Our First Beach Morning!

We are loving our time at the beach with Nana, Grandad, and Aunt Becky.  The water is cool, the beach is not crowded, and the weather is nice!

The area behind Henry is some brackish water that is between the ocean and the sand.  Bennett has dubbed it the beach without waves.  The boys love it!

Matching boys...eeeeeeeek I love when all 3 match!

Thanks to Rebecca for my fabulous monogrammed beach hat!

Grandad and Nana

Nana modeling her cute, new bathing suit and matching cover up

Carolyn's 60th!

We did lots of celebrating for Carolyn's 60th!  Doesn't get look fabulous at 60???  I have a huge birthday lover and it was no different for Carolyn.  We called ahead at both restaurants to make sure they knew we needed candles in her desserts!

I enlisted the help of friends to give us ideas for restaurants and everyone mentioned Balthazar.  It was a great choice for brunch!

Peach and Raspberry tart for the birthday girl!

We went and did our own things and then met back up for a fancy NYC birthday dinner.  The waiter at STK suggested we order 2 gigantic steaks and have the chef cut them.  We ordered a couple sides and an array of dipping sauces.  We have about 60 ounces of steak on our table!

Happy Birthday, Carolyn!

Me and my bro...he looked so good with his face all shaved!

Neil and me enjoying my $17 strawberry cobbler martini

NYC Boat Tour

On our last day, Neil and I decided to take a little boat tour.  We got to see lots of sites and feel the wind in our faces.  It was fun just being with Neil.  Our little boat trip turned into 3 hours...a 3 hour tour!  We were supposed to go around the whole island, but the water was too high so we couldn't get the boat under the bridge.  We had to turn around and go back the way we came.  Oh well. It was still fun!

me, SOL, and Neil

Brooklyn Bridge

Brooklyn Bridge...they said it will still be standing for another century!

You can barely see it, but the yellow house with green shutters behind the trees is the NYC mayor's mansion.  

Wow!  the Statue of Liberty was HUGE and pretty magnificent.

9/11 Memorial and Yankees Game

After our culinary tour we headed to the 9/11 memorial.  We had to get tickets ahead of time and be there by 2:30 pm.  It started pouring rain, so I picked up a sweet poncho from a street vendor.  Since my dad is a southern guy and most southern guys have to have a pocket knife, my dad had one.  Well what is the first sign we saw when entering the memorial?

KNIVES are prohibited!

Somehow with all the security, he made it through with his knife.  Craziness!  Luckily we never had to use it to clean a duck or his fingernails while at the memorial.  These things are necessities, people.

The memorial was pretty darn amazing.  It was just so sad to see all those names of the victims spelled out.  But, if I had lost a loved one I would have wanted to see their name carved in stone.  It is a great memorial and such a nice way of honoring those that lost their lives on 9/11.

Dad and Neil

This is the only tree that survived the attacks.  It was a stump that was taken to another NYC park to be revived.  It survived and they brought it to the memorial.  The "survivor tree" is it's name.

Neil and I went back to the hotel to change and headed to Bryant Park for some roof-top dining.  You can eat outside so many places in NYC.  I love the flowers and trees in the background.  It was raining during our meal and we didn't even get wet.  The umbrellas made it nice to sit outside.

We walked to Grand Central Station to head to the Yankee's game.  I haven't been to NYC since 2002 and Grand Central looked the same to me.  It is amazing!

We took a train to the Bronx and got off right at Yankee Stadium.  Neil LOVES figuring out the trains and making sure we are on the right ones.  Neil also threw our raincoats in the suitcase at the last minute and it was the best idea!

It was beach towel night at the game, but Neil and I got there too late to get one.  Luckily Carolyn and Dad had theirs because it started pouring!  We sat through it for a while until is was a monsoon!  We had to leave by the 3rd inning because it was so bad.  We were glad that we got to see the stadium!

NYC Culinary Tour

As you may know, I am total culinary tour believer.  You get a great deal for your money, eat lots, and hear history.  I will try a culinary tour in every new "foodie" city I visit.  This tour had us in the Chelsea Market and Meatpacking district.  Since we had seen Greenwich village, SOHO, the financial district, WTC, and Broadway I wanted a different area of the city.

Chelsea Market is over a million square feet and used to be the Nabisco factory

Dad and me before the tour

First stop was a little bakery where we enjoyed a mini red velvet cupcake

Next stop was fresh chocolate milk right out of the cow!

finally, a group photo!!

Grilled cheese

We had a 12 minute break so Neil and I went to the raw oyster bar.  You could choose from 15 different types of raw oysters all with different flavors and levels of salinity.

Tuck's sage and sausage rolls

FMJ and Carolyn

After the market, we headed up to the Highline (an old train track that was made into a park).

my top via here.

I had to wear tennis shoes because my feet were so blistered.  

The old train tracks