Time Flies and Furries Swarm

July 19, 2014

Jason and I woke up earlier than normal for a Saturday morning, but who wouldn't when in NYC for only a weekend! There was so much to do and see. Mom and Dad asked Jason to make a to-do list for us while in NYC. We had all been to NYC before, but this was Jason's first time. They were extremely kind and let Jason pick what we were to do while there. Jason had a top 10 list for NYC.

Number one: Bagels. Jason wanted, above all else, to have a real New York bagel (pronounced Bah-gel, if you're Britta Perry). We met Mom and Dad in their hotel room and decided to walk the streets of NY until we found a bagel. Lucky for us, the doorman was the same guy that helped us check in the previous night. We knew within seconds of meeting him that he was trustworthy. How you might ask? Well, I'll tell you... Jason was wearing a Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry t-shirt when meeting this guy. Upon seeing Jason's shirt, the doorman said, "I'll see your wand and raise you a sonic screwdriver!" See... told you he was trustworthy.

We asked him where we could find a good breakfast and some real NY bagels. He wasn't sure about the bagels but he did tell us about a bakery. Just a block or two from the hotel was Amy's Bread, which was reportedly delicious. We decided to trust our Dr. Who and Harry Potter loving friend and headed toward Amy's. Here is a picture of the inside... beautiful!

I ordered a delicious coconut muffin, Jason got a cinnamon Challah, Mom a peanut butter and Jelly sandwich, and Dad a pumpernickel loaf. The doorman was right--it was delicious!

After breakfast we made our way to Time Square, where Mom learned the word "Furry." Well... not exactly. She asked what it meant. I told her I would tell her when she's old enough. Let me show you what I mean by Furry...

There must have been over 20 people in Disney, Sesame Street, and Super Hero costumes. Each "furry" offered to take a picture with you, and once the picture was taken they would demand a tip. Mom, being a true southern bell with extreme hospitality and politeness, smiled and laughed at each character. This immediately caused a swarm of furries to attack. Great picture and story. Side note: Jason is now asking what the plural of furry would be called. A ___ of furries? An orgy of furries?

Mom finished taking these awesome pictures while an Elmo tried to flatter me into taking a picture with him. . . he failed. I don't like unexpected kisses on my hand from a giant, furry animal... this makes me want to run, not stop for a picture. No furries for me, thank you very much! After escaping the creepy Elmo and other massive cartoon characters, we made our way to a small, red table to figure out our next step.

We went to Time Square in the hopes of finding the Big Red Bus stop. The Big Red Bus is a tour bus that takes you all over NYC.... this is Number four on Jason's to-do list. I'll get to 2 and 3 on the list later. After some searching, we finally spotted the Big Red Bus Stop... right behind the mass of furries we had just escaped. Luckily, we made it through with no hassle and were able to buy tickets. We soon were headed on the uptown loop, which would take us to Central Park and the Met. Here are some pictures of our trip on the bus:

 Not sure what the picture is on the bottom... some beautiful church. They told me what it was as we passed, but I can't remember now. This was the only clear picture I could get while driving.

We saw where John Lennon was shot, Strawberry Fields, Harlem, and a zillion other things. One thing I remember that was strange was a particular building... it was a massive structure filled with circular rooms and outer walls. Apparently the original owner of the building had a loved one with cancer... they built the house as a circular structure because they believed cancer was caused by a germ that grew in corners. Very strange.

Once reaching Central Park (number five on Jason's to-do list), we got off the bus in order to complete Number three on Jason's to-do list.  Although it seems I have forgotten about number 2, I haven't. That had to come later.

Number three: The Met!
As we walked up the stairs to the Met, we saw this:

Originally they were singing the song from the lion king called "In the Jungle." I was trying to record that one, but they finished right as I pulled my phone out. They were pretty good.

Once in the Met, Mom and Dad decided to go look at one part of the Met and Jason and I went to another. We weren't able to spend a great deal of time at the Met because we wanted to see Jamie once he finished rehearsal. It was still amazing. I think it would take a full two days to see the whole thing. Here is what we saw:

First, the inside of the Met:

Next the Egyptian Section.... this is where Jason and I went first:

 Little man in hidden room :^)

 Jason laughed really hard at the fact that they were all taking pictures of him taking a picture while he took a picture of them taking a picture :^) Confused yet?

Next the Greek and Roman Section:

 Hahaha... look at that guy standing next to the naked women statue. He looks really awkward!

Next we went to the center of the Met to find the Italian Renaissance Section, but instead we found Mom and Dad at the top of this staircase (shown below). They had just visited the Van Gogh Section. We really wanted to see that, but by this point we were super super hungry. We all decided to go to the cafe inside the Met. I didn't take pictures of it because it was just a normal cafe with food. Jason got a burger and fries. Mom and I got pasta. Dad went to the grill, I think... can't exactly remember what he got but I remember it looked delicious.

 

After eating lunch, we found the Italian Renaissance section. Here are pictures:

 Jason took a picture of this painting specifically because these women look like men. I have to agree.

 

These were one of my favorites (top pictures)

Jason and I then stumbled across the American Art section:

 Then two more pictures from the Italian Renaissance section:
These were done on wood...

After the Met, we went to Time Square to try and meet Jamie. These are pictures of us while we wait:

Not long after taking the pictures above, Jamie texted us to let us know his rehearsal was going a little long. We all decided to move onto the next item on Jason's to-do list while we waited for Jamie to join us. Next stop... find the Big Bus in Time Square and head to Trinity Church (number 7 on Jason's to-do list). After getting off at the Big Red Buss Stop for the 9/11 memorial, we made our way to a nearby park while Mom and Dad went to a Starbucks across the street.

Jason and I sat on a bench in the park and watched some children play near the fountain. Suddenly we heard a loud thud was heard followed by a loud cry. We turned to find a very adorable little girl crying on the ground as her friends stared at her, obviously unaware of what to say or do to help. It was sad and adorable all at once.

When Mom and Dad returned, we wandered around a few blocks trying to find Trinity Church. After using Mom's cell phone map we realized we were walking in the exact opposite direction we needed to go. We soon returned to our original starting point--the park--and found the church right down the street. Sadly, the church was closed and we weren't able to go in and see the church yard. Here are pictures from the outside:

 Right outside this gate Jason was able to get a memento for our collection :^) Super excited!

 While at Trinity Church we got a text from Jamie saying that he and his friend Jacob would meet us there. While waiting, we decided to grab something quick to eat to hold us over for dinner. Here is Jason getting his very first hot dog from a NY cart:

 Jamie and Mom also bought candied nuts from a vendor too. Delicious! After eating and meeting up with Jacob and Jamie, we headed toward the 9/11 memorial and Freedom Tower. Jacob is currently living in NY and was able to navigate around the city better than any of us. Lucky for us, we were able to follow him around and avoided getting lost. My favorite thing about following Jacob around NY was that he had on these bright orange pants... super easy to find him in a crowd.... perfect tour guide! Here are pictures:

Look at that cute family I don't know!

These pictures don't do it justice. This place was huge and beautiful!

After seeing the tower and memorial, Jacob helped Mom, Jason, and I get on the subway to go back to our hotel. The three of us were going to a play while Jacob, Dad, and Jamie decided to take the tour bus for the evening. Here is a picture of Jason experiencing his first subway experience. . .

We made our way back safely and quickly got ready for the play. Soon we started down the street to see The Cripple of Inishmaan. We were super excited because it was said to be really good and have Daniel Radcliffe in it. Sadly, I turned the wrong direction down 49th street and we were unable to find the theater. We started to panic because we were quickly running out of time. Mom, being very smart, decided to call Jamie, since he had seen the play a few nights earlier. As we began to turn around on 49th street, we heard Mom say "Where do we go, Jamie? We're on 49th... You're where?!"Mom looked at us in shock and began to walk toward the corner of the street where a Big Red Bus drove past. We looked up and saw Dad, Jacob, and Jamie... all three were pointing down 49th street and yelled "Go that way!" We laughed so hard! It was like a movie!

We ran as fast as we could. The theater would shut us out if we weren't there on time and there was only two minutes left. We ran to the front just in time! They let us in. We found our seats and waited.

Here are pictures of us before it started:

 

The play was amazing and really funny! After the play we went back to the hotel and met back up with Jamie, Dad, and Jacob. We were all super hungry. We thought of a few places but settled on Juniors. We had to go through Time Square on Saturday night to get there.... it was crazy! It was super packed and tons of people stopping every 2 seconds to take selfies. Plus, there was construction so the walkway was smaller than usual. It was ridiculous, but Juniors was worth it. We had a blast! The food was good and the company amazing. Here are pictures:

My sandwich! Mmmm :^)

 Jason's sandwich! Mmmm again!

It looks like Jamie is floating!!

Jason says, Jacob looks like a rapper in the picture below :^) I agree!

After dinner we went back to the hotel and quickly collapsed into a deep sleep. Probably one of the busiest days of my life, but so much fun!!

 

The City that Never Sleeps...Unless You're Hungry

July 18, 2014

It has officially been over a month since we visited New York City. We've been meaning to blog this for quite some time, but haven't been able to until now. Let's see, it all started on a dark and stormy night...

Okay, it didn't. It started, at least for me (DaNae), on a dark and early work morning. For me (Jason), it started on an oddly normal morning. Jason and I both wake up at ungodly hours, but today we didn't mind as much. Today we were going to New York City. Jason has never been before. I have tried on numerous occasions to see if he would be interested in going to NYC for our anniversary one year. He wasn't against it, but said he'd rather visit other places first. I was hoping this trip would change his mind. We were only visiting for the weekend in order to see my brother in an off-broadway play. There wasn't time to see everything in NYC in just a few days. I was hoping this would leave Jason with a strong desire to return for more.

I won't bother with our work day adventure, because it's not nearly as fun as the rest of the weekend. Immediately after work, Jason and I went home and finished packing. Okay, okay... Jason was already packed. He was smart and did it the night before. I on the other hand, began packing an hour before we left. Only thirty minutes after Jason was home, my parents could be heard outside our door. We grabbed our carry-on bags, said goodbye to our beautiful cats, and met them at the car.

We wanted to leave early in the day, but our jobs had other plans. It was around 6 p.m. when our plane left Atlanta. It wasn't long before we returned to the stable earth in Charlotte, NC. The joys of layovers. We grabbed a granola bar and Famous Amos cookies and then eventually returned to the air. Once landing my dad called the taxi service for our prepaid car.... it's much cheaper to call in advance than just picking one up at the airport. Our taxi driver, Muhammad, was very nice and told us about the history of NYC and each street as we made our way to the hotel. We scheduled for him to meet us at our hotel on Monday morning to take us to the airport... he instructed us to simply call his cell phone rather than the company line on Sunday to confirm. He also informed us that cash was preferable :^)

It was around 11:30 once at our hotel. We stayed at the Time Hotel in Hell's Kitchen, right across the street from the theater showing Chicago. We picked this hotel because my brother was also staying there. He had already been in NYC for a few days, preparing for the play. We texted my brother to let him know we were checking in and planning to eat at Serafina, the restaurant in the hotel. Jason and I hadn't eaten anything (excluding the cookies and granola bar) since around 11:30-12:00 that afternoon... we were super hungry! The front desk person called the hotel upon our arrival and said we would be able to eat at Serafina as long as we were seated by 11:45. Apparently the restaurant closes at midnight...I thought this was the city that never slept!? We made it in no time and were still able to eat. Jamie joined us shortly after we were seated. Here are pictures:

 (Please ignore my thumb...oops)

Delicious!! We all went to my parent's hotel room to talk for a bit. Suddenly we smelled the strong scent of oregano. It was as though their room were an Italian herb garden. Turns out the TSA agents found mom's oregano oil in her bag and decided it would be funny to leave it open... everything she owned smelled strongly of oregano. Joys of security people. Mom's a good sport though and simply laughed it off--after trying to clean it out of her bag.

We decided not to stay too long talking... it was after all midnight and Jason and I had been up since 4:45 (for me) and 5:30 (for Jason). We went to our room and quickly fell asleep. Jason commented on how quiet it was in our room, especially for being in the center of NYC. The next day... we would get to see NYC.

A Zelda Valentine

July 3rd - July 4th, 2014

Valentine's Day came in July for Jason and I this year. Although February 14th is the most appropriate month for this occasion, the state of Georgia had other plans. Georgia went into a state of emergency in February due to ice storms, leaving our plans frozen until July.

Shortly after Valentine's Day ended, the weather returned to normal, but a surprise this big required a day off work for me to arrange it. Therefore, we waited until July 3rd, which was the next available day I could ask off work. In fact, I was able to take the entire week off to plan his surprise. Finally the day had come.

Jason arrived home from work and entered through the garage door. Once inside, Jason immediate saw a sign in front of the door which read: "It's dangerous to go alone, take this with you." A green and brown sword lay beside it. Jason laughed, took the sword, and turned to find his home transformed into a world of Zelda. Our home became decorated with fake wood walls, signs that read "Will Cut Grass for Rupees," an 8-bit fireplace, cuccos, forrests, castles, Gorons, Death Mountain, and every other thing I could think of. He even had a place to go fishing and a shop for a shield, heart pieces, and a mask. I put the video game sound effects on my phone. Whenever he entered the village, lon lon ranch, death mountain, or the lost woods he would hear the appropriate song playing. I also had the shop owner's sound bite..."Oh! Thank You!" Navi's "LISTEN!" was heard regularly, along with every other noise from the game. He loved it! By the end of the game he had a real Master Sword, Shield, zelda bombs/bomb bag, and Slingshot. He already owned a bow and arrow, which he got for Christmas last year. I think my favorite part was the shop or the heart pieces. I hid a heart piece on the roof of our house... he had to go up death mountain (our stairs) and open the window at the top to get it.

Zelda means a lot to us. It's not only the most amazing video game that has ever existed, but it's also the main reason Jason and I started dating. Jason and I are pretty quiet people. Once we knew Zelda was a common interest, we were easily able to talk to each other. Without Zelda, I may never have gotten to know the red-headed bearded man.

Below are some pictures of his Zelda adventure. After fighting off monsters and capturing cuccos, Jason was able to find the dungeon map and master key. Both of these led to Callaway Garden's hotel and lodge, where he would find the last treasure box. Sadly, I accidentally threw away the last piece to his adventure--his valentine. It was so small and I was in such a hurry to get it all done that I threw it out with trash. Oh well, Valentine's day came in July... he can wait a little longer for his gift--a St. Valentine pendent. I picked this as his gift because the first gift he ever got me was a St. Isidore pendent for our first Valentine's day.

I was going to upload the video of his Zelda adventure, but the video was too long and too big a file to upload. Therefore, here are the pictures of Zelda and Callaway:

 These are the Poes which Jason had to defeat by striking them three times with his bow and arrow. He won.

 The guy to the left was blocking our back door, which lead to Hyrule field, the castle, Lon Lon Ranch, and Hyrule Lake.

 This is a close up of the guy guarding our back door.

 This is a picture of the shield Jason was able to buy once finding enough Rupees.

 This is a picture of the Master Sword Jason found after going through the Lost Woods. This is also a picture showing one of two signs in our home. . . this is how Jason obtained a few Rupees.

These are bombs and his bomb bag which he found in a treasure chest. Jason got the treasure chest by defeating the Poes and saving Lon Lon Ranch. He then used these to blow up a massive rock on Death Mountain (the stairs), which earned him another heart piece. 

Here are two pictures of what our home looked like. This is the 8 bit fireplace I made with paint samples and black poster board. We've decided to keep it, even after taking down everything else.

 

 

 The picture above is of the Kokiri Shop I made at our kitchen bar. Jason earned Rupees by cutting grass (made out of paper), breaking pots, and finding treasure chests. He then bought each of these items to complete tasks. 

 Above is a picture of the Kokiri Village. You can see a small pin made of Popsicle sticks on the table. It used to have Cuccos in it; however, they escaped. Jason had two minutes to find them in order to earn 20 rupees. You can see a cucco hiding in the light fixture. Each time he found one, I hit a button which made the sound of a cucco.

This is a picture of the largest Cucco Jason had to find.

There was a lot more to the Zelda games, but I didn't take as many pictures because we had video. Oh well... shame the video wouldn't load on here.

Below are pictures of Callaway Gardens. Our first night in Callaway we went to eat at Aspen Mountain Grill, right outside of Callaway. I had the most amazing nachos and Jason had a burger. So good. It was pretty late once we got there so we didn't have much time to look around Callaway.

The next day we ate our Panera bagels that I brought... had the car packed with luggage before we left so Jason wouldn't know what we were doing. After breakfast we went exploring Callaway. We walked around the discovery center and looked at some exhibits and eventually made our way to the Callaway Cafe. Here are pictures of us at lunch:

We then made our way across the lake and looked as some fish. Soon we found the butterfly house, pioneer cabin, and some trails that displayed some particular flower... can't remember which. It was amazing. Jason had never been to Callaway, except for at Christmas. He had never seen any of it before. Below are pictures of us at the butterfly house:

This is us at the Pioneer Cabin. Side note: the weather was amazing!

 We then made our way to the Chapel. Here are some pictures:

 While taking the picture above... a woman walked over to us with two adorable dogs. They relieved themselves, created quite a stench, and we promptly left. Still cute dogs though. After the chapel, we decided to walk to the vegetable garden... I had never seen that before. Since it was the fourth of July we passed a zillion people grilling out, along with the people setting up the fireworks by the lake. We realized once reaching the lake that we had walked 10 miles already. We were exhausted. But, we made it to the garden! Here are pictures below...

 

 After the gardens, we walked back to our hotel to relax and grab some food... after 12-13 miles of walking, we were super hungry. We made our way to Fox Pizza. Here is a picture:

After dinner we headed for the beach for fireworks. It was amazing. Tons of fireworks! We actually found a spot on the beach to lay down on too! There were a ton of people... we were super lucky.

 

 The moment the fireworks ended, we bolted for our car... again, tons of people. Sadly, we waited in traffic for 45 minutes before we made it to the exit (literally only 30 feet away from where I parked). It was a battle of it's own... we had two people try to hit us in order to get out. They pushed their way through . . . to the point that everyone stopped using the road and started driving over the curbs and grass. It was a zoo. Still, lots of fun nonetheless.

Below are more pictures of us at the hotel goofing off...

The next morning we ate breakfast bars we bought the previous day at a gas station and made our way home. Although only a two day getaway.... felt like a whole vacation. So much fun! Happy Valentine's Day!