Spring Break!

...not for Derek, but for me and our visitors!  We had a blast having

 Jane and Sandra then Cheralyn and Alisha over to visit. They were like super tourists with day by day plans, color-coded maps and a near life size map of central park - no joke!  We gave them the low-down of the city (what little we know) and then they were off exploring all day.  Der felt a little outnumbered with so many girls around the house, but he should be used to that having grown up with four sisters. 

 

This first picture is of Alisha and Cheralyn with us at Central Park on the first warm day of the year, 80 degrees - hooray!  It has been raining a lot lately and therefore the trees are budding and it is looking beautiful out here in the East.

Here is Jane and Sandra walking the streets of New York alone and getting checked out by a passerby!
We had to get a little game of Settlers in.
We had dinner at Tom's Restaurant (the one from Seinfeld).  The food was horrible, but the atmosphere was nice.
Jane and Sandra dancing in the subway in hopes to earn a few extra dollars for touring.


 Here we are eating HUGE burgers at Jackson Hole restaurant with Alisha and Cheralyn. They were really good! 
Here we are waiting for the train...an exciting moment!

This is (as recommended by the waiter next door) the best gelato in Little Italy.

This is a posed picture by Alisha herself.  Yes, Derek is pointing to nothing.  But it is a great shot with the city in the background and the biggest open space on the whole island.

               

I wish I would have known...

       Pillow Fight NYC 2009   

          

                 Date: Saturday, April 4th

                 Time: 3:00pm

                 Location: Wall Street (near Broad Street)
                 Cost: Free

           Feathers fly and fake cash soars as we converge on Wall Street for a massive urban pillow fight! Swing and whack as you evade pillow-wielding bank executives. Bring a pillow to Wall Street and wait for the signal. Pillow fight! This year's pillow fight is timed to coincide with pillow fights in cities all over the world as part of World Pillow Fight Day. 

Der and I have this website freenyc.net  saved on our computer so we can check out the random free events going on in the city.  Sadly, they only post the happenings of the weekend during the week so you can't plan much in advance.  Today, I checked it a little too late. :(  This would have been so much fun....at least to take a picture of!                                             

Church... to Home

Despite the random snow storm we had last week, I think it is safe to say Spring is on its way, and we are very excited.  How can I tell Spring is coming, you ask?  Clue #1: Jamie wore a jacket (not a coat... a jacket) to work all week, and Clue #2: Birds were singing outside our apartment when we woke up this morning,  (to hear birds singing is truly a feat in and of itself in this city).  Because it has been such nice weather, our new thing is to walk home from church.  The church is about 25 blocks north of where we live, which equals roughly over a mile.  What makes the walk home fun, is that a good portion of the walk is through Fort Tryon park.  This blog post is going to take you through a typical walk home from church.  You must first understand that you are very lucky to have pictures included in this post.  We had been exploring NYC without our camera for the past three months (which sadly died shortly before Christmas... {insert moment of silence here}).  The good news is that we purchased a rad new camera, so we brought it to church knowing we would walk home, and could take a few photos. So, again, enjoy a typical walk home from church.  

1. Fort Tryon Park... these old bridges, walls and paths are what make this park unique.

1. The Mr. and Mrs...  the timer on the camera appears to be working well.

3. Again, Fort Tryon Park

4. Some old emergency station... It looked cooler in person, trust me. 

5. Some random kids playing basketball.  

6.  Patriotic fire hydrant.  Jamie had to stop me from bustin' out The Star Bangled Banner.   

7.  A cathedral just up the street from us.  We have lived here for 7  months and we haven't noticed it.  Sad, but true. 

8.  The George Washington Bridge