views from Brooklyn Bridge Park are pretty amazing and it is one of the best places to go to get some great photos of the city!

There are also cool art installments located throughout the park like this one.

Can you tell what it is?

It’s part of the Statute of Liberty!  It’s the sleeve to her dress.  It’s one of the replacement parts.

trying to cram in all our chores before bed!

Readers, what did you do this weekend?  Are you a BBQ fan?  What’s your favorite part of your local park?