A Bronx Saturday

On Saturday, I spent the day in the Bronx with my lovely mother and some of her running/skiing friends. One of her friend's daughters was supposed to come too, except she had to work so I was the only one under fifty there. I don't really know what to say about that, but it was a good day.

We went to the Botanical Gardens to catch the last weekend of the orchid show and then went to Arthur Avenue for lunch. I ended up walking a ton on my way there since some subways were down but was such a pretty day. 

Now please excuse (or appreciate) an overload of flower pictures below.

All the trees were in bloom. I've never been one with an aversion to any seasons, but I think if I could, I'd freeze the trees like this all year.

Many of the orchids were hung like chandeliers. Isn't the one above the coolest? Look how big it is in comparison to all the people below!

All the pictures above (except the leaf one in the second set) are of orchids. Apparently orchids are one of the most diverse families of flowers. In my Wikipedia research I also found out that the name orchid comes from the Greek word for testicle. Figured you really wanted to know that... 

These aren't orchids, or even flowers for that matter, but I loved these huge palms that formed a sort-of canopy in the atrium of the conservatory. They definitely got me dreaming about tropical destinations. 

After the Botanical Gardens, we all migrated to Arthur Avenue in the Bronx. It's not a secret or anything, but I'd never heard of it before. Arthur Ave is the Italian neighborhood in the Bronx and perhaps the biggest "Little Italy" in NYC. Almost every shop is an Italian restaurant or a pastry shop or a bread shop or a mozzarella shop. It's pretty great. It really made me want to go to Italy.

At the restaurant we went to, we all split salads, risotto, and pizza and drank the tastiest wine. One of the pizzas we ordered had butternut squash puree and truffle oil instead of tomato sauce. Whoa-M-G. I'd like that in my life again soon.

After lunch, we went to a market (above!) and got cannolis and cappuccinos. And that was my Saturday in the Bronx. I'm thinking I'd like to go back sometime soon to explore more.