Daydreaming: China

Something that occurs often in my life is the urge to travel.  Every now and then I have to hamper the desire to buy a plane ticket and just leave.  Most of the time my rational, responsible side helps greatly with that, but every now and then I have to resort to image searching and just daydreaming.  Sometimes I forget to appreciate all the places I've already been.  Back in 2004 I went with some friends to China.  It was just over two weeks that we spent there, and we really did get to see a lot.  We flew into Beijing, spent some time in my friend’s hometown of Qinhuangdao, took a train to Shanghai, and spent some time in the Yunnan Province in southwestern China.  Sometimes the specific experiences are  best summed up in a bunch of pictures.  -A

New York City

For a flight that is just over an hour long, I am actually surprised that I have never been to NYC before. I guess it just never came up or worked out. But, this past weekend I actually did make it for a short trip there with my friend K! I am very thankful that the weather was great the entire time because we did a lot of walking. The first thing we did was visit the 9/11 Memorial preview and then went to SoHo to explore and eat dinner. The main priority on my list of things to do was to rent bikes to ride through and around Central Park! I could’ve spent most of the day there exploring, but there was so much else to see. On the way to and from different places we saw even more. Some of my favorite parts in any city I visit is to see new, modern buildings right next to huge, older buildings and there were several instances of this I noticed. We saw 30 Rock, St. Patrick’s Cathedral (we arrived during mass so we didn’t see everything or stay long), Grand Central Station, the New York Public Library (we got kicked out before exploring entirely because of a private wedding). We also ventured to the top of the Empire State Building and saw Times Square, both at night. The city was definitely different at night, a little more majestic even. The crowds were a little uncomfortable in Times Square, but quite a cool experience. The last morning we took a ferry to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. I even got to drive a little through the city on the way to the airport; the traffic there is definitely something I could never get used to, so I am thankful for a great public transportation system there. I know I am probably forgetting to mention something and while walking around I even started a list of things to do on my next trip! -A

I Heart New York

Since it has been a very long time since I've been to NYC, my husband decided it was a good idea to spend Memorial Day weekend in New York City.  Although we only stayed 4 nights we managed to fit quite a lot in.  I made a list ranging from shopping to restaurants to sightseeing, which I suppose are the usual tourist type things to do .  We also met up with some good friends and spent a couple of days seeing the sights with them.

One of my favorite things was renting bikes in Central Park, what a treat.  I also was pleasantly surprised that the Stein Family Collection was at the Metropolitan Museum of Art while we were there.  The variety of art they have in the collection is amazing.  I thought a sampling of some of the weekend photos would give you a good idea on how much we managed to do in a few short days.  Enjoy!  - P