This gallery contains 26 photos.
I am definitely behind in my posts. October has proven to be super busy with us getting back from our travels, going back to work, cleaning up the yard (not finished) and changing out my summer to winter clothes. And Sean got a job in his field! He will be starting his GIS job with […]
This gallery contains 13 photos.
Our 5 day family trip started Saturday (Sept. 28th) when we headed down to Ocean City to spend some time with a group of my fellow high school pals at a mini reunion. I’ve know some of these people 38-46 years! Pretty neat that we still want to see each other, just kidding! We have […]
When you come here you are led through security and then it’s a bit of a walk to the memorials (we were here in Feb. 2012, but I am thinking it’s still the same). It is quite overwhelming. You of course remember that day in 2001 and look up to the sky, then at the two ‘holes’ in the ground that are now the memorials. Then you look at the other people and wonder are they just tourists or relatives? There are too many names to read. I don’t even think we went over to the other one. After 20 minutes, it was enough…you feel like it’s suppose to be here as a memorial, but you don’t really want to be there anymore-it’s too damn sad.
After this, we went to the museum/gift shop a bit away which was equally heartbreaking.
Hundreds of trees will be planted at the World Trade Center, bringing new life to the rebuilt site. Among the species of trees will be Sweet Gums, with leaves that change to colors of brilliant red & gold in autumn. These ornaments are molded from the leaf of a Sweet Gum tree, specifically selected from within a 500-mile radius of the World Trade Center site. The trees will serve as graceful and hopeful symbols of life and longevity.
At a little restaurant near ground zero, we saw this:
The new building 1 World Trade Center is almost completed. A new awakening. Other buildings will follow.
Weeping Willow we saw on a Geocaching hunt with fellow cachers. First time Brian and I cached with people
Our Chestnut tree loaded with sticky burrs
Terrain at Styer nursery in Glen Mills, PA. This is the side of the building.
Townsend’s Inlet in Avalon, NJ
Bridge going into Brooklyn
We found our hotel in Brooklyn fairly easily, but the parking was limited behind the place. The receptionist said to park anywhere on the streets around it, so after a few times circling, we found a tight spot. Unfortunately there was a broken bottle we had to kick away from the rear of the car.
The room was really tiny with the double beds and bathroom within a foot or so of the one bed.
From the front desk’s recommendation, we walked over to 5th Ave. for dinner. It was a bit of a walk and I was getting fatigued and very warm. We were looking for a ‘diner’ place and did find it. We had the Nathan’s hot dog around 5 or so, but by 8:30, we all had breakfast food! Can’t beat that and the price of dinner was good. We looked in store windows after we ate and saw some interesting things.
She was in the Gremlin movie-lol
We saw high rises galore 
all around, here and there.
Personally, I need to be able to get out the door quickly, and when needed see green grass.
We wondered where Woody Allen and other famous Brooklyn natives lived too.
The next day we set out for the Brooklyn Museum. Sean read where there was a display or maybe separate building for the Dodgers. We got there and it wasn’t open until 11. We were on a time crush as Brian had to get to work in the late afternoon.
There were ‘jumping’ water fountains out front. Cool.
We started to look for a cache, but in the wrong park. We were looking in the park for the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. Speaking of which, I’d love to go in there sometime too!
We then got in the correct park, called Prospect Park. It was looked like a tree hide, but we just couldn’t put our finger on it. (Sean and I were looking and he drove a bit that day).
We then started for home. Get this, Sean bought two NY lottery tickets and wanted to cash in his $3 winnings. We stopped in Staten Island and he got it and we got a cache in a little park there too! That was a little walking in weeds and loaded with skeeters, but Brian and I got it in about 10 minutes or so.
We stopped for a late lunch and it was raining quite a bit on the way home. Brian was about 1.5 hours late for work, but he stayed later too.
It was a pretty neat trip and we are glad to see other parts of New York.
This gallery contains 19 photos.
We had another weekend come up when the guys were both off on a Saturday. We decided to just go somewhere, but where? I was looking at the geocaching map and Ocean City, NJ was going to destination for the next morning. Then I started moving up the coast and landed on Coney Island in […]
Sean and I have had colds this week. He is sicker than me, but still is plugging away. I thought I’d be blowing my nose like crazy, well I have done that enough, but it’s the achiness that is getting to me. I wanted to do something distracting, so I pulled out my ‘Smash’ book. This is a book I bought over a year ago. A smash book is like a scrapbook, but you ‘jam’ more stuff into it. I tend to be a little more organized than that. Here is what I started out with:
That’s one of those fold up organizers I am using. The stuff in the top wants to fall out all the time.
This is my ‘Abbey Road on the River’ spread from when we went to the Beatles tribute event in Aug./Sept. 2011 and 2012. We saw the guitar that George Harrison is posing with in this photo. I got a catalog in the mail and lo and behold, George was on the cover. I really liked the shot, so I used it in my Smash book.
I have a paper I hand wrote near George that tells about the Beatles tribute event. The pocket has the programs from the two years that we attended plus a postcard and bookmark The little ‘Peeps’ picture is because they are a sponsor. We probably won’t go again for a while as we weren’t happy with the way it was run last year.
It’s hard to believe our New York trip was almost a year ago! I wish I felt like I did back then. The left side has a bumper sticker from the 9-11 Memorial store-seeing that was a big thing. There’s a receipt from the store and the little envelope holds a card describing the purchase of a metal cast leaf I bought (the tree will grow at the sight). The next page is a happier one-Sean holding an umbrella next to Radio City Music Hall (we had a bit of gloomy visit the first night and day and then it got chilly and windy); a card from Tinsel Trading Company-a store I wanted to see that sold millinery and crafty things; and the description of the caramels I bought from Dylan’s candy bar. Oh…the mustache is from the Lorax movie! He was visiting at Dylan’s.
Brian took me to see the Van Gogh exhibit at the Philadelphia Art Museum around April 1st. We weren’t allowed to take photos of the exhibit, but I took plenty of shots around the museum. The one on the right is from the mailer and that’s the the pamphlet of from show. When you open the pamphet, A Rembrandt card (shaped like him) is there-see his foot? We saw a few of his works of art, plus I bought this in the gift shop.
In June, we had our Delmarva trip. I met up with a internet pal Rachael and we headed over to the art museum to see the Andy Warhol exhibit. It was great to meet her. I bought the Andy card in the gift shop (the Rembrandt one looks like this) and some postcards of his most famous works.
The last page I worked on yesterday was about the November election we went to see both the First Lady Michelle Obama (in August) and then President Bill Clinton a few days before the 2012 election. I have the email about picking up the tickets, the tickets in the holder, stickers and some ballot ends.
So on the health front, I’m still fighting these body aches and fatigue. I seem worse since I have had the cold. I missed work, but heard a bunch of others called out sick on Wednesday too. My cold wasn’t what made me feel blah-it was the body aches! I got an appointment at a rheumatologist office at the beginning of March. I googled about menopause and arthritis and didn’t something come up! Seems there is a parallel. I am looking into going to another doctor specializing in hormonal issues. At this point, I can’t hardly do anything without having to sit down in half an hour. I’ll probably call the doctor near my hometown later. I want to be able to add more pages to my smash book!
Keep my mom and brother in your thoughts and prayers as my brother’s Dalmation Baxter appears to be at the end of his life. Mom thinks he’s at least 13 or 14 (maybe older). He is in a lot of pain, it takes him 5 minutes to lay down and he has hardly any bowel control at this point. He is on medicine, but yesterday he was just so miserable. Such a sad time.
It’s funny as we actually knew someone who had a birthday on Feb. 29th-Brian’s late auntie Rosemarie. I think she celebrated on the 28th the other years.
So to continue our NYC trip…..
Saturday we ate at the hotel’s free breakfast, one of the worst I’ve ever had. The eggs tasted like fish, so I’m thinking the container they were in had fish in them the night before? The hot water tasted like coffee and I had made tea. The next day I made a waffle as they had an iron which was much better. I mean, how hard is it to mess up scrambled eggs? Probably those dried ones they add water too. Ugh.
Sean went to the city an hour before we did for his conference. Through a few crafty ladies’ blogs, I saw where when they went to NYC, they went to a quaint shop with mostly vintage flowers and ribbons with paper items and cute items tossed it. We walked all the way to the store-at least 8 blocks so I could see it. Here I am in front of the Tinsel Trading Company on 37th St. :
And some goodies I bought. I could have bought many more things and I’m mad I didn’t at least get a yard of ribbon!
pretty glitter
The young woman in the shop was very helpful when we asked the best way to get to the next ‘must see’ location-Dylan’s Candy Bar. She told us to walk down (more walking!) to 3rd and catch the bus that will take us to 60th. Along the way we saw gorgeous architecture and brownstones.
What’s funny is we thought we could just pay the bus driver (public bus) as it said $2.25 a person, but when we got to the street, he wouldn’t take the money. Wow! I guess that happens a lot.
When we got to Dylan’s (this is the flagship store) we saw this guy-the Lorax from the new movie. I had to pose with him just for the fun of it!
We saw some neat things here and bought a big (expensive) bag of stuff. I figured I don’t go to places like this often.
This was the landing to the bottom floor.
These were some of the many celebs and what kind of candy they liked. John Travolta likes Reese’s Peanut Butter cups and Bill Clinton likes Payday!
The lady from Tinsel told us that chef David Burke had a nice little restaurant in Bloomingdale’s which was across from Dylan’s, so we headed in that humongous store. Every few feet, someone tried to spray perfume on you and this one lady got me to try some $50 lipstick (which she applied)she said looked nice with my complexion. I didn’t buy it of course. Here’s what it looked like (photoshopped to show off the lipstick):
Before this photo was taking and we were waiting outside of ‘Burke in the Box’ and we heard a distant German accent. A young man moved and there was Dr. Ruth Westheimer! I think most people my age know her. And I happen to see that she is quite the Tweeter!
I did say ‘hi’ and that I recognized her accent and petite size. She said, ” I guess I should keep my mouth shut!” (I took the photo without her knowing). When I went to use the restroom,she was having a grand time as she was near it in a booth.
Our lunch was nice, grilled chicken for Brian and sliders for me:
We decided to head to Grand Central Station as I read there were some shops there. It’s a neat place and had a few shops we looked in, but we were getting tired.
We met up with Sean in Times Square again, but by that time it had gotten cold and windy again. Brian and I decided to go back to the hotel and at the last minute, Sean stayed in Times Square where he went to see ‘Ripley’s Believe it or not’ museum.
Later we went to Houlihan’s (bitter cold) and had a late dinner.
(Brian took many of these photos besides the ones of me). : )
I’ve not been vegetating here, well maybe a little. We’ve been trying to get ourselves on our regular schedule again as a few days away can mess up your system. Brian’s dad was suffering with his right leg so much, Brian took him to the ER on Monday. They said it looks like arthritis to them. He’s going to get to the point where he won’t be able to get around or drive-your right leg is important for that. I think the next few months will be very telling in what the future will be for Brian’s dad. We all have to face this I guess.
Yesterday Sean took me out for pizza and I headed across the street to Kmart to get plastic boxes. There must have been a dozen or more racks with the sign ‘$5.99′ displayed for nice things like corduroys, Jaclyn Smith items (I got a $79.99 jacket for $5.99), Sofia Vergara (Modern Family) items. I bought several pieces and tried some on that just fit too snuggly, so they are going back shortly.
We got home from New York late on Sunday, after 8:30 pm. We arrived about 2 pm on Friday, grabbed lunch at an Olive Garden and then got on the bus to the city around 4:30 pm. Repeat this, never take a bus to NYC between 4-7 pm on a Friday. A 15-20 minute ride took 1 hour and 15 minutes. There were 4 of us on this huge NJ transit bus. The one problem with that is I saw dozens of near empty buses-so that made more traffic. We were punchy when we got off the bus and found our way through the bus station. We got outside and it was raining and very crowded. Silly me thought Sean knew his way to the hotel where his GIS conference was-he didn’t. It had been almost 5 years since we were there to boot. Sean was like a deer in headlights and didn’t know where to go! A cop directed us to the Hilton in Times Square-nope, we needed the one near Rockefeller Center. So we walked a block or so out of the congestion and hailed a cab-got us to the Hilton, he signed in and then we headed across the street to the Museum of Modern art (MoMA) as it was free on Friday nights between 4-7! And it too was crowded. I love art and got to see so many masters’ work like Van Gogh, Monet, Picasso,Matisse, Gauguin, etc. Here is Monet’s Agapanthus
There are two of these large murals by Monet which took him 4-5 years to finish:
I was thrilled to see ‘Starry Nights’ by Van Gogh:
We didn’t get to see Andy Warhol’s famous Campbell soup cans or Jasper James Flag-some other time.
We then headed to the Rockefeller Center area. It was raining off and on, so we were glad to have umbrellas. Unfortunately the bottoms of our pants and shoes got very wet.
I thought this was cute of Sean near Radio City Music Hall.
We then saw this pretty area.
Prometheus lit by colorful lights
We asked the young lady guard in the concourse, under this area where we could eat and she suggested Billy’s Burgers. So we headed there where Sean enjoyed a large turkey club (yes, he blew Lent) and Brian and I had shrimp burgers, though we messed up for Lent in Olive Garden earlier.
We walked along and saw the following:
Set from Today Show
Chase Bank
Window of Christie’s Auction showing the Elizabeth Taylor auction (I think one took place already and they sold one of her Van Gogh’s)
We ended up back in Time’s Square-we walked many blocks too.
Sean would go here Saturday night
And we stopped and bought cupcakes to eat later-Sean had a toasted coconut and I had a white chocolate and Brian a Chocolate Snowball. I thank them for showing the calorie count (about 1/3 of your daily intake if you are a lady on a diet-oy).
And yes, they were yummy.
I’ll talk about the next few days in different posts.
If you see me on Faceback, you know we’ve been up in New York City as I do a blow by blow with my cellphone and FourSquare. I uploaded photos there, and here’s a sneak peak of what we did and saw.
Sean at the WTC/9-11 Memorial-South tower area
Museum of Modern Art in front of Christina’s World by local Andrew Wyeth. I had seen this at the Brandywine River Museum and we weren’t allowed to photograph it then and at it’s home here at MoMA, we could!
Collages & Creative Goodness 