The First Winter Snow Fall

The snow finally arrived on Saturday so Bryan and I decided to go up to Central Park and walk around to enjoy the scenery and the children playing in the snow. It was just so magical. Snow turns New York city into a winter wonderland.

Snow on our window sill

Snow on the fire escape stairs on the building next to ours.

Me in my Eskimo coat, scarf, gloves, ear muffs. Man  it was cold!

Seventh Avenue

Central Park

Central Park

The "Imagine" memorial at the "Strawberry Fields" section of Central Park.

Central Park.

Dog with booties (these are popular). 

Bryan and I at Central Park.

A couple cross country skiing through Central Park.

Children sleighing down a hill in a Central Park.

A garbage truck scooping up snow off the street.

 After enjoying the snow we had lunch in a diner on the Upper East side and then headed to Serendipity 3.

If you are familiar with the movie "Serendipity" with John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale you will be familiar with this cafe. It is an amazing place that is known for its Frozen Hot Chocolate (a very thick cold chocolate shake).

Outside Serendipity 3

Inside Serendipity

 

Inside Serendipity.

Frozen Hot Chocolate.

The fancy and very big menu.

Be aware if you show up at Serendipity 3 for a yummy Sunday or a piece of cake the host at Serendipity says that there is normally a 30 - 45 minute wait (Bryan and I waited about 10 - 15 minutes). However, you can make a reservation if you're going to eat a meal as well as a dessert.

Bryan and I decided to share the "Can't Say No" sundae. It had a piece of Peanut Butter cake, with a banana, vanilla ice-cream, chocolate fudge and whipped cream. Oh my goodness!!!!!!! It was so yummy! It only took us 10 minutes to demolish it. I want another one now!

The "Can't Say No" Sundae. 

Cake Boss

I decided today to take a train across the Hudson to Hoboken in New Jersey - home of Carlos Bakery run by Buddy Valastro and his extended family. If you've seen the show "Cake Boss" on cable TV you'll know who I'm talking about.

It didn't take long to get to Hoboken from Manhattan. About 15-20 minutes on the PATH train system. You can use your Manhattan subway card and it is cheaper than the subway (PATH $2.00 per ride, Subway $2.50 per ride).

Hoboken is a pretty little town it has a quaint old world feel to it. I would have to think that if I had to leave in or near Manhattan, I would seriously consider Hoboken.

I was very lucky on the day that I went to Carlos' Bakery as there was no line outside waiting to get in. I have been told that on Saturdays it can take up to 2 hours to get into the store.

I decided to buy two cakes - their famous lobster claw and their double chocolate mousse cake.

Lobster Claw

Double Chocolate Mousse

Both were nice, but I prefer the cupcakes from the CRUMBS bakery. If you are in New York, try and track down one of their bake shops and indulge in one of their cupcakes, I can guarantee that you will love it.

Rock of Ages

If you're like me, and fondly reminisce about the 80's when a song from one of those great hair bands comes on the radio, like "It's the Final Countdown" by Europe or "Oh Sherrie" by Steve Perry, well then, do I have the musical for you. Rock of Ages.

It's a fun easy to follow story line about a girl from the country (Sherrie) arriving at the Sunset Strip in LA wanting to become an actress. A heavy metal musician/music writer (Drew) sees her and falls in love with her. He gets her a waitressing job at the bar where he works and then asks her out on a date. She, of course, accepts. On the date he gets nervous and says that he just wants to be friends, she is disappointed. Back at the bar, Stacee Jaxx (a famous heavy metal singer - think Axel Rose) comes into the picture. He says that his band is going to play at the bar where Drew and Sherrie work. He locks eyes on Sherrie and decides to woo her in the men's toilet (if you get me! *wink, *wink). Drew sees Sherrie and Stacee going into the men's toilet and becomes angry. After Stacee has his way with Sherrie, he demands that she is fired. That then leads Sherrie to become a stripper because she cannot get work anywhere else. In the meantime Drew is discovered by a record producer when he performs at the bar before Stacee Jaxxs' Band.
A few weeks pass and Drew and Sherrie bump into each other on the street. Drew is not happy because he is missing Sherrie and the music producer wants him to be in a boy band as opposed to a rock band, and Sherrie is embarrassed by her stripping gig. They realize they really do care for each other. They kiss and make up and decide to leave the Sunset Strip behind.

This musical has a feel similar to "Mumma Mia" in that the writer has fantastically weaved some of the great songs of the 80's through the story line. Songs like "I wanna know what love is", "More than Words", "Waiting for a girl like you", "Every Rose has its Thorn" and "We built this city".

From the moment it started, Bryan and I were tapping our toes and singing along. This musical is great fun and if it comes to Australia I highly recommend you go see it.

Spiderman ..... more like Spider SHAM!

One of the big shows at the moment on Broadway is Spiderman. A lot of hype was given to this musical prior to its opening. The music is done by Bono and The Edge from U2, and with stunts where Spiderman jumps around the theatre using pulleys etc you would expect that you would be in for something special.......but it was a horrific mishmash of songs that did not fit, poor set design, and a lead spiderman (not the understudy) that could not hold a note. It got so bad that during Act Two Bryan and I couldn't help but giggling through it.

Normally I don't take the critics reviews too seriously but in this case they were right on the mark. It was dog awful. I am just glad that we did not pay anywhere near full price for our tickets.

Star Sighting

This weekend is Martin Luther King weekend, a three-day weekend. Bryan and I decided yesterday to start exploring some of the other boroughs. We decided we would start with Brooklyn. We walked through trendy Williamsburg. Then moved across to Brooklyn Heights and DUMBO.

Williamsburg had a similar feel to that of Newtown - an 'arty', 'bohemian' feel with lots of second hand furniture stores and trendy little cafes and restaurants. I really loved it. After this we walked to "Diner" a very well known traditional diner car located on the out skirts of Williamsburg and it was there that I had the celebrity sighting. This diner is sooooo tiny so after waiting 30 minutes for a table, Bryan and I were shown to the back of the diner and sitting near us was Maggie Gyllenhaal busy chatting to a friend and drinking coffee.

After finishing our lunch we headed to another part of Brooklyn that is said to have lots of Brownstone Houses - Brooklyn Heights. Some of the houses in this section of Brooklyn are more expensive than some of the houses in Manhattan. It is a really pretty area.

But the area that really stole my heart was DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass). With gas lit street lamps, cobble stone roads and lots of converted industrial warehouses it is a really cool place to walk around.

The New York Transit Museum

If you have used the subway system around New York, you'll understand how vital it is to getting around each of the different boroughs of the city. The subway was created in the early 1900's and if you have the time I recommend that you take the subway across to Brooklyn and learn all about how the subway was created.

As you can imagine, this was no small undertaking. When developing the subway, the engineers not only needed to work around the existing sewage, electrical and water systems that were already in place, underground but, they also needed to work around the complex steam heating system that, still to this day pumps hot steam to each house within the city limits keeping people warm in their homes during the bitterly cold winter months.

The museum takes a lot of care and effort to explain how they did it.

What I really loved about this museum is that it is located in an old subway station, so you enter the museum just like you would any subway station.

Bryan at the entrance to the New York Transit Museum.

Admission to the museum is cheap compared to the other museums around New York (approx. $7.00 per adult) and with this you not only learn all about the history of the subway system, you get to walk through all the different types of train cars that have used during the 100 years that the system has been running. It's so cool. You walk down onto one of the old platforms (located a floor below where all the history information is) and you can wander through and sit down inside each train car and take your time enjoying the look and feel of the different train carriages.

 

If you're staying in Manhattan, then yes, it is a little bit out of your way but, if you have an interest in trains, major  engineering accomplishments then this is the museum for you.

It is a very 'hands-on' museum. You can walk through and touch all the different turn-styles they have used since the subways inception and it is also a museum that is great for the kids. They can learn all about electricity by interacting with various displays in the exhibit.

An example of one of the turn-styles that were used. People used tokens to enter the subway system.

More turn-styles that were used across the various years that the subway has been running. It was only in 1994 that New York finally got rid of the 'token' system and moved to a refillable card 'swiping' system. 

I highly recommend this museum and will definitely be going back again to check out other parts of the museum that I did not get to.

New Year's Eve in Times Square

Ok! The first thing I have to say is, if you do not have a bladder of steel you are F*****! Yes, you read right! Every new years eve, Times Square shuts down traffic and corrals (yes, those similar to what horses, cows and sheep are penned in) are set up. Hundreds of thousands of people head up to Times Square to watch the ball drop (this year was the first time that the number reached over a million people). Now, you might be thinking - Looking at previous pictures I thought there would be more than that. Well, Times Square is not that big, really! I mean, it's big but not big, big, if you get me.

People selling New Years party hats, glasses, air horns and poppers. 

Bryan and I decided to start walking up to Times Square at around 3.30pm. Now, we only live about a 15 minute walk away from the Times Square but because the Police had sectioned it off we could not get beyond 38th street, so we decided to take the subway beyond Times Square and walk back. This turned out to be the trick! If you catch the train up to around 50th (and 7th Ave) then start walking back you are inside the closed off section. You can then walk all the way down 7th Avenue to Times Square.

By the time we did this, it was about 4:30pm and the closest we got was 45th street, due to the number of people.

Now getting back to the corrals...... the police open up each corral when the previous one is full, letting people into that section of the street - but be warned, once you are in that section you cannot get out! Well, if you do have to get out, you can but you cannot get back in! In other words - no toilet breaks.

Wooden barriers used to redirect traffic.

Seventh Avenue is normally an extremely noisy and busy street with cabs, cars and trucks. This afternoon the traffic had been redirected.

NYC Policemen waiting to open a corral  

One of the many corrals (not yet open) coming up from Times Square

Bryan and I on Seventh Avenue. In the background is Times Square. BTW ladies this photo was taken by a hot looking policeman (*wink *wink).

Empire State Building in its Christmas colors.

We hung around enjoying the atmosphere until around 6.30pm then headed back to the subway for home. Once home, we opened the windows to listen and soak up the sounds of celebrations outside. Like millions of other people in the US, we watched the festivities on the TV and at midnight counted down and watched the ball drop.

I can't say it was as much fun as the Sydney New Years Eve celebrations but at least it was colder!

Where's the F****** Snow?

Ok, the joke has gone on long enough New York.......ha, ha, you can bring on the snow now people!

It is the middle of January and there is still no snow in New York city. Can you believe it! I certainly can't. Today we had the top temperature of -6 C and still no snow. I feel like I've been gypped. Bryan and I went out at 11am and it was freezing. I had on my Eskimo coat (it is a thick coat that has Down in it) on, hood up, ear muffs on, ski gloves on (my normal leather gloves were not warm enough) and a scarf wrapped around the bottom half of my face. I loved walking around in this weather. I most certainly could not run it, but it is fun to walk around. But, IT WOULD'VE BEEN BETTER IF THERE WAS SNOW!!!

I'll keep you posted when/if we get snow.

Christmas with the Landsiedels

This year Bryan and I had Christmas with Marty, Larry, Nate, Fabiola, Kitty (the cat) and Harvey (Nate and Fabiola's dog). It was a wonderful, relaxing week comprised of eating copious amounts of yummy food, lots of sleep and lots of shopping. Although I am sorry to say that it did not snow. In fact, the weather was quite mild. I only took my light coat and found that that was warm enough.

We spent a week with the family and had great time playing card games, doing puzzles and just sitting around watching movies and talking. Thank you Marty and Larry for having us. We were able to de-stress so that we could be ready for what 2012 was going to deliver.

Christmas Model Train Show

Every year the New York Botanical Gardens plays host to the most amazing model train show. So we decided to head up to The Bronx to check it out. Housed with the Garden's Conservatory what's amazing about it is not the trains but the famous landmarks that are displayed around the trains. They are made from wood and the detail of the houses/buildings/bridges are all completed with natural flora pieces (eg, bark, seeds, nuts, twigs) from various the Botanical Gardens. As usual I went crazy taking photos, but don't worry, you're not going to have to browse through loads of them, I've uploaded only the best. Enjoy!

ARRIVING AT THE TRAIN SHOW

Christmas trees within the Gardens

Every park bench in the park was festooned with decorations.

The New York Botanical Gardens Conservatory - it was massive

The Train Master. Check out the decorations on his shoulders and feet!

 INSIDE THE CONSERVATORY

The Train Show only took up one section of the Conservatory, so before heading into it we decided to take the opportunity to look at the different plant life that was in the rest of the conservatory.

INSIDE THE TRAIN SHOW

St Patrick's Cathedral

George Washington Bridge

Grand Central Station

The Conservatory

Rockefeller's House (I think!) 

Yankee Stadium

Inner City New York apartments

 It was quite a big show but it took along time to get around and see everything because of the number of people. When you buy a ticket to the show you have to select a time slot so that the curators of the show can control the number of people going through the show at any one time (a really good concept!).

I totally loved it! I squealing like a child when I would see a train approaching. It put a smile on my face for the whole rest of the day.