Sunday in the city

Today we started off sitting on the stoop watching people on the street go by.  It is so much fun!  I love being with Ryan! I love being on vacation with Dan! I love being in New York! And this week these three things were wrapped up together, what a lucky girl I am!

 I tried to talk Dan into a haircut in Chinatown this morning, but for some reason he decided to wait until we got back to Bellevue so I could do the cutting.  He as a little afraid I think.

Out breakfast/lunch in Chinatown was a great success for Ryan and I.  We ordered way too much food and managed to eat almost all of it.  Dan would take a bite or two to try a few things, but was seriously glad he ate a slice of cold pizza left over from last night.  I love walking around the streets here.  You never know what you will find in the shops.

 We found beautiful Dragonfruit here in this corner market, and we bought enough for me to bring a couple of them home in my suitcase.

 Here we could have bought live frogs, eels, jelly fish, carp, shrimp, or a large variety of fresh fish and seafood still unrecognised in their crates.

Here is a window full of roasted ducks, chickens, game hens (maybe pigeons) and other things I didn't recognise all cooked, hot, and ready to go.

After shopping we went to see a show with Daniel Radcliffe and John Larroquette called "How to Succeed in Business Without Even Trying".  It was great!  And yes,,, Harry Potter can sing and dance.  He and Larroquette were hilarious playing off each other in their characters, the singing and dancing were done very well, and I can see why they got such good reviews.
I really wanted to see "Book of Mormon, the Musical" done by the same creators as did Southpark and Avenue Q.  It is a smashing runaway success, (as the signs so say).  But sold out....unless you wanted to pay great large sums of money to someone scalping tickets.  The cheapest tickets we could find were for $540 each ticket.  For that amount of money we will wait till fall and fly out here again and spend a reasonable amount for each ticket.

And after the show we wandered around times square for a little bit again.  Again seeing interesting people do interesting things.  Look at the face on the girls as they walk out for pictures with the Naked Cowboy at times square.  Ryan said he has been doing the same thing for years.  I think you are supposed to put his tips in...um...his boots! Yeah that's right, I said boots!

After finding our way back to the East Village we....stopped to eat again.  OK, any of you that know me know that's what I think is fun when I travel.  Eat in good places, look for good places, try unusual places, stop in odd places to try odd food, ask strangers about their favorite places, and making plans for the next place to eat. We all enjoyed the meal we had tonight.
Dan headed off after dinner to find somewhere to watch some of the NBA playoff game tonight and Ryan and I strolled around the block to buy an ice cream cone and look at a few interesting buildings as we went along.

These are pictures of two different buildings.  Beautiful vines growing on each.  But look at the size of the one growing across the front of the door on the second picture.  It must have been growing there for 20 or more years.
Such is the uniqueness of this crazy island.
Love you and wish you all a good life, good health, and good night.
Dan and Nic

Saturday's Activities

I got this picture of the stairwell of the apartment building this morning on our way to breakfast.  I am truly glad the apartment is only on the 3rd floor.  I don't think I could walk up and down to the 5th floor every day. 
After breakfast Ryan went back to his apartment to get ready for work today and Dan and I set out in a cab to visit the Museum of Natural History.  It is about 4 square blocks and 4 floors tall.  We managed to cover a good portion of it today.

These great animals were displayed in the entryway of the museum.  We bought tickets and in we went to see....

Even more dinosaurs.  One of the special exhibits were of the largest animals to have ever been on the earth and had some great displays showing how the heart worked to keep the blood pressure to the brains of dinosaurs that had long necks, and how they could digest the tons of food needed to maintain those enormous bodies on a daily basis.
Next on the list was a visit to the space and stars wing of the museum and we got information on the "Big Bang" creation of the universe.  There was a half hour film in the planetarium which made it seem like you were flying through space and time.  It was a great film. 
The third special exhibit was one on "Frogs of all Colors"   Dan wasn't so thrilled about this one, but it was very interesting and he seemed to be having fun while we learned some fun facts.  The frogs really were all colors.  The most colorful of all are the poisonous ones, of course!

After we left the museum we walked across Central Park. We did have to ask directions and change course a couple of times.  The paths loop around and cross over each other so many times it is hard to keep your directions straight.

No, we didn't walk all the way to the Washington Monument in Washington D.C.  It only seemed like it.  This was in the park and it had heiroglyphics on it. We walked along the street in front of the Metropolitan Museum of Art as we worked our way south and the map information says it is a mile long.  I believe it.  It will be a great stop for our next trip do NYC.

I couldn't get all of the building in one picture, but this should give you an idea of the size of the front of it.
At this point I gave out and we hailed a cab to go back to the east village to the area close to Ryans.  We found a pizza place for dinner and sat right in the window to watch people on the street.  That is always one of the most entertaining things to do in this city. And after a leisurely dinner and a sauntering walk back home we are in for an early night. 
We hope everyone has a good night. 
We love you all!
Nicolle and Dan

Oh What a Fine Day

What a beautiful day it was today.  As we left the Apartment and started walking around it was gorgeous and sunny, but if the breeze sliped by it was just cool enough that being in the shade was too cool.  It was perfect!

After having breakfast in a new place for Ryan we split up this morning and Ryan went to work for a few hours with Luke...and Dan and I headed across town to the United Nations building.

This is a fun piece of art in the courtyard of the United Nations.  It looked like an abstract earth.  The inside of it was filled with interesting layers of shine and pieces looking like locking gears.

These are two of the rooms used by the delagates of the United Nations.  The first one is the General Assembly room.  Here, all 192 member nations sit in conference.  The second picture is where the 11 member of the Security Council meet.  In fact, they met here just yesterday and it was closed for visiters during yesterday's tour.  We signed up for a tour and it was a good one.  Just enough information to be interesting but not so much that you felt like a test was coming.
After leaving there we took a cab to St Patrick's Cathedral on 5th Ave.

I love the way the inside of old cathederals look.  Graceful and strong lines run from such high ceilings and seem to fill such a large space with peace and space at the same time.  I love sitting in them and looking at the beautiful art that is in every nook and cranny. 

Our next stop was to go on past Trump Towers and on towards the Plaza Hotel where Ryan works. We had a great tour of where Ryan works and met a couple of other employees and two of Ryans bosses.  The Plaza is a old, elegant hotel and the rooms that are available for functions are definately beautiful ones.
Across the street from the plaza is the famous Manhatten Apple store to make all other stores jealous. Of course we had to do a short visit there also. The glass part you can see is only the entry way, stairs to go down  and an elevator that is, of course, glass also.  The whole store is underground.  It is a large, busy, busy, crowded place.

And after the Apple Store visit we managed to flag a towncar that gave us the second craziest ride we have had so far in the crazy driving capitol of the US. This driver scared us silly.  But managed to let us out safe and sound by Ryans apartment where we walked across the street and had a really good meal of Indian food.

After our delicious dinner we walked halfway down the block and had dessert at another Indian resteraunt that had live entertainment.

But more entertaining to us was the look on Dan's face when he tried his dessert.

With that we decided to come on home, blog and get ready for bed.  Not being quite as ready for bed as the old fogies, Ryan went to a Yoga place that is quite close for a night time class of Hot Yoga that they lovingly call "Night Sweats".  I don't know why anyone would volunteer for that.  It is just uncomfortable and crazy, but you can't always make people behave sanely.

Another busy, crazy day in New York. We love you all.

Nic and Dan

Guess What We Did Today!

But I guess I need to start at the beginning instead of at the end.

We didn't say how fun it was to see Ryan all dressed for work at the Plaza.  Here he is showing us how he uses the earpiece and mic like the FBI guys do.  It makes the communication so much easier in so large a facility. This was an evening event and he worked while Dan and I were walking around and having dinner last night.
Today we had a more relaxed day than yesterday was.  It was a little cooler and not near so humid. Dan got up (not too early) and went for a run down to the water and along the east river.  Ryan got up at the same time and left for a session of Hot Yoga.  I had the apartment to myself for a lazy long shower and got a little more organised as I got ready for the day today.
After Dan and Ryan got back and were ready to go we walked out around the block and stopped in this little place called Frankie's.  It was tiny, and we started the lunch outside, but all too soon we moved to an inside table because the shade had completely deserted us and we needed to change.

This is a picture of the lunch I ordered.  Black Lunguine made with squid ink and tossed with calamari.  It was Delicioso!  Dan ordered a meatball and sausage sandwich, and Ryan had garlic and broccoli spaghetti.  Both said their meal was the best of the three (but mine really was!).
After the meal Ryan got tickets for Spider Man so we decided not to do any more walking around and we came back to take naps and rest up for tonight.  We took a cab to the times square area and had dinner at Bubba Gumps.  It is a huge resteraunt.  I think there were 3 bus groups seated just before us and they managed to seat and feed everyone.  We had no problem eating and making it to the show on time.  Here is a picture of the view we had from the resteraunt.  Notice how many cabs are on the street.

After dinner and a short walk around the corner we arrived at the theatre where we were going to see Spider Man.  Here is a picture of my nice boys going into the theatre.

And here are my spidy wannabe's coming out!

I guess I don't need to tell anyone what a good time we had. 
It was a great show with fun effects and spidy's and badie's flying all around the theatre.  The music was good and it kept you interested watching where the action was going to be coming from at any time.  Sometimes he would be right on the railing in front of us and we were on the mid balcony.  He had a couple of landings on the upper balcony and plenty of fly-by's.
After taking the subway back to the NYU district it was just a short pleasant walk back to the apartment.  We are talking over plans for the next couple of days and will let you know how it goes.
Happy Birthday again to Luke from Gramma, Grampa and Ryan.
We love you all.

Hot, hot, hot, New York!

On the evening of May 30th Dan and I were finally packed and ready to get on the Jet Blue red-eye flight to JFK airport.  We had dinner with Ashley and Ryan Osher, a delicious curried shrimp dinner Ryan cooked.  And they drove us to the airport to catch a plane to come visit New York and Ryan again.
After a night flight and a couple of hours of sleep we arrived at the airport at 6 am. It was a beautiful day and just over 70 degrees when we walked out of the airport. We were safe and sound so far, the scary part started with the taxi ride into town.  And surprise of all surprises we had a very careful and reasonable driver in this cab. 
We arrived at Ryans apartment at about 7 am and walked down the street for a lazy breakfast.  I should have started to worry when the airconditioning felt good to us already in the resteraunt, but no worries yet and a great breakfast was had by all.
We then decided to do a little touring so we wouldn't fall asleep and wreck our bio clocks and waste a whole day.

We did a little walking around town and decided to go to the Statue of Liberty.  Ryan hadn't been there yet either.  So off we headed for Battery Park.  Stood in line for about 25 minutes for the tickets and walked, and walked and walked to the end of the waiting line for the ferry.  Just over an hour, (hot, standing in the sun hour) we were packed like sardines onto a tour boat and spent 20 minutes getting to Monument Island.  What a sight it was, and beautiful monument to visit.

And oh the amount of humanity that was traveling out to see her!

Next up was a shorter ride to Ellis Island.  I texted Aunt Chris and asked her if they came through Ellis Island when they reached the US.  She said they did, "And I remember it very well.  It was an impressive sight to pass the statue and finally be able to touch American Soil."

They had a rather impressive wall of assorted trunks along the length of the main building.  I noticed that 3 of these trunks were very much like some of the ones I own.  It made me think of how it must have been to have traveled from everyone and everything you knew.  Pack all you owned into a couple of small containers, and travel to a place where you didn't know how to read, speak, use the money, or trust anyone in your travels.  Just to fulfill a hope for a better life for your family than you had before.  How brave,(crazy? determined?) would you need to be to try that with one hopeful father, one heartsick and homesick wife, and 3 little girls that barely understood what they were experiencing.  And this was at a time (1952) when there were reliable ways to send letters and pictures to keep in touch, not when it was surely the end of every contact like it was for so many earlier travelers.
With a tight throat and high emotions already we saw many pictures and read some very touching stories of other emigrants as they tried to make better lives for themselves and their families.  If any one comes even close to this part of the country I sincerely hope they all come and experience this the way I did.  I put myself in their shoes for just a moment and came away with a great appreciation for my life and circumstance as it is now.
As we left to go back to the city we were weary, hot and tired, sweaty and sunburnt, but having a very good time still.

And here is party animal Ry with a smile to prove it!
After a bite to eat we went back to the apartment where Ryan cleaned up and went out to meet friends at a pre-opening run through of a new show.  Dan cleaned up and went out to watch some of the NBA playoff game and grab a late slice of pizza.  And good old mom face planted and slept on and off for a good 12-13 hours. What a day!

Today we had a much quieter day.  We did a little sight seeing, including some interesting art installed along the L line of the subway.

How cute they were all over the stations. The little figures are about 7 or 8 inches tall and doing all sorts of fun things.  I hope I get a chance to take pictures of a few more.
This afternoon, after Ryan left for work, Dan and I rested for awhile...then we set out walking from Ryan's appartment to find a Thai resturant someone had told us was a great place to eat.  It was hot and humid and we walked and walked for almost 2 miles before we found the resturant...which ended up being only a half block from Ryan's appartment. 
We are still a little sunburnt and hot and sweaty but are all safe and sound again tonight waiting for Ryan to get off work and come back home. 
We miss you and love you all and hope you are all healthy and doing well.
da mama and da papa