Catching up...trip to NYC!

!!Warning - Extremely Long Post!! I thought of splitting this post into a few separate ones but knowing me I would never really get to it so here it is all at once. I won't be offended if you want to turn back now. On the plus side (for me anyway) there are lots of pictures.

As I have already mentioned Matt and I went to New York City last October for him to attend a conference. {Just a side note: I strongly maintain that early October is THE BEST time to visit New York (and actually D.C. too). The summer crowds are long gone and the weather is still good. Just trust me} Anyway, we had a great time and here are some of the things we did.

NYC skyline from the taxi.

First up...a Yankees game! We were so excited to see the new stadium and it did not disappoint! Matt really liked it and so did I but I miss the cozy-ness of the old stadium. I love this shot of the train whizzing by the stadium.

Matt inside the great hall where they had pictures/banners of all the great Yankee players past and present.


The famous Yankee Stadium facade.


Part of the gigantic scoreboard. I heard someone say that they have the largest HD screen in the world. Not sure if that is true but it is really big.


Matt in our seats. We were kind of far from home plate but the view of the whole stadium was great.


Derek Jeter. Love him. I know I may get some boo's from some of you but really, he is awesome.


I think this is Mariano Rivera pitching. Love him too.


Here we are. We loved the game and were happy to see our Yankees play again.


This trip we stayed in a hotel in Chelsea and more specifically, in the Flower District. I was not familiar with the flower district so I was happy to learn about a new area of the city. It also was a very convenient place to stay. Here is the view down from our room on the 23rd floor.


One of my most favorite things to do in the city is just to walk around for hours and hours. My most favorite area to walk around in is SOHO/Chinatown/West Village. Here is a cute cobblestone street in SOHO.


This is a never miss for me in Soho. The Scholastic store. I discovered it when I went with my girlfriends a few years ago and now go every time I am in the city. It is hard not to leave with a zillion books for my kids.


This is a new gem I discovered -- Pearl River Trading. It is so cool! Tons of cool, well-priced asian stuff that was too heavy or big for me to take home.


I liked this door but was too chicken to photograph it right in front of the guy. This shot isn't too bad though.


This store is a new one for me too. Muji sells great simple items for your person and home.


Another of my favorite things to do (anywhere actually) is to eat alone at a restaurant. Not all the time just once in a while. I know that's a bit weird but that's just me. This is a street pic taken from my table by the window. I love the light blue chairs.


That night after Matt's conference was finished we tried to go to our favorite restaurant Frutti Da Mare (see previous post) but it was no longer. Following a disappointing meal at another nearby restaurant we went to see Billy Elliot on Broadway. We both decided it was ok. We didn't love the music but I LOVED the dancing. The boy that played Billy was a brilliant ballet dancer.


The following day I wandered around midtown and wasted some time in the M&M store. It was really lame but I thought the walls of M&M dispensers looked cool.


This pic was taken when I was fooling around with my camera while waiting to meet my cousin for lunch. I really liked this one. My cousin Ben (who lives there) took me to a great Cafeteria/Diner/Burger Joint called Schnippers. Oh it was so good. It was also great fun catching up with Ben whom I don't see nearly enough.


Later that day Matt and I explored another area we were not familiar with - the Flatiron District. Here are two pics. The first of the big insurance company buildings and the other of the Flatiron building. It was a nice area.



Matt thought the Challa bread looked good.


Here is my MOST FAVORITE shop in all of New York. Fishs Eddy. They sell anything related to anything that you eat with. Flatware, Dishes, Serving Plates, etc. It is PACKED to the rafters with such great, well-displayed stuff. I just learned that they have an online store where you can buy their great items but you really should go to the store for the full experience.





This is an interesting scene down by Washington Square Park.


I loved this papered wall.


Matt was on a crusade to eat at as many NYC pizza places as possible. He did quite well. I am not sure how many he ended up with but one of the days I think he ate pizza four times. Good thing we did a lot of walking.



I have to mention a little restaurant in the West Village that is quickly becoming one of my favorites. It is called Westville. The place is tiny -- it has like 6 tables which are just about 10 steps away from the smallest kitchen imaginable. It is the kind of place that you would pass right by if you didn't know better. When you walk in you think - ok the food here can't be that good. Well it is! They have lots of comfort food items like meatloaf and macaroni & cheese but my favorite thing is to get is a plate of veggies. They have a list of about 20 veggies that you can order and they are tasty. Especially after a few days of eating lots of pizza. Here is Matt with our appetizer -- the BEST corn I have ever tasted.


Matt's meal - chili dogs and a salad. I didn't taste it but I think he liked it.


Matt digging into my veggies. You gotta try the beets and the brussels sprouts. YUM!


Wicked. Our favorite. We had both seen it before but I think it was even better the second time. In fact we will probably see it again...and again.


Matt and I with my East Coast family members. We met for brunch and then went to Ben's teeny little apartment in the West Village (we are completely blocking the view of his kitchen). He lives across the street from Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick. Oh and also down the street from Magnolia Bakery -- dangerous!


Baseball game #2 for us was to see the Mets at their new field -- Citi Field. We had great seats in right field. It was a great park and a fun game but it got rained out. Bummer.




One of the stores near our hotel in the Flower District. It was fascinating to see those stores completely morph from morning to evening. They all sell flowers wholesale. In the morning they all would get their shipments and completely fill their stores. By about 3:00 p.m. the stores were totally empty and closed up until the next morning when it all happened again. It was kind of fascinating to me.

WE Heart NYC! Maybe we can retire there someday.


Thanks for hanging in there. Maybe you heart NYC now too.

History

It all started about a couple of months ago. Matt went to Washington, D.C. on business and decided to drive over to Arlington to show his friend where we used to live. 545 N. Pollard Street was our first apartment there and it was a very nice place in a great location. We lived there for a few years and the triplets were born when we lived there (another story for another day). Needless to say that apartment holds a lot of great memories for us. Well, when Matt drove by it was GONE! The entire building had been knocked down and it was an empty lot of dirt. This experience set Matt out on a crusade to document everything that we can about our past.

In October we took a little trip to New York City which is were we lived while Matt went to Law School. We took one day to travel around and document some of our favorite parts of our life there. As always, I have to do it pictorially so here we go...

Another disappointment -- our favorite restaurant (it used to be Frutti Da Mare) had been changed to a different restaurant. (Not unusual in NYC but we were sad -- it was really good)

In front of Alma Mater at Columbia which has such a cool campus. If anyone ever is up at 116th street in Manhattan you should go.

Columbia Law School. Matt had many many late night study sessions there. Also where we met some of our dearest friends.

115th Street -- Matt is standing in the exact spot that the ConEd van was parked making it impossible for us to drive our UHaul truck down the street to our apartment. It was our first New York experience way back in August 1993. A very kind man seeing our predicament ran up and down the street yelling for the ConEd man to come move his van. Since I was convinced that we were going to be van-jacked the moment we pulled off of the freeway into Harlem, I was relieved that this was the biggest problem we had.


Our first and second apartments were in Columbia married student housing. Woodbridge Hall is located across the street from Riverside Park (normally a very pricey location to live) which was awesome. However, during the winter it was about 10 degrees colder at our apartment (because we were so close to the river) and our friends didn't want to come visit. Now it is an undergrad dorm.

Our neighborhood hardware store that is the size of a really tall closet. You can't really look around you just have to go in and tell them what you want and they go get it for you. Very New York City.

112th and Broadway, Where our third apartment was located.

542 W. 112h Street. Right across the street from Tom's Restaurant -- the home of magical pancakes. Also down the street from St. John the Divine (a very beautiful cathedral).

The view of St. John the Divine as we walked to our apt.

Recognize this? Seinfeld?

Westside Market was our favorite grocery store. It is an amazing experience shopping at NYC grocery stores. They are normally super small but pack so much stuff in. I always loved walking by the beautiful produce on the street.


The Cheese section. Yum!

The home of "Big Cheap Pizza". A student's dream. They sell gigantic slices of pizza for cheap! Back then it was only $1.



This is a street fair where they block off a bunch of blocks right on the street and vendors sell there wares. There is always good food there too.

Now for Zabar's. This famous store is one of our favorites. It is where we got our Raclette cheese for our feasts with the Whisenants.

The best bagels on this earth. H&H bagels. Love them. We used to bring bags home to our families when we visited Utah.


Thanks for indulging me in this trip down memory lane. It is nice to know that if any of these places disappear (you never know) they will live on on our little blog.

And the book is...

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown. (Still not finished by the way. I kept falling asleep last night)

Sorry Marti and Anne. good guesses though.

Must...Finish...

I took this cool picture of the latest book holding me and my household captive. By my household I mean the shambles that exists because of my lack of desire to put this book down. I am about finished - hopefully tonight and maybe then I can do some dishes or laundry. Sorry family. Reading is important too right?

By the way, I really like this pic. It might be frame on the wall worthy. What do you think? Also, any guesses of what the book is? Oops. I just noticed that there is a big clue there.

Happy Birthday!

Birthdays in our family kind of go in packs. The latest happens at the end of October. My late Grandmother's birthday, her son's (my dad's) AND my neice's birthdays all happen within two days. Thanks to the plethora of multiple births, we have another group in Dec., Feb., and then in April. It sure makes it easy to celebrate.

Happy Birthday Dad and Miss C! You too Grandma.

Stubborn!

This is Jake being stubborn. I told him (after telling him a zillion times already) that he had to finish his homework before he could leave his seat at the counter. He sat there for about 45 minutes and then what did that bugger do? He fell asleep. I was going to leave him there all night so that he would learn that I mean what I say but I couldn't do it. He might fall off the stools and then we would possibly have a bigger problem. He won this time I guess. I wonder where he got his stubbornness from? :) not me.