st patricks day!

back to nyc to frolic with ian while he was in town for ‘work’.

that meant getting to be with two of my faves at once. yippeee!

kara, ian and i celebrating st patricks day eve:

the next day was st patricks day!  and, as any self respecting 1/8th irish girl would do, i joined my st paddys day family, nice and early, clad in green…  at the bar :)

ezat, ian, garett and myself patiently awaiting our pints:

and of course we had to see the famous nyc st paddys day parade:

 

ok. enough of that. back to the pubs.  new york city’s finest celebrate:

and… oddly enough, not too many photos taken after that point.  weird.

the next morning brought a sun shiny day, and pleasant walk back to the bus. 

along the way i spied the empire state building:

looks kinda different when you’re right up next to it:

 

back to dc.  i miss my st paddys day family already…

ice skating rockefeller plaza

headed back to nyc to see the city in all its christmas glory and to ice skate at rockefeller plaza:



so kara and i laced up some skates and made yet another dream reality. i dont think either of us have laughed that hard in ages. with christmas carols in our ears, and joy in our hearts, we skated for the first time in, well,
lets just say... a long long time.
such a fun nite!




of course we had to celebrate seeing one another again, and what better way than to head to the pub for a pint?
hmmm. starting to sense a theme here. again.


cheers! to creating memories with a best friend...

röyksopp

hopped the bus to nyc on sunday nite to see royksopp - one of only 4 US appearances on their tour. met up with dave on sunday and monday in order to catch up and have a drink or two. yep. there they are,
dave and the only two drinks we had:

met tracy pre show for some more drinks (or two. again.) and we headed across the street to webster hall.
OH MY GOD, the show was AMAZING!!!!!!


yah, there were some wild costume changes. what a performance. heres a snippet to get an idea of what you missed. sorry if its a bit shaky, its hard to hold the camera still when youre dancing away :)

fun in new york city!

while visiting nyc was a bit tough for bijou...
lets just say a spot for #2 is difficult, late at nite, when all the parks are closed (concrete jungle, INDEED!);
it was so fun to discover the city with kara.
we took in tons of sights - lots of the usual tourist ones and then some not so usual...

dave was kind enough to take us on a tour of the NYSE.
SO COOL!


we grabbed 'flat maria' for a day:
(triratna in almost full effect)


and went to a soccer/footie match:


and met up with coby!!! and this dude who had been 'dying to get his pic taken with her all day', but forgot to actually ask for the pic afterwards...
yeah, an endless supply of free heinekens
will make you forget things.


this guy was there too,
he obviously knows whats what:


the next day my favorite auntie carolyn came to visit for the day. we hoofed it around the city shopping and visited rockefeller center for lunch. good times. i know it looks like i'm related to dolly parton in this shot,
but believe me - its the angle.... i'm not.


and OF COURSE, one cannot go to new york city without eating the worlds finest pizza. YUM.


i think this pic of two of my favorite girls, kara and stella, pretty much sums up the experience:


think im gonna have to get myself one of those
'i heart ny' tshirts now.
i totally get it.

nyc!

after jettisoning the broken thule box off the roof of the car into a random Target dumpster in CT (deeply satisfying, fyi), bijou and i were off to nyc. driving into manhattan is inspiring, exciting, and fairly intimidating - let us not forget, my car bears no resemblance to a mini cooper.

im in awe of this city.
i adore getting lost and looking at all of these
amazing structures.
nyc has an incomparable skyline:

relax

getting super tired of driving 15+ hr days, we stopped just outside syracuse, ny at onondaga lake for an evening relax. there was a peaceful park on the water with a dog run and picnic tables... perfection.

mission accomplished.
back on the road...

niagara falls

reluctantly, we packed up the car and headed off towards vermont. we stopped in gary, indiana along the way to let bijou go for a swim in lake michigan. um. we will NOT be adding gary to the potential cities to move to list...

mmm. factories and pollution make for GREAT sunsets.

next stop - niagara falls. one of those places you must see before you die. once youve seen it - no real need to go back, as far as i can tell.



lots and lots of water...