The Trip that Was New York

And North Carolina and ATL too. Oh, my goodness, I had such a good time, I almost didn't want to come back. I headed out to New York really excited, but not sure what to expect. I've never been there and I was meeting all of M's family too. I wasn't nervous about meeting his family as I'd met his mother and one of his brothers last year. It's just meeting all of them, well that's a lot. M had 4 brothers and 3 sisters, so we're talking huge family here. No problems though. His family was really great and very accepting and I was happy to be in their company.

I arrived there on a Thursday quite bewildered after two short flights of 2.5 hrs each arriving relatively early Thursday morning with very little sleep. After M picked me up and took me to his parents' house, I started to relax, took a little nap and then had some vittles. Then we headed out to a Mets game and watched a little baseball and I napped a little!(Quel horror!) But that's what happens when you take a girl with little sleep to a game that she would rather sleep through and a little sun, I was out. Later on, we hung out with some of M's friends for a couple of drinks and then we began packing for our short jaunt to North Carolina. One of M's nieces was graduating from NCA&T. I met two more of the sisters and all of their families. Tiffany, the graduate, was such a sweet and thoughtful young lady, it was truly a pleasure meeting her, I know she will go far in life. A graduation party was held in her honor and we hung out in NC for Saturday and then Sunday afternoon we headed back to NY. Unfortunately one very sweet baby, one of M's nephews kept getting sick on the way back, but you couldn't help but smile at him,he's such a sweetie. See for yourself:



We made it back to NY very early Monday morning. We woke up later that day and decided to go to the Staten Island Ferry. M mentioned that would be by the Seaport area and one of my friends advised of a yarn store named Seaport Yarn. Yes, you guessed it dear readers, I bought yarn. Really, not so much, but I did go to a yarn store while in New York. Only one and I really wanted to do more damage, but I restrained myself and trust me when I say it was very difficult. I had to call information to get the exact address and the lady there told me where it was located, but it was a bit difficult to find. It's not a store you can just see, it looks like an office or apartment building, you ride the elevator up to the 5th floor and then they buzz you in. But once inside, one of the ladies said to me," You've been here before, right?" And this is a nice-size store, so I'm very happy to reply, "No, I'm from out-of-town." Then she gave me a quick tour of all the yarns and what was where and then left me to my own devices. I was in HEAVEN! I almost went for it and just bought this alpaca tweed yarn that was all natural chocolate brown with black twisted together. Just beautiful, a 600-yd hank for only $28 and I'd probably need 3 of them and it just felt right to buy them, but then reality sunk in. This place doesn't take credit cards, only checks or cash and I didn't want to kill the budget right there. I only went in there to buy a needle (Yea, right! ;-), but founds lots of goodies to tempt me. In the end, I did find some Fiesta Yarns La Boheme so I could join the Triada-along hosted by Senora Farrell. I'd been debating it, but since the yarn was there, I took it as a sign. I only bought the one hank of La Boheme, but it was $29 and a pair of addis so I could continue knitting on the nursing shawl. Here's the lovely hank of yarn in all of its loveliness. The colorway is Taos, which is a beautiful turquoise, turning into a teal into rusty brown to a copper color. I just love it. It's also not that practical, but then how practical is a little shoulder scarf? Still doesn't stop me from wanting it.







After that we headed on to Staten Island Ferry and while waiting for the next ferry, one of M's friends called and we went to meet up with him by Ground Zero. That was very sobering.



And then off to more shopping b/c someone, namely me, was not smart enough to bring any tennis shoes (and yes I know people out East say sneakers, but I'm a southern girl, so what do you want from me?!) so we went to
Century21 a great department store that has lots of fashionable clothing for a discounted price. I got some cute white w/a pink stripe Pumas for under $30 and a pair of socks and we were on our way to then hit TGIF and happy hour. Staten Island Ferry never saw us make it back as we were quite tipsy, thank goodness for the subway.

Tuesday evening we went to Central Park, just walking all along through it and it was such a beautiful day. Lots of people outside walking around, having lunch, sunbathing, kids out. It was great. And we were pretty tired, so we took a slow, leisurely pace through the park, but ended up walking over 25 city blocks! Yikes! My feet were hurting the next day, but I did enjoy my relaxing knit-in in Central Park.







Can life be any better than that? :-) And didja check out my sweet pink and white Pumas? I love these shoes. Later on we met up with a couple of M's friends and one of mine and her husband for dinner at UKNewYork, an interesting restaurant of English food meeting American. Hmm, can't really recommend this restaurant, but the food was excellent! However, we didn't order from the menu as one of M's friends is a chef there and just prepared food for our palate, so I have no idea of what other foods they serve. We had a potato leek soup for starters, something called Yorkies, which I imagine are on the regular menu (roast beef cut into thin slices in a puff pastry-type thing with a little sauce), for the vegetarian among us (M), he made Yorkies with beets, goat cheese and roasted tomatoes and they were awesome. I had a yummy ribeye steak and shrimp with a side of Caesar salad, and roasted potatoes and a pear-almond tart to finish. M and a couple of the others had some sort of monkfish with tomato and pasta dish that smelled yummy and no one left a morsel of food on their plates and another offering of dessert was chocolate souffle. I think I should have had the chocolate, wait, let me take that back, you should always have the chocolate, but it was a great meal.

Wednesday was spent on Long Island visiting two more of M's brothers, one lived way out in Middle Island (what, these people can't come up with more descriptive names?) and then on to IKEA! What a great store, I really enjoyed it there, didn't buy anything but if we ever do, we've looked at most of it in person. Then on to the other brother, who should just be a comedian, he was so funny. He lived in Freeport, very near the water. I wanted to just uproot myself and move in. A great area to live in, that would be cause to move to NY. Everything else, maybe not. We hung out there all day and night and eventually headed back to M's parents' house.

I will have to finish the recap tomorrow b/c it's time for me to get to work.


And one more pic in Central Park



Keep the stitches alive! Peace out.