June 5th -- Craig and I celebrated 10 years of marriage. I marvel at the goodness of God in giving me Craig! We took a 4 day trip to New York City - my FAVORITE city - and it was a blast!! We crammed so much in to those 4 days and laughed a lot. Thanks Dad and Mom for doing the hard work and keeping the kids for us. I don't know who had more fun - us in NYC or them with you!
Sunset over the Lower East Side of Manhattan from the Empire State Building - a highlight! We stayed up there for a few hours watching the city go from daytime to dusk to city lights.
Another favorite was walking across the Brooklyn Bridge. It really is am amazing bridge and so interesting to read about how it was constructed. It took over 600 men 16 years to build is often described as the greatest engineering work of the Victorian age. It was completed in 1883. The pedestrian walkway is 12 feet above the traffic below. It is amazing to think of all of the traffic that happens on this bridge that is over 100 yrs old. Apparantly, when the bridge opened many feared for their lives as they walked across the pedestrian walkway so the year after it opened, PT Barnum led 24 elephants across the bridge to prove it was safe!! Wish we could have seen that!
It only rained for a bit on one day and poured one night as we were heading to our hotel. It was wonderful weather. Because it was slightly raining, we got a rather bare view of the bridge.
The last morning we were in NYC we decided to ride the subway all the way downtown again and just set our eyes on Lady Liberty one last time. It was a cool grey morning, but sweet to sit on a park bench sipping coffee from a vendor and look at the Statue of Liberty. In this picture you can barely make her out. A few weeks after we left the city re-opened her crown for visitors for the first time since Sept 11th. I climbed the many, many stairs to the top with my mom as a child - but haven't since. We hope to do that on our next trip.
The Empire State Building before going inside. I love this building too and it's history. It was built in 1931 and took a little over one year to be built in the race to be the tallest building -which it held impressively until 1973 when the World Trade Towers were built. At one point it was dubbed the "Empty" State Building because they couldn't find office tennants...now it is prime office space!
Some of our favorite places to eat:
The Rainbow Room
86 floors up in the Rockefeller Plaza is the historic Rainbow Room where many have wined, dined and danced a NY night away. Craig took me there two years ago for my 30th birthday and what a sweet night that was. We went there again before going to a show and it was as sweet and memorable. The rainbow room has a 360 degree view of all of Manhattan. You can see the Empire State Building in the window which is actually about 15 blocks away!
Carnegie Deli
This was also a memorable place to eat. It has been there for over 80 years and served many a corned beef reuben! We SPLIT a reuben and you couldn't tell we had eaten much of it! And it was $25 - yes you read that right. one sandwich. $25. Ugh. But, if we go with friends ever we know we could share it 4 ways!
Katzs Deli in the Lower East Side
Katz is equally as famous - but a little less known because of it's location. Many movies have had scenes filmed inside this deli - When Harry Met Sally, Enchanted, Elf and many, many more!
It is in the Lower East Side which is a lot less touristy and more blue collar workers - more of a local feel and a little less safe feeling!! A lot of Law and Order is filmed onsite and several scenes have been from this deli. Honestly, I liked it better than Carnegie Deli, and it felt more like what I would imagine old school NYC to be like. Apparantly it had been there for over 100 yrs and before that, the original owner sold corned beef and pastrami from a horse pulled cart. Russ and Daughters - one of the last and oldest true Jewish Deli was three doors down, and we had a great time browsing, tasting and talking to the shopkeepers there. I would definitely make another trip back to Katz.
Inside Katz - the man carving the pastrami
Craig laughs at this picture - this is how tired I was the 3rd morning! We got coffee and walked through Central Park - and I was dragging. a. lot. But, two cups of Joe, and on we went downtown to see the WTC site - which is amazing.
I think this is the funniest picture of Craig from our trip. After looking at the WTC site, and the new freedom towers being built, we walked over towards Wall Street to see Trinity Chapel. We stopped at a cross walk and Craig stood next to the world's tallest man!!! I don't know how tall he was - but let's just say, I don't know where he finds his pants. Good thing he lives and works in NYC so he has some fashion options. Craig stood next to him and asked me to take his picture. Now, my man isn't the tallest - but good grief! Craig was standing as close as one can get without making the guy feel wierd...and look!
This is the last place I saw my brand new cell phone! Yep. Gone on the NY Subway. Remarkably - when we came up out of the subway and realized it fell out of my pocket...lo and behold, a verizon store! So, we got a used one so that we could still be reached by the children!
Ah, NYC at night. What a beautiful sight. Sigh.
I love NYC but I love my husband millions times more! Babe, thanks for taking me to NYC. Thanks for asking me to marry you.
These cool mornings have been so pleasant - and we have taken a few moments outside to enjoy it. These flowers in front of our house were planted by the previous owners - and we are enjoying them. It is so sweet watching Karis pick and gather flowers to her heart's content - and then bring them in to be put in a vase.
Joshua was trying to drop the ball and then swing the bat to hit it...only his timing is a little off. See? The ball is in perfect position - only the bat is behind his body!
The kids call this the bus. It is a ride on toy Craig's parent's gave to Joshua - Charlotte and Karis especially like to ride down the hill of our driveway together.
Cutie Pie!
Today we started school for another year! Karis started 1st grade and we celebrated the occasion with pancakes. Who knew I could make pancakes into letters?
Charlotte had regular circle pancakes - she doesn't know the difference!
Karis and the teacher on her first day of school - gotta have that for memories sake!
