Well, as I already posted, we arrived home last night after an extremely fulfilling vacation. The last three days of which were filled with some of the best times I had for the whole time. In the spirit of keeping up with the "daily journal" of our vacation, I thought I'd tell you about days nine, ten, and eleven.
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Day Nine
We got off to a bit of a late start on Sunday. We were slow to wake up and slow getting ready, but we finally made it to the train and were in the city by about 3:00 in the afternoon. Those of you who have been following the US Open action might know that the whether was absolutely gorgeous for the last few days of our trip, and it was most definitely that on Sunday in the city. We rode the subway a few blocks north and walked several blocks to the USS Intrepid Museum.
This was really a pretty incredible museum, actually built on the USS Intrepid, a World War II aircraft carier that served in the Pacific. You can read more about her here. Being the military aircraft buff I am, and in an effort to not spend too much time there, I skipped over the aircraft displays (with exception of the Concorde that is retired there) and paid more attention to the actual carrier. What an impressively huge ship she is. I snapped a few pictures, explored the ship, and we moved on.
We had planned to meet up with Drew and Tara in the city at some point and as we were walking out of the museum, they called and we made arrangements to meet them outside of Rockefeller Center, as that's where we were headed next. We walked east on 46th Street from the museum, which is apparently known as Restaurant Row, passing by several eateries, brew houses, jazz clubs, ethnic places, and everything in between. There were tons of people walking around and there was a sense of electricity in the air, with it almost being dinner time and the restaurants gearing up for a busy night.
We stopped in at a little souvenier shop on the way for Raquel to pick up a few things. When we walked out, we turned the corner and found ourselves in the middle of Times Square. You may find it hard to believe that I had no idea that we were right there before leaving that store, but there I was, completely awestruck and amazed by where I was standing. I really can't put into words the awesomeness of this place. The lights, the sounds, the people, the traffic. It's no wonder there was an electricity in the air a few blocks west of there. It's because we were only two blocks from Times Square. But we had people to meet, so we kept on hoofing it.
While in Times Square, Tara called us and changed the rendevous point to 72nd Street and 5th Avenue which was several blocks northeast of where we were, in Central Park. On the subway again, trying to make it to the Park with enough time to see some of it with some daylight still in the sky.
We found them in the Park with Jonathan and enjoyed a long, peaceful walk and talk with them. Drew and Tara now live in Rockville Center which is about 45 minutes ouside of the city on Long Island, but they both used to live in Manhattan and spend quite a bit of time in Central Park, so we had our own guided tour. We went to the Bethesda Fountain, the Boat House, the Alice in Wonderland sculpture, saw the Great Lawn, and walked by one of the many performance stages in the park. We probably were walking for about an hour or more and had run out of daylight when we decided that we should probably get something to eat. Drew and I were having a hankering for some good sushi so they took us to one of their favorite places called Haru. It was such a good time for all of us, sitting outside on the sidewalk, visiting, drinking, and having some of the finest sushi ever prepared.
As I am writing this now, I long to be able to relive those few hours over again. Drew and Tara are such wonderful people and Jonathan is the most precious baby boy in this world. It was such a quality time.
As all good things must, our time with them winded down and we parted ways for the last time of our trip. We walked them to their car and we continued south to go visit Serendipity 3 for some dessert, but decided against that when we couldn't even walk through the door due to how packed it was. It was also getting late so we decided to head back to Penn Station to get the train to Long Island. The best way to get there was to take the subway through Times Square again so we took a few minutes to go above ground to see the place at night. It was everything I described above, but with more lights. Simply amazing.
We made it to the station to catch a late train and by the time we arrived back at the house and turned in. It was 2:00 in the morning.
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Day 10
How many of you remembered that Monday was our one year anniversary?
For our anniversary, we decided that we would spend a night in the city at the Waldorf Astoria hotel, meaning Monday would have us saying our goodbyes to Uncle Bobby and Aunt Adele. We woke up around 10:00 or so, and started packing. With Sunday having been such a long day, we took our time in getting ready to go, enjoying what time we had left with Aunt Adele.
We decided that we would splurge a little bit for our anniversary and call for a Towncar to pick us up and take us to the hotel rather than riding the train in. The car arrived at 2:00, but it wasn't a Towncar, like we had requested. It was a stretch limo. What a way to enjoy our anniversary! We got to the hotel around 3:00, got all checked in, and arrived to a nice room overlooking Park Avenue that had a beautiful bouquet of roses for Raquel (courtesy of yours truly).
Monday's agenda included the Museum of Modern Art, Rockefeller Center, trying again to go to Serendipity 3, and an extended visit to Times Square seeing as we hadn't yet spent much more than about five minutes there.
MoMA was what you would expect from a museum of that calliber. Truly magnificent art was displayed from the likes of Picasso, Dali, Van Gogh, Pollock, Cézanne, Pissaro, and even the Apple Corporation (they had an iPod on display). They even had the original of one of my all-time favorite works of art, Van Gogh's The Starry Night. It was so cool to have seen that.
We had a few celebrity sightings too, the first of whom was Conan O'Brien after leaving MoMA. Even though it was Labor Day, he did tape a show and he was walking up 6th Avenue afterwards. Raquel saw him before I did, but we weren't close enough to say hi to him. We walked from there to Rockefeller Center where we enjoyed a nice time with each other, having some drinks and appetizers, and taking a lot of pictures.
From there, it was over to Serendipity where we had a very nice dinner and dessert. We waited for about thirty minutes during which Raquel had celebrity sightings two and three with Venus and Serena Williams, who were leaving. I was in the men's room so I missed them. Oh well. Being at Serendipity was a highlight for Raquel being that she had wanted to visit this establishment for a long time.
After dinner we hailed a taxi for my first ever NYC taxi ride, and made our way down to Times Square again. This time, we had an opportunity to actually enjoy the sights and sounds taking our time to walk up and down. We stopped in a few souvenier shops, saw the MTV studios, the ABC studios, and walked up to the Ed Sullivan Theatre where David Letterman tapes his show. That was cool to have seen all that.
We walked back to the hotel and turned the page on the first year of our marriage, reminiscing about the greatness of what went on a year prior and everything that followed our wedding day up to our anniversary night. What a perfect close to the most perfect first year ever. I said it in one of my entries last week, but I'll say it again: If the years that follow are as sweet as the first one was, ours will be the greatest ever. I have no reason to think that it won't be.
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Day Eleven
Home again, but not without a couple last minute stops. We had wanted to get out to the Statue of Liberty on our first trip into the city last week, but didn't get to Battery Park in time. After stops at the NBC Studio Store and standing outside the Today Show broadcast, the CBS Store next to the Ed Sullivan Theater, and at Rupert Jee's Hello Deli, we headed to the subway for Battery Park. While waiting to cross the street we found ourselves standing right behind Max Weinberg of E Street Band and Conan O'Brien bandleader fame. He was kind enough to respond to my hello and stopped to take a picture with me, despite his being short on time. He even complemented my More Cowbell t-shirt.
We arrived at Battery Park, and headed straight for the Statue of Liberty Ferry. We didn't have a whole lot of time since we had to be back at the hotel to get our bags for the airport by 2:00, so stayed on the ferry for the entire trip, not getting off at Liberty or Ellis Islands. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves when they get posted.
We stopped for a hot dog after getting off the ferry and darted for the subway, now pressed for time. We took one last subway ride, ending at Grand Central Station, snapped a few pictures while practically running through it, got our bags at the hotel and hailed a taxi for the airport.
Of course we arrived home safely without incident.
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This was quite possibly the most rewarding vacation I've ever had, giving me the chance to replenish my spirit, my mind, my attitude, and even lose a little weight. It was very hard to leave our vacation behind and come back to the real world, but we are back refreshed and ready to get back into the swing of things.
We hope you have enjoyed reading this journal of sorts. Thanks to the few of you that actually commented. We like getting those.
Pictures from the trip will be posted soon.
|W|P|112615181892485912|W|P|New York : : The Rest Of The Trip|W|P|peaelare@gmail.comWe arrived here a week ago today.
After breakfast this morning, I decided to take a walk. I walked through the high weeds down to the boat ramp on the corner of the property, took a few pictures, and just slowly walked around the yard. I hit a few golf balls from the pitching tee in the yard (there's a 75-yard "golf course" in the yard complete with a tee box, bunkers, and a green) then got cleaned up for lunch.
We went to a little village called Cold Spring Harbor for lunch with Dad and Roberta before they left for the airport. Afterwards we walked around the village in and out of the various gift shops that were way outside of my demographic (lots of shops for the ladies, none for wannabe rockstars). We headed from there into downtown Huntington and did some more walking around and Raquel bought some sandals that are dead sexy.
We went out for dinner tonight at this restaurant I haven't forgotten since the last time we visited here a few years ago. Have you ever had a white pizza? Yeah...I don't think so...not unless it came from this place.
Another round of Hold 'Em finished out the night which found me as the big money winner. I kinda felt bad take the money of a copule 12 year olds, but they wouldn't have it any other way. Whatever. There's $25 I didn't have before.
Right now we're watching some US Open action and the Sudafed is wearing off. I guess I'll go to bed now.
Tomorrow we're meeting up with Drew and Tara hopefully and we'll go to Central Park. I have a hunch that the last couple of days we have here will be spare with the whole blogging thing, but I'll do what I can.
Good night.
|W|P|112580574736014331|W|P|New York : : Day Eight|W|P|peaelare@gmail.comI missed the Day Six update so you're getting yesterday and today in the same entry.
Day Six
Yesterday we ventured back into the city with an early start. We took the LIRR up from Huntington to Penn Station and grabbed a little breakfast then rolled over to Queens into Flusing Meadows to catch some world-class tennis action at the US Open. As I mentioned in the entry from a couple days ago, I haven't been much of a tennis fan ever, but after watching copius amounts of it while on vacation at Grandma's house a couple years ago, I started to gain an appreciation for the sport and actually started to enjoy it. Now, I don't go out of my way to sit down and watch it, but if it's on while I'm changing channels, I'll stop and watch.
Raquel, on the other hand, is an avid fan and has been for her entire life. So when we stepped off the train at Shea Stadium, walked up the stairs, grabbed our tickets, and entered the gates one of her lifelong dreams had come true. She even got a little emotional.
I'll have to admit, it was pretty frickin' cool. The atmosphere at this place is unlike any sporting event I've ever been to. Granted, it is one of the pinacles of this sport so that would be expected. The place is just buzzing with excitement and everyone is in a great mood.
We strolled around the grounds, checked out the various merch booths, went to the practice courts to watch the various amateurs warm up, watched part of a match on one of the side courts (outside the three stadiums, they had several courts with some of the "lesser knowns" playing) that was thoroughly entertaining. The majority of that crowd was there to see the favored Brazilian Gustavo Kuerten. You'd have thought we were at a Brazilian soccer match with all the Brazil flags, jerseys, green and yellow wigs, and the like. The match was very good and one of the more popular draws outside of the stadiums, but the most entertaining part of it, for me anyhow, were the Brazilian fans with their loud roars and "olé" songs.
Our tickets were for the Arthur Ashe stadium and we got lucky with some great matches in that stadium. We watched Lindsay Davenport very easily defeat Pauline Parmentier in two straight sets, 6-1, 6-1, which was followed up by an incredible match that pitted the great Andre Agassi against the giant Ivo Karlovic who has an absolutely ungodly serve. It was a long, intense match that had Agassi on the better end of it, winning in three sets, 7-6, 7-6, 7-6.
At the end of that match, we had been there for about eight hours and seen everything there was to see, so we headed back up toward Penn Station.
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From Penn Station, we headed to the south end of Manhattan to Canal Street to see Chinatown and Little Italy. We had hoped to get there on Tuesday, but there is just so much to see and do that we couldn't squeeze it in. That's okay, that's why we made this a long trip.
Chinatown doesn't have much to offer, in my opinion. It's just one of those things that you see once and move on. Chinatown is in the same area as Little Italy though, which was just a different world. I loved this place. From what I've seen of the city, this has been my highlight. There is a very live spirit of Italy there (or at least what I would imagine it to be seeing as I've never actually been there). I'm not sure how to describe it without posting more pictures (which will happen when we return to Texas). The streets are narrow, and there is ristoranté after ristoranté lining the streets with some little souvenier stands thrown in. I couldn't get enough of it. We just walked around having each restaurant owner trying to get us in to his place, and soaked it in.
We decided on this one place that boasted its brick oven-roasted pizza and I was happy we did. It was (in my opinion) the best pizza we've had since we got here. Raquel doesn't share that opinion, but agrees that it was dang good. We sat out on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant (Florio's). I sipped a nice Italian birra and Raquel enjoyed a glass of white zin, as we listened to the restaurant owner visit with his patrons. The weather couldn't have been more ideal with the humidity and heat having cleared out. It was cool, but far from cold with the darkness setting in and was truly one of the more relaxing hours of our trip yet. No expectations, nothing to run to next, just the two of us together tired after a good day enjoying where we were at this moment in time.
After dinner, we stepped across the street to a dessert place called Ferrara. We didn't know it when we went there, but we were going to perhaps the most famous pastry place on the island of Manhattan. We took a seat, and both ordered a cannoli and cappucino. Now, like the pizza, if you've not had a cannoli in New York, you've not had a cannoli. I first discovered cannolis when we visited Aunt Adele and Uncle Bobby here on Long Island three years ago. I fell in love with these things back then, having never had them before. The cannolis that Aunt Adele gets from her pasticceria are amazing, however, they pale in comparison to what we had last night. It was just amazing.
From dessert, we walked up Mulberry Street through the rest of Little Italy, stopping for cheap souveniers, and stumbled upon Soho on our way to catch the subway back up to Penn Station. Soho is just what you would expect from its name...a trendy shopping area. It was cool to be able to say now that I've been to Soho. After ducking into some shops, we dropped into the subway station, and listened to a panhandler play some decent tunes on his guitar as we waited for our train. We got off at 34th and Broadway (site of the World's Largest Store) and hoofed it over to catch the LIRR back to Huntington.
We got in late, miscalculating the tip for the taxi driver, thereby stiffing him, and resigned to rest after an incredibly long, but extremely fulfilling day.
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Day Seven
We slept until about 10:30 this morning laid around until about 11:30. Today was another lazy day. We tagged along with Aunt Adele, Joey, and Dylan (the aforementioned 12-year-old-Hold-'Em-playing cousins) to the mall to get some errands done, bumped into Raquel's Aunt Madelane by chance, and had a late lunch at California Pizza Kitchen (which was somewhat ironic to me for some reason).
I had a pretty rough allergy attack this afternoon so when we returned from the mall and getting some errands, I napped for an hour or so.
We BBQ'd for dinner tonight and were joined by Drew, Tara, baby Jonathan, EJ (Joey's brother), Joey, Dylan, and Aunt Madelane. It was a rich time and we celebrated Aunt Adele and Uncle Bobby's 43rd wedding anniversary. Forty three years to our one. I figure if the following years are as sweet as the first was, the next forty two will be a cake walk. Bring 'em on, I say.
The boys fired up a round of Hold 'Em and Drew and I bought in. EJ's buddy, Rich, came over and joined in as well. I stayed in for a while, but these kids are really cavalier in their playing so I didn't stay long. That and we kept raising the blinds which didn't give me much of a chance to stay in long.
This morning as we were slowly waking, Raquel had to remind me that our vacation is winding to a close and this is punctuated by Dad and Roberta's departure tomorrow. Since I met them a few years ago, this has been the longest opportunity I've had to spend with my parents-in-law. I have truly enjoyed the opportunity to be with them this week, and feel so blessed to have been welcomed into their family.
Tomorrow we will stay around the house again, getting what quality time we can before they leave in the afternoon. I will miss them. My anticipation of the couple days comes with a little bit of a bittersweet taste with the pending end of the vacation, but I shall live the next days to the full.