For What It's Worth...: 2009

Happy New Year's Eve

from our family to yours!

2 months ago today Corey, Allie, & I were in New York City looking at this...

"The Ball"

We'll be watching it again tonight on TV.

Catching Up November: NYC: Day 1 - Times Square

The night of our first day in NYC we headed to Times Square - which was perfect. I think that the first time that anyone sees Times Square it should be at night when it is all lit up. I think that we walked around for the first hour with our mouths open in amazement. It was so cool... just like you think that it would be from the gazillions of times that you have seen it on TV.

~ looking up at all the signs ~

After a while we decided to get dinner. We didn't want to eat at a chain restaurant that we could eat at at home, so we Googled New York Pizza. The place that came up was a few blocks off the main part of Times Square and was about the size of my bathroom. We talked to some people that were outside of the place and they told us that it was great pizza. (They were right!) So, we squeezed into the restaurant, got some dinner, and carried it a bistro table in the middle of Times Square. It was absolutely the best way to eat dinner! We got to continue to take in the sights and sounds of NYC while we ate.

I have a friend named Shannon from Oklahoma. I knew that her husband was running in the NYC Marathon and that they were in town, but I didn't think that it would work out that we would see each other while we were in New York. While we were eating in Times Square, she happened to text me that her family was eating in the restaurant that was a few yards away from where we sat! She came out and said hi... what a fun surprise!

~ cool chair in Times Square ~

~ NYPD on their horses - really cool ~

~ heaven ~

The M&M store in Times Square is 2 stories and really neat!

~ going up the escalator ~

~ Lady Liberty ~

~ choices, choices ~

Allie by the Wicked sign - the show that we had tickets to see.

These gobs of people were doing a synchronized dance-thing with phones and trench coats.

~ the chandelier in the Swatch watch store ~

~ revolving ~

Next, we headed to the 4 story Toys R Us to ride the indoor ferris wheel. All of the "cars" were made out of huge "toys". We were excited that we got to ride in the Cozy Coupe... it was the one that we wanted.

The Yankees were playing in the World Series while we were in NYC, and the game was playing on the HUGE screens in Times Square.

~ heading back to the hotel for the night ~

Catching Up November: NYC: Day 1 - The Subway, Central Park, FAO Schwarz, & The Apple Store

We got to our hotel room, threw our luggage inside and were almost-instantly off to see the city. We had been told by our friends that live in NYC that we should buy a week-pass for the subway and use that for our primary transportation while we were there. It took us a bit to figure out how to use the subway, but with the help of the map on our iPhones, we figured it out pretty well. It was a great way to get around - much safer and cleaner than I thought that it might be. And it was a great place to people-watch. We saw everything from obvious tourists to mommies & nannies with children in strollers to business people to people coming home from the store with things like mops and child-proofing gates. We all loved the subway - especially Allie. When the train was approaching she would stand near the tracks to feel the "whoosh" of air, and I would sometimes tear-up as I watched her let it blow through her hair.

~ Allie & Corey waiting for the subway ~

~ whoosh ~

Every time that I would see a sign with a familiar place or street, I would get excited!

(and I loved how the signs in this part of the subway were made of tile)

~ city girls ~

~ our comfy walking shoes ~

The first place that we headed was Central Park. We could not have arrived on a more perfect fall day. The famous NYC Marathon was happening, and it was so cool to watch the runners and the people that were cheering them on. If you can believe it, seeing that made me cry. I could not believe that I was actually watching the New York City Marathon in person!

The place that we watched the race was right beside The Plaza Hotel.

~ Central Park ~

~ Corey getting our first NY hot dogs from a vendor in Central Park ~

The hot dogs truly are as good as their reputation!

(Let me go ahead and explain the pink backpack as it has been to source of many laughs and will appear in many of our photos. Corey, having a business that follows him everywhere he goes, knew that he would have to do some work on our trip, so he needed to have his laptop with him at all times. We also needed a place to carry our gloves, scarves, rain ponchos, etc. Allie's school backpack is the only one that we have that was big enough to carry all of our stuff. And as I have said many times, a man carrying a pink backpack is the least of the weird things that one might see in NYC. It truly is unnoticeable while we were there. :) )

These big rocks are all over Central Park. Lots of people sit on them and visit or read or just hike around on them.

~ fall leaves! ~

~ beautiful tree ~

~ Me & Allie by the beautiful red tree ~

~ Allie & Corey by a beautiful bridge in Central Park ~

(It was dusk, so you can't see everything in the photos as well as we could in real life.)

~ Me & Allie by the bridge & pond ~

I love this photo of Corey. He looks like such a tourist.

(He was posting photos from his phone. We did that a lot.)

~ The ice-skating rink in Central Park ~

We didn't skate, but we sat and watched the skaters and took in the scenery as the sun went down. (We didn't need to stop to rest our feet. Nope. Not us. Not at all!)

After it got dark, we left Central Park and went across the street to see The Plaza Hotel. We had of course seen it in several movies, and it was so neat to see it in person. It was beautiful!

In case you don't know - Eloise is a cute little feisty storybook character whose stories take place in The Plaza. In the hotel lobby, they had this Eloise doll, painting, and other Eloise paraphernalia.