Category Archives: travel

semi-wordless wednesday – new york style

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Maybe I should just call it “Not-a-Novel Wednesday”?

Early morning in Times Square. This was my first daylight scene in New York.

Max Brenner…my heaven here on earth.

Breakfast Saturday morning.



And Max Brenner is my new favorite restaurant.

A Saturday morning market. Oh how I can’t wait to live in a city again…someday.

Grand Central Subway. I love all of the amazing tile work throughout the subways. So many of the stations are like this, with mosaics lining the walls.

Our super short (literally) wait to get to the top of the Empire State Building.

Downtown, as seen from the Empire State Building.

More from the Empire State Building.

The Chrysler Building…probably my favorite building in New York.

Uptown from the Empire State Building.

Self-portrait from the Empire State Building. I don’t love it, but it’s the only one we have of the three of us…and Emily and Sarah look good, so I’m sacrificing. Aren’t I the nicest friend ever?

Famous Serendipity 3 Frozen Hot Chocolate.

And this is how I truly feel about pigeons. Gag!

The craziness of Times Square at 11:00 pm. Things were just getting started.

Max Brenner…again. I could eat here (or drink hot chocolate here) every morning for the rest of my existence. So delicious. As a chocoholic, Max Brenner is my kind of restaurant.


Ground Zero. This experience affected me a lot more than I thought it would, even with all of the fences and construction going on. If you ever have a chance to visit, it is well worth it.

Scenes inside (and around) the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).


A carriage ride through Central Park.


No. I don’t know this couple. But I loved the lighting. I just wish I could have captured, in digital photo form, one of the many makeouts we were privileged enough to witness.

The Manhattan New York LDS Temple.

It was a fabulous trip. And in case you were wondering, yes, I love taking pictures of food. There aren’t many pictures of us because I pretty much hate tourist poser photos, so I don’t pose for them, nor do I take them.

Things not photographed: our shopping at H&M, my favorite store, and dinner at this great sushi place with Erika (I do have limits…this place was just a little too nice to bust out the camera without being a food critic). It was delicious! (I think it’s called Natsumo???) It’s on 50th St. between Broadway and 8th Ave, right across from the Gershwin Theater. Amazing!

no words

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6

So, I don’t even know where to begin with my trip to New York. I can’t even begin to describe how fabulous it was – from start to finish. The highlight, by far (yes, even though the rest was great) was seeing Wicked on Broadway.

Pictures are coming, but since I have no pictures of Wicked, I’ll just share these clips (one’s kind of long, but it was the best one I could find) with Annaleigh Ashford as Glinda and Stephanie J. Block as Elphaba. We had amazing seats! Seventh row, center. It was like the best Christmas ever. (Thanks Erika!) I literally cried twice, it was that incredible. I love live performances. The music, the singing, the dancing, the costumes, the interaction of the performers with the audience. There’s no way to describe it, you just have to experience it.

In case you want to see the rest of the cast, you can view them here.

Oh, and when I was exiting the restroom before the show, I saw Allison Janney waiting to go in…it turns out her seats weren’t quite as good as ours (Erika wanted me to be sure to mention that), but they were close enough that we could easily watch her without it being obvious.

The rest will be posted tomorrow (I hope). So many pictures to filter through…

long time gone

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I met Megan and Steven while living in Europe. At the time, they were not “Megan and Steven” but just Megan, and just Steven. Megan and I hit it off. I don’t remember my very first impression of Steven, but I do remember that (for some reason unbeknown to me…and quite out of character) I loved trying to get his goat. Weird.
Anyway, eight years later, Megan and Steven have been “Megan and Steven” for quite some time and they have the sweetest little girls in the world. These are the people I stayed with in Nashville, and regardless of how things had gone at V (thankfully, they went well), the trip would have been worth it just to see them. It had been about four years since I last saw them. They were still living in Utah, with their babies (the girls are twins), figuring out what to do with their lives. Funny how things change, but don’t.
I hope you are all lucky enough to have such wonderful friends. I was the slightest bit apprehensive about inviting myself to stay with them (but not enough to not do it), but Megan was so gracious that I knew I’d be welcome…and welcome I was. From my late arrival Friday night, to my need to attend Weight Watchers Saturday morning, braving the freezing cold so I could see Nashville, homemade pasta, a super-late-night conversation Saturday night (poor Megan couldn’t stay awake), Aebelskiver on Sunday (they make good on their blog promises), the ride to my school visit and back to the airport, I could not have asked for nicer hosts. Add to that the fact that I absolutely love these people, and I was in heaven. I could talk to either of them for hours (and I did)…and I adore their little girls. They are such great parents, because truly no child is on good behavior for three days straight.
And even after a number of years of semi-sporadic contact, our relationship picked up right where it had left off (only maybe a bit better since Megan and I joined the world of blogging). In any case, this weekend was exactly what I needed. It gave me some much needed and appreciated perspective on life. And it gave me time to fall in love with Nashville…even if it was freezing.