new york, new york

day two was crazy!  we got up early and went to top of the rock at rockefeller center.  it's the only place in new york where you can actually see the empire state building.  the views were absolutely amazing.  you can see the brooklyn bridge, the east river, the hudson river, the statue of liberty and ellis island.  i have already been to the empire state building, ellis island, and the statue of liberty...so we got to skip all of those places and it saved a lot of time!  after we had seen everything from 70 stories up, we made our way to east village.  we were signed up to meet a tour guide at the big black cube at astor place.  it ended up being me, k-dogg, and a couple from london.  the tour was awesome!  not only did we eat a lot of great food, but our guide, susan, showed us a lot of important places and told us a lot of history about east village.  i think my favorite things are the light posts covered in mosaics.  they are by a homeless man named jim power.  incredible artwork.  we went to gem spa for an egg cream.  a place i would never go on my own and a drink i would never have ordered...but i would now!  we had fresh salami and spicy mustard at the east village meat market.  wow!  new york pizza, a cookie and ice cream from milk bar, a hot dog from papaya dog, treats from veniero's, an italian bakery that's been open since 1894.  the weirdest thing we ate was borscht.  beet soup at a 24 hour ukrainian coffee shop, veselka.  it was so good, that as soon as we got home, i looked up their website to see if i could order their cookbook.  it's on it's way from amazon right now!  we saw a lot of cool things along the way.  st. mark's on the bowery is the oldest continual church in new york city and the second oldest church in manhattan.  webster hall , a farmers' market...in manhattan, cooper union, trash and vaudeville...i could probably go back to nyc and stay in east village the whole time!  but then, k-dogg had done his research and found out that the harry potter exhibition was in town...oh. my. word.  right down the street from our hotel...we saw tons of costumes and props from all of the movies...even the one that comes out this friday.  if you are a fan of the movies or the books, or both, and you are going to be in nyc before september...you must go!  it was awesome.  but we still weren't done for the day.  we went back to east village, to ippudo, for dinner.  k-dogg loves ramen and had seen this place on food network's the best thing i ever ate.  i had read that the wait to get seated was sometimes up to three hours...i was not excited.  but we walked in and got seated immediately.  k-dogg had ramen, i ordered a duck and eggplant appetizer.  my food was good...but the ramen was crazy good!  we went back uptown and ended up at central park.  i could spend a whole day or two there, but we just walked around the south end for a little while since we were exhausted.  we walked by the zoo...it was closed, found balto, the delacorte clock, and william shakespeare. for some reason, we decided to walk back to our hotel...all the way down 5th avenue.  it was a lot of walking, but it was so fun!  pictures to follow later today...scout is awake!   

wow, about 2 hours and scout is asleep again!  guess we wore him out this weekend...

top of the rock elevator

esb

statue of liberty and ellis island

k-dogg rotating the alamo cube in astor place

 

st mark's on the bowery

the clock at grand central terminal

delacorte clock

balto

      

new york state of mind

i have no idea where to start talking about our trip, so i'll just start at the beginning.  we got there monday, 4th of july, after sitting behind the most annoying guy i have been around in a long time.  anyway, we stayed at the iroquois hotel on 44th street.  right between times square and grand central terminal.  yeah, pretty busy area!  we dropped our stuff off and went out to wander around.  the only things on our agenda that day were to eat a hot dog and see fireworks.  we ended up on avenue of the americas (6th street) and found st. patrick's cathedral. then we kept going and found rockefeller center where the nbc studios are.  later we were going to do the top of the rock tour, but they wouldn't let anyone else up until after the fireworks.  we saw atlas and prometheus.  even if you've never been to new york, i'm sure you know what those are.  at some point, we got a hot dog from a street vendor, check!  then we ended up in times square.  i wanted to have dinner at hard rock cafe, even though it's a terribly cheesy and touristy thing to do.  by then, we decided not to try to see the fireworks.  it was going to be too crazy and crowded. we walked around times square for a while, and then right at one of the bigger intersections you could actually see a few of the fireworks.  it was pretty cool to see them from there, check!  we did everything on our list for that day and a lot more!  day 2 was insane...so, i'm going to save that for another post.  i'll shoot for tomorrow, but no promises because k-dogg plans on working in the yard and scout and i may have to go to target or visit gram. 

right in front of our hotel

st patrick's cathedral...may be my favorite building in the world, and i'm not even catholic!

inside the cathedral

we didn't stay long or get to walk around because they were having a service

Atlas

Prometheus, where they have the ice skating rink when it's cold.  right now it's outdoor eating

if you watch good morning america, this is always in the background!

i was taking a picture of the new year's ball and happened to catch a cool picture!

i was dress appropriately for hrc

wall of gibsons

hrc

times square

the infamous musical

fattest spiderman i've ever seen!

empire state of mind

we got home from new york a few hours ago.  i took over 400 pictures.  they're all on my computer, but for now i'm just going to post a few favorites.  no big posts yet...i'm too tired and i want to go play with scout.

4th of July in Rockefeller Center

30 Rock

St Patrick's Cathedral

Not a good pic, but it's the fireworks from Times Square!

a homeless man in East Village does mosaic art on the light posts

very good egg cream...although i have nothing with which to compare it

K-dogg at Top of the Rock

me at Top of the Rock

it was so awesome, if you're a fan...you would LOVE it!

the Delacorte Clock in Central Park

the bakery where we ate in Chinatown...no English except on the signs

the new World Trade Center

New York Stock Exchange

a bronzed casting of a root system from an oak tree that fell on 9/11 near Trinity Church, none of the churches or the historical cemetery was damaged!

serious cards and mahjong at columbus park in chinatown.  it was part of the five points neighborhood that the movie gangs of new york was based on.  we were the only tourists there!

 more later!

flying

had to steal this from my mom!  it's my kid, so it's ok!  tomorrow is his first 4th of july and his 7 month birthday.  i'm sure my mom will have it all documented!  i hate packing for a plane ride.  i love traveling, just not the packing, making sure everything is where it's supposed to be so we have as little problem getting through security as possible.  leaving from the regional airport makes this much easier.  on the way home i'm always so tired that it doesn't bother me.  i should be used to it by now.  i've flown with k-dogg, alone, alone and pregnant (leaving from LAX was not fun!), and we've been to tokyo.  i've been through the border in mexico with a huge group of people.  but i will not relax at all until we are on the plane and in the air.  last year at LAX, i actually threw my boarding pass away because it was in my hand with my bk leftovers!  thankfully, i realized what i had done and it was right on top in the trash can.  so, after i drop off scout ...i'm going to come home, finish packing, and clean house so it will be clean when we get back.  my mom and k-dogg told me not to think about packing until scout was at gram's.  so, i haven't packed yet...but i have a detailed list for my purse, carry-on, make up bag, and suitcase and all of my clothes are hanging on the closet door!  :) 

white wedding

Ashton Gardens has the coolest chapel I have ever seen!

The brothers Perez

Lindsey and her dad

vows

my cute little cousin!  he caught the garter and then when they were trying to take the picture, he kept throwing it to his dad!

me and k-dogg

k-dogg posing

we waved glow sticks instead of throwing rice...some people threw the sticks!

Our friends/k-dogg's co-worker/my cousin and his fiance got married last night.  you should look up ashton gardens online.  it is awesome.  the whole chapel is floor to ceiling windows with wooden beams and it's surrounded by trees.  very cool!  the reception was a lot of fun.  we actually danced...i got k-dogg to do the cupid shuffle!  we stayed at the hilton garden inn in las colinas.  it's very nice and right across the street from some good shopping and food!  on our way home today we stopped by the outlet center in terrell.  i don't usually like outlet centers.  the ones here just don't compare to the one in camarillo, california!  but, they are the closest place with an osh kosh and carters store.  scout racked up and he wasn't even with us.  apparently, he was out shopping with gram and poppa, eating at cracker barrel, and charming everyone he met!  love that little boy.  now that i have the laundry underway for our next excursion and have my wedding pictures on the computer...i'm off to pick him up...can't wait to see him!