Visitors: Round One

At the end of April, my Mum came over to visit us and see New York City. A little over a week after she left, Laura's parents visit. Then, at the end of May, my Dad and Stepmum will be the latest visitors to the city.

L's parents are still here, but we're tired and having a lazy day which means I finally have a bit of a break in which to update the blog. Why so tired? Well, I'll let the photos tell the story of everything we crammed in during the week of my Mum's visit:





First was the "tramway" to Roosevelt Island. It's been around for decades, but many don't even know it exists. The cars have been upgraded considerably since they first started, so we were't totally terrified by their height as they run alongside the 59th Street bridge. Once onto the island we also had our first view of Manhattan, from the East - we saw much of it from all 4 directions over the course of the week. We had been to Roosevelt Island before, but hadn't taken the tramway due to bad weather.





The next day we took the Staten Island ferry, and straight back again. This is the closest we can get without taking the tours - and the tours still aren't taking anyone on to the island, thanks to hurricane Sandy. The ours however remain pricey, whereas the Staten Island ferry is free. So this made a lot of sense! Also, we got to see Manhattan from the 2nd direction: this time from the South.



Later that day we took the subway up to Central Park. I have more photos from there than I know what to do with, but none of my Mum enjoying one of the sights near the top of her must-see list. She'd always wanted to visit the city, so we were so pleased to show her around. Mum even had fun pointing at various things around Manhattan to prove "she was there"!



The next day began at the 9/11 Memorial. I won't get into past memories again, but I do think the memorial site is a fitting tribute. The sheer size of the fountains, within the footprints of the fallen Twin Towers, really gives you a sense of scale of the event: once you're standing right there, you really get it.





After enjoying some NYC's finest traditional pastrami bagels, we chilled out at home before our evening jaunt on Broadway. We saw Newsies! We had great seats for one of the city's most popular productions, which also happens to be one of Laura's favourite musical movies. Whilst she thought a few of the changes were unnecessary, everyone enjoyed it immensely. Everyone in our party that is; a couple next to Laura tried to talk the whole way through (we shushed them), use their phone (everyone stopped them), didn't applaud at any point, and even fell asleep halfway through. You have to think they might have something better to spend their money (well over $100 a seat) on! After the show we went to Times Square, which is always "very New York" - bright, loud, busy... and photogenic. Mum was delighted to be there and I hadn't really been since I used to work there.





We had a day off (aside from a short walk in Hoboken, seeing Manhattan from the third direction - West) to recover from all the tourism, but spent our final day at Rockefeller Center. We tried out the NBC tour first, then scored some free rehearsal tickets to see Jimmy Fallon - a great and unexpected bonus. We then toured the plaza, before heading up to the Top of the Rock for a glorious view of Manhattan - from the North (well okay, from the middle, but looking down!). Afterwards we ticked off the last few things on the list (many of which my Mum pointed at), including the Chrysler Building, and Grand Central Terminal. To the end the day was dinner at The Smith in Midtown East, which was very loud, but very, VERY good. L and I will be going back.

Sadly we had to say bye to Mum but she had a great time (we are told!) - and we enjoyed being tourists too. So many times we avoid the touristy areas because "we live here, damnit!", but really we would have been sad to leave here without seeing all the sights. Sights or no sights, however, the name of the game is happy families:





The whole set from Mum's trip is here. More family fun to come over the course of the next month!

Return of the Sunshine, and This Blog

There's something about the lack of sunshine, freezing temperatures, and wet outdoors that really sucks the motivation out of you. I'll make that part of my excuse that I haven't updated this blog in nearly 5 months - though laziness is part of it too. I've been actively posting on my Instagram however, and aren't pictures worth a thousand words? It's been really easy to snap a moment, and upload everywhere important... except here of course.

So this is going to be my approach from now on: it's not drastic, but I will aim to tell some of the stories behind the pictures on this blog, on a more regular basis. I will also look to return to some of the things I've missed since November, and before - including the small matter of my wedding! After all, the sun is returning, the weather is improving - so the motivation is rising as fast as the temperatures. So what better place to (re)start than a look over the source of this new found inspiration - embracing Spring!

Truthfully of course, the first chance I've had to properly enjoy Spring has been more like Summer - freakishly high temperatures more at home in August than April - yesterday was a high of 28C (!) in New York City, and just a little less in Jersey. I just had to get out at lunchtime and enjoy it, so two days ago I had my first outside lunch of the year, over by the food trucks at World Financial Center.



I didn't grab food from this barbecue, but it spoke to me of a summer to come! The temperatures continued into the next day - I took my lunch inside, but followed it up with a walk to City Hall.



All the benches and fountain-side spaces to sit were taken, but something else was clearly going on at the Hall. I continued on to capture some of the more decorative buildings in an area I had not really explored yet.





That did it for lunchtime - but come 5pm work was done and I needed to go out again. I took my wandering to Jersey City this time, thinking I would take a scenic route home. L and I had noticed many nice apartments and riverside views between Exchange Place and home, so that seemed as good as anywhere.





Views of Lady Liberty galore! The first pic shows the slightly garish landmark of the Colgate Clock, and the latter is a marina outside some rather expensive apartments. Not a bad view to wake up to at all! I was not even halfway home when a fellow Jersey resident back in the office called and suggested we meet at a new bar, for L and I anyway. It is only 3 blocks from us, but we never visited when the weather was grim. It is the sort of bar best left to savour in sunlight. The name? Zeppelin Hall Biergarten!



We stayed here until the sun finally left, and long after that too. Armed with steins of lager, we heralded the return of the sun, warmth, and outside social niceties. The storms have started today, and the temperature has dropped back to normal, but we've been shown much promise of a nice Spring and early Summer, to be enjoyed whatever country we're in (more on that later). And I promise to share more of it, too.