Monday, August 31, 2009

Summer Fun!

I was tagged a few weeks ago by Elizabeth at No Worries Wynn In Love (yes we share the same last name....so cool!) to share my summer favorites. I have been so busy and then we were out of town that I haven't had a chance to share. Since the summer is coming to an end I thought I would do a quick post and share.


Favorie Summer Movie: Hands down The Hangover. It was hilarious and I can't wait until it comes out on DVD.

Favorite Summer Cocktail: A good frozen margarita! It sure does help beat the Texas heat.

Favorite Summer Song: You Belong With Me by Taylor Swift. I love this song and I love Taylor Swift.

Favorite Summer Meal: Hamburgers right off the grill. I love grilling out especially on summer nights. So fun!

Favorite Summer Outfit: This summer I have loved wearing summer dresses.

Favorite Summer Reading: I loved the Time Traveler's Wife. It was such a good book and ten times better than the movie.


Favorite Summer Moment: Our NYC trip. We had a blast! It was the perfect summer getaway!

I tag:

Kelsie @ The Kerestine's Khaos

Kendall @ The Stoy's Story

Amanda @ My Life As A Wife

Gretchen @ The Holmes Home

Jordan @ Two Dogs, A Girl and A Husband's Grace

Miss Honeydew @ Life After I Dew

Marcie @ Sherman Shenanigans

Sunday, August 30, 2009

NYC Day 3

Our last day in NYC we decided to take it easy. Our feet were in so much pain that I don't think they could have endured another full day of walking. After breakfast we took the tour bus and toured Uptown Manhattan. It was definitely a different scene the lower half of Manhattan.

Uptown consisted of fancy apartment buildings and were more of the wealthy people live. We did get to see the apartment building where John Lennon was shot. His widow Yoko Ono still lives in the same building.


We also took a tour through Harlem. It was very interesting to see. Actually Harlem has changed a lot over the past couple of years. It is quite a different neighborhood now. A lot of the tenants didn't have rent control on their apartments and when their leases were up the landlord's started raising rents. It forced a lot of the low income people to move out of the area. It does not have near the crime or drugs that it used to.

Here is the fire station in Harlem.



This is the famous Apollo Theatre.

After we finished touring Uptown Manhattan we took a tour of Brooklyn. There really wasn't much to see in Brooklyn. We did get some neat pictures of the Manhattan sky line.

We also visited the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory. It was really good ice cream. It was very creamy. It is in an old light house right on the water.

When the tour was over we headed back to Times Square and ate at a pizza place for dinner. Then we went back to our hotel because we had to leave for the airport the next morning at 5:30 am.

We had a fabulous time and I already want to go back.

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We had a very relaxing weekend and didn't do much. I so do not want to go back to work tomorrow. We did get a new lap top this weekend which I am very excited about. The computer we had was mine from college. It still works fine but I have been wanting a lap top forever. It is taking some getting used to.

I hope you all had a fabulous weekend!

Friday, August 28, 2009

NYC Day 2

Day 2 was probably the busiest day for us. We were going to try and get up real early and make it to the Today Show but we didn't get there quite as early as we planned. We were still so tired from Day 1 that we slept in a little longer. We headed to breakfast at a deli near our hotel. It was really good. I had a bagel & cream cheese every morning. There are so many restaurants that it is overwhelming.

After breakfast we walked over to the NBC studio to see what was going on at the Today Show. We got lucky and Matt Laurer, Ann Curry and Al Roker were all outside! Meredith was off this week....darn because I really like her. We were able to get a few pictures of them.





The only shot Dustin got of Al Roker was the back of his head.

We watched them for a little bit and then we headed over to Central Park. We didn't really walk through Central Park though. It is so big that we possible couldn't cover it all. They have a zoo inside the park.



After Central Park we headed over to FAO Schwarz. It was fun to walk through and they had a lot of neat toys that you don't see at Toys R Us.



This was the huge jelly bean man inside the store.



Next we began our search for Dylan's Candy Store. It is owned by Ralph Lauren's daughter. It took us a while to find it but we finally did. It was a neat store but very expensive.

Then we headed back to Times Square to catch the bus back downtown towards Chinatown. My mom decided after I told her about the purse we got for my sister the day before that she wanted one. It was a lot harder the second day to find the ladies that were selling the purses. We finally found them and after we purchased the purse we noticed that a cop was following us. We got a little nervous but we finally lost him. I think he was hoping we would lead him to the people who were selling the purses.

After we lost the cop we headed back into SoHo to go to the Fire Museum. First we stopped in Little Italy and ate at a place called Ray's Pizza. It was very good but not as good as Lombardi's pizza we had the day before. The Fire Museum was neat but not exactly what we were expecting. We thought it would be a lot bigger than it was. The entire first floor was dedicated the 9/11 firefighters. The wall below has a picture of every firefighter who lost their life.

The second floor had a lot of old timey trucks.

When were done with the Fire Museum we caught the bus back to Times Square to head to our hotel. We had to go back through downtown on the way. We passed the Federal Courts building where Law & Order is filmed.

And we passed the Municipal Courts building which is also where Carrie & Big got married in the Sex & The City movie.

We got back to our hotel we rested for a little while. I wore a new pair of flip flops that I got at American Eagle and that was the worst decision I made on the trip. I have huge blisters on my feet where the straps rubbed. My feet were so sore I could barely walk. Then we got cleaned up because we had tickets to the 7:00 show of Rock of Ages.

It stars Constantine Maroulis who was on American Idol. It is a rock musical set in Hollywood in 1987. It featured rock songs of Journey, REO Speedwagon, Whitesnake and Pat Benatar. We both enjoyed it. I knew Dustin wouldn't be into seeing a typical broadway musical so we agreed on this one. We both liked it and it was funny.

After the show we ate at a place called Charley O's around the corner from the theatre. After that we called it a night because we were exhausted.

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We don't have anything exciting planned for the weekend. I am looking forward to relaxing at home. I am sad that my vacation is coming to an end. Have a great weekend!

Thursday, August 27, 2009

I'm Back - NYC Day 1

We are back! We had a great time in NYC but it is great to be home. I thought I would break our trip up and blog about each day we were there. I hope I don't bore you too much.

Day 1 which was Sunday, was spent traveling. We left DFW airport at 9:45 am, had a connecting flight in Atlanta, and finally landed at LaGuardia airport at 4:00. We caught the shuttle and headed to our hotel. It was after 5:00 pm by the time we checked into our hotel. We rested for a little bit and then headed out. Our hotel was really close to Times Square so we spent the evening walking around Times Square.
We stayed at the Hilton Garden Inns in Times Square. The hotel was really nice but we weren't there very much.



Sunday night we ate at Bubba Gump Shrimp Factory in Times Square. It was Forest Gump themed. It was a neat restaurant.



Times Square




Monday we got up bright and early and bought out tickets for the double decker bus tour. If you ever go to NYC I highly recommend the bus tours. We bought passes that lasted 72 hours and you can get on and off as many times as you want. The buses go all over Manhattan and Brooklyn. Our first stop was the Empire State Building.

After the Empire State Building we headed down to SoHo, Little Italy and Chinatown.

These are Tiles for America which is a tribute to 9/11. This was in Greenwich Village on our way to SoHo.


After we got off the buss in SoHo we headed towards Little Italy and ate at Lombardi's Pizza. It was so yummy!

It was the first pizzeria in the United States.

Then we headed over to Chinatown. I didn't get any pictures of Chinatown because I was too busy trying to find a purse. It was a lot easier than I thought. We were standing on the street and this Chinese lady comes up and whispers to me "you want purse"? I said yes and we followed her several blocks into Chinatown. We met this other lady who pulled me aside and showed me pictures of the purses. I bought a big Coach purse for $50. It came with the Coach bag, the inside says Coach and it even has the Coach tag like you see in the department stores. I am sure they do some shady stuff to get these purses.

They actually had to be sneaky about it because the cops patrol that neighborhood quite often looking for them. I seriously felt like I was doing a drug deal or something, not that I know what that is like.

After I got my purse we headed downtown towards the World Trade Center site.


You really can't see much because they are doing construction to build the memorial. This was about the only picture we could get of it.

This is a picture of part of the memorial for the firefighters who lost their lives on 9/11. It was built on the side of Fire Station 10 which faced the World Trade Centers. Their department lost the most guys as they were the first responders.

This is Dustin in front of Station 10.

Next door to the fire station they have a temporary memorial center with some of the memorabilia from the WTC. It was really sad to walk through. They had pieces of the aircraft, fire fighter's helmets, and shoes that were recovered from the site. It also had pictures of the missing people who's bodies were never found. It also had a huge wall showing pictures of the towers after they came down. It is beyond imaginable what took place that day in NYC. I can't believe that this September will be 8 years. I was a senior in high school when it happened and I still remember what I was doing the moment I found out. It is something that I will never forget. I didn't get any pictures inside the memorial center because as my luck would have it, my camera battery died.

Then we headed down to the Seaport / Pier 17 area.

We decided not to go over to the Statue of Liberty because one it takes more than half a day to get over there. You have to wait in long lines and then take the ferry over. We didn't want to climb up it plus you have to buy those tickets way in advance. You could see the Statue of Liberty from the pier.





Also on the pier you could get really good shots of Brooklyn and the Brooklyn Bridge.

After this we headed back towards Time Square. We ate dinner at a place in Midtown called Burger Heaven. It was pretty good but nothing better than what you can get right here in Texas. We walked around Midtown after dinner and stopped into the Magnolia Bakery. I got a red velvet cupcake and it was so good. It was a really cute bakery on the corner.

We did a lot of walking the first day and my feet were so sore. We ended up back at the hotel room by 10:00. We were exhausted.

Day 2 is coming up tomorrow. I am slowly getting caught up on all your blogs. I sure did miss a lot while I was gone!