Hot Day in Colorado

You know it's hot when even Duncan can't handle the heat!

We've hit 102 the past 2 days we've been back in Colorado. Yes it's a dry heat but dang it's hot!

Manhattan Day 5.5

On the way back from Coney Island we stopped in Brooklyn to meet up with one of Nathan's friends from Texas. We did some siteseeing in her neighborhood then headed uptown to get in line for tickets to the Colbert Report. After 3 hours, we were told we wouldn't get in. We had to try. Walking back into town we turned a corner to find a strange sight, a russian woman walking her turtle. Okaaaaaaaaaaaaaay.

But to top that, later that night in Times Square, if you've heard of the naked singing cowboy.....we ran into the naked singing cowgirl. Sorry, I did not whip out the camera to encourage her performing but we stopped and watched for a few seconds. Then it was a late dinner and back to the hotel.

Nothing memorable happened on Friday except that we packed and headed to La Guardia via taxi. Kamikaze taxi but we can say we've survived a New York taxi!

Manhattan Day 5

Since we saw all we needed to see in the city (we don't want to do everything in one trip- there has to be a reason for a return trip, right?), we decided to take the subway out to Coney Island. We had recently seen the hot dog eating championships at Coney Island on ESPN2 the week before and it looked like a must-do, so we did.

But WAIT! What is this? Nathan on his phone on the train talking to a customer on the way to Coney Island??? No way!

We had lunch at Nathan's hot dog stand where the hot dog eating championships take place. We both admitted, the hot dogs were probably the best we've ever tasted. Don't know why.

A huge sign counts down the time to the next hot dog eating contest. There's also a list of the winners. The past few years an asian guy has won eating 53 3/4 dogs with buns and beating his last record. Gross huh?

We walked down the boardwalk and put our toes in the Atlantic Ocean. The beach is pretty darn gross. Girls in cute little bikinis laying among cigarette butts, broken glass and who knows what else. Pretty sad beach but apparently New Yorkers love it.

And we couldn't leave without me taking a few swings at the batting cages.

Manhattan Day 4

Back on the bus today to go back downtown. We hit the deli again for breakfast and I did my best to try to look cool and New York-ish but this was the most I was willing to do.

We got off to see the World Trade Center site and the tiny church that was right next to the buildings but miraculously wasn't damaged. Of course it's all cleaned up and major construction is going on in the lower levels. All the memorials are gone but there are huge city signs erected to tell you the timeline of 9-11-01 and where everything was. I've never had a bigger lump in my throat I couldn't seem to swallow. Nathan and I didn't say a word the entire time and it took a few minutes after we walked away to even say anything to each other. It's so hard to imagine the massiveness of the buildings that were once there and the destruction that occurred but seeing the footprint of where the buildings once stood definitely put things into perspective and swallowed you back almost five years to all the news footage that made the area seem so familiar. The cross made from the structural beams is still there.

We strolled along Battery Park to the ferry and headed over to the Statue of Liberty.

It was very hazy and visibility very poor. They're letting people up into the base but still not the statue itself. We then made our way to Ellis Island where we spent about 2 hours taking the audio tour which I think is the best US tour I've taken. Go at your own pace and see/hear what you want much like the European museums and tourist sites.

We caught the ferry back and Nathan HAD to make some business calls while on the ferry. I swear sometimes I want to bite his head off the way that phone is ALWAYS ringing.

As we were standing on the back of the ferry, Nathan mentioned how my hair was blowing straight up and it looked like I had Statue of Liberty hair. I laughed and smoothed it down and glanced around and actually every single person's flyaway hair was standing on end. It was VERY weird. Due very much to the electrical storm that was blowing in from Jersey.

Back in the financial district we stopped for a late lunch at a pub and by the time we got back out on the street the storm had blown in and it was POURING! Lightning, thunder and LOTS of rain. It was an amazing downpour and the thunder reverberating up and down the streets was awesome. We put on our free rain ponchos and waited for our bus with tons of other people and quickly realized we were not going to get on a bus for awhile since the upper decks were soaking wet and everyone was shoved into the bottom floor like sardines. So we tramped down the financial district looking for the subway wearing our ponchos/garbage bags among all the men in suits with umbrellas. It was quite comical.

We took the subway to Penn Station and headed for daylight to Macy's. Penn Station has to be the ugliest and most confusing subway/train stations we've ever been to. Avoid at all costs! Since it was still raining we walked up to Times Square and found a movie theater and stopped in to see "The Break Up". Watchable but not fabulous. Still rain, thunder, and lightning so we stopped to pick up some Famous Ray's Pizza and took it back to our room to dry out. We'll see what the weather does tomorrow but we're lucky we got practically all our new York site seeing done before this storm blew in.

Manhattan Day 3

We bought ourselves 48 passes on the red double decker Grey Line buses so we could experience the city. A definite must-do for first time visitors as it gives you a great view of all of Manhattan. You don't have to drive or walk and avoid people and mad taxi drivers. You can hop on and off wherever you'd like. This allowed us to see many sites and take lots of photos you've probably seen a million times on other people's trips to Manhattan so i won't take up bandwidth but just quickly list what we saw.

We hit the deli for breakfast and ate while we were chauffeured. We hit Uptown seeing St. John the Divine, Grant's Tomb, Harlem, Apollo Theater, the museum Mile (MET, Guggenheim, etc), and Central Park again. We hopped off to peruse FAO Shwartz then started walking to the NBC studios for a tour. Along the way we ran into the New York Public Library so I tried to see what those silly lions keep looking at.

We also stopped at the Disney Store where i found some Pirate schwag for Brad (which will be coming your way-I'm keeping the t-shirt and lolli :))

We then had lunch at Rockefeller Center and took the NBC tour. Then we quick stepped it to the top of the Empire State Building which was s a bit unsettling because it was gusty but yet hazy with only 2 miles visibility.


We reboarded a bus and headed Downtown and saw the Flatiron Building, Chinatown, Wall Street, the Brooklyn Bridge, and the United Nations. I don't mention Times Square at all because our hotel is a block away and we see it all the time whether we hop on the bus, catch the subway or just walk out of the hotel. It's quite amazingly busy ALL the time. There are cops everywhere ALL the time and we both feel completely safe ALL the time. The biggest threat is the cab drivers who overzealously make it thru every intersection they come to even if it's red. With all the walking and touring we went to bed early. I'm so happy knowing we'll get home on a Friday and still have the weekend to recuperate. We're going to need to catch up on some major ZZZ's although are bed here is a dream and as soon as either of us lies down we're out cold.

Manhattan Day 2.5

The plan was to meet up at 3:30 to stand in line to see the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. I got there first and there was probably 50 people in line. We had email confirmation for the show but no tickets so we all basically stood in line until they're ready and they hand out tickets IF your name in on their email list and IF you're the first 250 in line. After an hour and a half standing in line we got our tickets.

Then we sat in the studio for another 30 minutes and then we had to practice cheering REALLY loud. Then the show happened and it was basically like watching what they put out on tv right in front of you. Really fast, quick, and mechanical. Jon said hi and answered 2 questions before it all began but when they broke for commercial breaks he basically sat and did nothing til it all started up again. He did the show, thanked the audience and left. It was very quick for all the time we spent waiting to get in. Oh well.
Nathan picked dinner at VNYL which was pretty good. I'm letting him choose food from now on because everything I pick seems to suck. We arrived back at the hotel about 9pm so I could take a shower. I had been walking since we left the hotel at 9:30 earlier in the morning so I was SO hot and sweaty. Like a sponge. I don't think I've ever done so much walking but the streets are so close it seems a waste to head to the subway because I can get places faster walking. But by the end of the day I easily clocked more than 5 miles. I know, I know, not soooo far but my poor feet were yelling since I'm use to a desk job.
Speaking of heat, man do I feel inadequate walking the streets of New York. All the women look perfect. Perfect hair, perfect outfits with perfect jewelry and belts and purses and shoes that all match. I'm convinced they all have built in AC in their clothes because they look so cool and stylish walking purposefully down the street. Whereas I catch a glimpse of myself in a window lugging a backpack wearing walking shoes, my hair pulled back in a ponytail because it's so freakin' hot and every pore in my body not perspiring...SWEATING!!! It's disgusting hot. How do they do it? I told Nathan if I didn't have to worry about all the stares and people pointing I'd walk around naked. Luckily, he heard Wednesdays in New York are nude days so I'm really looking forward to that!
After my shower we headed out one last time for a 10:30 showing of Pirates of the Caribbean at the Zeigfeld Theater. Beautiful huge old theater (only one screen!) and we were about 25 total and we thought it would be packed. Then it was a quick walk back to the hotel at 1:15am to hit the pillows. There were still lots of people out and it was VERY warm when we walked back. When do these people sleep?

Manhattan Day 2

We got out this morning and stopped at a deli for a bite. On our way to the subway a film crew raced through the streets filming 2 people on a motorcycle. Couldn't tell who they were or what film. Then sirens started going off all over the city from every direction. We didn't think anything of it but it'll play into my post later. We took the subway uptown to north Central Park. We then spent the morning walking down through the park criss-crossing from West Park to 5th Avenue.
When we got mid way down the park we ran into a film crew. As we got closer the scene looked like something from a Bollywood film. Brides and Grooms dancing along with a mariachi band and a steel drum band and some goofy characters dancing behind. I was amazed at how close they let us got and we actually stood right behind the monitors that were used for playback of the scenes. I noted a crowd of girls and where they kept pointing their cameras trying to figure out if there was anyone of worth in the scene. Sure enough when they yelled cut the main actors headed straight in our direction to the playback screens and it was Patrick Dempsey aka Dr. McDreamy from Grey's Anatomy which we watch on Sunday night's.

The film was "Enchanted" and is coming out next year and the scene was either from a music montage or an ending scene and pretty dorky but it was fun to stand and watch them shoot for awhile before breaking for lunch.


We got to the south end of the park and ran into the new Apple Manhattan store. Yeah for Nathan. It is a cool building that reminded us of the Louvre entrance in Paris but a cube instead of a pyramid.

You descend down a glass spiral staircase under the sidewalk into the store. Nathan immediately disappeared and where did I find him? GUILTY!

He goes straight for the laptops which of course are hooked up to the web so he could check his email.
Because of business he had to go back to the room and make some calls and emails so we split up and I headed up Park Avenue along Central Park. Nothing too interesting. Then I crossed over to Madison Avenue and kept heading north running into some posh stores. When my feet started to hurt I changed sides of the street and started walking downtown window shopping. I ran into all the engines with sirens from earlier in the morning. Police and FDNY everywhere. I easily walked around barricades and pushed through tv news reporters to get by as I just wanted to continue down the street but the strong smell of gas stopped me in my tracks. I covered my nose and peered down the street that was blocked off. Looked like a building had caught fire. Passerbys mumbled bomb, explosion and building blowing up. I thought nothing of it and kept moving down the street. Turns out it was actually on the news everywhere today. Weird.

Manhattan Day 1

So we arrived via Amtrak and we answered the question of why few people travel Amtrak any more. The conductors are R-U-D-E rude! We were all bustled into 2 cars and when we couldn't find seats together because other passengers were spread out sleeping on multiple seats, we went to another car dragging our large suitcases behind us because they didn't check baggage. The conductor immediately stopped us from entering the almost empty car and asked why we were coming in. I said because there weren't any seats in the other car. "No seats?!?" he said loudly. "REALLY? Are you sure there were NO seats?" No I replied. "If I go back there and find seats will you give me a dollar for every empty seat I find?" I kept waiting for him to crack a smile or start laughing or give some indication he was joking but there was just uncomfortable silence with him staring at me and not letting me pass. "There are the 2 seats we just got up from but they are not together and we would like to sit together," I said. "Well then there ARE seats then, right?" "Yes, there are 2 seats but we want to sit together," I repeated. "Oh TOGETHER. Do you HAVE to sit together?" I kept turning to Nathan thinking this had to be a joke but he was very serious. "Can we NOT sit in this car or is there a sign I missed," I asked. He shook his head obviously perturbed and said "Go ahead and sit there but go back and bring all your tickets with you" (our tickets had been punched and displayed above our last seats that were NOT together. What a crappy Amtrak employee and what a great introduction to New York City I told Nathan. A few minutes later a guy that had been watching the altercation came up and said he was an Amtrak employee that was off but traveling home and apologized for the conductor's attitude and told us to write a letter to Amtrak because no one liked the conductor and they were hoping enough people complained. So I'll see what I can do because he sure pissed me off for the first 30 minutes of my train ride.

It was off the train at Penn Station and into the subway for a quick trip uptown to our modest digs at the Sheraton Manhattan on 7th Avenue (mom and dad belated bday gift to me-THANKS!) I wanted to share with mom the excellent amenities Sheraton gives to its guests for FREE so here's a photo. A cool shower cap and one shoe mitt. They must have forgotten the second shoe mitt for both my shoes, so I left a call in at the front desk.

We had dinner on the corner at Mars 2112. It's a for the kiddies but we went for the ambiance. Don't go for the food. We then walked down to Times Square where they were having a HUGE church tent revival in the middle of the street. It was very loud so we ducked into ToysRUs and Nathan went straight for what section? DUH!

And then early to bed with a fluffy down comforter. YUM!

New York Trip Day 8

No new photos from the past few days as we've been doing our jobs for Workcamp and there's not much to take photos of. Our days are spent traveling to the high school where the camp is taking place, getting a new packet of homes from Gary. From there we'll follow the directions to get to each home and verify the directions are correct. We need to do this as all the youth groups coming to camp are from out of the area and most from out of state so they need exact directions. And in some of these neighborhoods you don't want to get lost. We bring any supplies that need to be delivered to the house site (ie. paint, drop cloths, lumber, lattice, etc.) and make contact with the resident, make sure they know what's going on next week, what's expected of them, and make sure our work orders are correct. Almost all residents are very gracious and thankful and thank us repeatedly and all we're doing is bringing out the supplies. I think this is because they are promised alot of help and few follow through but when we show up with actual free materials that will be used on their homes and get them excited about the youth groups that are coming to do the work for free, they get really excited. And after a full day of unloading gallons upon gallons of paint (as most of our worksites are painting house interiors and exteriors) in the hot moist air we're ready for the AC of our hotel and a cool shower.
Nathan tuckered out.

Since we worked so hard and long at the beginning of the week we finished our 61 home sites on Thursday. We ran into obvious drug dealing areas at about 1/3 of our sites. I had no idea but once Nathan started pointing telltale signs out to me we were both spotting trouble areas. We just make notes about addresses that could be possible problems and this weekend before the youth groups arrive, the Rochester Police plan on making a few "visits".

Today, Saturday, we slept in late and then took off to the Eastman Kodak Museum and mansion. He invented Kodak, its cameras, film, and movie pictures. Lots of interesting photos in the museum but the highlight for me was getting to see his home. He was an amazingly fastidious man and designed his own home from the ground up. Not only is everything beautiful but it all has some kind of secondary function. He thought his home out so well so he was always making the impression he wanted to wherever he sat. Clocks in corners so he could look over his guests shoulder to make sure he was running on time without looking down at his watch and making an uncomfortable situation. Lighting just so it was always flattering. Buttons in woodwork so he could summon the help from any room in any sitting position and just a million other things hidden in corners, behind woodwork or doubling as something functional. Definitely my kind of house. He even had an organ built into the house so you play it in the sunroom but all the organ pipes are built into woodwork around the house and up into the attic so when he had concerts the house was literally filled with music. And his gardens are amazingly immaculate. The only weird thing was to find out in a small corner of the museum/house was that he stayed single and committed suicide in his later years with a short note saying: "To my friends: My work is done. Why wait?"
Tracy getting her photo taken by the Eastman horse on the Eastman Mansion front lawn.

And we returned to the school to have pizza with the rest of the camp crew who arrived today. We passed on information on the camp residents and neighborhoods and got a little taste of what camp life will be like next week but then we returned back to our hotel as we leave for Manhattan tomorrow morning via train. Everyone else is sleeping at the school tonight. This is a parting shot from the crew doing a little dance on stage before we left. Until Manhattan!

New York Trip Day 4

It's the Fourth of July and we worked all morning til 2pm. The janitor locked the school for the holiday and we decided to head north to Niagara Falls. We drove across to the Canadian side as we'd been told there was more to do and see. They were right. We parked and walked the entire length of the falls oohing and ahhing and getting wet from spray which was a welcome cool down to the very warm humidity of upper New York State. The falls are actually made up of two falls because an island splits the Niagara River in two before it "falls".
THE LEFT side.

THE RIGHT SIDE or Horseshoe Falls.

There's a perpetual rainbow over the falls (as long as there's light to reflect :)

Storm cloud moving over Niagara Falls, NY,

The avenue along the falls has developed into a mini Vegas with all the usual tourist restaurants and attractions. Water parks and thrill rides for the kids. We ate at the Hard Rock Cafe and staked out our plot of grass for the fireworks. We were moved 3 times before we finally ended up standing. The police had waited until 30 minutes before the fireworks were to go off before they started cordoning off the "blast" area. The fireworks were the norm and exciting to watch exploding over the falls which were lit up red white and blue by spotlights. The noise from the explosions were amplified and thrilling as they boomed off the falls and back towards us.

New York Trip Day 3

Monday we met up with our Setup Director and his brother, Gary and Brian respectively. Both live in the area. And we began work on the Rochester Workcamp wearing our obligatory "red shirts". We learned later that day from Gary that New York is the only state Workcamps has actually considered changing the color of the shirts for. Why? We don't want to be mistaken for Bloods or Crypts or whichever gang wears red. GREAT!

New York Trip Day 2

Before leaving Scranton we went in search of the tower used in the beginning credits of the Office. After driving down a few streets it was easy to spot.

After departing Scranton, I insisted we stop in Ithaca where I had attended a workcamp two years ago. My friend Marcie, who was with me and from the area, had taken me to a cool state park and I wanted Nathan to witness it. So we took a little side trip and arrived at Robert H. Tremen State Park outside Ithaca. It's a trail that follows a shale gorge with multiple waterfalls. The path the water has cut is amazingly intricate and the state parks did an excellent job using surrounding shale to create the paths and bridges that traverse the river. It looks like how I imagine Rivendell in The Lord of the Rings looks. So we took a hike and enjoyed the glen. That's Nathan real tiny on the bridge!


And a closeup for mom since I know how much she likes seeing people's faces!

New York Trip Day 1

Our flight from Denver to La Guardia was uneventful. We picked up a rental car and headed out of the city to see how far we could drive before we got tired. So over the Washington Bridge into New Jersey. Thru New Jersey and into Pennsylvania and we stopped for the night in Scranton, PA for 3 reasons: we were hungry and tired, Patrick Scranton was a good friend of ours who passed away, and Scranton is where The Office on NBC takes place. Of course every exits hotels were booked because it was 10pm on a Saturday night of 4th of July weekend but we finally found a place willing to take us in: The Radisson. Not just any Radisson...the Radisson of Scranton which is a converted train depot! It was very ominous as we drove up and felt very out of place but they still gave us a room.



As prestigious as the facade looked out front, we had to park out back by the railroad tracks and laughed when we saw the hotel entrance from the rear.



The interior of the depot had been converted into the restaurant and the offices above had been converted into hotel rooms.



The ornate stained glass ceiling that once loomed over passengers checking in baggage is now protected by a higher skylight. Pretty cool digs.