Monday, March 29, 2010

We love NY

Even though I went to law school a short train ride away from NYC, I had never been. Chad thought (rightfully so) that this was a great tragedy, and promised to take me as soon as possible. Thanks to Tonya, we managed to find a great deal at a new hotel in Midtown, so we picked a weekend in March and booked the trip!

During our three-day whirlwind tour of NYC, we managed to see Times Square, eat Tasti D-Lite (Biscuit), run into The Naked Cowboy, get a bus tour of Lower Manhattan, Explore (a very small part of) Central Park, eat falafel from a street vendor, eat Pinkberry three times (again, Biscuit), and be the first ones to the top of the Statue of Liberty's crown.

My favorite part of the trip was without a doubt the trip up the Statue of Liberty. It was quite an undertaking to get there. Chad had to buy our tickets months in advance, as they only let around 90 people to the top every day. We arrived in Battery Park at a very early 7:45 a.m. Our tickets said 9 a.m., but Chad is not a fan of being late. We stood in line until 8 a.m., when we moved inside to a different line. We went through one level of security, took the boat to Liberty Island, and literally raced off the boat to be the first ones in the next security line. After passing through the final layer of security, we were off to the races! Somehow one other couple cut in front of us on the way up the 350ish stairs; however, they hesitated for about 2 seconds on a landing halfway up the monument. Chad and I did not hesitate. We glanced at each other, nodded, and took off up the stairs. We were the first ones to the top of the Statue of Liberty's crown!

It was an amazing weekend and I can't wait to go back, even if only for the numerous conveniently located Pinkberrys and the Hummus Place restaurant. Amazing. Thanks Gravy!

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Oh Canada.....Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics

I have always loved watching the Olympics. No matter the sport, the country or if its the summer or winter. There is just something about the competition, camaraderie, and nationalism.

I was lucky to attend the Atlanta 96 Olympics when my sister was dancing in the opening and closing ceremonies. However, Kelly had not been to an Olympics.

In February I was basing out of Seattle for 2 weeks. Every night Kelly and I watched the Olympics religiously. Kelly decided we should pop up to Vancouver for the day to just experience the festivities. I called my friend Chris and had my passport FedEx'ed to me and we decided on the day. Not to my surprise, Kelly didn't want to just visit Vancouver but wanted to see an event. She looked for days until she found the perfect tickets...Curling (or shuffleboard with ice, brooms, and big granite rocks).

At 7am on Sunday, February 28th we made a run for the boarder. Our trip into Vancouver was easy--flew through the boarder and found cheap parking downtown. After picking up our tickets we wandered around taking in the shirts, jackets and red mittens. While the Olympic Flame was beautiful, the fact it was behind a fence (referred to as a concentration camp) was troubling.

After fighting our way through the official souvenir shop (and failing to find mittens) we headed to the Olympic Center for Curling. 4 sheets of ice, 16 stones per sheet, and 4 (wo)man teams. Although I had been watching curling daily and reading up on it, it was still intimidating. We bought a radio to "listen in" on what was happening and to help us understand the matches. While it was hard to follow 3 matches at once (much harder than on TV), it was amazing to be part of the Olympics and a "sport" that most people hadn't heard of 2 weeks earlier. The Americans lost badly and the Canadians were also beaten in an upset. However we felt like winners for getting to Vancouver and taking part in a once in a lifetime experience (well, maybe twice a lifetime for me).

We're ready to book our tickets to Sochi in 2014!