My last few weeks in NYC

So it's taken me a few weeks, but I've finally put up some photos from my wanderings around the city during my last few weeks there. With the weather being nicer than my previous several months, I was able to see quite a lot (although the humidity nearly killed me at times, but I survived to tell the tale!). So here're some of my adventures:

A view of the Empire State Building from Midtown East (I took this on my way back from seeing a film at the Tribeca Film Festival)

This was a Sunday in Central Park one of the first weekends in May. The church is only a block from the park and I decided to on this beautiful Sunday to walk home via the park. This is Sheep Meadow. You can see how full the park gets on a nice weekend day!
the Bethesda Angel fountain
View of the upper west side from across the Onassis Reservoir
Midtown from across the Onassis Reservoir

The following weekend I took a day and visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I sure did a lot of walking that day! The following picture is at the branch of the Met called "The Cloisters." It's located clear North on Manhattan Island - at about 195th St. A bit far seeing as my apartment was on 100th St. But the Cloisters was a beautiful little museum dedicated to 14th-16th century churches and cloisters, hence the name, from Europe. What was really impressive was the museum was built with actual remnants of cloisters. So take the following picture: some of the columns are originals and the rest are replicas. Together they create the original. Quite fascinating, and very beautiful. I felt like I was back in some of the English cathedrals and churches. I thought it was very well built.
These next few are from the actual Met Museum itself. This is a Temple in their Egyptian section.

This bust seemed very interesting to me. I wonder what made the sculptor carve him that way..
Section of a temple from the Ancient Near East section

I also spent some time walking around the old city and various neighborhoods downtown.

This is near City Hall.

This is the county court house (I think it's the one they always walk out of on Law and Order)

Statue of Confucious in Chinatown
Large street in Chinatown

Mulberry St. in Little Italy (every Sat. was a street fair/summer festival)
Monument at Washington Square park

I also spent a day around Brooklyn. The next few pictures are from the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. It was absolutely beautiful there!

I walked past this fire station as I was making my way from the Brooklyn Promenade to the Brooklyn Bridge. I had already walked across it before, but I wanted to once more before I left.

I just love the mural on the door.

I walked past this church everyday on my way to work...
...and went past this statue the days I walked or rode the bus.

St. James Church, also on the way to work

This statue is next to the Columbia Law school, which is next to the building that housed the library I worked in. I never quite figured out what it was supposed to be...

And not far from Columbia University was this building: Grant's tomb. Do you know who's buried there??

The outside of my apartment building. My apt. was on the top floor a couple windows left of center (the center being the balconies)

My last weekend in the city, Christine came down from Connecticut and we had a fabulous afternoon and evening. She brought me to this place, the Shake Shack, and then we went and saw "Chicago" on Broadway.

And these final ones were taken my last day in Manhattan. This is the Low Library at Columbia.

And this is me. Behind me is the Butler Library. The librarians I worked with at Columbia all had their offices in this building.

And the view from my apartment shortly before I said goodbye...Quite a contrast from the way it looked in January. I love the city in bloom (who wouldn't like green over the barrenness of winter!)

I've been back in Utah for nearly a month now - how quickly time flies. I miss being able to walk around and explore the city on the weekends. There's not much around me in walking distance now except pastures and housing developments, but having said that, I love the beauty of the mountains. So you could say it's a bit bittersweet...

Eve of departure...

So here I sit with just one last night in New York City, and I've been thinking about a few of the things that I'm going to miss...

*The scruffy-looking 50-odd-year-old woman that walks around begging for money from cars stopped at the stoplight at 97th and Columbus
*The older homeless man that sings songs like "Let it be" in the 103rd and Broadway subway stop
*The two guys that play big bongo drums (or something like that) on the 2 train or at the 96th St. stop
*The frequent clorox smell of the 96th St. stop
*Jose and Fritz, the doormen of my building that I see the most. They are very friendly
*Walking past the fire station on my way to work (the firemen are nice, too!)
*The homeless men that sleep on the steps of the church on 86th and Amsterdam, and their draped blankets or boxes used for privacy
*H&M Stores, all of them...
*Falafel from Amir's, yum!
*Pastrami or steak sandwiches from Arties, also yum!
*Street fairs
*Walks through Central Park
*Gourmet cupcakes from Crumbs
*The cute 1st-graders at the Harlem school where I helped out a few times
*The fabulous view out my apartment window!
*Going to see shows on the weekends
*Thinking today might be the day I see Tap-Tap on the train again...
*Finding new places to eat that are truly New York: Pommes Frites, Shake Shack, Lombardi's, Cordato's, etc.
*Wandering through various, differing neighborhoods in the city

Just some of the things that I've gotten used to either seeing or doing that I'll have to leave behind...

On the other hand...

Your results:
You are Mystique

Mystique 36% Dark Phoenix 34% Poison Ivy 28% Juggernaut 24% Dr. Doom 21% Mr. Freeze 21% Catwoman 20% Lex Luthor 19% Apocalypse 18% Kingpin 18% Green Goblin 16% Venom 15% The Joker 14% Magneto 12% Riddler 8% Two-Face 0%

Sometimes motherly, sometimes a beautiful companion, but most of the time a deceiving vixen.

Click here to take the "Which Super Villain am I?" quiz...

Here I am...

Your results:
You are Superman

Superman 75% Spider-Man 65% Wonder Woman 52% Robin 52% The Flash 50% Green Lantern 50% Supergirl 47% Iron Man 35% Catwoman 25% Batman 20% Hulk 15%

You are mild-mannered, good, strong and you love to help others.

Click here to take the "Which Superhero are you?" quiz...

This post is brought to you by the number 10

So tonight was a special occasion for me. You may wonder why. Well, I'll tell you. Tonight marked the viewing of my 10th show on Broadway. That's right....10. Not bad for only 4 months in the city (with a only a couple more weeks to go). Tonight, I saw "Mary Poppins", and it was absolutely fabulous! It ranks very high on my list of most enjoyable/favorite/best/must-see-again shows. The other shows I've seen are (in no particular order):

Les Miserables
The Apple Tree
Wicked
The Lion King
Beauty and the Beast
Tarzan
Curtains
The Color Purple
The Pirate Queen

With only 2 or 3 weeks left in the city, I may try to see at least 1 more (while trying not to think about how much money these shows constitute...but being worth every penny!). We shall all have to wait and see which show is next...

Only in New York...

...can you find a street vendor selling a book entitled "How to roll a blunt, for dummies." And he must have had about 20-30 copies on his little table...

My getaway in DC

So two weekends ago I made a trip down to DC to visit Tia. It was nice to spend a weekend out of the city. I flew down on Friday morning and stayed until Monday night. As it was my 3rd time visiting her, we took it a bit easy and didn't worry too much about seeing too many sights. We did spend Saturday at Mount Vernon, the former estate of George Washington. Here we are with George and Martha:

Here's his mansion
This is George Washington's tomb
And this is his back porch, which has a great view of the Potomac
Tia's hangin' with Ben while Nick and Nick Jr. are getting their kite ready to fly

We, of course, had a GNO, which got a bit silly at the end...(we love our self-portraits)

This is another picture from their photo shoot on Sunday We did spend Monday touring the Pentagon, which was really cool, but there were no cameras allowed, so...I have no pictures of it. We walked all around, seeing the 9/11 memorial and chapel, the press room, the hallway where the Secretary of Defense's office is, the Joint chiefs' offices, and even the shops. I was amazed to learn that the Pentagon has their own post office, jewellers, dry cleaners, CVS Pharmacy, not to mention a dozen fastfood places. It pretty much has everything but apartments (although it wouldn't surprise me if some of the employees spend long nights)!