NYC The Empire State

New York City is art, splendour, creativity, vibrant, spectacular, stunning and a must see before you die! The people who designed and built this city had a vision of what they wanted and how they saw NY in the grand scheme of things, they have created something absolutely magnificent, beautiful and artistic!  Many great movies have been filmed here ... Day After Tomorrow filmed in the NYC library, When Harry Met Sally, You've Got Mail, King Kong ... the opening scene of Last of the Mohicans was filmed in Upper NY State. There are stage shows and performances for all tastes. People from all over the world come to see NYC and why not!? NYC has plenty to boast about. I would love, love, love the redesign of ChCh to be filled with this kind of artistic thinking and vision ... something that excites people.

Mike, Chris, lars, Roxcy, Pete and I headed of to New York City to catch up with Ben Chardome and his husband Puput, who were on their honeymoon in the US. I was so excited ... I love New York City!  I love the architecture, the buildings are amazing, the energy, the streets, the food, the art galleries. I love Grand Central Station, there is an amazing food court there and a great deli ... buskers ... people galore! The design of Grand Central Station is amazing! I feel like I am in a movie every time I have been there. The New York library is beautiful ... just so many amazing buildings. I love Grand Central park ... which is so big and has so much happening around it and in it. The Art Gallery, The Met, on the Park is amazing and really needs a good few days of visiting ... Museum of Natural History ... also amazing and where A Night at the Museum was filmed! The Peggy Guggenheim Gallery is over the road, The International was filmed there, starring Clive Owen and Naomi Watts.

We have visited NYC 3 times. Our first visit was in 1996. We visited as a family as part of our trip through the States. We camped on Long Island ... where Mike had a near death experience ... I tried to kill him! Caught the subway into Grand Central Station and spent a couple of days walking round the city ... Wall Street ... Statue of Liberty ... Empire State Building ... come to mind ... one of the children vomiting on the boat on the way back from the Statue of Liberty ... Alice I think ... it was soooo hot that day.

Pete & I did a return visit in 2008 when we came out to visit Mike & Chris. We spent 5 days in the city, that was the best time for me. We stayed in a very dodgy motel in Connecticut, with a plastic sheet on the mattress and a sheet of thick plastic over the office window ... I think it might have had multiple uses as a motel. We caught the train into Grand Central Station every day and bought breakfast at the food hall there. We had a great time and saw so much of NY city every day ... Soho ... Blecker Street ... Rockefeller building ... AT & T building. I did not want to leave.

Another visit last week ... we drove to Long Island ... via ferry and stayed with Sasha, Jordan and Pena for a couple of nights and we ventured in together on the subway on Wednesday to meet up with Ben and Puput, his husband. We had a fun visit with them. We have not seen Ben in years, I so loved seeing him again and I am so glad we made the effort to meet up with him and to meet Puput. We had lunch with them, then Mike, Chris, lars, Roxcy, Pete & I went to the Natural History Museum ... Jordan, Sash and Pena went up the Rockefeller building. We spent about 2 hours in the museum and could have spent longer. lars and Roxcy loved the museum, the animals, so much going on there for them and so did we ... so much to see. We then caught up with Sash, Jordan and Pena and walked across Brooklyn Bridge in the rain ... fun! The rain turned into a thunder storm ... very exciting and very heavy. We finished our day of with ice creams in Brooklyn and then drove back to Jordan & Sash's place to stay another night, catching another ferry on Thursday and back home to VT. Here are some photos.

Our New Friend Pena ... Isn't she gorgeous!

Making Friends

I love the Subway ... get a load of the steel pillars!!

The Other Side of the Tracks

These Guys were Troopers

Meeting up with Old Friends and New

Lunching Together in NYC ... Yummy

Fashion ...

Design ...

Beautiful ... reminds me of Marg

Light ..

Decor

Sitting in the rain ... Grand Central Park

We found The Book of Mormon...I love this photo of Pete!

Brooklyn Bridge ... note the Sandals.

Chris ... capturing every moment ...

Roxcy & Pete on Brooklyn Bridge

Ice Creams in Brooklyn

I love this Girl ... I loved having her in our home ... I love seeing her happy ... I love seeing her as a Mum

I tried ... NYC night lights ...

Joined at the hip ...

Chris is a wonderful Mother to lars and Roxcy ... she is kind, patient, loving, plays lots with them, is very creative with them, enjoys them, laughs with them, enjoys their company. I find myself being moved by her. Roxcy loves her Mum ... Chris is her 'go to' person ... her person of choice ... the one who answers all her questions, soothes all of her concerns, loves away her hurts. Whenever Roxcy sees Chris her whole face lights up ... she is so happy to see her MUM. I have not had someone feel like that about me in a long, long time ... I really miss being someone's number 1 Mum. I miss those moments of being the person that lights up someone's face ... where did those years go? I loved those years!

 Have to finish with these 2 awesome travellers.