Last holiday adventures in NYC

The last few weeks before the holidays were busy- and so much fun. Between Karin's visit and all the other activities I've posted about, there were a couple more highlights...

My #1 favorite winter activity is ice skating. My friend Veronica and I decided the week before Christmas was a great time :) First we went to a restaurant and had tasty chowder, then we went to Bryant Park for ice skating! It was a good choice- not only is it cheaper, but it is way less crowded than the rinks at Rockefeller and Central Park.

Yay for ice skates!

On a later day I also went to the Christmas Market at Bryant Park with Alina, another of my friends. It was cold and I have no pictures of the actual market but it was fun to just wander through the shops and chat :) After the market we headed to a place called Junior's for cheesecake. It was delicious- and I actually have a picture of it. Strawberry Shortcake cheesecake. Yum.

Thanks to my roommate Suzanne, I also had the opportunity to attend the Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center. We saw The Barber of Seville, and it was great. It was in English (since it was their holiday show it was a little shorter and in English so it was family friendly) so it wasn't quite the same as when I saw it in the original Italian at the Opera House in Vienna but it was still fun! It felt very New York to get dressed up for a night at the opera ;)

My first visitor :)

Karin Stewart gets the official title of being My First Visitor :) I was pretty excited that she came to spend the day with me after being in D.C. for a wedding! Since she was only here for the day we packed in as much as we could...

First stop: The Statue of Liberty. Followed by a quick walk by the 9/11 Memorial, Freedom Tower, and Trinity Church.

The tiny line in the distance is the Statue of Liberty. The sun was so bright we could hardly stand to look in that direction.

After spending some time in Lower Manhattan we headed uptown to drop off bags and get ready to head to the Rockette's Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall.

Love this building- just look at it! And Karin of course ;)

Next stop: Rockefeller Center, 5th Avenue, F.A.O. Schwartz, and Times Square.

Uptown again to meet up with people at Magnolia Bakery (it's famous apparently). Then Last stop: Temple, Grand Central Station, and finally dinner- at 11pm!

My favorite picture :)

Thanks for coming to visit!

Oh the weather outside is frightful...

...so I'm hiding inside where its at least a little warmer, although not as warm as I would like it! Since we have no control over the heat in the apartment we manage with extra blankets, sweatshirts, and socks haha. But outside- it is SO COLD!!! Seriously, everyone kept saying "its so cold in NY, are you sure you want to move there?" and I thought to myself "I lived in Rexburg all those years- I'm prepared for anything ;)" Which is partly true and partly an underestimation of NY.

I've determined that both NY and Rexburg are extremely cold places- but in very different ways. I can't say that one is worse than the other- pretty sure they're both just bad! The other day I wondered why I continue to move to places where there is winter... so I'm thinking my next big adventure will be to Hawaii or somewhere like it ;)

At first I thought I was a wimp- my phone says the temperature outside is 30 degrees so why am I so cold? I was remembering the good ol' days in Rexburg when it was in the negatives and your nose hairs froze (and your hair if you went outside with wet hair- Lori ;) and your lungs felt like they were being seared with every breath you took. I remember one morning I had to step inside every building on my way to school because it felt as if a weight were crushing your head and stabbing needles in your face all at the same time and hurt so bad.

Turns out here it isn't the searing dryness of the cold, but the humidity. It chills you to the bone so even when you come inside you feel as if you can't ever get warm. I knew the humidity affected the felt temperature in the heat- we always hear about that- but didn't consider it affecting the cold too until my dad finally pointed it out (thanks dad). So I'm not a wimp after all. Well, maybe.

To remind us all of the nice days when it was way up in the 40s- here are some pics from my last stroll in the park way back in the middle of December. I've almost made it to the top of the park- 15 more blocks to go (and plenty more places to discover throughout the park :).

I made it to the east side of the park where I found... the Guggenheim!

One of the things I love about NY is that you find great old buildings in the middle of everything else.

The Reservoir

P.S. On a side note, this reminded me of another classic Rexburg moment- (305 girls) remember the time the front door froze shut- so Lori had to use the blow dryer to thaw it so she could get to class? Haha, how many people can say that ;)