Every Day is a "New" Day: June 2009

Thank You to Adam for proposing to Sofia so that Tim and I could take a vacation to New York and have an amazing trip!!

Our weekend started out with us flying into Jersey and renting a car to take us north to a quaint town, Kerhonkson. Once out of Jersey, it is really pretty through New York. Very rural and trees everywhere!

We checked into our hotel and went to have a light dinner at a restaurant called Oscar's where we had some great food...wings (not like Texas hot wings), yummy Ceaser salad and shrimp cocktail. From there, we went to the wedding tailgate where we met all of Sofia and Adam's family and had drinks and late night pizza with everyone.

Tim and I with the Bride and Groom to Be

The wedding and reception were supposed to be outside but it rained all day which is totally uncharacteristic at this time of year just like these 100+ days we are having here. They had to move the wedding inside where Sofia's dad married Adam and her. Sofia's family is Ukrainian Eastern Orthodox Catholic's and they practice standing during the whole ceremony...all 1 1/2 -2 hours of it! Boy, I'll tell you after that 7 1/2 mile hike I was not prepared to stand that long, let alone in heels. Needless to say, my shoes were off after the 1st half hour :)

We had a great time at the reception especially because our friends Nathan and Kelli were there with us. They had spent Friday night in the City before they had to go home Sunday and lots of suggestions for us for The City. This wedding was a party...full bar, appetizers, sit down dinner, late night buffet. One fun thing to mention that is a tradition of their's is that to get the bride and groom to kiss during the night, individuals or groups would go up to their table and have to sing a song, recite a poem/jingle, really just something creative to get them to kiss. There was a lot of entertaining going on and several circle dances with "performers"!

Saturday took Tim and I to Lake Minnewaska State Park where I somehow let Tim talk me into a 7 1/2 mile hike. We started out at one lake, Lake Minnewaska, which was beautiful and midway landed at the other lake, Lake Awosting, which was more breathtaking than the 1st one, but with 1/2 the hike to still go...I was definitely done!! Hoping to have the rangers drive by and possibly hitch a ride was going through my mind on the way back, but they never showed :( Oh well, it was so nice to spend the time with Tim enjoying the views!!

Sunday morning - Happy Father's Day Tim!!! We packed up and headed for the city stopping off in this total Hippie town, New Paltz, to have brunch. It's a college town, but there were a ton of families out for brunch...probably to early for all the college kids :) After brunch we headed for Manhattan. It only took about 2 hours but we must have spent $20 to get there. They have so many tolls...at one point, we got off the NJ turnpike paying $2.05 and then not 2 miles later we were entering the Lincoln Tunnel for $8.00! Totally worth the 8 bucks though for listening to our toll booth lady talk...total New York attitude and accent!

We dropped the car off amid stand still traffic of course and decided to walk the 9 blocks to our hotel instead of sitting still in a cab going nowhere. Now you're probably thinking 9 blocks with 2 pieces of luggage and backpacks, but it's so easy to walk there...nothing like here where 9 blocks could be several miles. Plus, the weather there was so cool and kind of overcast so it was wonderful to enjoy the fresh (oh what am I talking about - city) air. There's definitely a sort of grunge that covers the city but you totally get used to it. We checked in to our hotel and relaxed for a little while and then hit the town.

Totally not in order from here on out so we'll just improvise.

Here we are in Central Park checking out all the scenery.

We spent the morning at the MET enjoying all the artwork. I found it interesting that you could pay whatever you wanted to get in...whether in be a penny, $20 or more

More Central Park pics

We were staying in Times Square so we were centrally located in the city for where we wanted to go. Sunday night we took the rec of our friends the Bonners and headed to a restaurant right near us called Bar Americain - one of Bobby Flay's restaurants. We had a wonderful waiter who was totally laid back and let us take our time through dinner and if you know Tim and I, we love to meander our way through a meal slowly!! Of course, we had to have a Manhattan since we were in the city and it was perfect! And, just so you know, I'm going to go into detail on the food we ate because it was so yummy the whole trip and I just have to remember it for next time :) Our appetizer was grilled pizza with double smoke applewood bacon, carmelized onions and toasted garlic. Then we proceeded to the main course which was so amazing... Porterhouse Lamb Chops with this awesome Sweet Potato Gratin that tasted like a cross between sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie all sitting atop a Tomato Curry Sauce. Of course we had to try dessert but were getting so full that instead of something chocolate and heavy we went for the Granny Smith Apple Tart with Maple Walnut Ice Cream. The whole time we were eating the ice cream we couldn't help thinking about you Rich...Black Walnut Ice Cream!!

We rolled out of the restaurant and had to walk it off in Times Square - its so bright there it's like being in the daylight at night. What great people watching! They've even blocked off traffic in the Square and have put out lawn chairs in the middle of the street for people to hang out in. There are people selling fake purses, wallets, watches everywhere and you will see them running with their bags down the street as the police near. Every store is open and lights are blazing! Not a bad first day!! Tomorrow gets even crazier!