Chelsea Fun

Saturday night outing in Chelsea - dinner and a walk with Sarah and Chad. Sarah picked the restaurant and kept it a secret until we arrived. It was fantastic! It's called The Park and we ate in the garden, which literally felt like we were having a picnic in the park. Trees, vines, sky - it was very cool. The food was tasty, I had salmon and Ethan had catfish. But dessert had to be the best part - Ethan had banana wontons with caramel and chocolate dipping sauces. I had fresh berries with vanilla mascarpone. We did not make it to the night club (it has a hot tub!) on the 2nd floor - it doesn't open until midnight! Only in Manhattan....


After dinner, we walked to the Hudson River and explored the Chelsea Piers. We went to the driving range and hit a bucket of balls. Arms were sore the next day.

We have visitors in town now- sis Kathleen and cousin Phoebe! I'll post pics next week - we expect to have many NY adventures to share.

An Afternoon at Citi Field

Saturday morning : watching the news, seeing the awesome weather forecast, heard there was a 1:05 pm Mets game, spur of the moment decision to buy tickets.  We are sure glad we did! It was a perfect day - sunny, 70's and a brand-new ballpark. Hour subway ride to Flushing, Queens. We entered through Citi Field's main entrance - Jackie Robinson Rotunda.  This entrance is modeled after Ebbett's Field - home of the Brooklyn Dodgers.  Love the brick! Just like Safeco! 

Almost the cheapest seats in the house - $30/ea, right behind home plate.  Johan Santana pitched a great game - Mets 1 Brewers 0.  We saw Mike Cameron as a Brewer!  

Manhattan view from the top level 

Jackie Robinson Rotunda  - #42 remembered forever.

Ethan enjoying his Nathan's hot dog in Section 515

JJ!

JJ Putz (now a Met) threw a 1-2-3 8th inning with 2 K's.  I was inspired to get a Putz Mets T-shirt and looked in each Team Store (there are 3!).  No luck - they don't sell them. Guess Putz isn't famous enough in NY yet.  Time to place a custom order...

One new ballpark down, one to go.  Next up: Mega-Yankee Stadium.  However, we will not be cheering for the Yankees like we cheer for the Mets.  

Project Subway

Celebrity Sighting: Tim Gunn from Project Runway!

I was commuting home from work a few weeks ago - my hour long, three train commute.....when I found myself spacing out. Turns out I was staring right at Tim Gunn. I was on the express train and he was on the local train next to mine. He was staring out the window as well. Subway riding puts you in a trance sometimes. Anyway, it was pretty fun to see him. He's one of the best parts of Project Runway.

Red Hook

Red Hook - the Brooklyn  waterfront neighborhood is home to NYC's only IKEA, the Real World: Brooklyn, the Key Lime Swingle, Fairway Market, and some cute plant nurseries. Ethan and I went exploring last weekend - Red Hook is directly to the west of Park Slope. It was an interesting walk down 9th St, lots of warehouses and run down buildings. A few blocks away are the Red Hook Houses, the largest housing project in Brooklyn.  8,000 people live there! 

We headed to IKEA first, picked up some pillowcases and Swedish fish.  Then we walked towards the piers to meet up with Chad and Sarah. Fairway Market is the big grocery store in Red Hook and is located in an old warehouse.  There is a patio out back where people can eat lunch and enjoy the view of Lady Liberty.  She's looking right at Red Hook! There are also a few antique cable cars parked behind the market.  

The Lady

Fairway Market

Next, we walked to Pier 41, which you may recognize from MTV's Real World: Brooklyn.  The end of the pier was converted into the latest Real World house.  Filming ended a few months ago, so we ventured onto the pier easily.  Also on Pier 41, Steve's Authentic Key Lime Pies.  We tried the Swingle, a chocolate covered key lime tart on a stick. Yum! 

Ethan and the Swingle

Pier 41 - home of the Real World:BK

Pier 41 closeup

Mariners Treasures

In the spirit of Opening Day, I decided to go through my "Sports Box", where I kept all my special sports memorabilia as a kid. I discovered my Sports Illustrated's featuring Griffey, 1989-2001 Mariners team info guides, baseball cards, and ticket stubs. I thought I would share a few of the items with you, as a tribute to Junior and the Mariners.

1991 - Griffey baseball family, Ken Sr, Ken Jr, Craig (minor league M's player)

1995 SI - The famous ALDS win over the Yankees - best Game 5 ever!

Upper Deck Rookie Card
1989 - My first game of Griffey's rookie season1990 - First father/son game in MLB history - Griffey Sr and Griffey Jr

Last game of 1991 - 83rd win and first winning season for the team.

Here's hoping for a winning season this year too! I wish I was in Seattle to see Opening Day, but guess I'll have to settle for watching our MLB Extra Innings package . Go M's!

An Uptown Adventure

Last weekend's agenda: exploring the northern tip of Manhattan. It was a journey - two trains and 1 1/2 hours later, we made it to 190th St - Fort Tryon Park and the Cloisters. The park is on the cliffs of the Hudson River. We felt like we had escaped the city - it was very quiet and peaceful. We walked to the Cloisters - a 4-acre area of the park which houses the Met's art and architecture from medieval Europe. The Cloisters were built in the 1930's and archways, columns, stones from medieval times were incorporated into the construction. The exhibits include tapestries, stained glass and gardens (which will be even prettier when trees have leaves and plants are blooming).

Doorway from Burgandy, France - circa 1250 (Photo taken from the Met's website).

Fountain in the skylight room

After the museum, we headed down to the Columbia University area. We ate lunch at Tom's Restaurant - you may recognize the exterior, which was shown in each Seinfeld episode. Tom's is also famous for being the spot Suzanne Vega sang about in her song "Tom's Diner". Good diner food and the milkshakes are amazing!

After lunch, we completed our Upper West Side tour with a trip to The Cathedral of St. John the Divine. According to the brochure, it claims to be the largest cathedral in the world. We learned from eavesdropping next to a tour that the Statue of Liberty could fit inside the cathedral. It really is that huge.

The Rose Window

Resting our legs on the fancy wooden pews. We racked up the miles on our upper Manhattan adventure!