Monday, May 11, 2009

Pictures from our new york trip

check out a slide show of our pictures!

Sunday, May 10, 2009

New York City!!! Best vacation ever!

Drew and I put all the money we got as wedding presents aside in our vacation fund! And thanks to all the people we love who are so generous we were able to go to New York City! It was non-stop fun, I can't remember the last time I was so exhausted.
Friday- we flew out at 6:00am- Drew's dad was in town and was so nice to bring us to the airport at 4:15 in the the morning. We arrived at our hotel around 4:00pm- It was a great location, right on Time Square and right next to the Subway entrance that we became very familiar with. We headed out to the museum of modern art and of course grabbed a slice of New York Pizza! I also grabbed the umbrella- just in case- and it was a good thing we had it. It started raining so hard. The museum was so packed- people weren't leaving because they were waiting for the rain to ease up a bit and everyone was coming in to get out of the rain. The museum is pretty cool- there is lots of that weird modern art- but there was some very impressive pieces. I got to see Monet's waterlilies- the piece was probably 30 feet long- that was cool. The special exhibits that were there were really cool. I can't quite describe it but this guy welded all sorts of thin small metal pieces together and it looked awesome. After that we hit up time square- that place is packed all hours of the night.
Saturday- We headed up town into the bronx to see the new Yankee stadium and see them play the Angels. The stadium is immaculate- well worth the 1.3 billion spent. We went early so we could get in when the gates opened. Got to see monument park and were there for batting practice. I was standing down by the wall and drew was several isles up from me in right field. We were hoping to catch a homerun and one was hit right to Drew- unfortunately he wasn't wearing his glove- so he tried to catch it with his hand and that didn't quite work- so it hit him in the chest and then fell to the ground behind him where he and this other guy tried to fight over the ball- the other guy had it but drew was trying to get in from him- but gave up after a few seconds. Luckily I got one of the outfielder's to throw me one- not quite as cool as catching it- but there is no way I could have caught one of those- I can't even catch them with a glove! Our seats were awesome- not only were they pretty close down the 1st base line- but they were padded! they were so comfy. The game was fun even though we didn't win. That night we went to Cirque du solei- Kooza, it was the most entertaining thing we have ever seen. It is pretty much this huge circus tent- but small enough that pretty much every seat around the round stage is a good seat. From the crazy tight rope to unbelievable juggling to nerve racking trapeze to dancing and acrobats to the hurt your back as you watch the contortionists doing the wildest things ever, it was awesome. Even the inbetween "story" was quite funny and we loved every second of it. we tried to go to crumbs- this amazing cupcake shop after- but it was already closed. We did get to so some more walking though and see grand central station and other cool stuff. There was this guy on time square who was doing these awesome paintings with spray paint. It was so cool to sit and watch him. I didn't have any where to hang his painting- otherwise I would have bought one because it was so fun to sit there and watch him do the whole thing in 15 minutes.
Sunday- We went to the ward there which meets in the same building as the temple. Wish I could have seen more of it from the outside- but it was raining pretty hard. The inside was beautiful though. After that- even though it was raining we walked around central park- which was huge- we didn't even make a dent and we were in there for hours. I was kinda sad though because I've always heard about all the street performers and I didn't get to see any. But there are lots of cool bridges just like in the movies. We went to Mickey Mantle's restaurant. It was cool- lots of memorabillia everywhere. Didn't get to sit in Mickey's booth but sat right next to it. Drew isn't too big on food- but you should have heard him after he tasted his chicken parmigian. He absolutely loved it, he was just dying, it was so delicious. On our way back to the hotel we saw that Time Square was blocked off- they were filming a movie- Socerer's apprentice- kindy iffy about the name, but it has Nicholas Cage- so maybe it will be pretty good. There is a racing scene down time square. We saw on the news the next morning that the ferrari had gone out of control and hit a pole that hit a pedestrian- who shouldn't have been there. We also saw on the plane ride home that another night the camera car went out of control and 8 people were injured that time! They were there all week filming from midnight to 6:00am- so we got to see lits bits here and there. One of the nights we got to see the actual racing- it is fun to watch the whole moving making process.
Well I am only half way through writing about the trip and this is already a mile long post! so here is a quicker rundown of other cool stuff:
Bodies exhibit- just like the body worlds where they have actual humans that died and they were able to preserve their bodies so you can see all sorts of amazing things like just the nervous system, or the veins, muscles, bones, you name it- we saw it. It was fascinating. the body is imaculate and such a wonderful gift we have. My favorite part was seeing the fetus- it showed what it looked like at 5 weeks, 11, 14, etc. It was really neat to see.
Central Park Zoo- the rainforest was really cool. there were birds just flying all around us.
Crumbs- best cupcake I've ever had! baba bouie mmmmm!
Serendipity- frozen hot chocolate- oh it is delicious!
Cheesecake- ate lots of it- from different places- they know how to make cheesecake out there. they were all so good- favorite was from carnegie deli.
Statue of Liberty- that was beautiful- how cool it would have been if we could still go up inside it. but it was pretty from the outside too.
Yankees vs Red Sox- that was fun- there was a two hour delay because of rain so we didn't get back to our hotel until 2am. You should have seen how excited the crowd was when they finally came out to take the tarp off the field. Got to see some sweet homeruns and the last inning was super intense. Bottom of the 9th- down by 2. bases loaded 2 outs- full count, everyone out of their seats and cheering- and we lost! too bad. Yankees games the people that sit in the bleachers are called the bleacher creatures- they do all sorts of cheers- but my favorite is roll call- at the beginning of each game they go around the field and cheer each players name until the player acknowledges them and then they move to the next player until they have done everyone. It is fun. Everyone is pretty into the game. Rain isn't too bad to sit in. Ponchos keep you pretty warm. Our seats that night were on the front row of the section right above the suites. I even painted my own banner and hung it over the edge.
Yankees vs Red Sox #2- we decided to hit up one more Yankee's game- since the other game had a poor turn out because of the rain we wanted to get the full effect of the rivalry so we went to one more game. Chamerlin pitched- and although he gave up 4 runs in the beginning he went on to strike out 12 times- breaking a personal record. Texeria hit a home run from both sides of the plate- and Damon hit another homerun too! It was fun!
Shopping- pretty much any store that had any thing Yankee's in it- drew wanted to see. I don't think he cared to buy anything else- just yankee's stuff- not that we can fit any more in the office as it is.
Lots of other stuff- but pretty much it was the best vacation ever. Lots of fun memories.