Caught Me Off Guard

I know there will be moments, maybe for the rest of my life, where something will remind of New York City and bring a rush of tears forward in my eyes, that will put my stomach in knots for the yearning of the life I used to live and loved while it lasted, for the nostalgia of all our memories. Moments that will stop me in my tracks.

As I was just driving to the grocery store just now, NPR was on and they were playing an interview of a writer who had passed away. He was talking about a poem he recites when he'd have MRIs to distract himself from the tight space. It was called Letter to NY by Elizabeth Bishop. Here's what brought the tears forward and formed the knots in my belly: 

Of course, I had to flip back through photos and find one of my love with the city I'll always love in the background. That was taken on Liberty Island last fall when my mom and stepfather were visiting. It was our last time on Liberty Island as New Yorkers. (We'll go back again someday, but it won't be the same. It will no longer be ours like it was that day.)

Spur of the Moment Date

Seth and I decided to go on a spur-of-the-moment date to Dumbo. We thought we should considering we are getting closer and closer to moving and will not have many chances to do this again. We went to Rice (for probably the last time as New Yorkers). I had to have the vegetarian meatballs one more time! I will definitely miss that yummy dish!

After dinner, we headed to the park between the two bridges. I thought the sunset might be clouded over (the forecast forecast was storms and the clouds did seem to be moving in). It turned out to be BEA-U-TI-FUL! The clouds actually made it quite stunning. The light was the perfect soft, but bright, color. This is one of my favorite spots in the city!

And even though it was a night of lasts, we added in a first. We finally made it to the Jacque Torres (probably spelled it wrong, too tired to google check it!) Ice Cream Shop! Nothing beats yummy ice cream in a waffle cone while laughing (those good deep belly laughs) with your honey! 

Court in Coney Island

  

One of my youngest brothers was in the city visiting this last weekend. On Saturday, we took him to one of my favorite places: Coney Island! The plan was the ride the Cyclone (it's been on my NYC bucket list for a long time). Only, we got there and Seth and I both realized that I probably shouldn't be riding roller coasters! (Still getting used to the things I can and cannot do when pregnant!) So the boys rode it & loved it & raved about how fun it "Actually" was (how dare they doubt Coney Island!)

  

  

   

O Coney Island how I do love thee!

Date Night: The New Museum

Months ago, I found a great idea for a date for Seth and me. We don't often go on "real" dates, but after our mystery date to Sleep No More I decided it'd be fun to plan dates for each other... Unfortunately, this date has been postponed Thursday after Thursday. 

We were down to the wire with this one though. I hadn't told Seth much about it, because I thought it'd be fun for it to be a surprise. Yet, he figured it out after I mentioned I had seen an ad on the subway (of course, immediately after that, the subway we were riding on happened to have the ad right in front of our faces & Seth figured it out!) 

 One of the highlights of the exhibit was called Untitled (Slide). It was, in fact, a huge slide. One that went started on the 4th floor and ended on the 2nd floor!

 It was quite a fast ride and over in only moments! The gallery on the 2nd floor had bright flashing lights and a few other exhibits to experience.

Another highlight was a slow moving, shiny swing. 

There were mushrooms which contained 3 different mushrooms in one. 

The one thing we didn't get to try out were the goggles (if you look in the mushroom photo you can kind of see the person to the left who has a pair of the goggles on). Thursdays are Free night (we didn't take advantage of it - standing in line outside just didn't sound too ideal for this cold evening & paying money towards art is ok by me) and by the time it had started the line for the goggles made us quickly lose motivation. 

Anyway, date night was a success - fish tacos before and our first visit to the New Museum with a ride on one of the biggest slides I've ever been on (inside a building ;). 

kentile floors

i love taking photos of the kentile floors sign from the f and g trains. i actually have two other photos of this same sign... one of the morning sunrise and one in the fog. the photo above was taken mid-afternoon on the first day of 2012. the sun case a perfect soft light across the city as it headed down. 

Top of the Rock

We have guests in town visiting. Having guests is about the only time we really get out and do any sort of "sight seeing" in the city. Today, we were off to the Rock to see the view after sundown. 

 

Art Cups

 The bottom floor, north point of the Flatiron Building has been turned into an art exhibit. Artist Gwyneth Leech uses cups from her coffee and tea to create her pieces of art. According to this write-up, she records the date of drinking the contents on the bottom of the cup.

The website also said the artist would be working in the space Tuesday-Saturday from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. until the end of December. I must get the chance to go watch her work before the exhibit ends.

2011 Heatwave

As the whole country (& even around the world - according to some traveling friends) heard, NYC was hit by a heatwave a couple weekends ago. It came just in time for the arrival of my brother, Ben, his wife, Desi, and their 5-month-old baby, Tristan. 100+ degree heat was nothing new to them... This summer Kansas has had more days of this kind of weather than you can count with both hands... Yet, it was still a bit much - considering that we had to go out into the heat with the baby in order to do anything!

The day they arrived was one of the smoggiest days I've ever seen in NYC. What a great welcome! Welcome to NYC, but please, don't breathe in the air!

The baby napped in the taxi ride home from the airport. When we met them at the airport, Tristan was playing bashful. He'd look up from his stroller, smile, and then move his head down and sideways. It was the. cutest. thing. ever! 

I guess he was a pretty good traveler! Made friends with fellow flyers (one of whom even took the baby and entertained him for a bit) and flirted with the stewardess.  

 The family's first subway ride! It was a cramped one. Tristan didn't get to see much other than the lower half of all the people on their way to work! He's probably wondering where the heck we are!

Our first day wasn't recorded well, because shortly after this photo, my camera died :( 

We started in Dumbo at the park. Ben even dipped Tristan into the East River. He didn't seem to mind at all! After the park, we walked across the bridge (it was a sweltering walk). Upon crossing, we headed straight for the first a.c.ed place we could find, Starbucks. 

After cooling down for a bit, we headed to Wall Street, Trinity Church, and the World Trade Center (I can't believe how tall the WTC1 building is getting!) I found a quick pizza slice place for lunch, which turned about to be one of the best quick slices of pizza I've ever had! Then it was off to the Museum of Natural History for a cool afternoon. 

Tristan was quite popular there. Every security guard along the way stopped us to oodle at the cute baby in his diaper! 

The next day, we thought we'd be smart and beat the heat. But that did. NOT. Happen! At 9 am, it was beyond hot (this also happened to be the HOTTEST day of the summer - heat index 115 degrees). We took the ferry out to Liberty Island and Ellis Island. 

It was so hot that we decided to stay on the ferry at Liberty Island and head for the a.c. at Ellis Island. 

One of the few times this chill, awesome baby fussed was right when you put him back in his stroller. He'd fuss for two seconds until it got moving, and then he'd be fine. 

When we got to Ellis Island, we headed for the family history room to look up our grandfather's family. We found them - our great grandfather came to America through Ellis Island with his parents and most of his siblings in 1916. Below is a photo of what the room looked like that they would have gone through in 1916 on Ellis Island. 

 After the ferry, we made a quick detour to the fountains to cool off! 

And before heading to the art museum for the afternoon, we had to get the baby some financial good luck by touching the bull at Bowling Green in his good luck spot ;)

We spent the rest of that afternoon at the Met looking at art, including the Egyptian art.

There was plenty more we did - I must get it all posted before we leave on our vacation Friday. (Oh & Desi, I promise to get the photos to you before we leave for our trip - I kind of dropped the ball for it to happen last weekend!)