BIG APPLE – JUNE 09

by Sara on June 25th, 2009

This post contains a lot of pictures taken on a recent trip I loved. My city, New York City.

Amy in Soho.

Outside the lovely Café Habana. Lazy eyes blamed on my redeye flight in. I sat next to a man with terrible no manners.

Café Habana’s delicious Mexican style grilled corn. Mmm.

That’s John Krasinski (aka Jim from The Office) & Joey Slotnick. I couldn’t resist snapping a picture. Wish I had a picture of the craziness that ensued. It involved Amy tipping our table, breaking a plate and spilling food all over the guys sitting next to us. Good times.

We saw John Krasinksi’s new movie, Away We Go, the next day. While I liked it, I must admit that overall I was disappointed. Considering Dave Eggers was involved, I expected better. Ah well. We saw another actress from the movie – Allison Janney, who I adore. But I’ll get to that later. Next, I’m going to show you my favorite shoe store…

Greetings from the Camper shoe store in Soho!

The indecisiveness of this place kills me! In a good way. I bought a pair; not for me, but for Dick.

On the steps of The Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET). We saw our preferred mediums in record time. (What was it? 15 minutes? But it was free!) Amy ran for Matisse while Julie and I were spoiled with images by favorite photographers, including: Cindy Sherman, Diane Arbus, Richard Prince and Louise Lawler to name a few.

Apart from my honeymoon, this was the most luxurious trip I’ve taken to NYC. We took taxis everywhere. My only subway ride was from JFK to the hotel (a hotel which definitely added to the luxury!).

Chocolate covered strawberries from Godiva; it has become a Hall girl NYC tradition. Last year we did the same on our trip with Elyse.

We sat in Central Park watching fancy people arrive for a gala. Second celeb sighting: Jaslene Gonzalez, winner of America’s Next Top Model cycle 8. (My least favorite winner to date. Yes, I do watch that show. Every single cycle.)

Radio City Music Hall, where I saw The Decemberists with Robyn Hitchcock and the Venus 3. One of the worst seats in the venue, but still a fantastic show. I wasn’t crazy about their new record, Hazards of Love, until I saw it performed live. They sounded amazing.

Obligatory NYC meal: world’s best Reuben sandwich at Katz’s Deli.

Amy’s idea of heaven on earth. Otherwise known as Magonlia Bakery.

Enjoying Magnolia cupcakes in a West Village park. Red Velvet is my favorite; love that vibrant red – tastes pretty good, too.

Julie & Amanda. Enjoying the city at night.

The photo above and the next few were taken at the MOMA! (Museum of Modern Art)

If I had to decide, it’s probably my 2nd favorite NYC museum. Or, maybe it ties for 2nd place with the Whitney. Stay tuned for my #1 favorite.

Adorable baby mama Jules. Will it be a boy or girl? We won’t know until the day “it’s” born.

So glad my sister-in-law Amanda came with us. I love traveling with her.

These crack me up. At FAO Schwarz where Julie bought a Middleton doll to give Eleanor when baby #2 arrives this fall. Those dolls look and feel so real. Being here reminded me of a recent This American Life episode where a former FAO Schwarz employee shared a story about this same brand of dolls. They ran out of the coveted white babies, so white moms, much to their dismay, were relegated to purchase ethnic dolls instead. That was a good episode.

Amy on one of the many taxi rides in the city. To the right is the Apple store by Central Park. I took that picture for Dick to see. Bummer that I missed Sonic Youth’s performance at the Soho Apple Store by 1 day.

Manhattan: north view of Central Park & south view of Empire State Building.

Tourist gem worth doing at least once: Top of the Rock observation deck. This was my first time up – I loved it. (Did you catch the pun?)

I don’t care for Times Square but it was worth braving this night. My sisters & I are not the musical types at all, but we saw 9 to 5: The Musical. We had to, it was one of our favorite movies growing up, thanks to Grandma Wanda Hall. And let me say, it did not disappoint. We had a blast. This was when we saw Allison Janney; she played good ol’ Violet.

Taking it all in.

Amanda in Saint Patricks Cathedral.

Here it is: my favorite NYC museum. The Guggenheim. Designed by the one and only, Mr. Frank Lloyd Wright.

That spiraling rotunda amazes me every time I visit.

We were lucky enough to be there during the celebration of its 50th year. The celebration included a Wright exhibit featuring his sketches and models. Loved it, love him.

Hey, look, it’s us on the Brooklyn Bridge!

Terrific view of Manhattan.

If you visit NYC and want to do something awesome, walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. I love it. I think Amanda and Amy did as well. The weather was perfectly drizzly and cool.

In Brooklyn, waiting in line for delicious pizza at Grimaldi’s. That line was well worth it. Amy was a smart thinker, she went and bought us ice cream to share while we waited. Butter pecan, that ice cream was really tasty too.

That’s it, folks, until next year’s NYC girl trip. But in the meantime let’s go to San Francisco!

2008 IMAGES

by Sara on January 12th, 2009

Going through my 2008 archives, I found some favorite images that recap the year for me nicely. If I wasn’t feeling lazy, I’d add captions to each one, but alas, I am feeling lazy so there will be no captions.

2008 consisted of lots of travel. Including: various parts of Arizona, New York, Mexico, Las Vegas multiple times, Utah many times, Kansas and California.

I don’t foresee traveling as much in 2009, but hopefully we’ll manage to have a wonderful last full year living here in Phoenix.

OOPS!

by Sara on September 30th, 2008

Amateur coder, classic me: I inadvertently deleted this site last night. Surprisingly, I managed to recreate it; however, I failed to salvage archived posts. My next step is to upload selected favorites from the past, which dated back to late 2006. Bare with me while I try to compensate for my idiocity.