Saturday, May 23, 2009

Hannah Visits

So, I'm well aware that I'm the worst blogger on the planet and haven't updated this blog in forever, but I gotta start somewhere. I'll back-blog soon I hope, but for now, all you crazy fans, you can just pick up with me here....

Hannah, Nathan's sister, visited this week for a couple days. We did a bunch of fun random things and I took a few photos. We sort of took half on mine and half on hers so in the end, I feel like I have a very incomplete set of pix. You can see them on the sidebar to the right. (Hannah, maybe you can upload to my phanfare site!) Anyway.... Here's how it went....

Hannah goes to grad school in Hartford for Physical Therapy, so she's not far. In fact, Metro North from New Haven is only 2 hours away and at $28/roundtrip feels like a steal for NY. Heehee. We met up in Grand Central and walked around heading up towards Central Park via 5th Ave. Wow, NY has basically all the crazy designer shops and flagship stores for the giant posh stores (Tiffany's, Bloomingdales, Louis Vuitton, etc). We popped into a couple of them just to stare at the fashionable people buying fashionable things. For instance, we went into Juicy. That was hilarious. Most things were hideous, but some stuff was really cute. Hannah posed for me in this awesome outfit. Brooke, you like??

Yeah, that was hot. Anyway, we also went into the gigantic Disney store, which obviously I loved, and wandered around the 3 floors of 'happiest place on earth' gear. I meant to buy a key chain but I got distracted. I also wanted to buy my sister Abigail this really cute little stuffed animal of Stitch b/c we went and saw the movie together when she was like 12 or something...and we both cried... OHANA!! k anyway...... We found this really great little deli/restaurant place that was really delish and not very expensive. Two good sized sandwiches and two diet cokes for $11 with tax. Sweet! We finally made it to Central Park were we walked through the zoo (maybe one day I'll pay to go in and see the penguins), and decided to sunbathe next to the pond with all the little sailboats. On our way back to the Subway to go home, we bought fresh mangoes and cherries from a vendor and headed back. Phew! Oh, we also decided to go to this really cute place called the Soda Shop for milkshakes (Nate met us there) b/c we were craving them. I have no pictures from the park or anything...oops!

The next day was really fun. I mean really. We reserved free bikes for the day to explore the Greenway in South Manhattan. Dude, it was awesome. The sun was out, Fleet Week (a new thing for me) is happening in the city, and the South Seaport was full of people. I was somewhat surprised because it was a Friday and it's still May! Anyway, we biked along the Greenway and decided to bike over the Brooklyn Bridge. So crazy. It was hot and humid, so we (and by we I mean me) look a little damp.


A view of Brooklyn from the only flat part of the bridge. (sorry for the butt shot, Hannah!)


A view of Downtown and there's Pier 17 on the bottom left.
I live on the other side of the tall buildings.


A fun shot of one of the bridge piers.


Us on the hot bikes. Not the most flattering, but you get the idea.

After the ride, we grabbed lunch and checked out the Pier 17 mall. Some good stores there. I'll probably go back. Next stop, the Fulton Street Market, which opened that day. It's open through the summer and it was pretty cute. Small, but good stuff. We ended up buying some fresh mozzarella (made that morning) and fresh bread (baked that morning). Yummmmm.... We headed home to pack up Hannah's stuff and then it was off to pizza before running (literally) to get her on the train home.

What fun. Let's do it again!