We've moved and so has our blog!

A fresh new start, a fresh new blog! We won't be updating our NYC blog anymore, so if you are interested in keeping up with us in Virginia, please visit us at http://elinandethan.blogspot.com/. We developed these blogs as a way to keep our family and friends updated on our East Coast life and we hope you've enjoyed reading the posts as much as we've enjoyed writing them.

A Fond Farewell to NYC

The day we left New York City...

Getting ready for the movers - Where's Luna?

The movers packed up everything in 6 hours! They were the most efficient crew ever! There goes our stuff - headed to storage for a while.

Full circle - an empty apartment once again.

Luna saying goodbye to her squirrel friends.

Crossing the Verazzano Bridge - Goodbye Brooklyn!

The past 2.75 years have flown by and we can't believe we no longer reside in the Big Apple! There are definitely things about the city we will not miss one bit (the crowded sidewalks, the often rushed and rude people, and the stink of the streets) but we also have many good memories here. And those things are more obvious to us now as we begin our new life in Virginia.

1. The food - the convienience and the quality of having wonderful neighborhood restaurants (and that aren't chains).

2. The subway - yes, I actually miss the train. It is such an easy and relatively carefree way of traveling. I'm not sure if I like driving....

3. Our Park Slope friends - Chad and Sarah, you were a godsend. We are so thankful to have met you and come visit us anytime! We hope to all be in Seattle again down the road. :)

4. The tap water - it's the best drinking water I've ever tasted!

5. The sights - There was SO much to do the minute we stepped onto our stoop. We made the most of our time in NY and saw everything we possibly could, from museums to shows to restaurants. And there is still lots more to do when we come back to visit.

Here are some of the fun times we had as New Yorkers:

Central Park
Go Mets! Shea Stadium

Boo Yankees! Old Yankee Stadium

Times Square

Rockefeller Center

Riding the F

Christmas at the Rock

Prospect Park

NYC Marathon

Manhattan

Lady Liberty

Jeff Koons at the Met

Delancey Street

The Cyclones and Parachute Drop

Riding the Cyclone at Coney Island

Columbia Snow

Fall in Cold Spring

Batting Helmets on the F

Grand Central and Chrysler

Brooklyn Botanic Garden

Brooklyn Bridge

Our stoop

Wonder Wheel

Thanks for the memories, New York! And thanks to all the visitors who came to see us! We loved seeing you and hope you come visit us in Virginia! :)

Sneaking in some DC sights

We managed to see some things in DC when we weren't out with the realtors. Our hotel was in Georgetown, so we walked to the Mall and took in a couple museums. I am looking forward to exploring even more once we move. We also went to Roanoke for a couple days at the end of our trip to see Ethan's parents and brother. It will be nice to live closer to family again.

DC/VA

The Townhouse

We hit the ground running during our househunting trip last week. We arrived in DC on Saturday and looked at houses that afternoon. It took three days of looking, in many different Northern Virginia (NOVA) neighborhoods and at 20+ houses, but we found "The One" on the third day. It's a townhouse in Ashburn, VA - about 30 miles from DC and 20 miles from Tyson's Corner (where Ethan will be working). The house is in a subdivision that includes a pool, biking/walking trails, basketball/tennis courts and is very green and full of trees. It's a big change from our little Brooklyn brownstone but a change we are very excited about. More space! Closets! A yard! A deck! Yay!

Closing isn't until Aug 26 and the movers come tomorrow to pack up our stuff and take it to storage. Ethan, Luna and I will be living in an extended stay hotel in Tyson's for 26 days starting Saturday. While Ethan is at work, I will be job searching and looking for things to do in Tyson's. Fun times.

Oh, and we also bought two Honda's in Roanoke during our Virginia visit. We are doing our share to help the housing and auto industries.

Click below for the townhouse photos:

Ashburn Townhouse

A Wedding in Motown

I'm catching up on our blog entries before we move this weekend. A few weeks ago we were in Detroit for Sarah and Chad's wedding. You hear so many things in the news about Detroit - most of them bad - so it was nice for us to see that there are many good things about the city. The D gets a bad rap - it's a city who has lost it's industry and is in need of some help. The buildings are old and have lots of character and it's unfortunate that many of them sit empty and boarded up. We stayed in a hotel downtown and got a chance to walk around, ride the People Mover and explore. The wedding was so much fun - the Masonic Temple was a perfect setting for the vows and celebration afterwards. Here is the link to our Detroit photo album:

Detroit

Let the House Hunting Begin!

The past few weeks have been jam-packed with fun times and unfortunately, I have not had time to post anything on the blog. Today was my last day of work and tomorrow we go to DC/NOVA to look for a place to live. We'll be back in NYC for the last week of July and I promise to post an update here. Hope you all have a great weekend and check back in about a week. :)

A Patriotic Weekend in Boston

This was one of our favorite Fourth of July weekend's ever. How appropriate we were celebrating our nation's birthday in the wonderful city of Boston. It was an all-American weekend full of baseball at Fenway (the M's won!), good food, friends, and the Freedom Trail. We had a great time walking around the city and enjoying the nice weather. We lucked out and experienced the first sunshine the NE had seen in over a week. I'm sorry I don't have more time to write about our adventure but I took tons of photos and posted the link to the web album below. Our move to DC is coming up in 3 short weeks and blogging has taken a backseat to other important items, such as looking for a place to live, job hunting and tying up loose ends in NYC. I had forgotten how stressful moving is...

Boston

Now on to the next city - Detroit! We head to Motown this weekend for Chad and Sarah's wedding.

Brooklyn Cyclones and Staten Island Yankees

It's been a week of minor league baseball in the city. The New York - Penn League - Class A Short Season - has two NYC teams - the Cyclones and the Yankees. On Tuesday, we went to Coney Island for the Cyclones game. For one night only, they were the "Barack-lyn" Cyclones, wearing special patriotic jerseys and the first 2,500 fans got an Obama bobblehead. (Chad and Sarah were the lucky ones - we got there too late). It was an Obama themed night and the Cyclones won 7-3. (Note: The Cyclones are in first place, undefeated at home as of today.)

Keyspan Park - the dark clouds luckily passed right next to us and we stayed dry.

Sarah and Chad keeping score.

On Sunday, we all took the ferry over to Staten Island for the S.I. Yankees game. Their stadium is awesome - it's right on the water and the seats look out to a view of Manhattan. And only in the minors can you pay $14 for a seat behind home plate! The Yankees were playing the Aberdeen Ironbirds, who is the team located closest to our new city. I was rooting for them because I don't think it's possible for me to root for any Yankee team. This was a wild and crazy game - lots of HR's, big comeback by the Yankees, 3 hours long.

View from the ferry

View from our seats (pretend the big barge and dredger are not there and you can see downtown Manhattan)

Vinny Pastore from the Sopranos threw out the first pitch.

It was a warm day but luckily for our fair, lily white skin, our seats were in the shade.

It's official - we have now been to all five boroughs of NYC, just in the nick of time!

Have a happy 4th everyone!

3 Years!

We are celebrating our anniversary today. These past 3 years have been great and we look forward to many more. No big plans for today - our trip to Boston next weekend is our anniversary trip. :)

The Big Lull before the Big Move

There's been a whole lotta nothing going on around here. The weather has been not so nice - rainy, cloudy - reminds me of being home. Although I hear Seattle has a dry streak going right now. Looks like the East and West Coasts swapped weather once again this year...

Ethan's been away for work for the past two weeks - but luckily was home in between trips last weekend. We hit up the Shake Shack, a burger joint in Madison Square Park that we've been meaning to try for almost 3 years now. (Also, their website is fun). The Shake Shack is super popular - so popular that the website has a "shack cam" so you can see how long the line is before you go. We went on a Saturday at lunch time, so we were expecting a big crowd. The line was indeed long and it took about 45 minutes until we had our Shackburgers and chocolate shakes in hand. The burgers were tasty, I'd say in my top 5. But the best part was the super chocolaty shake. I think it topped the shake I got at Tom's Restaurant...



I know Ethan is not going to be happy about this pic but I mainly wanted to get a shot of his T-shirt. :)

We walked from Madison Square Park to Union Square and along the way saw this building. I just thought it was cool and very French-y. Reminded me of Paris.


Last Saturday was also the Brooklyn Pride Parade that marched through our neighborhood. We stopped to watch on our walk home from dinner.

Life's going to get busy in the next couple weeks - we have a trip to Boston planned for the 4th of July. It'll be my first time in Boston and I can't wait! We'll have lots of photo opportunities there - M's/Red Sox game, fireworks, sightseeing, etc.