Durham!

This past weekend, we went to Durham to hang out with Brian and Leah. It was an awesome time as always, with wonderful food and plenty of good laughs.

While there, we decided to help Brian attack his pregnant wife by setting up an impromptu photo studio in his garage.

 

A few flashes and umbrellas… a white sheet for a backdrop, and a reflector and a sheet to cover light coming in through the garage door windows… not a bad little setup for something quick.

After we took a few shots in here, we decided to head out to the Sarah P. Duke Gardens. Website Here. Not to brag on myself or anything.. but look at their website.. then at my pictures.. I think we know who the winner is here.

It was rather lovely to walk around there for a while… and Leah being pregnant took the pressure off… Normally Leah and Brian love to hike and hike and hike… this trip was more of a leisurely stroll through the gardens….

Brian, Leah and Strider….

Virginia enjoying the sun…

Leah and Strider….

Leah and Brian….

Virginia and Strider….

Me and Virginia

Brian – Getting the shot.

We had a good time walking around… took lots of pictures… and it was really nice weather. There was some sort of prom going on… so there were tons of high-school aged kids walking around in fancy dresses and tuxes… there were Limousines pulling up… it was chaos. but.. in a good way.

The flowers were also blooming over at Leah and Brian’s house…

Once again, it was a wonderful trip… always good to see friends… just a dang shame that they live 4 hours away.

It’s been all wintery and cold..

It’s been all cold and wintery… and Virginia and I have both been sick… so.. we’ve not been out having too much fun… we’ve been cooped up in the house… so.. when you’re stuck in the house, it’s a little hard to take too many fun pictures and whatnot… but.. here ya go.

 

So… yeah… Virginia and I played around with some wine glasses and some strawberries for a while… but… other than that… it’s been a lot of sitting around.. watching TV… eating ham…

NYC Part II

Okay, so after seeing Harry Potter sing and dance like a pro with an American accent we took a stroll down 5th Avenue to see all the lights. It was beautiful, but very crowded. Then we went back to the Loft to change clothes and catch our breath.

We decided to go to dinner in little Italy at Il Palazzo, which was delicious.

After dinner we took the Metro to the end of the island for a walk on the Brooklyn Bridge. It was so lovely! Amazing views of Manhattan and all the bridges, boats, airplanes, sky scrapers, so cool!

So then back to the Loft because we wanted to get up super early for our last day in the city.

Did I mention that we were in the Gramercy Park area and the Loft was just a block away from the flatiron building? Great view to take in on your way to breakfast.

We had breakfast at the Grey Dog in Chelsea. Cool place with a nice hippie vibe.

Then we walked through Chelsea Market, but we were too full to eat, so we just feasted our eyes.

The last thing we did was walk on the highline, which is this park that is built on an old elevated train line. It’s really neat because it’s been all landscaped and filled with art exhibits and allows you to walk about 20 ft. above the street level.

This billboard was a work of art called “the first hundred thousand that I ever made.”

Since we had to walk about ten looong blocks back to the Loft in the chilly morning air, I suggested we stop and get some hot tea. But I think I subconsciously sensed that we’d find this awesome-ness:

Two dozen varieties of macaroons! A macaroon specialty shop. SO GOODDD!

Then back to Penn Station for a long train-ride home.

The traveler at rest.

It’s a won-der-ful toooooown!

So over winter break Martha and I got to take an exciting trip to NYC!

We had a blast. We got to stay at the Appalachian Loft which is run by my former employer, ASU. Luckily I’m an alum, so we got an amazing rate.

It’s basically like a hostel for students, so we slept in a bunk room.

But there was a lovely view and the common space and kitchen were beautiful.

We got up super early every day and hit the city. First Rockefeller Center.

We did the NBC studio tour and learned all kinds of fun facts about SNL. I also got to play weather-woman for the “tour video studio.” Also, TV studios are really small. They look so much bigger on TV!

The ice skating rink was also smaller than I thought it would be, but very pretty. All the Christmas lights were up and the tree was huge!

Also huge was the crowd at the Lego store, where they had Lego replicas of all the statues in Rockefeller Center AND the Center itself with Lego people iceskating. Very cool.

Then to Times Square to buy theater tickets.

We got there early so we had time to grab empanadas from a food cart. Gotta love the street food.

We ended up with amazing orchestra tickets to Avenue Q which was technically off Broadway, but had been on Broadway back in 2004 for a few years. I’ve wanted to see it for a while – it’s like the Book of Mormon of its day.

So being off Broadway was cool because they have cigarette/snack guys and bartenders that bring you drinks. The show was awesome and hilarious. Overheard exchange of the night:

Dude 1: I didn’t know there was going to be graphic puppet sex.

Dude 2: Didn’t you see the sign outside?

Dude 1: I thought that was a joke!

Here’s us dressed up in our fancy theater clothes. We are standing in front of the Loft’s handy-dandy metro map which we used ALOT! We were about 1 block from two different lines, but we managed to get everywhere we were trying to go.

The next morning we got up and went to an awesome breakfast at the “quintessential modern American Jewish deli” - (they had a sign… which sadly we didn’t get a picture of). It was delicious. Martha’s cultured work friends had given her a list of restaurant suggestions, and they did not let us down.

Then we walked all through Central Park on the way to the Met.

After the Met, we did try to win theater tickets for the Book of Mormon, but sadly we didn’t win the lottery. In case you don’t know the Book of Mormon is sold out until Feb., but you can enter a day-of-drawing to win tickets. There were probably over 300 people at this lottery. It was, not surprisingly, a fun crowd, but not great odds.

So we decided to buy tickets to How to Succeed in Business (without really trying) instead. Daniel Radcliffe of Harry Potter fame was headlining and it was INCREDIBLE. Great, great, great show. Very classic Broadway fun. We were close enough to throw things at Daniel (but we didn’t).

Also, on the way there I almost ran into Samuel L. Jackson in the intersection. Didn’t get a picture though, sadly.

Okay, so that’s about halfway… To be continued tomorrow.