Columbia and Iran

You may have heard a little story on the nightly news about the President of Iran coming to Columbia....

There was tight security on campus today, Columbia ID's were required to enter the main campus. Security and Secret Service were walking around, student groups were protesting and a huge crowd gathered on the Butler Library lawn to watch and listen to the live video feed of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speech. Here are some pics I took with my cell phone camera, not the best quality but you can see the crowd. I heard him speak a little during my lunch break but will read the online transcript later to get the full details.

Via Visit Part 2

Ethan's parents came to town for a long weekend. We both took Friday off, so we were able to spend 2 whole days with them. We went to breakfast in our neighborhood at a place called Dizzy's. It's a couple blocks away from our place. We saw a famous actor there, sitting against the wall, reading a book. Anyone recognize this guy?

Steve Buscemi, from Fargo, Reservoir Dogs, etc. apparently lives in Park Slope.

Anyhow, after breakfast, we were on our way into Manhattan. We ended up seeing a movie at the Times Square theater (Bourne Ultimatum). The best one of the three, in my opinion. Very exciting, with the whole movie literally as one huge chases scene.

After the movie, we ventured up to Central Park. The ice rink was getting assembled again, a sure sign that winter is right around the corner...although it was a beautiful day on Friday.

Saturday, however, was a different story. The weather forecast was for sunny skies, 85 degrees. We thought it would be the perfect day for a boat cruise around Manhattan. As soon as the boat left the dock, the clouds rolled in and the raindrops fell. The view wasn't very clear but it was still cool to see parts of Manhattan you can't see from land.

Southern tip of Manhattan --- helipad used for VIP's. Bush lands here when he comes to town, and he just so happens to be here right now for the UN General Assembly.

Empire State Bldg in the clouds.

Some of you may remember this children's book. It's a true story! Below is the actual red lighthouse and the great gray bridge (the George Washington Bridge).

NYU's crew house --- the nicest crew building I've ever seen. But....I would much rather row in Greenlake or Lake Union than the East River. Ick.

Riverside Church in Morningside Heights (Columbia's neck of the woods). See that circular building with the pointed roof? That's Grant's Tomb. I haven't been here yet, but I imagine it would be a nice walk to take during my lunch break.

We ended the day with a trip to Rockefeller Plaza and an early dinner at an Irish pub. It was nice to spend time together and relax a bit before they headed home on the train. The next morning, Ethan and his parents left for Penn Station. Ethan joined them for part of the trip back home. He got off the train at DC en route to a fun week of training at Quantico. Luna and I are holding down the fort until he comes back next weekend.

The Visitor's Checklist

Ethan's sister and her friend Colleen drove down from Newport last weekend. We had a lot of fun with them and they gave new meaning to the term "whirlwind visit". We saw more in two days than most people see in two months! Here is our sightseeing list, along with some surprises we encountered along the way.

• Times Square--briefly. All you need to do is see it and go.


• Rockefeller Plaza


• 5th Avenue -- home of the fancy shops like Saks, Coach, Louis Vuitton....not to mention, American Girl Place.


• 6th Avenue Street Fair---The entire street from 50th to Central Park(59th) was closed to traffic. There were fake purses, sunglasses, bedsheets galore! Yes, 600 count sheets for $20. It wasn't exactly the Fremont Fair, but Erin found a cute purse for $23. :)

• H&M--- a trip to NYC isn't complete unless you go to this store. (at least if you are from Seattle, where we don't have an H & M yet).

• Dylan's Candy Bar---candy heaven, they have cupcakes too!

• Central Park
• St. Patricks Cathedral

• Brooklyn Bridge---we walked across, saw a couple get engaged, and saw a huge motorcade of Harley's and other motorcycles cross the bridge. All car traffic was stopped to let the 100+ bikes through, it was pretty cool to watch.

• Little Italy---another street festival going on, lots of food and carnival games. We ate pizza at Lombardis. We also found a young designers market which had lots of handmade crafts: jewelry, hats, clothes, purses. Erin found another nice purse here. :) I will definately be going back to get a necklace or winter hat.

• Broadway --- Erin bought tickets to 'Hairspray' and went to a Saturday matinee. It was very entertaining and Ethan even liked it. And he was the one who wouldn't go see the movie with me. :) Jerry Mathers (The Beav), Lance Bass (N Sync) and Ashley Parker Angel (O-Town: Making the Band), Tevin Campbell (90's r&b singer, Round and Round was his big hit) were all in the show.

• Union Square--- We had some good Mexican food and margaritas at Los Dos Molinos. We went to the Olives bar at the W Hotel down the street and for a second felt rich. :)

• Grand Central Station

As you can see, we had a full weekend but we had a great time and got a lot of exercise! :) Thanks to Erin for making the trek down to see us!

Farm Aid

Maybe I'm just getting old.... but this was the worst concert experience ever. I apologize for ranting about NYC too much on this blog, but honestly, this event was terrible. The music itself was great (Matisyahu, the Hasidic beatboxer/rapper was the highlight), no complaints in that area. The venue however, was a big problem. Imagine going to a concert in a big grass field, sharing the space on an 85 degree day with 20,000 people (90% of whom are high or sloppy drunk), approx 50 port a pottys, no toilet paper, 25 food stands, and one ATM. Sound like fun?


Farm Aid is a great fundraiser, supporting an important cause to save America's family farms. All of the bands perform without getting a paycheck. However, when I pay $60 per ticket, I expect to have access to basic needs without waiting in line the entire day. The food sold, all organic or locally grown, was good but expensive. After lunch, Ethan and I realized we were running low on cash and we may not have enough for dinner and drinks. Ethan went to the ATM, only to find a huge line, 3 hours long to be exact. Needless to say, when he came back to our spot, he was in no mood to have fun. And I wasn't about to wait in line for an hour to use a port a potty. We were fed up and left early. We didn't feel like we missed out on much since we had seen the Seattle Farm Aid show a few years back. (which was awesome, at the White River Ampitheater, a much nicer place with real restrooms and multiple ATM's).




All smiles, before the day took a turn for the worse...

See the guy in the black hat? He was in a trance, dancing with a fly swatter. Note: I didn't see any bugs that day. He was one of the many interesting folks at the show.

A Matisyahu tidbit.

The Vintage A Train

The 75th Anniversary of the A Train was celebrated yesterday with a roundtrip run from 207th St in Harlem to Chambers Street using pre-WWII subway cars. (I wasn't there for the historic run, but found these pics online). These are the cars that my parents and I saw at the NYC Transit Museum. Pretty cool that they still actually work!

A day of exploring....

Ethan and I had a busy day on Saturday. We went to 3 different neighborhoods (one in Brooklyn and 2 in Manhattan). The weather was perfect--not too hot or humid.

Our first stop of the day was in Brooklyn Heights. We got some lunch at Ethan's fave, Chipotle, and then headed down to the waterfront. The Floating Pool Lady is a swimming pool on a barge docked at the Brooklyn waterfront. We went to check it out but since we had other places to stop during the day, we didn't go swimming.

The Parks Dept also turned an old parking lot into a man-made beach. It seemed a little weird, with the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (BQE) in the background and truckloads of sand covering asphalt. I'd rather go to the real beach.

On our way to the Chelsea Piers, we saw this building. I was curious and Googled it when we got home. It's occupied by some sort of computer company and was just completed this year. It's designed by Frank Gehry but isn't quite as psychedelic as EMP.

The Chelsea Piers are located on the West Side of Manhattan. It's a huge sports complex built on 3 piers along the Hudson River. You can ice skate, golf, bowl, rock climb, and hit some baseballs all in one location. We decided to try the driving range at the Golf Club. I thought the Inter Bay range in Seattle was fancy but it's nothing compared to this place. We were on the 3rd level, hitting balls out towards the river. There are no buckets of balls used here---the tee operates on an automated, underground system. After each swing, the tee sinks down into the "grass" and like magic, it pops up again with a ball on top. It was pretty cool. Dad, next time you are in town, we'll take you here.

Steve Forbes yacht, "The Highlander" is moored at the piers. It's ridiculously huge.

Next on our agenda was Dylan's Candy Bar, a 2-floor candy shop on the Upper East Side. But along the way, we found the Mac store and had to take a look. This glass cube is the entrance, you walk down a glass spiral staircase or take the glass elevator to get to the store. Lots of glass in this place. The store itself seemed like all the other Mac store we've been to, just a little bigger and more crowded. Once we had our Mac fix, we continued on our way to Dylan's.

This candy store has everything---a soda fountain, gourmet chocolates, and any kind of candy you would ever want. We didn't go too crazy, but did leave with a few treats. Definitely worth another visit.

We had a full and fun day of exploring and I'm sure we'll do it again soon. This weekend we head out to Randall's Island for the Farm Aid concert. (Unfortunately for Ethan, it's at the same time as the Bears game).

Have a good weekend everyone! We miss you all!

Go Huskies!

It's a rare treat when we can watch Seattle teams on TV. Last night, ESPN showed the UW vs Syracuse game in the 8pm slot and we were able to watch the Huskies clobber the Orangemen 42-12. The QB, Locker, was awesome! Good thing he signed with UW and not USC.

We also get to watch the Mariners on TV this week. Maybe they can snap the terrible losing streak and beat the Yankees.