newlyweds in the city

Monday, June 7, 2010

Babs' Trip to NYC

At the end of April my mom came to visit us in NYC. She has been wanting to visit the Big Apple for decades and with Nick and I living there it was the perfect opportunity for her!

She arrived at Newark airport one evening and Nick and I took the train out to NJ to pick her up. Although flying into Newark is typically cheaper, it requires taking many modes of transportation to get to and from, you ride the subway to Penn Station and then take a train out to the airport. On the way back from picking up my mom we ended up taking the train, subway and finally a taxi to get to her hotel in Tribeca!

Our first day out we decided to take a Greyline Bus tour so she could see the sights of the city and get a comprehensive overview of the layout. We got a package that had 4 different bus loops and included tickets on the water taxi to Liberty & Ellis Islands, the Empire State Building, and tickets to the South Street Seaport Museum. We only made it on 2 bus loops, the Uptown & Downtown trips, but it was well worth it. I would definitely recommend these to anyone visiting, you get the local flavor of the area from your guide and each person has different stories to tell.

The second day we did a lot of walking and went to 2 different yarn shops that were close by. One was the Lionbrand studio by Union Square & the other was Purl that has a bunch of specialty yarn. Lionbrand has a weekly newsletter that goes out that my mom and I subscribe to so it was fun for her being able to see the actual studio space that she hears about so often! Their yarn is mass produced and sold in stores all over the country (and is very economically priced!). Purl on the other hand is more of a specialty shop that has more exclusive brands that are for the most part more expensive. We also stopped by Filene's Basement at Union Square and did some shopping!!! I had never been in this store, but have heard about it for a long time.

The next couple of days were rainy so we stuck close to the hotel. We did venture out to have brunch with an old friend from California, my best friends oldest sister, Gwen. We met up in the Meatpacking district at a restaurant called Pastis (which is owned by the same people who do Balthazar). It was so yummy!!! We got this amazing bread basket that was filled with pastries & bread!! That fed us breakfast for days!

We had to take in a Broadway show too! So on Saturday night we did it up right, we all got dressed up, had dinner at a seafood restaurant in the theatre district and went to see the Lion King. The costumes were amazing and the kids who played Simba and Nala were incredible!!! Can't believe how inventive the costume designers were at making people look like all of the animals!!!

On the last full day my mom and I took the boat out to Liberty & Ellis Island. My grandfather had been carrying around this code to trace back our family that had arrived in the US through Ellis Island so we were hoping to get some more information. Unfortunately the code is not valid or at least that's what they told us, so we were a little disappointed. This has however spiked my curiosity and I have been researching like crazy trying to get some more information on my ancestors. :)

We were sad to see my mom leave, but knew that we would be seeing her soon when we got back to AZ. So thankful she was able to come out and see NY while we were there!!!

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

lights, camera, ACTION

A few weeks ago my friend Briana & I went to see a Regis & Kelly taping. Having tried this once before with my old roommate Michele, I knew we had to be up early to get in the stand by line (we didn’t have tickets)! So we got up at 5A!! and met up for breakfast before heading over to the ABC studios. Upon arriving at the studio a little before 7a we could see a large line had already formed. Not knowing exactly where to go we got in the first line we saw and I noticed that the people ahead of us had tickets printed out, so I asked them if they had tickets or if they were in the standby line. Turns out they had tickets already! BOO!!! So we repositioned ourselves with all of the other non-ticket holders in the standby line. :( While we were waiting in our line, a street vendor that had been working this corner for years came over to greet the line and tell us where to look for the arriving guests & Regis as we were waiting. He also mentioned that the studio was small, so if we didn’t have tickets we might not get in & he said if that was the case, we should have over to Martha Stewarts studio because it was bigger and they often pull guests from the standby line. So Briana and I were thinking either way we would get to see a taping that day. As soon as we got to the front of our line, a couple to our left(who had tickets) told us they were a party of 2 and had 2 extra tickets and asked if we would like to join them? SCORE!!! Their names were Richard & Mary (I think!) and they had come into the city for the day on a bus from Pennsylvania. We had chatted with them in line and passed the 2 hour time frame nicely while waiting to be escorted onto the set.

The guests for the day were Chris Rock & the latest cast offs from Dancing with the Stars, Edyta & Aiden. During the commercials Regis & Kelly interacted with the audience & posed for pictures. Needless to say Kelly was as cute & put together as ever and Regis was charming in a grandfatherly kind of way. At the end of the show the dancers were teaching Regis & Kelly some moves and Regis had to explain to Edeyta that he couldn’t do a particular combo because of his hip. :) I was a little bit surprised at how pompous Michael Gelman (producer) acted, but I guess that’s what showbiz does to some people. That day they were also taping another segment with Nathan Lane co-hosting with Tracy Morgan as the guest. Nathan Lane was hilarious! And so was Tracy Morgan, but I was disappointed to hear (from Briana) that Tracy’s stand up routine was not as funny. BOO!!

Briana & I with our adopted parents for the day. :)

The set, much smaller than I was anticipating.

DSCN2875 Briana & I

Chris Rock

Tracy Morgan

After the Regis & Kelly taping we decided we should extend our star filled cheap day so we headed over to Chelsea to check out the Martha Stewart situation. It turns out the guy at Regis & Kelly had the times mixed up and we were a little early for the afternoon taping, so we went and got pedicures before grabbing some food and returning the studio. On our way back to the studio we noticed two familiar faces standing in the standby line (our adopted parents had had the same plan as we did!). We sat on the studio’s stoop and noshed on our sandwiches as we waited to hear if we would be allowed into the taping. We got lucky and made it into this taping too!

Once in the studio you are escorted into a “holding” room where the producer preps you all and talks about what will be going on in the show that day. We were fortunate enough to get: to taste some YUMMY coconut cookies that Martha made with her guest Maury Rubin (owner of the Birdbath Bakery here in NYC), a gift card to a clothing line called “skin” (although I am not sure how much the $50 will actually buy!), and should be getting in the mail any day now a pair of pearl earrings!!! The show is set to air this Friday, so set your DVR’s!!! I was shocked at how much bigger Martha’s set was compared to Regis & Kelly’s. The audience rows were very generous leaving enough room for guests to walk between the rows with ease! LOVED all of the plates on display in the kitchen, it was all white and coordinated perfectly!!! I can only hope to be so organized one day… I DO realize that that’s what all of the production staff is there for, to make it all look pretty and effortless.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Cali trip, March 23 – 30

At the end of March my best friend, Rachel, and her husband flew me out to California to help out with the kids when Rachel delivered their third child (a son this time!) Caleb. Since Rachel’s previous two children have born early, we all thought that by my trip out there Caleb would have been born. We were all WRONG!!!

While waiting for the little guy to make his arrival we kept busy! Rachel and I took the girls to the Long Beach Aquarium one afternoon. The girls loved looking (and touching) at all of the wildlife in the water. We watched Rachel’s nieces one afternoon at her parents house in Long Beach. We picked up her oldest niece, Gracie, at school, which happens to be where Rachel and I went to elementary school too. It was very strange being on the campus again, don’t think I have been back since we left in the 80’s. Nothing has changed, they still have my favorite piece of playground equipment – the rings!!! I LOVED these things, so bummed that they didn’t have them in AZ!! But I guess that probably had something to do with the fact that it is 100 degrees out and the metal rings would be on fire! We made multiple trips to the park to play and try to jiggle baby Caleb out!!! And I got to see an old friend, who was coincidentally pregnant too! We consumed lots of yummy food, including banana pudding (I found the recipe on-line for Magnolia’s in NYC), bbq hot dogs/hamburgers/sausage.

making fish faces at the aquarium

Paige contemplating whether or not to touch the stingray

Dress up in princess dresses was a daily occurrence!

Trying to fly princess kites, the second picture was taken just before the kite plummeted down and landed on the roof of their house. :)

Almost everyday Rachel and I would scour the internet for a “natural” way to induce labor! And nothing worked! She had been having contractions consistently since before I arrived, but they weren’t doing their job. :) Sunday afternoon we all went swimming before bbq-ing for dinner. And lo and behold that night was the she went into full blown labor! Thankfully Rachel’s mom (Trudi) came over to the house and stayed with the girls so I could go to the hospital and be present for Caleb’s birth. I got there about 2:15a and he was born at 3:35a!! Words can’t describe what an amazing experience this was, definitely one of the most awesome to date!!! It still seems surreal! Can’t thank Rachel & Brian enough for letting me share such an intimate time with them! So thankful that everything worked out! Only wish I could have stayed longer to help out!

Happy Birthday Caleb!!

baby hats & booties

In search of the perfect hat pattern, I decided I needed to try knitting in the round with double pointed needles. So I set off for the Lion Brand yarn store with a list of necessities. Here are some of the pieces I have made so far. I was very pleased with how the hats came out and they used so little yarn that I could probably make 3 hats out of each skein. I wanted to make some booties to match the hats, but I couldn’t find a pattern that I LOVED, so I started looking for a crochet one and found one on Lion Brand’s web-site (surprise!!).

a look at the work in progress – when knitting with double pointed needles you distribute your stitches between 3 or 4 needles (depending on the size of your project) and you use another needle to transfer your stitches to as you are working in the round.