“Happy Birthday, my love,” he whispered to me this morning as I was coming to from a restful night’s sleep. He wrapped his arms around me and we just laid there in silence. The next thing I know we’re chatting and laughing and talking about our hopes for the day. I make a mental note of how humbled and thankful I am to be married to a man whose behavior and words so often resemble those of my Heavenly Father. Then with one last kiss, we’re up. And it’s time for breakfast and for another day to begin.

All I can seem to do while alone today is cry. They’re not “oh no, I’m getting old” tears, or regretful tears, or lonely tears. They’re drop-down-on-my-knees-and-praise-and-give-thanks-to-the-Lord tears.

This past weekend my husband and I were in the Harrisburg, PA area visiting family and friends. My husband and I have spent a good amount of time in the area for the last several years, but we’ve never gone out to Lancaster. We figured why not go and see what the real food scene is like?

We didn’t have a lot of time, and I certainly had more places on my list to visit (next time!), but we did get to stop at two great places.

Our first stop was the Lancaster Central Market. Fun fact: It’s the oldest continuously operating farmer’s market in the country. There are vendors who have been at the market for decades.

It’s totally normal to take a couple weeks off in the middle of a series on your blog, right? Sorry about that. Life is ramping up for the next few months here (weddings, an eBook going live soon, and more), and typically my blog gets pushed to the back of the line while I put out everyone else’s fires. Hoping to change that habit soon.

Anyways. Let’s close out this peak into my trip to New York City last month, yes?

We were in New York City from early morning on a Wednesday until late evening on a Thursday. I don’t know that I’ve ever been in New York City on a weekend (so I don’t have much to compare it to), but this schedule was ideal. Not as many tourists around and no real lines anywhere.

We took Amtrak into the city from Harrisburg. It was about a three hour ride, and it was pretty relaxing. Reminded me of the train travel in Europe, though the United States could still learn a little bit about the efficiency of train travel from Europe.

Once we arrived, we walked several blocks to our hotel to check in and grab a snack. Here’s a New York City travel tip (and frankly, it’s the same tip I would give for traveling in Europe): Carry your luggage on your back. I have a good size backpack that I use to travel anywhere there will be lots of people. It keeps your hands free, you can lock the zippers if you’re worried about grabby hands in crowds, and it keeps busy sidewalks clear.

Am I the only weird person who always wonders what people ate while they were on vacation? Because I do. And the curiosity has only intensified since we’ve moved towards eating real food.

Obviously, vacations are meant for fun – not guilt and self-loathing – so I had a little bit of food fun. But really, I kept it fairly clean. My motivation for that is because I feel like crappity-crap-crap if I don’t, and it would take me days to snap out of it. And I don’t have days to waste. I’m busy.

My eating in New York City can be classified into three groups: hotel snacks/snacks I brought with me, restaurant eats, and splurges. And now that I’m going back through it, I didn’t really eat that much while I was in New York City.

Hotel Snacks/Snacks I Brought With Me

I think anyone who has a diet that’s different from other people you’re around knows to bring snacks when you’re traveling. My mom and my sister don’t eat the same way I do, so I knew I was going to be outvoted on a lot of choices. That doesn’t really bug me. It’s not like I’ll starve. But I did bring some Larabars, almonds, and dried fruit with me on the trip. All of which came in handy.