The Sevens

Both tshsmom and Great White Bear say they would have tagged me with this had they known I was back from vacation. I guess I'll be nice and do it anyway. Their lists were slightly different, so since I saw tshsmom's first I'll use hers.

7 THINGS YOU PLAN TO DO BEFORE YOU DIE.

1. Finish the final Harry Potter book.
2. Go back to Sedona again.
3. Meet some other bloggers. (besides the ones I'm related too)
4. Finish all the half-started books that I have around the house.
5. Finish the French Course that I got for my birthday a few years ago.
6. Figure out a lucrative job that I love and can do from home.
7. Start having real goals so lists like this aren't so hard.

7 THINGS YOU CAN DO

1. I can sing well.
2. I can blog.
3. I can play various musical instruments.
4. I can do pretty well at the regular Trivial Pursuit.
5. I can be pretty persuasive at times.
6. I can use a computer well enough to do what I need to.
7. I can usually get along with just about anybody.

7 THINGS YOU CAN'T DO

1. Program computer software.
2. Deliberately hurt someone's feelings.
3. Stay away from my favorite blogs.
4. Feel comfortable driving in a city that I don't know.
5. Read/write most of the world's languages.
6. Not read the whole of the new Harry Potter book the day it comes out.
7. Most sports. (total klutz here)

7 THINGS THAT ATTRACT YOU TO THE OPPOSITE SEX

1. A good sense of humor.
2. Good conversationalist.
3. A bit of a twisted sense of humor.
4. Nice ass. (it HAD to be said)
5. Caring nature.
6. He doesn't waste his time watching or following sports.
7. Gentle nature.

7 THINGS YOU SAY THE MOST

1. Well, technically...
2. What do you think?
3. How did this suddenly turn into such an emergency?
4. Better get back to blogging.
5. I don't know, what do you want to do?
6. Is it time to go home yet?
7. Hi, how are you doing?

7 CELEBRITY CRUSHES

1. Davy Jones (when I was age 10)
2. John Cowsill (when I was age 12)
3. Michael J Fox (no more ages listed)
4. Keanu Reeves
5. Kurt Russell
6. Harrison Ford
7. I can't think of anybody else. I'll let you know if I do.

That's my list. If anyone feels like tagging him- or herself just let me know.

New York Stories Part Deux

The next morning, Thursday, we had decided to go to the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and the Empire State building. We figured the subway was the way to go. There was a station a couple of blocks from our hotel that was heading to the South of Manhattan.

This picture I call waiting for the subway.


What we didn't know is that, in order to get to the most southerly part of that line you had to be in one of the first five cars. That meant we had to get off at the next to last stop. I've been having some problems with my gut area since late April. By the time we'd walked just a few steps from the subway all I could think was, "I have to get to a bathroom NOW!"

We were moving right along, so to speak, and I felt so lousy that I didn't even realize we were passing Ground Zero. Didn't have to stop and contemplate or anything. Found my bathroom in time, but felt kinda bad about the whole thing.

After that I needed a short rest so we sat on a bench and I shot this picture. Maybe a New Yorker could tell me what the building and clock are.


Then we took the long walk down to where you got tickets for the boat to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. That didn't take as long as I thought it would considering the long line of people. We got a spot on the boat and I took this photo of Ellis Island while were still on the boat.


I took a lot of pictures of this lady, but this one was my favorite.


After seeing the Statue of Liberty we were on the boat heading over to Ellis Island. I got this one from the boat. Is this the Brooklyn Bridge? I'm not sure.


While on Ellis Island I saw a seagull perched on the flag. I had to snap the picture. Ha-ha, even in New York I managed to get in a picture of a tree in flower and bird.


This is a crooked shot of Ellis Island as we headed out on the boat.


Here's one of the Manhattan skyline pictures I took on the ride back. You can see it's really hazy. But we both ended up with some pretty good sunburns that day.


Then we took the subway back up as close as we could to the Empire State building. I absolutely had to see it again because of its (betcha can't guess) Art Deco interior. Here are some shots of the interior.




The line to get up there was terrible. It took us well over an hour. I finally got out and took some shots from the 86th floor.

The Chrysler building is another Art Deco building.

I don't know what this building is either, but I liked its top.

The one behind and to the left of the Met Life building is the Citicorp building. I just like it.

Then I'm surprised I didn't get dizzy looking up at the top of the Empire State building when I got this one.

This was our elevator as we came down. I got a picture of it four years ago when we were here but my finger was in half of the photo.


Between trying to keep my balance on the boat and standing on the subway I was pretty tired and sore. We ate at a restaurant called Pigalle's and went back to the room for the evening.

On Friday we decided to go to the Metropolitan Art Musuem. The subway didn't go right there, so since it was pouring rain we ran up the steps of the Museum of Natural History. The rain didn't subside so we went into the gift shop and bought umbrellas. Then we walked on one of the roads that cuts through Central Park and made it to the Met.

I had trouble again getting the camera to not take blurry pictures as I had to have the flash turned off. The first pictures are from the Greek/Roman section.








Here are a couple from the Medieval Europe section.



I think this was from the Egyptian section.


As I said, I was sore from the boat ride the day before so we cut it short at an hour and a half. When we got back closer to Times Square we ate in a place called Ellen's Stardust Diner. The waitstaff must be waiting to go on Broadway. They sand and MC'ed the whole time. Then we went back to the TCKTS booth and got tickets to see Rent. That was a lot of fun.

The next day we headed out and went through New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ohio. We thought about going all the way home but there were storms so bad we could hardly see. At one point there was flash flooding on the highway. We just got a hotel in a place called Milan. When we left the next day it only took us 3 - 4 hours to get home.

And that is the story of Squirl and Ichabod go to New York.

New York City Part I

Well we stayed in Lily Dale until about 6:00 pm on Tuesday. Then we decided we'd head over most of the way to NYC. I figured we'd just find a nice hotel and settle in for night, no problem. We saw some, but ended up going past the exit. The next hotel that was mentioned was closed. We drove and drove and drove. We were in the mountains and everything advertised was either a campground or a resort. We didn't even know how far off the highway they'd be. I was beginning to think we'd have to drive all night. But then we came to a town called Liberty. Praise the heavens, there was a Days Inn. And it was only about 11:00 pm. That seems late to me for my usual schedule but was a far cry from "driving all night".

The next morning, after our complementary continental breakfast, we headed on for New York City. We jumped onto 9 and followed that through the city. We went through places like Harlem. It would' ve been faster to take the highway, but not as colorful.

We made just a couple of wrong turns going down that way. One of them got me within shooting distance of a Mimosa tree. The picture's a bit blurry, but they have the most beautiful pink flowers.

You knew I couldn't resist a picture with a flower. You might want to click on it to get a bit more of a look at the flower.

Then we headed to the Theater District. It's where all the Broadway and Off-Broadway shows are. We stayed at the Hotel Edison on 47th just off Times Square. We stayed there the last time we were in town and knew there was a parking place a half block up where we could dump the car during our stay.

The Hotel Edison was built in 1931 which was during the Art Deco era. Anyone who knows me knows that I looooove Art Deco. Here are some shots of the hotel.

This was the entrance.


This is the lobby.


A side shot of the lobby.


This is the lamp over the entrance.


Here are some shots of the room. This bed was over 6' long. Ichabod finally got a good night's sleep.




The next day we went to the Museum of Modern Art, MOMA. Thanks to Torrie we had free tickets and were able to skip a very, very long line and get straight in. Torrie, I don't care that you hate everything, I blove you!

Here are is a very long batch of pictures from MOMA.








I've been wanting to buy one of these Noguchi tables for years.





After 3 1/2 hours at MOMA we went over to Rockefeller Center because they had more Art Deco stuff there.
I'm mad that this one came out blurred. I really wanted that picture of Wisdom.





I got yelled at for taking this one, but that Art Deco railing was too cool to miss.



We got tickets to see "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf" that night. Kathleen Turner was playing in it. The whole thing is fantastic. It's just one set and four people. The dialogue carries the whole thing.

I'm going to break here. This is going to take forever for people to load with all these pictures. And I have more pictures. Remember, you all asked for pictures. :-)