My Ticker Mocks Me!!

My little ticker mocks me as it tells me it has been over 6 months since we got our referral...

...but I just can't bare to take it down.

We thought we would be headed to Africa right about now or close to it...

...since we can't go there just yet (we will one day)...

...we have decided to take a 2 week vacay somewhere hot and tropical...

See you all soon!

Much love!

*Edit - I moved the ticker, thanks to Dianne, way down....so far down it is beneath a picture of Yvan and I with the animals I bet people didn't even know was there - scroll down to see and then keep scrolling it is waaaaaaaaaaaaay down

Happy Thanksgiving!

This is it....Celebrity Sighting!!!!

Ha! Hilarious! I was wondering how you would all take me postponing the "celebrity sighting"!

Had to make you squirm a little :)

No Rhonda, it wasn't Jerry Springer - I wouldn't even post if I had seen him...I would have run the other way!

Sarah was right!

After having spent the day walking over the Brooklyn bridge and back and then thru Chinatown and Little Italy we wandered into Soho.

Now you should know that these areas are all fairly close together - Manhattan is smaller than you think geographically because it is built upwards. Skyscrapers are abundant and this is where everyone lives - up in the sky or in brownstones.

We had just stopped for a coffee/tea break and then headed out to roam some more. We stopped at the APPLE store (Travellers Tip - if you are in a city that has an APPLE store this is a good place to stop, if it is convenient, to check email, blogs, message boards or whatever for free. All their computers have Internet access)

But I digress - we had just left the store and were wandering around thinking about where we would eat for supper when we came across a plethora (that's right a plethora) of black suburbany type vehicles and trailers as well as a large crowd of people.

Well, being the curious types we are we decided to see what was up and being the shy person I am, I walked right up to someone and said "What's going on? Why is everyone standing around?"

They said "Sarah Jessica Parker is in the trailer. They are filming Sex and the City 2 and we are all waiting for her to come back out."

"Reeeeeaaaaaally!!!!!" I say and whip my camera out faster than you can say "Boo". I love Sex and the City, and my sis-in-law loves it even more so I knew I had to get some photos if I could.

We stood there for about 15 minutes and were just about to leave when a commotion happens down the block and…...

Cynthia Nixon a.k.a Miranda Hobbes walks by

She wasn't very smiley or pleased to see the fans it seems.

We wait a little longer and are kept amused by the waiting crowd. Every so often someone comes out of the trailer and the crowd goes "oooooooooooooh" and when it isn't Sarah they all would go "aaaaaaawwwwwwwww!"

Too funny!

Then she did come out - and she was lovely taking the time to say "Hi" and wave to everyone and pose for a couple of photos. Then she left to go to set and the crowd swarmed after her so we followed the crowd because they amused us.

Sarah Jessica Parker a.k.a Carrie Bradshaw

Right around the corner is where they are filming a scene for the new movie. So we hung for a bit with the rest of the folks...and....

Kristin Davis a.k.a Charlotte York strolls by with her bodyguard.

Next up Kim Catrall a.k.a Samantha Jones arrives.

Let me tell you...the women in the crowd ( and it was mostly women) squealed with excitement when she came by...actually squealed!

The Paparazzi snapping the celebs! Don't they seem pleased with themselves.

We thought we might stay for a while to watch a scene being filmed but they shooed us away like little flies! Oh and we happened to talk to a fellow who lived in the area and he asked us what was going on. When we told him he said "oh $%^@, I am so annoyed by those girls...I mean they bring good business to the city but how would you like it if your street was constantly being shut down for shooting and you had tourists and paparazzi hanging outside of your apartment all day!"

Point taken! We did make sure to tell him we had just stumbled across this and it wasn't the reason we had come to New York...seemed to make him happier and he wished a pleasant time in NY.

New Yorkers, you gotta love 'em. They are definitely honest!

P.S. If you click on the pictures they as Cinn says "Embiggen"

Chelsea, West Village and Greenwich Village

We spent Sunday in Chelsea, West Village and Greenwich Village.

These 3 areas were probably our favourite areas in Manhattan. They are funky, artsy, eclectic and laid back. We took the subway to Chelsea and walked from here thru the Meat Packing district to West Village and Greenwich.

We did a lot of walking! A lot! But it was worth it.

This is the Chelsea Market.

It is an indoor gourmet food market - in the upper floors of the building are studios and many of the Food Network programs are filmed here.

The Highline - an old railroad track built in the 1930's above the streets. In the last few years, it has been developed into a natural grassland park with benches. Eventually you will be able to walk on this old track all the way from the Meat Packing District up to Hell's Kitchen. Very cool! In a city that is a concrete jungle, this is a very nice getaway.

Yvan and his favourite building

Parking anyone? Yup, this is parking...and to get the car on the top...you got to move both cars below and then put them back again...it only costs about $34 per half hour! Yikes!

Uh, would you like a helicopter to go with your yacht. Why yes! Yes, I would!

Seriously, whose is this? And this was small compared to some of the ones parked at Chelsea Pier!

More of The Highline - cool that it actually goes thru buildings hey!

A little fashion shoot in the Meat Packing District (no, this is not the celebrity sighting...that comes tomorrow)

Groovin' in the village on Bleecker Street

Chillin' in Washington Square Park

Jazzin' it up!

Music, music, music everywhere!

View of the Empire State Building from our hotel room at night!

We were so tired after our day we crashed early!!!

But not before we ate some delicious Mexican food in the village :)

World Trade Center and Lady Liberty

On Saturday we decided to head down to the Financial District and Lower Manhattan.

We strolled thru the streets making our way to the World Trade Center site.

You use to be able to go right up to the site but now they have started to rebuild.

You can go here to see what they are working on.

Standing at this site was thought provoking. Over the previous couple of days there had been a lot of footage played from the day the attacks happened. Much of which we had seen, a lot of it from the day of the attacks, and subsequently over the years.

But when you stand at the site and you look up and imagine those towers and surrounding buildings...what they must have been like....how tall those towers really were...and you see the size of the WTC grounds....

....then you see the images in your mind of the horror that took place that day...the lives lost... you see the flowers, notes and cards left by families and friends who lost loved one...it takes your breath away.

St. Paul's Chapel - across the street from the WTC















Statue of Liberty



View of Ellis Island

View of lower Manhattan from the Lady of Liberty

*EDIT* - I forgot to write about our Saturday night!!!

We went to see a Broadway musical - A real, live Broadway Musical!!! In the theatre district...by crazy, insane, bright, crowded Times Square.

First we went for supper at the oldest Indian restaurant in New York City. It was on the second floor of a very narrow, slanted building. It was highly recommened to us and after we got used to the sensation of sitting on an angle -I kid you not the slant to the place was hilarious....we had one of the best Indian meals ever!!!

Then we ran over to the Al Hirschfield theatre (if you know us you know we are almost always late for everything!) to see HAIR the Musical!

It was amazing! The best Musical I have ever seen. The talent of the cast was amazing and it was so interactive...they kept coming out in to the audience singing and dancing and jumping on chairs.

Yvan even really liked it and he does not really dig the musicals. I did woo him with the idea that there would be a tad bit of nudity in the show which always helps :)

I think the people behind us who talked thru the entire first half didn't like the nudity - they didn't come back for the second half much to our relief.

New York City

Yvan and I decided to have one last HURRAH as a couple sans kids...and because of wicked seat sales...we chose to go to

NEW YORK CITY!!!!

We absolutely fell in love with this city. You always hear people saying "New York is the greatest city on earth"...well they are pretty much bang on. I can say for me it was one the best cities I have ever visited..Yvan would probably say the same.

I have never visited a place so alive...you can feel it, see it, hear it, smell it! It is hard to put it in words so photos will have to do.

So, we took a ton of photos - it will take some time for me to post some of our favourites (there are a lot) and you might not want to see them all and if you want you can skip those posts feel free but there are some gooders and there will be a HUGE celebrity sighting (actually celebrities) that I think some will want to gander at....turns out I blend in quite well with the Paparazzi - ha!

We stayed in the Garment District -across the street from Madison Square Gardens and 2 blocks from Macy's. We were 2 or 3 blocks from 2 different subway lines and we used them a lot!!! The subway rocks!!!

Here is our trip! I think everyone should visit this city at least once!

Thursday night (arrival day)

View from the Empire State Building

A must see - especially at night - it really helped us get oriented and know what was where.

Lobby of the Empire State Building


September 11 - very sobering to be in New York on this 8th Anniversary. When we were getting ready in the morning we were watching the names being read down at the WTC. We didn't go - it was raining and we didn't want to be the tourists taking photos of people in mourning and rememberance.

There was a fire hall (Hook and Ladder 24) around the corner from our hotel and a Franciscan church across the street from the hall.

This photo was taken right after the service they had to honour the lives lost that day.

It was raining so we decided to hit a museum....hopped on the subway and ta da!

Natural Museum of History.

This place - HUGE - it could take you days to see it all - we spent a couple/three hours here and just visited the exhibits we really wanted to see.

We ended our day by going to see a taping of "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon". For some reason we decided to walk the 20 blocks to Rockafeller Plaza where the NBC Studios are located. On a nice day it would be a lovely walk but it was raining hard and it was rush hour (which is why we walked too hard to get a cab). After a couple of umbrella blow outs we arrived - soaked!! They keep the studios quite cold because of the lights for the stage but we still enjoyed ourselves immensely.

Jimmy Fallon is AWESOME and nice to look at - his guest that night was Russell Brand.

That guy. Hilarious! We laughed our @#%#@ off!

Then we headed out for some of New York's best Italian - sigh!

The food in New York - Amazing! We ate a lot!