NYC Day 5

I am currently laying on my bed (with a new bedspread and now green walls!) back in my hometown/parents' house. After spending five days in New York, I have been reminded about how much I want to travel, not just the world, but also the USA, which I still have much of to explore. Needless to say, we got home safely.
Anywho, our last day in New York was a bit slower but still just as much fun. We got up a bit earlier than normal in order to get in line at the SONY Wonder Technology Lab. We ended up getting in without a problem, even though they do say that you are supposed to call over a week in advance, it seems like most people who lined up in the morning at least today. The pictures below are from the Lab, it was really neat and I do highly recommend it to anyone interested in computers, digital art/media, robots, even digital surgery! All of these and more were shown here at the SONY Wonder Technology Lab.

We spent a few hours at the Lab, and had a great time there! We had a video of a 'news broadcast' we did, but unfortunately my recording on my phone of a playback of our recording is less than stellar :(. So no videos here today, maybe when I better figure out my videos...
After the Lab, we headed back to Central Park, following a craving for those delicious Belgian Waffles before we left New York for home. We did, and they were delicious, and I took a picture of the stand so that I could pass on the goodness to those of you who have not had the wonderfulness of a Belgian Waffles from a Waffles&Dingys stand (this one located by Central Park). Anyone who goes to New York should seek out one of these stands, it's worth the calories I'm sure come with these.
Speaking of which, something interesting that I noticed in New York was that many restaurants and cafes put a helpful number next to their dishes indicating the number of calories. I do believe that I have seen this before in London, but never in the States to my recollection. Correct me if I am wrong, but this seems to be a new thing that could really catch on!

Shoot! I'm forgetting my new timezone, so this is a bit late to have it on Friday, but that's when we had our last day in New York. I will get back into it in a bit. I have a fashion post coming up (an "If Only..." that is) and hopefully some food ones within the next few months!

I also want it to be known that I have been listening to music, in fact, I am currently listening to Ben Folds!

Love,

Sara :)

NYC Day 4

The fourth day of our New York trip was quite busy, and involved lots of pictures being taken and a bit of frustration, and a fair amount of walking (though not quite as much as yesterday I feel). We slept in a bit but then headed to the Rockefeller Center in order to catch a tour bus to take us to the 9/11 Memorial which was on the route. The trip itself was nice, the top four pictures are taken from our view on top of the tour bus. It was so high up that the taller people did have to duck when we came too close to stop lights or signs hanging above the roads.

The pictures below are from the 9/11 Memorial. The memorial itself is almost done, but I think that it will be even more moving when the museum itself is done, which should be 2014. It was a really neat place, although for any who plan on going there, the security is quick but extensive for a free ticket. I would suggest going there. The pictures below are of the pools that have the names around them of those who died and gave their lives on that historic day.

The big drama of the day happened when we tried to come back on the same bus, which was supposed to stop by every 30 minutes, and we waited for over an hour and by the time it got there, they didn't have any room left to take those of us left, so my mom, sister, and I just ended up walking the 50-ish blocks back to the hotel. It was actually a pretty nice walk and I'm glad that we did walk because we got our exercise in for the day that way as well. :)
For dinner, we went to Potbelly, where I got their loaded baked potato soup, and then we headed to the Rockefeller Tower which we climbed at 8:30 pm. The pictures below are of the Rockefeller Building and the view from the top, which was pretty incredible!

I've also come up with the idea of getting a group of friends together this summer and us heading to Chicago and doing some parkour/free running along with our touring, just for fun. Any suggestions for this?
Have a great night friends! It is our last night in NYC :( I will miss the city, but look forward to going home and getting ready for graduation in May.
Love,
Sara :)

NYC Day 3

Our third day in NYC (well technically we are in Manhattan all week, but NYC sounds cooler :P), was pretty long and we actually spent time planning out some of it! We got up pretty early and had breakfast at the same place as yesterday (eggs and cheese on a bun) from the street vender who remembered us, which was pretty neat. We then headed out to the Guggenheim Museum, which was a little over a three mile walk (I understand why New Yorkers are all in such good shape, they walk everywhere! Another good reason to live in the city). The pictures below are from the museum, the first being the museum itself from the outside (pretty awesome looking right?!), the second is a part of a large canvas on which all guests could color on with crayons, so of corse I did! :P The third and fourth are inside the museum, pretty sweet! I would recommend this museum even if it is just to look at the architecture of it!

We then headed back to central park for something we had been craving since yesterday: Belgian Waffles. I think that the picture below speaks for itself. THEY WERE DELICIOUS!!!

We were pressed for time in a way since we had a musical to go to that afternoon: 'The Phantom of the Opera', which none of us had seen on stage (I've seen the movie, but the play was definitely better!). We walked through Times Square on our way which is where this first picture comes from. The play itself was amazing! I loved it, even if the people behind us were complaining about the singing (that there was too much singing.....it is a broadway MUSICAL about an OPERA....silly people!), and would be more than willing to see it again! We even got some souvenirs, including a t-shirt that I plan on wearing on Friday for the trip home.

We went out to dinner and ate at T.G.I.Friday's, which was another place where we hadn't been before. I am glad that I eat fish (even as a vegetarian) because otherwise I would not have found much (as would be expected). It was good food, but they were understaffed and really busy so the service was slow, but worth it. Afterwords, we headed back to Times Square and wandered around in the dark for a while, finding our way into the M&M store, Toys R Us, and the Hersey's store. It was a good night! I even ran into Luigi, and got a picture after having to tip him (weird...).

I've noticed a lot of Jazz being sold around here, as well as French and Italian music around, and am thinking of increasing my collection of these musics due to how popular they are and how much I like them! Also, going to the musical tonight has rekindled my interest in my music and I am looking forward to continuing playing in summer pit orchestras, maybe someday getting to play with a traveling broadway show O.O that'd be super crazy! :P
Well, another day come and gone, have a great night, dear readers! Gwnite!
Love,
Sara :)

NYC Day 2

Day Two of our five day adventure and I must admit I'm getting that familiar feeling of being a city person again (I get this feeling every time I visit a big city; meaning that I could stand living in one for a while, not sure about permanently, but it would be possible). We started off the day by sleeping in, in our defense we did go to bed quite late last night! But around 11 am we got out of the room and were on the hunt for some brunch. We found this small street cart/stall called Primos Cafe, where we got some pretty good egg and cheese on a bun sandwiches for $2.50, and it tasted a lot better than breakfast yesterday!

After getting our food, we made our way to Central Park. No it's not green in the pictures, but it was still really pretty and we walked around about half of it, still feeling like we were getting our exercise as we ran onto the large rocks they have there and eventually found a merry-go-round where my sister and I rode once :P. My strange face in the picture is because my horse was angry (you can tell by the ears!)...

We then headed to the Museum of Natural History, not far from Central Park and were able to get into two different special exhibits there. Since it was the site of the movie Night at the Museum, we had to stop by and take a look around. It's a lot bigger than I remember, and if we didn't have a map I would have gotten lost and missed the times for getting into the special exhibits. The two exhibits we went to were "Our Global Kitchen: Food, Nature, Culture" and the Planetarium for "Journey to the Stars Space Show". Both can be found at the website here. The dinosaurs are yes, a necessary picture :P

On our way back to our hotel and the Rockefeller building for dinner, we made a detour to the Guggenheim Museum, but we will be stopping there tomorrow morning to look at it. So there should be some pictures up from there tomorrow because it is a very cool looking place! We got a few card games there that we will be trying out over the next few days and I may have a post and will definitely be trying one or two at further Hideaway get togethers! We also made a stop at St. Patrick's Cathedral after dinner. It's currently under construction, but the architecture and the art there is still beautiful! We even made a few offerings at the alters.

Overall, it was a very good day and we got quite a bit of walking done. I will admit that my feet hurt by the end of the day, but my arms are looking for a workout of some sort, so push-ups might be in order later on tonight, just to balance out the two halves of my body. I also had the question while walking through Central Park of whether or not parkour (street running) was legal or practiced in New York. While my limited search revealed a New York Parkour organization, I came to no conclusive answer on that so further searching seems to be necessary!

On a very different note, I'm going to be looking for spring clothing soon, I'm trying to stock up on clothing now while I have money and before I graduate and have to figure that out (going to be hard to choose where I want to be, so the job I get might be the deciding factor...). So, be on the look out for a post within the next week or so of some cute spring picks that I have been finding lately :D

For now, dear readers, I say adieu! :)

Love,

Sara :)

NYC Day 1

Starting today until Friday my posts will be a bit different. It's Family Vacation time, where are we going? NYC!!
Our day started with us checking in at 7 am, and then headed to Chili's for breakfast. I have decided that Chili's is more for lunch/dinner... On the other hand the white chocolate mocha I had after tasted much better, and held my coffee fix for the morning. I hate to admit it but I do have mornings when I just really need a coffee to pick me up!

We arrived in NYC's LaGuardia airport a little early. And proceeded to wait until a car could come and pick us up to go to our hotel. Our hotel was pretty sweet! Two full sized beds for three if us, and helpful employees who assist with directions :D
We tried to go up to the top of the Rockefeller tower, but were told to come back tomorrow morning because we would be able see off the top floor. We then attempted to get a tour with NBC Studios but learned (after running around the building) that they are sold out thorough Thursday, so if we don't tour the Sony Tech Lab on Friday morning, we may try and tour NBC! We shall see. We ended up hanging out around the Rockefeller center, doing some window shopping, and then got dinner. I got Chinese from a place called Manchu Wok, and it was pretty good.

Our last stop of the day was Carnegie Hall! It was pretty amazing to be able to sit in the theatre while listening to a full concert. It started out as a middle school choir concert and then moved up until we heard the New York Chamber Orchestra and a few professional opera singers (at least we thought so) and we got back to the hotel around 11 pm. Making today a very long day! But a fun day! I look forward to a few more days here in the city :D

Love,
Sara :)