day zero: traveling
The Bolt Bus was nice, besides the girl in the back who didn't realize that there were OTHER PEOPLE on the bus and would laugh really loud while others were sleeping. Other than that...ok.
Plus, I had my gummy bears... :)
Cabs now have tv's in them, complete with news, Zagats, maps, and cab fare info. You can even pay by credit card. So cool.
We had some really interesting cabbies, though. There was the one that lied about his credit card machine not working, apparently an ongoing political issue there. Then one kept yelling the worst obscenities at other drivers, and another one who almost killed us with his driving. And no, we didn't find the Cash Cab :( But we looked.
day one: shopping
The first thing I had to do when daylight hit was see the view from Meredith's apartment, which is on the Upper East side by the water.
These two kids were rolling down the hill on a skateboard. After a while, the girl just sat at the top, bored.
"what have I gotten myself into with this boy?"
Then after some coffee and entemann's doughnuts, we set off.
There are dogs everywhere in NYC. There are two in this picture if you look hard enough.
We hit the subway to head down to Soho for brunch.
Ahhh! I'm falling...
Musicians everywhere. We couldn't figure out what instrument this was. Everytime I took a picture, though, he would start singing.
Cute sculptures.
Soho was soooooo cute.
We went for brunch at Bone Lick Park. For only $13, I had a big breakfast with eggs and bacon and the works, as well as unlimited mimosas. Surprisingly, they filled most of the flute with the champagne.
This man was cutting his hamburger with a knife. lol
On the way more south in soho we passed an artistic memorial for Sept 11.
I found a Bigelow store! For all of you Bath & Body Works junkies (I worked there for 7 years), you can appreciate it.
I used this store countless times in sales pitches to customers. "This line of products comes from a real apothecary store started in the 1800s in new york city. It still exists today." Yeah it still exists...and they not only have Bigelow products, but also real pharmacy products like mylanta and colgate, as well as a prescription counter. It was awesome.
Some vendors sold used books outside on the street.
Welcome to Greenwich village!
We finally found
Purl, this super famous knitting store. I ended up buying only two stitch holders.
Here at Vara's favorite jeans store is a table made of jeans compressed into a cyinder, with a big circle of glass on top.
I thought this was funny because this is what I usually doodle on paper: swirls.
We shopped tons. I got some shoes that were like 80% off, a tibetan scarf, and a cute long black jersey dress. We were so tired and sore, so we went home a vegged out for a while.
At night, we went to a restaurant on the rooftop of the Gramercy Park Hotel, not realizing until we got there that drinks cost $20 each. It's ok, we're only young once, right? Plus, they were really good...a lot of depth.
This room was so awesome. From the ceiling hung thousands of small light bulbs, only a few lit.
day two: chillin like a villainOn the second day I began by going to the roof while the sleepyheads slept, to take in the view.
I brought up my knitting.
We ventured out late morning. We noticed this awesome sky-ad, most likely made by plane exhaust or puffs or something. so cool.
We went to a cute little market and got some prepared food for a picnic in central park.
Hi Vara!
Cutest Yorkie ever. This girl looked like a stereotypical young new yorker, complete with a little dog.
I like looking up into the trees.
Ahh, the weekend...
This guy made a point to sit under this awesome tree to read.
A legal pad...so many uses...such as sun blocker.
Ack farmer's tan. That looked like it hurt. It looked way worse in real life than in this picture.
This couple was being cute. After leaning on each other, they switched to laying on each other. :)
Then we left to try to get to the Metropolitan Museum of Art before it closed. We passed some artisans.
When I asked this guy if I could take a picture of these, he said, "yeah, as long as you don't put me in it."
The ceiling of the Met was amazing.
Gotta check out the jewelry, even if it's from ancient Egypt and not buyable.
a real live mummy, well, not so much "live"
I love sculptures. I call this one, "invisible chair."
A few faces.
It looks like he is holding his breath. lol
mm..
To get a sense at how big this is, look at the bottom right corner. That is a placard describing the piece.
I wish my hair looked like this, though not so much made of stone...
Far
Closer
Really close.
Ahh, here's my medium...repurposed goods...
Now from far away.
Then they kicked us out. There were so many visitors, it was like they were herding sheep.
The New York Psychoanalytic Society?!?! yes!!! and my dorkiness emerged...
day three: savoring the final momentsI took alone time at the beginning of the day to go to another yarn store.
On the way I passed another corner market. I love how they do this, it is so convenient. If I lived here, I could make something other than Lean Cuisines :)
Only in New York...
He was being pommeled by ten cute-ass dogs. And getting paid for it!
I finally found the
Woolgathering. I bought some Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran for a special gift. :)
I talked with the owner for a while and when she found out that I was a social worker, she wanted to give me a present. I was thinking it would be something small, but then she gave me 2 skeins of 100% cashmere!
On the way back I actually saw some cats. I had forgotten about those.
Then we trekked back to DC and I was reminded of one of my fave things about this city: the amazing architecture in the metro stations.
So New York was a success. I tried to never take advantage that I was in THE city; to really appreciate the fact that I was there. It was amazing...
Then we headed off to the beach. It was post-Labor-Day so it was really chill there. My grandma has this amazing beach house. I love her style. Very clean and simple.
After an all-you-can-eat brunch where I took a picture of this flower (my dad kept taking pictures of flowers and saying, look what I can do, so I took this one in protest. I really like the pic though)
we headed up to the beach to see how Hurricane Hanna was doing.
They just built these giant dunes.
It was pretty windy. I cleaned off a film made of salt water spray mixed with mini sand granules from my glasses every 10 minutes.
We were surprised that they still had lifeguards on duty since it was after labor day.
These seagulls were just floating, like statues; no need to flap their wings because the wind was really strong.
Grandma didn't feel like coming down to the water. Isn't she so cute?
Family pic.
We spent the rest of the afternoon inside playing cards and knitting. Well, the knitting was really just me.
I was working on the Broad Street Mittens from Knitty.
Look how many ends I had to weave in! Damn fingers...
We played gin rummy. After doing it, Dad regretted picking up this many cards from the discard pile. I think he wtill won that round, though. :-/
For dinner we went to Nantucket's. It was delish. The parking lot was made of broken shells. Only at the beach. It was pretty neat.
The next morning Hanna was visiting our friends in the north, and the skies were left blue as a blueberry. I took advantage of the weather and took some time to knit outside.
At this point my camera's battery dies, but my dad took some great pics of me going into the ocean with my clothes on. Sorry, but it was just too nice outside. The water was the perfect temperature and there were plenty of people sunbathing and swimming. I was about to buy a swimsuit at an end-of-summer sale just so I couold swim, but my dad and grandma were like, "just go in with your clothes on." I didn't go all the way in. We also did a little mainstreet window shopping.
At the beach I went to Sea Needles and finally bought some Noro Kureyon for Jared Flood's Noro Scarf. I'm in love with this scarf!
