empire state of mind: part 2

"It couldn't have happened anywhere but in little old New York"

Tuesday:

I had booked a trip to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island the week before we left. We went to a Pret for breakfast (what's with all these cafeteria style places in NYC?) and then headed down to the ferry where we caught the ferry to New Jersey. It was the most beautiful day in NYC. The sun was out, there was a slight breeze, and it wasn't humid...well as much as it was the day before. Ellis Island was super informative (we did an audio tour) and the grounds were beautiful. We tried looking up our ancestors who came over but we didn't have enough information to be successful. Next we were off to the Statue of Liberty. We mostly sat outside and just relaxed and looked up at her while listening to the audio tour. It was neat seeing her up close.

After the tour we headed back to Manhattan where we took the subway back to Brooklyn to change into some jeans and head to dinner....at the infamous Grimaldi's pizza in Brooklyn. We waited in line for close to an hour and half. Worth it! I was like a kid in a candy store. The pizza was delicious. I really like thin crust...not to mention tomato, basil, and mozzarella is my new favorite combination! We met a few locals that were sitting by us and our tables were the loud obnoxious groups...singing to the music ( we are the champions by Queen!) and laughing! The best! After we hung out by the Bridge and looked at the city lights then went to a nice bar for a few drinks. Then walked across the Bridge. It was a long night...but so worth it!

Wednesday:

We were going to wake up early and go to the Today show... but with the late night the night before + drinks...it wasn't going to happen. We still wound up in Rockefeller center. Beautiful area! We walked around 5th Ave and checked out St.Patricks as well. What a iconic church..it's so beautiful. We made our way up to Columbus Circle and Central Park. We played in this around for awhile and then decided to get our butts to The Met. I was in awe of this building. It's amazing. We only had 2 and half hours in the Met before it closed...so we power walked through the thing! I saw so much...too much..my brain was in information overload. We sat outside on the steps for long while after to just soak it in and to let our feet rest. We took the bus back down 5th...and went to Grand Central Station. We ate dinner a the infamous Oyster Bar inside GCS. The wait staff was kind of rude but we were mostly immune to this by now. I had a the Manhattan clam chowder and an appetizer of the Crab Cakes. It was yummy! After we went down Lexington back to the Crumbs cupcake shop we spotted on the way to GCS. I have had Crumbs cupcakes before from a shop in LA. They are delicious! I had the Red Velvet. We had the perfect window seat and just enjoyed people watching while munching on our cupcakes. Sugar overload we walked back to Radio City music and decided to do the Top of the Rock at night. STUNNING! The city that never sleeps is gorgeous at night. I don't know why people would choose to go to the top of the Empire State Building instead of the Rock? You can see central park, the empire state building, times square....everything. We were up there for over an hour! After we took the F train home. The subway was extra crowed tonight with a lot of people around the same age. I guess Wednesday is a good night to go out in NYC?

More to come!

Just an FYI.. all pictures are taken by me... unless it's a picture of me. ha.

empire state of mind-part 1

I'm home! It was an incredible, long, fun, exciting, and exhausting journey!

New York was all I hoped it would be and more. I actually enjoyed riding the Subways. And with every rude person we encountered a nice person was there to make up for the rudeness. People watching was fabulous. There are so many different kinds of people in this city. It's amazing to watch. One of the most interesting things was watching the lack of human interaction on the subway. Everyone (the locals) had a book, i-pod, blackberry, or some other form of distraction to keep them occupied during the ride. You sit extremely close to random people yet there is no interaction with them. So interesting!

SUNDAY:

We spent the majority of the day traveling. We woke up at 5am to get to the airport by 8ish. We flew JetBlue from Sacramento to Long Beach where we had a little lay over. From Long Beach to NYC. The flight was smooth and went by fast since we had our individual TVs (what did we do before this?). When we finally landed we were delayed because there was an emergency landing due to a medical issue. Macky met us at the airport and we were off....to boot camp as we called it. Air Train to the Long Island Railroad, to the subway with a few transfers...all with luggage. I'm glad it was Sunday night and the trains weren't busy..since we were all newbies. We finally arrived in Brooklyn at Mackys place around midnight. What a long day!

MONDAY:

Monday was full of excitement but soon ended when we got off on the wrong side of town..Jay St-Borough Hall. I'm thankful we got to see this part of town though. Back on the subway we got off at the Brooklyn Bridge so we could walk across it. Awesome! :) Once across we walked around Wall Street, went into St.Pauls, Trinity Church, saw ground Zero, a few free museums, and Battery Park. Back on the Subway towards Madison Square we were on a mission to get some lunch...I had to eat at the Shake Shack while in NYC.. duh. The burger was hella good... I could have lived without the shake and fries though. The Flat Iron building was gorgeous! From there we walked toward Times Square...stopped in at Ruby Tuesdays for a late afternoon pick me up drink. After we sat on the big red stairs and people watched for a good hour. Next we were off to find dinner on Pier 17. Really cute area! We ended up at a little restaurant on the pier...I was wishing we would have picked a different one... this place just wasn't that great. Oh well.. I was in NYC with my friends. Finally back on Ditmas... it was bed time!

Stay tuned for part 2!

here i go.

I'm leaving for NYC in the morning. I couldn't be happier. :) Cheers and see ya when I get back.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

wow

I have completely abandoned my blog over the last month. I have been pretty busy.

With such things as:

-My mom and dads birthdays during the same week.

-Fundraiser Car Wash for the Relay for Life. We made about $350 at the car wash.

-Mothers Day

-the Penn Valley Rodeo (what a party weekend and so much fun!!)

-Amgen Tour of California Bike Race that started in my hometown!

-Relay for Life! What a long, tiring weekend that was! I raised about $630. Our team as a whole raised over $2,500! It was such a great event!

-Tim McGraw Concert with all my closest buddies! What a fun night. I'm not turning into a cowgirl...promise...but country concerts are truly some of the best.

-BBQ's galore!

-Way too much drinking... I need to cut back...

-Quick trip to Reno to visit cousins and party some more! yay!

-A prom themed birthday party and Latino night at a local bar=The best!

-This Saturday I will be watching my little brother get his highschool diploma! I can't believe that it has been 6 years since I graduated! Time flies by...

And finally getting ready for my departure to NYC! I leave for the big apple on Sunday! Couldn't be more excited! I need to update more.. just for the sake of being able to remember all the fun things I have done. Hopefully when I return I will get my butt into gear!

Hope everything is having a fabulous week!

shopping away..

I have been busy shopping online lately. I bought a few things for my trip to NYC.

I got this sweet messenger bag in Mustard from Etsy. It came from the this cute shop. Check out all the cute bags and purse she has in there. Great quality! I wanted a bag that I could throw around my body and carry lots of stuff. I think it will work out perfect. :)

I also bought this sweet camera strap from this awesome shop. It's super cute. I need a camera strap bad from my 35mm camera. I really want to shoot film while in NYC... black in white preferably. :)

I have been wanting a pair of TOMS for a long while.. (see here). I finally bought a pair last week. I really like the classic Ash canvas and they were in stock so I ordered them.. only to find out that there system was down and they actually don't have any in. So I'm on a waiting for these bad boys to come back in. I like the neutral color that will go with a lot of things.

I have a few more things I need to get before my trip to NYC. Any suggestions?

Help a sister out!

I'm really looking forward to May 22nd and 23rd.

WHY you ask?

I'm participating in the annual Relay For Life walk.

It's such an amazing event.

I have decided to walk in my Grandma's honor. She passed away earlier this year from thyroid cancer. She was an awesome person. She did so much, gave so much, and hardly asked for anything in return. She was an amazing lady.

I know that the American Cancer Society puts these events on annually in several locations. You should really check into it and see if there is one near you and your town. The Luminaria is something to see! They line the whole walk way with white bags with names of people fighting cancer or who passed away from cancer. They put candles in them and light them at night. It's beautiful. It actually makes me cry. (i'm sensitive, lol)

If you would like to donate to me and my team i would love you forever. You can make the donation in memory of anyone you want. Just remember it's for an awesome cause!

Happy Thursday and Tax Day!

simple

The Weekend in Simple terms:

pizza

jalapeno poppers

hefeweizen

girl chat

juke boxes

sleeping in

taking part in community activities

relaxing

trying a new coffee shop

catching up

mall

arcade

hefeweizen

Thai shrimp lettuce wraps

free entrance into bar

red bull

saying goodbye to a friend who is leaving for the army.

sleeping in

breakfast at South Pine.

relaxing

Butterfinger ice cream

meeting with team for the Relay for Life (donate if you would like!)

visiting family

The Blind Side

bed.

Hello Monday.

Winner!

Man... my luck is really starting to change! Today is great. Everything is right in the world! I feel like I can conquer anything. Here are the reasons why:





1. Get onto blogger..start reading my favs.. and see that I won a giveaway!!! my first time! Thanks to Stacey for giving me this beauty! And to Jenna for creating it!

2. Well if the post below wasn't clear...I'M GOING TO NYC!!

3. Received an email telling me I have a new fan following my Yelp reviews. :) It's the little things people..... that gives me 2 whole fans. haha

4. It's Friday!!!!!!!!! nuf said.

Have a fabulous weekend!

It's official!!!!

I just bought my plane tickets to NYC. I'm the most excited I have been in forever.

New York is like this dream place to me. I think it is to a lot of people. It's a place where things happen. dreams come true. where you make it or break it. I'm excited that I will be apart of that for a week. The hustle and bustle of the streets. The sounds of the city.

I come from a pretty small town. There are about 15,000 people in the city limits (i could be wrong though... have to wait for the 2010 census to update me! ha). I have seen and been to big cities before. I love San Francisco. Sacramento is charming. And LA is fun. But there's just something about New York City (even though I have never been..) It's like a foreign country.

Cheers!

*The person who took above photo is named on the picture.

Things you might not have known...

A little list of fun and interesting facts and tad bits about me and my life!

♥In 2007 I took pictures of everything I ate. Breakfast, Lunch, Snacks, Dinner, Starbucks, Jamba Juice, everything. It was a lot of fun. I tried to do it again in 2009 but I failed about half way through. Let's just say I have a lot of pictures of food on my computer. I still take pictures of the pretty foods or when I'm on vacation. :)

♥In high school my friends and I started the first all girl paintball team in Northern California, we were the Bunker Babes. I'm sure you have never heard of us, unless you were in the paintball scene. We were all over the place. We were famous. Articles in newspapers, magazines, and online and appearances in paintball productions filmed by Derder. Those were the golden years....sigh.

♥My dream job would be to work for The Food Network. Doing anything. Living in NYC.

♥ When I was little I wanted to be an Archaeologist. I think I watched Indian Jones too much.

♥I was on TV. There was once this show called Switched and it was on ABC family. My friend auditioned to be on the show and she made it. She went to Texas and the beauty queen came to Grass Valley and stayed at my house. We had a film crew follow us around for the weekend. She had to do all the things that my friend Leslie would normally do. Let's just say Reality TV isn't all it's cracked up to be... For Example we had to wait for the crew to get set up to make our entrance to places, they gave us stuff to talk about, and they edit the shit out of the footage! What a good experience though!

♥My parents were divorced when I was 6 years old. I can't imagine my life any different then it is now. I have 2 step parents, 2 step sisters, and 1 step brother plus a ton more cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, etc. Even though the holidays can be a real pain in the ass I wouldn't change it.

♥My favorite movies when I was very young were Edward Scissor Hands, Speed, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Coming to America. I was a weird kid....still am....

♥My favorite kind of music is 70's and 80's Classic Rock. Give me some hair bands and I will be happy. I do like all music though. I really don't discriminate when it comes to a good beat.

♥ I Played the trumpet and french horn in elementary and middle school. Our marching band was awesome. We marched in Disneyland! Also, we were the only Middle School to receive and invite to play at Governor Gray Davis's Inauguration (1999). All the other schools (I believe 5 others?) were all high school bands. Bob Saget, Coolio, Kenny G, and a few others were there as well. HAHA!

♥ One of the best things I have ever done was go on a study abroad trip to New Zealand. It changed my life. My advice to anyone is to travel. No better learning tool.

I think thats about all I got for now.. Sorry for boring the crap out of you.