I promise, I have not fallen off the face of the earth, rather we have been in the city that never sleeps (yours truly understood that on Sunday night when all the horns of taxis kept beeping all. night. long.). I have not stopped moving (and that statement is pretty much truth) since Friday morning.
Timeline:
Friday: Spent the whole day gallivanting around Alexandria in order to prepare for the trip to NYC. By the time I get home I have expended so much energy that I literally fell into bed as soon as the kids went down for a nap. When I woke up we needed to clean the entire house as the cleaning crew was coming in the next day to scrub down the walls and windows, etc.
Saturday: We leave bright and early on the train to NYC. Thank goodness my dad works for Amtrak, as we got to get on the train a bit early to get one of the sought after 4-seaters (four seats together facing each other). Spend a good few hours on the train, kids don't sleep. After pulling into town, we rush to the hotel, and its postage stamp-sized rooms, get changed and head off to a night alone, just Mr. Dina and me. We watched a show called "Stuffed and Unstrung" (improv puppetry) and saw a marriage proposal (the sweet couple from Long Island were in the seats directly behind us), and once the show was done, caught a cab to go relieve my dad, who went home immediately after we got there (that is the benefit of working for Amtrak, free rides whenever!).
Sunday: After chilling for a bit, I discover there is NO free internet in the room. And the business center? Laughable at best. There goes my idea of contacting all my NYC friends and seeing if we could meet up at the J. Crew in SOHO. Thanks, crazy hotel that advertised free internet (I mean, yes, technically, there was, but in this day and age of random hotels in rural North Carolina having free WI-FI, why is this huge NYC hotel a hold-out?)!
You all are going to love my Sunday...I traipse around NYC from Mid-Town (48th and Lexington) all the way down to Prince Street, where the SOHO J. Crew is. I think that may be a walk of 3 or 4 miles in one direction? And even better, we walked that back, too. Yes, I did easily 8 miles of walking in one afternoon. (Shh, don't tell anyone, but I loved it! And it was a gorgeous day to take a walk!)
Walking to Times Square...did Rex leave something behind?
That night, we went with the kids to the big Toys R Us in Times Square and rode the Ferris wheel. Rex and CW loved it! And at 4 dollars a head (CW was free), we had a fairly inexpensive good time. :) Highly recommended if you have kids.
Monday: I found it difficult to awaken as I was kind of sore, but managed. While Mr. Dina is out and about with Rex at Mid-Town Comics, I went to the J. Crew over on Madison and 45th. (Quick aside: Mr. Dina was the one who found this one on Sunday night on the way back to the hotel--he said, "ooh, look, how come you didn't go to this one...is your homing signal broken?" Haha, you are so funny, Mr. Dina.)
After having lunch from a street vendor at a street fair, we went uptown to go visit the American Museum of Natural History. This is like the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, except twice as big and it costs money. I think our favorite room was the one with the BIG. BLUE. WHALE. If you ever get a chance, head on up there, and see the whale...there are no words to describe how incredible a life-sized whale (model) is in real life.
We then headed to the train station and bid NYC a fond farewell. :)
And to you all, I bid you all a hearty "HELLO!" Glad to be back.
Two more items:
1. I will write up my post of the amazing Ruth Barzel Jewelry as soon as I can. I want to make sure it is well-written and not just thrown out there. Her designs deserve my full attention.
2. My outfits from NYC will be up soon enough. Promise. I took my dinagideon style a bit more daring and really enjoyed the chance to be a little different than usual.
