4th of July

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Another first of mine was the 4th of July in New York City. It was an amazing day. I had a nice relaxing morning and then had lunch at the Boathouse in Central Park. It’s in the movies and Enchanted and probably many more. The atmosphere there is really amazing as you are eating overlooking the lake in Central Park. After we ate, we actually went out on the row boats on the lake. It is almost surreal as you are rowing in a lake surrounded by trees with a backdrop of skyscrapers. It’s a sight you can only see in the city.

After our adventures in the park, we had an amazing BBQ. What would the 4th of July be without a BBQ? It was the inauguration of a new grill that Camas received for her birthday and boy did the burgers turn out well. We were slightly grossed out, though, as we watched the Nathan’s Famous hot dog eating contest on TV. I guess burgers don’t sit to well as you watch someone stuff 59 hot dogs in their mouth.

To end the night, we met up with about 50 friends to go over and watch the fireworks. The city closes down the one highway in Manhattan, which runs along the river, and allows residents to sit on the highway. We arrived about 2.5 hours early and staked out our spot on the road. Then we just chatted and played some games as we waited for the show to begin. We were having a great time until it started raining. Luckily we were prepared and brought our umbrellas. We started to get hopeful when the rain stopped, but sure enough the rain started again about 15 minutes before the fireworks started. Nevertheless, we stuck it out and watched the fireworks with our umbrellas out. The fireworks were great coming off three barges on the river. It just wouldn’t have been the 4th without fireworks.

Summer in the City

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Maui is yet to come because I realized I haven’t received all of the pictures that the rest of my family took. So here’s a post about all of the amazing things there are to do in the summer in New York City.

So first of all, almost every band you could ever imagine comes to New York. So a few weeks ago, a couple of friends went to the Death Cab for Cutie concert. It was really good. It was at a fun outdoor arena in Brooklyn. The only downside to that is it is subject to the forces of nature. About an hour and a half into the concert the wind really starting picking up and you could see lightning in the background. Pretty soon, the lights hanging over the stage were swinging pretty hard. So, the stage manager came out and said they had to cancel the rest of the concert. We were disappointed, but at least we saw them for most of the songs (and that meant we didn’t get home too, too late). Then as we were walking back to the car (luckily, we had a friend with a car), it started pouring rain. There’s nothing like an East coast torrential downpour.

Then this last week, the New York Philharmonic hosts the summer concert series in the parks around New York. The best thing about it is they are all free. A couple of friends went to the concert in Central Park (as seen in the movie “August Rush”). It was a lot of fun because everyone brings blankets and sits out on the lawn. A lot of people, including us, brought dinner to eat while listening. The Philharmonic plays songs most people would recognize and then they finish the night off with a fireworks show. It is a definite must do in the city.

Then yesterday, we took advantage of another free event that the city and generous donors provide called “Shakespeare in the Park.” You get tickets the day of for a relatively small theater in Central Park. Right now they are doing Hamlet, so we were able to enjoy a great, slightly contemporary, performance of this Shakespeare classic. It was really well done, just as good as any Broadway play. Definitely a fun thing to do if you ever have the opportunity to go see while you are in New York.

Duck Beach

So everyone told me different things about Duck Beach. When I told some people that I was going, they would give me a look. I would always say “what”? They would just respond that the only reason that people go to Duck Beach is to hook up with someone for the weekend and never have interest in them anymore.
Others would tell me that Duck was a blast with a chance to make new friends and just have a great time at the beach. After going, I would totally agree with the second. Although the first stereotype does occur, it’s not always the case. I had a great time.
For those of you back west, Duck Beach is in the outer banks of North Carolina, close to Nags Head and Kitty Hawk (where the Wright Brothers) took their first flight. It is a beautiful beach with some beautiful beach houses for rent. There were about 60 people from New York that went down, so we rent two houses. Sixty people still might sound like a lot, but just look at the picture of the house I was in. It had 11 bedrooms, a giant kitchen with two ovens, two stoves, and dishwashers (which I fell in love with as I helped with the food).
One of the best moments of the trip was when the first group of my friends (who all arrived together) went to Costco to buy all of the food for the weekend. We ended up having 11 carts and spent $2,500 (and that didn’t include perishables which we bought at the grocery store in Duck). Needless to say, we didn’t go hungry in Duck. Thanks to Adrienne Martin for all of her planning efforts in our behalf. Once we got there, I realized that there is a huge party every night. The party would rotate around different houses every night. I think there was over 1,000 young single adults in Duck. The town has a stupid rule that you can’t park on the street, so pretty much the cops came to every party we went to.
Even after the parties get broken up, everyone goes back to their own houses and stays up all night. I didn’t get much sleep that weekend, but luckily I had a week in Maui to recover (see soon to be post above). All in all, Duck Beach was something you have to do at least once. If anything, it’s a nice weekend at the beach with all of your friends.

My First Yankees Game

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

So it has been forever since I have posted anything! Hopefully I will get three posts up in the next few days. Here we go with the first. After 8 months in New York, I finally attended my first Yankees game. It was really fun. I couldn’t have asked to go with more fun people. We had a great time and watched the Yankees kill the Mariners. It’s such a nostalgic stadium. Luckily, I got to go before they tear it down next year.

The 'Rents in New York City

Saturday, May 10, 2008

I know it has been forever since I have posted. I have been reminded by many of that fact. The weeks just seem to whiz by. Two weeks ago, my mom and dad came out to New York to visit me. We had a blast, but our schedule was packed. I think they did more in the week they were here than most people do in a month. Here is my travel log: Tuesday: They arrived and dropped off bags at my apartment. We stopped in to see my office and meet my coworkers. Then we walked around Times Square. We then headed down to Grimaldi’s to eat dinner, and then walked across the Brooklyn Bridge. To finish off the night, we headed up to Grand Central Terminal, saw it and grabbed a Junior’s cheesecake. Wednesday: We wake up and go see Wall Street, the New York Stock Exchange, Trinity Church, Federal Hall (where the Bill of Rights was signed), Stone Street, the big bull (as seen in Hitch), and arrive at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. They took us on a tour of the bank and actually took us down into the vault where they hold $315 billion worth of gold bars for foreign governments. It was pretty cool. Then we walked around South Street Seaport, headed to Shake Shack for lunch (waited in line for an hour and a half). We walked from Grand Central to the UN building, seeing the Chrysler Building on the way. Unfortunately, the tour tickets to the UN were sold out, so we took a cab to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Toured around there for a few hours, and then headed to Little Brazil to eat a Brazilian meal (my dad served his mission in Brazil). After a tasty meal, we headed to Wicked. As always, it was amazing. Thursday: We woke up and went down to the Today show and got on TV, then we headed over to Times Square to check on Broadway tickets before we headed back over to the UN. We spent several hours touring the UN (which was neat because they took us in all of the rooms including the Security Council room and the General Assembly Room). Then we ate lunch at Grand Central before we headed to the New York Public Library and Bryant Park. We stood in line to get tickets to another Broadway show, and then finished touring Rockefeller Center and 5th Avenue, including Trump Tower, Saks, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Tiffany & Co., the NBA store and Carnegie Hall. We then headed down to Union Square for dinner with my cousin, Cory, at Max Brenner (a delicious chocolate restaurant). After dinner, we headed back up to Times Square to see Curtains with David Hyde Pierce. Friday: We slept in a little longer and then headed to the Statue of Liberty, went up inside the base of the monument, and then went to Ellis Island. Both were firsts for me since I came to the city. After we got off the boat, we walked around Battery Park City and saw Ground Zero. Then we headed up to have lunch/dinner at Serendipity (with frozen hot chocolate for dessert). We then made the trek out to Shea stadium to see the Mets play. Saturday: We slept in again and then went down to Macy’s (the largest store in the world: 9 stores spanning an entire block. It’s huge) and then saw the Empire State Bldg, but didn’t go up it. We then toured the lower part of Central Park and went on a carriage ride through the park. While we were there, we went into FAO Schwartz, got some gifts for the grandkids and saw the piano show (the giant piano from Big). We then had lunch at Grey’s Papaya, toured Columbia University, St. John the Divine Cathedral (the largest cathedral in the world), and Grant’s Tomb. We then made it back in time for a session at the Manhattan temple. Then we had a relaxing evening over a nice dinner at Ruth’s Chris, and then went to the top of Rockefeller center to see the city lights.

Sunday: We took it easy and just walked around the park in the morning. Then we went to Church and cooked a nice dinner and relaxed the rest of the evening (letting our bodies catch up). Monday: We woke up, saw Lincoln Center, headed up to Harlem and saw the Apollo theater, then went to the Museum of Natural History (the museum fictionalized in Night at the Museum). We then headed down to the Burger Joint (a secret restaurant inside a swanky hotel). We then ventured down to Chinatown for some shopping (even though we didn’t buy anything) and finished the trip with some banana pudding from Magnolia’s bakery. The only things on our list we didn’t do (because we didn’t manage to fit it in our schedule): a meal in Little Italy, the Museum of Modern Art, Coney Island, and a performance at Carnegie Hall. All I can say is that I would not want to be a tour guide for a living! Thanks Mom and Dad for coming out, it was fun.

Trip to DC

Saturday, April 5, 2008

So months ago, a bunch of friends agreed to go down to DC to run the National half marathon. Well, due to the requirement of a qualifying race and the effects of busy season on my training, I didn't end up running. Fortunately, I was still able to go down to DC with the group, including a couple of other friends that didn't run. It was a blast of a trip, so I thought I would share my adventure.

We were staying at two different hotels, so we dropped off the runners at one hotel and started out for our hotel. All I have to say is that DC is the most confusing city in the world with streets going every direction, roundabouts, and one way streets. We got lost for about an hour. All I have to say is thank goodness for the GPS on my blackberry.

Because of the late night and a bad night's sleep, we ended up sleeping through the race (sorry runners!). We just lounged around the hotel and had a nice breakfast waiting for the racers to get back and get ready before we headed out to tour DC.

We saw all of the hot spots that I hadn't seen the last time I was in DC. We saw the White House, Treasury building, the Washington monument, WWII memorial, Vietnam memorial, Lincoln memorial, and then the best of all: the cherry blossoms. We came at the perfect time! The cherry blossoms were in full bloom and the city was hosting the cherry blossom festival.

The cherry blossom festival has been something I have heard about for years, but didn't think I would ever see it. The blossoms were beautiful, excentuating all of the monuments and beauty of Washington DC. They were everywhere! It is something I am grateful I was able to see.

Also, while we were there, there was a kite festival. On the grounds around the Washington monument, there were thousands of people there flying kites. Some of them were kids with parents, while others came from across the world to share in this festival. There was one man from China that had built a dragon kite and came over to the festival to fly it. It was cool.

After we were tired, we ended up going to our friend Chad's house for the night. His family was such a great host. Overall, it was an amazing trip. The drive was even great with all of our friends in the car. Who doesn't love road trips!

March Madness

Thursday, March 27, 2008

I don’t know about you, but my bracket has just sucked this year! I have no chances of winning. When I was making my bracket, I remember thinking: “With these match-ups, I don’t think there are going to be many upsets this year.” Boy have I been wrong.

Anyway, in the spirit of March Madness, I had to do a basketball post. In the middle of March, one of the partners in my group had extra tickets to the Big East Conference Tournament held at Madison Square Garden. It was my first time in the Garden, so I had to document the experience. They tout themselves as the best arena in the world. I don’t know about that for sure, but it was still a nostalgic experience.

My good friend Brent Thurgood came with me as we enjoyed the Pittsburgh-Cincinnati game. It was actually a really good game, but we decided to call it a night after one game. It was just the beginning of an enjoyable season of basketball.

Last week at work, we have what some people like to term “The Lunch of No Return.” We left the office at noon on the first day of the NCAA tournament. A lot of the partners and senior managers came with us for an extended lunch (2 hours). We were then assigned to reserve our spot the rest of the day in case people from the office wanted to stop in to catch a game. We were also told to keep the food coming. All I have to say is that getting paid to watch six hours of basketball is my kind of work.