New York, New York! [Day 2]

The morning of Sunday, November 21 dawned clear and cold in New York City. Heehee. I decided that early morning is my favorite time of day in the city. There is fresh energy and purposefulness in the air. So we layered up and headed out promptly at 8:00am in accordance with Jeremy's itinerary.

I had to have some coffee from Dean & Deluca first. It is highly overrated.
We passed the Times on the way to the subway.

My first ride on the subway. I thought it was cool.
We took the subway down to Battery Park and took the ferry to the Statue of Liberty.

Not as big as I thought she'd be. But still impressive.

Miss New York? Why yes, I do.

After walking around the outside of the statue and scoping out the gift shop, we took the ferry from Liberty Island to Ellis Island. As it turns out, the movie "Hitch" lied. There is no big book of signatures of immigrants that you can look at.

I liked this.

Check out this handsome tourist.

This is the most awesome view.

After getting back from Ellis Island, we walked over to Ground Zero.

There is a museum, but you really can't see anything from the site. There is scaffolding and canvas up everywhere that prevents you from looking in. This was disappointing because I really wanted some place of mourning to be left.

This is what it is suppsed to be look like when finished.

Next, we took a cab over to Mulberry Street and had lunch in Little Italy at this hole in the wall where Jeremy has eaten before.

Since Little Italy and Chinatown kind of melt into one another, we walked around and explored both.

I laughed at Jeremy for wanting a foot rub. Little did I know, we would each get one. And a back rub. Two nights in a row. :)

We walked to Soho, shopping street vendors along the way, and finding some delightful little treats too.

There were selling the mini-cupcakes out of this window. Mouthfuls of wonderment.

We went into so many stores in Soho. I really dug the area. This was the neatest shop and I didn't spend long enough here. I also regret not buying the book I was looking at for Noah and some other cute babies I know. :)

At some point around 2:00 or 3:00 that afternoon, we were worn out. We headed back to the hotel for a break, but went back to Chinatown by subway that evening to have the Chinese food I was craving.

We shared a table in this restaurant with a couple of Mexicans from Montreal. We laughed and told them we were Texans from West Virginia.

I bought a few cool accessories in Chinatown, we had massages in a dark basement ;), and then hitched a cab up to Herald Square. We intended to check out the Empire State Building but ended craning our necks up at it from the base, then going over to Macy's. THE Macy's.

Here is one of Macy's windows decorated for Christmas. The camera setting made the people look really funky.

Old building decorated so nicely!

Me riding one of the last working wooden escalators.


And we wrapped up the evening with this on our walk back to the hotel.

New York, New York! [Day 1]

What can I say? I am hooked. I love New York. I heart NYC. I have wanted to visit since I was a child so I guess you could say I waited 30 years for this vacation. It was awesome. You really can't grasp what it's like until you've been there, no matter how many books you read or movies you watch. It was worth every penny. I have to give props to the hubs cause I never could have navigated this one by myself. He's savvy like that. ;) I also have to thank my in-laws for taking great care of Noah while we were gone. At first, I was anxious about leaving him (longest time since he was born) and missed the little guy. Funny how I can be so excited about a break and then immediately start missing him! But then we were busy and having fun, so I was really able to enjoy the time away!

We took a direct Delta flight from Lewisburg to JFK on Saturday, November 20, arriving just before 5:00pm. Here are two kids totally pumped about arriving in NYC. I was so excited to be traveling childless that I actually dressed up and curled my hair, and insisted on reading and listening to my Ipod, just because I could for once.

Waiting in line to get our cab to the hotel. My first cab ride! Loved it.
After checking in at the Holiday Inn Express Times Square (39th St between 8th and 9th), we headed out for Times Square, which was 3 blocks away. Great location.



We had dinner at a brewery and worked our way through the crowds and explored a bit. Here is the ferris wheel inside Toys R Us.

I would not want to be here on New Year's. No way.

Isn't he funny?

Somewhere, somehow, there are very rich Barclays in the world. Just not the ones pictured here.
Next, we headed back to the hotel and crashed. We still have a bedtime, regardless of vacations. :) This concludes Day 1. I have to split this trip up into several posts because it's going to take me quite a while to get it all done!

The Ginkgo is Falling, the Gingko is Falling!

Okay, so things are looking up since last week! I am blaming it on the time change (give me a spring forward any day! extra hour of sleep, my foot!) and the multiple teeth that joined Noah's mouth in recent days. He always has gotten them in groups, and it looks like last week his mouth became much more full.

Here are the recent pics I promised from the ginkgo tree. Supposedly, this tree will lose all of its leaves in a single day. Meaning that they turn bright yellow and quickly rain down from the tree. Word that the ginkgo in front of Carnegie Hall is losing its leaves spreads quickly around Lewisburg. However, it didn't really go that way this year, so I cannot verify the accuracy of the legend of the gingko biloba. (How's that for a little Honors Biology, Mr. Culbertson?) It actually took several days after this particular morning to completely dismantle the huge tree. The downside: this tree drops berries at the same time it is dropping its leaves. And if you step on the berries, you are stuck with an aroma resembling old motor oil and manure. Nice.