Saturday, July 9, 2011

Twelve Hours, Twelve Miles

We....

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Walked around the World Trade Center site, and into the beautiful hushed St Peter's Church.  The last time I was here, there was just a big hole in the ground, so it was amazing to see the new growth.  It's a comforting reminder of what it means to be American: you get knocked down by awful and unfair events, but you never stay down.  And often you get back up and you're stronger and more beautiful when you started.  Yay, America.  Yay, New York.  It really hit me how much this city had been through almost a decade ago (!!).  I was holding back tears walking through the tribute at St Peter's, as the visual images really brought the event back to it's full magnitude for me.

Jamie and I walked outside into the bright sun and just sort of looked at each other and sort of did a little shake... like, wow.  That really happened huh?

And then we...

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Attempted to go to Battery Park, only the Subway that was intended to take us there wasn't running so we were waiting in line for a shuttle bus with a million other people in the blazing heat when I said "Hey! How about we go in Starbucks and get some water and reevaluate our plans?"  This went over very well with my tough but still 26 week pregnant friend, so we did.

Our new plan was to take the subway to meet Kathryn at Rockefeller to go to top of the Rock.  WHen we popped out of the subway, we....

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Were in Times Square!  Which made us laugh because when we were making our NYC plans Jamie and I kept saying to each other over and over again "But we definitely don't need to go to Times Square. We don't have ANY interest in going to Times Square."  And here we were.  And it was just as busy and crazy and touristy as we had both remembered, so we put our heads down and pushed through the crowds to find Kathryn.  Before we knew it, we...

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megs and jme
were staring out at the most amazing views of the city.  Like my airplane post, seeing a world from this high up does weird things to my brain.  I feel like part of a huge world and a tiny world all at once.  I almost have to stop looking after awhile.  We snapped lots of pictures up here.  All 3 of us are nuts about our cameras, and having a playground of a vista like that was heaven to all of us.  The tricky part was finding someone who would take one of the 3 of us. 

megs jme kathryn rock

After we managed to find someone, we...

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refueled at the Wafel Truck.  Matt called me at this point, and asked what we were up to.  “Eating a waffle!” I exclaimed.  “Eating a waffle?” he asked, a bit confused.  (It was, after all, about 3:00 pm.)  If only he had called an hour later, so I could tell him we…

were watching a roller disco in Central Park.  (I have watched this video so many times on my phone and I can never quite decide who is my favorite person in this clip to watch.)  Just so much unbridled happiness in this clip.  Everyone who was there looked like they were pretty much having the best Saturday ever.  From there, we…

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megs and jamie bethesda

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wandered our way through Central Park, ending up in Bethesda Terrace.  It had beautiful lighting and gorgeous architectural details.  So, we took a few pictures.  Just a few.  I swear.  It was getting close to evening and time for baby Q to wind down, so Jamie and I were on our own for a bit.  We…

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explored the Met for a bit (air-conditioning!) and then recharged our bodies with a little pre-dinner cupcake from Sprinkles.  It was tiny.  I swear.  Jamie and I had just truly hit our sugar buzz, when Kathryn, our amazing tour guide / city hostess, came back to take us back to Soho for dinner.  We…

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ate at the quaintest little restaurant called Freeman’s.  It was tucked down a little alleyway off the Bowery, and I never in a million years would have found it on my own but thank heavens Kathryn did because my life needed those shrimp and corn fritters.  (Basically, fancy hush puppies.  But that is not a complaint, not one bit.)  My only complaint about this place was the emo, uber-casual waiter.  “So, like, are we having any drinks tonight?” is not a way to win points for great service.  (His service was actually fine, his attitude was just bizarro.  And the food more than made up for his quirkiness.  It is New York, right?)  Dinner flew by in what felt like a matter of minutes while our conversation ran the gamut of everything from roasting chickens to New York real estate.  (Both topics that make me a teensy bit squeamish feeling.)  The check arrived, we headed out into the night and before we knew it, we were hugging our old/new (Jamie/me) friend good-bye as we got ready to go in different directions at the subway.  Once we got back to our hotel room, I reported to Jamie that we…

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walked close to twelve miles in the twelve hours we had been out.  Twelve miles!  We might have only had one had what amounted to barely more than one day in New York City, but I think we did a good job making the most of our time there.  We had a few things left to see on Sunday, but we had packed in some classic NYC sights, some delicious food and some quality time with our friends.  We…

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went to NYC.

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