NYC: Day 2, 3 & 4

(Sorry for the delay in posting this. As I was drafting this, my computer decided to quit until now. Hopefully, I can catch up with no problems anymore...)

Things feel incredibly different since our mission has changed from the stress of getting stuff done before we leave, to see as much as possible before we have to go! There is an incredible amount of stuff to see and do here. But at least, I wrote a list of top priorities and we did most of it, and still have one more day. I thought I'd better write what we have done down before I forget it all.

We bought a 48 hour pass on the double-decker buses that go around the city. You get to get on/off whenever you want to. On day 2, we went to Chinatown for lunch. We saw a hole-in-the-wall with meat hanging in the window, and there we ate a feast! Then, the Empire State Building, where the line was an hour+ wait and who knows how much for the ride up. So, we ditched fast. There was no line at the Rockefeller Center, it's 70 floors high, and it was only something like $18. We were so glad we already did that the day before! After that, Ground Zero, which is just such an incredibly huge mess. To think of what happened there really humbles and saddens you.

Then, the Staten Island Ferry. Before we went on this, I looked over at the prices for a ferry ride around (no to) the Statue of Liberty, and it was something like $18. Instead, we took the Staten Island Ferry for free, and rode right past the statue and saw some great views of the Manhattan skyline.


On day 3, we started at Grand Central Station. Another huge place, but this time a great masterpiece! We went to lunch at the Oyster Bar for some Bloody Mary oyster shooters, more oysters, and even more AND fried calamari. What else can I say.... Complete decadence! :-) As we left, we ended up strolling into the Audi dealership right outside Grand Central Station for some drooling over the S8. I suppose we had good buzz after all those oysters! I never thought I'd ever be so impressed over a car since I bought my Audi, but yes I am. Next, we walked over to the Waldorf Astoria to get back on our bus. Since we had a couple minutes to kill, checked out the lobby. That place, just like Grand Central, was another masterpiece. They just don't build like they used to! On display in their lobby was a book where they wrote down their meeting plans and there was a wedding plan from April 10, 1915 and only cost $1054. Can you imagine?!?! Last, Central Park for a horse-carriage ride, carousel ride (with horses again, this time wooden) and some play time in the park.

Day 4: Our 48 hour passes were to expire in 10 minutes when we hopped on the uptown bus. (Yes, I'm trying to squeeze every penny out whenever I can!) This loop had less sights to hop off and see, but it was a nice architectural tour, and we couldn't hop off anyway. If we tried, we'd probably not be able to get back on since the passes would be expired. It was a bit much for us to sit through, but we saw John Lennon's house where he was shot and where Yoko and Sean still live. Strawberry Fields in Central Park is across the street from their house. I would have loved to see the Gugenheim (sp?) museum's architecture, since it was designed by one of my favorites, Frank Lloyd Wright, but unfortunately, it was all covered up. Must have been renovations. Anyway, we hopped off at 5th Ave and went to the Apple Store (GREAT customer service!) where I was drooling over a new laptop. Then, FAO Schwartz so Kai could play around, and for lunch. I do have to mention that I was impressed with their simple menu there, because there were several selections of organic foods and free-range sandwich meats. I can't believe Kai didn't insist on getting anything more than a $3 pen with pink feathers on top of it! Later that day, we hit up Toys-R-Us where there's an overpriced ferris wheel that we rode. Again, at least she didn't want to walk out with the entire store. We ended the day with dinner at Ruby Foo's asian cuisine. Although not authentic at the least, it was walking distance from our hotel, and I figured it was going to be the last Asian food for a while, since we'd be flying to Europe the next day. Little did I know.....

NYC: Day 1

We're in NYC. :-) The computer, for right now, has limited capability, but at least is online for the moment. What a bummer, because I already feel like posting some pictures from today! If it "gets well" from whatever it has, maybe I can get them downloaded... I swear, this 10 month old machine is driving me crazy!

But, we had a good, slow day today. We really needed to after all the things that happened the last few days. I knew it was going to be hectic, but it was about 100 times more than I thought it would be. Not even a minute to breathe! We had to pull a few all-nighters dealing with paint, cleaning, running out of room for our stuff in the storage container and everything else that could go wrong that did. Kai was such a trooper through all this, so we are trying hard to make sure she's enjoying her time here. As gross as it is, we had to go to the airport with less than 4 hours of sleep, wearing dirty clothes and not showered for 2 days because of non-stop work mentioned above. Our plane was cancelled due to a bad storm on the East Coast and United told me they rebooked us on the next available flight 3 days later. Luckily, the ticket agent "did us a favor" and rebooked us on a Delta flight 3 1/2 hours after the original. Too bad we won't get United miles now, because our travel agent intentionally booked us on Star Alliance airlines so we'd get United's Premier Status halfway through our trip. But, it did allow us to take advantage of SFO's shower facilities for $37.50 for the 3 of us. Ouch!

Since we flew in late last night, we slept in and ordered room service. Something we can't really afford to order, but I think we earned it. After that, we had to move to a different room because the hotel didn't give us the right size bed...which makes a difference when all 3 of us are in it. But, most of all, I want to get what we paid for. The hotel's not quite like what the web site pictures looked, but it's nice, and we are now in a corner suite with an awesome view below us of Time Square and Central Park and the Hudson River in the background. Then, we walked around, went to the top of Rockefeller Center, the M&M's store (for a custom color blend to send to Caitlin), the American Girl store (luckily, Kai didn't insist on getting a doll) and of course, Whole Foods (per our normal protocol, if available) to stock up. We really feel like this city sucking our wallets dry. We already broke our rule of not staying at a large, expensive city more than 4 days (we're staying 5) and our complete budget for this leg was spent just on this hotel. Oh well! I haven't gone crazy with shopping (yet!) and promise myself that we'll take is easier when we get into our camper in Europe.

Since neither of us have been here, it's pretty cool to be around all these places you've heard about. Besides that, the atmosphere doesn't seem very different from San Francisco, just larger. Maybe my perspective will change when we venture out to see more of the city tomorrow.

we're in nyc

we're here but not without a mess of problems on the way. but were here. the computer's having some major issues with me logging-in. so, need to figure this out before i can do anything "real". bye for now....

Bye-Bye STUFF!

We decided to store all our STUFF in PODs. Very convenient! They truck over a big box, drop it off on your driveway, you fill it up, and they come take it and store it in their warehouse. When we want our STUFF, we just call them and they'll drop off your PODs where you tell them to. We liked this idea much better than renting a truck and storage unit and lugging our STUFF out, in, out, over the hill to Santa Cruz, and in again. (For those that don't know, Santa Cruz is a very twisty, windy road to be driving a truck over.)

But, take a look at all that STUFF!!! That's only one of TWO that we need! (At least, the other one's a smaller size.) And, this is "what we don't use on a daily basis"! Granted, I wouldn't expect to get rid of Sean's surfboard-making tools, garden tools and whatever we use to fix the house. Nor, would I want to get rid of the several boxes of pictures, crafting supplies and, of course, our boards. But still, we are paying for 10 months of storage to keep this STUFF!

All this comes in light of a web presentation that I just received. (Thanks Ian!) It's all about the materials industry. I've read/researched many of the ideas that are in this, but I was really impressed how this emcompasses everything all together. Check it out: http://www.storyofstuff.com/index.html

So, I guess all I can say for myself is that "I'm a work in progress". It'll be interesting how I feel about all this STUFF when we return from our trip....

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

On Chinese New Year, we didn't plan on going out to celebrate it. But, we spent WAY too much time settling matters at our bank and it was dinner time when we finally finished. So, off to Sean's favorite Chinese restaurant to grab a bit to eat we went. These are the three fortunes that Sean, Kailani and I picked. I thought they were pretty fitting for our situation....

"The longest day has an end." (Mine)
"Adversity makes one stronger." (Kailani's)
"Something special is coming your way." (Sean's)