NYC

I have been to New York City multiple times. The last time I visited there was in September 2019.

I love visiting NYC. I enjoy seeing Broadway shows and doing other touristy things while I'm there. Earlier this month I had the opportunity to visit again! I think it was kind of a belated birthday gift for myself as well as a celebration of my new job. :)

My brother, Tim, and I planned a trip to NYC over Veteran's Day weekend.

I didn't have Veteran's Day (observed) off so I worked Friday and then hopped on a bus after work. (Tim left earlier that day because he had the day off of work). 

I was happy because my bus ended up being fairly empty, so I got to sit in a row by myself. Also we didn't hit much traffic on the way to NYC so we made it there in pretty good time.

I made it to NYC! I got off the bus and started walking toward my hotel but soon realized that I was walking in the wrong direction. Oops. I turned around and started walking in the correct direction and I eventually made it to my hotel. 🤣

I liked the view from our hotel room! The picture above is the view from our room at different times of the day. I also liked the location of our hotel. Our hotel room was small and had bunk beds.

Overall the hotel was decent, but I had a couple of issues with it. One issue was the ladder to the top bunk (where I slept) was painful to climb because of the material it was made from as well as the thinness of the rungs. I had to wear shoes to go up and down the ladder so I kept my shoes on the bed in a plastic bag when I was up there so that I could have them when I went down the ladder. 

Another issue is that the bathroom sink was draining very slowly and eventually stopped draining at all so we had to call the front desk and have them come and fix it. They did come quickly and fixed it quickly, but it was a little annoying that it got that bad in the first place. Oh well. 🤷

In preparation for the trip I had done research on places to eat for the different meals of the day. I looked for places with good reviews and not too far from places that we wanted to visit. Breads Bakery was one of the places I had researched beforehand. 

Honestly I wasn't a huge fan of what I got there. I had a breakfast sandwich and a pain au chocolat. The bread part was decent on both items but the flavor was disappointing (especially with the sandwich, it was quite bland). Maybe I just got the wrong items. I don't know. I would potentially go there again and try something else, but I wouldn't go out of my way to eat there again.

Not too far from Breads Bakery was the Nintendo Store. It was pretty fun to walk around! Although I don't play video games anymore, I did occasionally play them as a child and my brothers definitely played them. I recognized a lot of characters. Above is Link from the video game Zelda.

 

 

Pikachu!!! He's so cute!

A Lego set of an old NES. I bet that would take awhile to put together, but it looks fun though! And it cost over $200.

Toad and Luigi!

Mario! As I said already, this was a pretty fun store to visit!

On our way to our next stop we saw this store. Although we had already had breakfast, we decided to stop and get some doughnuts for a little later. Because why not?! :)

I really wanted to like the doughnuts, but I wasn't a big fan. I really liked the flavor of them, but they were way too bready for a doughnut. For me, doughnuts should be light and fluffy, but these were not.

Whenever I go to NYC, I always need to see at least one Broadway show. The thing about Broadway, though, is that the tickets are pretty expensive. When I do go I try to get TKTS or lottery tickets for the shows. 

Tim and I had tried for lottery tickets for the shows we wanted to see and didn't win any of them. So our next plan was to try TKTS.Tim and I walked to the TKTS at Lincoln Center (because we heard the line was usually shorter and faster there). 

When we got there, the line was quite long and none of the shows we really wanted to see were on the board. We asked a worker just to make sure and he told us that since it was Veteran's Day weekend, there weren't as many shows on the board as usual. We were pretty disappointed. 

We walked to Central Park (which was nearby), found a bench to sit on to eat our doughnuts and to look at tickets online for the shows we wanted to see. Tim found decent priced tickets for Hadestown matinee. I found a decent priced ticket for the Six evening show.

The picture above was in Central Park near where Tim and I were researching for our shows that day.

 I liked this decorated bus we saw on the streets of NYC!

The bus had tables inside to sit at if you were eating at the restaurant next to it.

Hadestown theatre!

Our seats were on the very top row of the upper balcony, but I thought they were pretty good. I knew nothing about the story of Hadestown, so I went in with no expectations. It was so good! 

The production, the singing, the dancing was awesome! I enjoyed it!

After Hadestown, I convinced Tim to walk to a Japanese bookstore that I wanted to visit. I wanted to look for Japanese anime art or stickers etc.

The bookstore was quite large and crowded. It had three stories but we only made it to two floors. I would have enjoyed looking around more if it hadn't been so crowded. In the part of the bookstore we saw, I didn't find what I was looking for, so we left.

We were both quite hungry at this point so we found a place to eat close to our hotel. We brought our food back to the hotel and ate there and rested for a bit. 

We got food from Istanbul Bay Express! I got a falafel wrap and baklava and enjoyed both of them.

After dinner, it was time for my evening show. I went to Six and I thoroughly enjoyed it! 

Six was like a high energy concert where I learned about history. It was so good! I highly recommend it!

I liked my seat! I found the ticket on TodayTix and the seat was quite a bit cheaper than other seats around it. On one side of me was a large black box (but it did not impede my view at all), but I think that might be why that seat was a bit cheaper. But I don't really know.

I am so glad I made it to this show!

The next morning, we had a bit of time before catching our bus back to Virginia. I was up pretty early and decided to go to Times Square one more time.

I really enjoyed being there when it wasn't very crowded. There was a different atmosphere in the morning, but it was still fun to be there. :)

 

I headed back to the hotel then it was time to go to breakfast and then the bus. 

We ate at Angelina Bakery and it was delicious! (This was one I had researched before our trip). After the couple of dud places we got food at the day before, I was happy to end the trip on a high note food wise. :) 

I got a pesto and tomato focaccia bread and I thoroughly enjoyed every bite! It was so flavorful and the pastry was flaky and soft and delicious. 

After eating breakfast, we made our way to the bus. This time the bus was full so I didn't have a row to myself, but at least I was sitting next to someone I knew.

I had a fun time in NYC and I'm glad I finally got to visit again!

My Birthday!

This year was a big birthday for me. I was not looking forward to it for quite a while before my birthday and I had a good cry about it. As the day got closer, though, I stopped thinking and worrying about it. I think I eventually realized it was going to happen and I couldn't do anything to stop it. 

I didn't plan anything big for my birthday. I was even contemplating whether or not I should do anything at all. I ended up deciding to get ice cream with three of my friends that evening. And the next day I met up with three of my brothers and nephews who live in the area and ate at Cheesecake Factory.

Something surprising started happening on my birthday morning though. I received a text message from one of my friends wearing a t-shirt with my face on it. I was confused at first. Where did she get the shirt? Why did she have the shirt? etc? 

Shortly after that initial text message, I started getting more messages with people wearing a t-shirt with my face on it. I soon learned that my sister, Lara, had the t-shirts made and my sister, Heather, helped design them. 

Lara had contacted my friends and former co-workers to get their addresses. She then proceeded to send the shirts to my family members, friends, and former co-workers. I received a bunch of text messages on my birthday and for a few days afterwards from family and friends. 

Every single one of the messages made me smile or laugh!

 

Enjoy the collages of my family and friends wearing a t-shirt with my face on it. 🤣

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 We even went to the Cheesecake Factory with the t-shirts on! 🤣

Thank you Lara for all of the work you put into my birthday! 

I feel really loved and I'm so grateful for my family and friends. 😁

Planet Word and Renwick Gallery

I recently learned about the Planet Word museum in downtown Washington D.C. When I read about it, I immediately knew that I wanted to visit it! I invited my friends, Sandy and Heather, and we planned a Saturday to go.

Look at the beautiful historic building that the museum is located in!

 

 

For the museum being a museum about words it is kind of hard to describe. ;) I will say it was a very interactive and interesting museum. I highly recommend visiting it!

 

They had a wall of words where they had a voice talking to us about words and language and the lights highlighted different words depending on what he was talking about. It was super interesting. 

During part of the wall of words presentation.
 

Although we walked up the stairs to the first exhibit, we caught a glimpse of the elevator walls and decided we needed to take a ride in the elevator. :)

 

From far away it actually looked like there were bookshelves and books in the elevator, but it was not so. But it was still fun to see!

And there were some funny wordplay jokes on the wall. 🤣

At this station we sat across from each other and jokes appeared on the screen. We got a point if we made the other person laugh when telling the jokes.

Here is where we would "paint" the wall and the painting would turn into the category of painting that the brush came out of (e.g. crepuscular turns the painting to look like the twilight part of day). 

It probably doesn't make sense when I just say it, but it was really interesting to see in person!

There were a lot more parts of the museum that I did not take a picture of. But it was really cool and I think Sandy, Heather, and I spent about 3 hours in there!

After Planet Word, we ate lunch at a place nearby called Pow Pow which ended up being really disappointing. It had decent reviews online, but two out of the three of us did not like our food very much.

All I had planned for this day was Planet Word and Pow Pow. 

Since it was a nice day and it was still early afternoon, we decided to continue our adventure and visit the Renwick Gallery. 

It had been a few years since any of us had been to the Renwick Gallery and none of us had seen the current exhibit so we walked to there. (It's not too far from Planet Word).

 

The whole room was an art exhibit and part of experiencing it was laying on the floor.

At first Sandy and I were hesitant about laying on the floor (because how many people have walked over that floor and how dirty it probably was), but since we wanted the whole experience, we did it. 

 Heather didn't want to lie down on the ground for the exhibit, (which was completely understandable).

Read this picture to learn about the next three pictures. Makes you think about single use plastic items.

Read this sign to learn about the two pictures below.

 

It was really cool to see in person. It's hard to capture how cool it actually was in a picture.

After the Renwick Gallery, we went on a hunt for ice cream. Along the way we ran into the WWI memorial. I had ever seen it before. Apparently the memorial used to be much smaller, but they had recently done some renovations to it and added some new stuff to it. It was interesting!

It was a bit windy this day, so the water wasn't still to show the reflection clearly. But it was still cool!

I think this wall tells a story of a soldier during the war. Apparently the memorial is not completely finished yet, so I will need to go back there again in a couple of years to see what it looks like then.

After we finished exploring the memorial, we eventually found an ice cream place. It wasn't the best ice cream I've ever had, but I was just happy to have something other than the food we had for lunch in my stomach.

Overall it was a lovely day with good company and interesting places to explore! Thanks Heather and Sandy for joining me on this adventure!

Great Falls

Last Saturday my brother, Tim, and I went on a hike. We started at River Bend Park and hiked to Great Falls. It was about a four mile hike round trip and the scenery was beautiful!

The trail followed the Potomac River and this part of the river was really interesting!

I'm not sure what this was, but I thought it was abandoned in an interesting place.

And we made it to Great Falls! The falls are really pretty!

We stopped at all of the overlooks for the falls.

 

A little fuzzy wuzzy on the trail (I'm not sure if that's the actual nickname for these little caterpillars but I think they're kind of cute although I don't normally like caterpillars or worms).

And on the drive back from our hike we saw this car. What an awesome car! Although I never got into Pokemon as a kid, I did think Pikachu was really cute!

My New Job

I started my new job a few weeks ago. Yay! Is it my dream job? No. Am I grateful to have a job and have income again? Yes! Am I glad that it's a remote job? Definitely!

A random picture of myself on a Sunday morning before church. (This picture has nothing to do with my new job, I just decided to share it.) 🤷😜