The Crazy Week

This past week has been a bit wild. I was chatting with my sister about my week today on the phone and realized even more how fully it was and how totally legit it was that I was so exhausted from it all. Haha. Anyway....

So, on Sunday of last week, the Boatwright Family arrived! Yay! Tara and Luther are some good friends from the Bay Area and they have a 10-month-old baby, Ruth. It was a ton of fun to be around them for a few days. Since the main goals were to have a relaxed visit, to catch up with each other, and maybe do a few touristy things away from big crowds, we really had a very chill visit. The fun included some Upper East Side fun at FAO Schwartz, Central Park, NY Pizza @ Gotham's (our new fav), a fun bike ride involving Red Mango, lots of home cookin', and Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island...just to name a few of the fun things. Nathan took a day off so that he could hang out for an extra day with us. Sweet! They left on Wednesday. I miss them already!! I posted some pix of the fun below.

On Thursday we then had our first dinner with friends that we made while in NY! Yes, we were excited. Seriously. Haha. Anyway, it took me a while to figure out what to make because I had so many ideas and yeah. So, I made chicken with a Morrocan spice rub, brown rice, and corn on the cob with honeydew melon and ice cream sandwiches for dessert! It was a great time of chatting and getting to know e/o a little better. I think we impressed them with our NJ Views. Yeah, Jersey! Turns out that one of the guys, Chris, has a sister 16 years older than him just like me and my little Christopher! So great!

Friday proved to be a complicated but fun day. After my gym time, I headed to Newark Airport to pick up on of Nathan's childhood friends who scheduled a long enough layover on her trip back to Spain for us to all enjoy dinner together. After a PATH ride, a NJ Transit Train, and the AirTrain, I was finally at the terminal. His friend Neus and her sister joined me and we headed to Union Square for a quick stop at Whole Foods (they love American chocolate chip muffins for some reason) and then dinner at Max Brenner's Cafe (a restaurant that my friend Heather introduced me to in July). It's definitely a great place to bring out of town guests! Neus and her sister LOVED it. Pix below of our fabulous desserts, etc.

Today was very chill. Relax, relax, relax. Gym time, Sox vs. Yanks game on TV, and a yum yum shrimp scampi dinner.

Hope all is well with all of you, my blog followers. Leave some comments and let me know you're there! Tomorrow brings more fun....dinner with our friend Janet's parents! Yay!

Luther's response to having his first NY Pizza.

Ruth on the ferry to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

Boatwright Family!

Nathan and I with our Chocolate & Banana Pizza dessert!

Hardening chocolate!

Neus and her sister pre-eating the yummy dessert. So pretty! (the ladies AND the dessert!)

See, Neus...I didn't put this on facebook....haha... Yum!

After the dessert...nothing left! Catalonians love chocolate! Energy!

River Cruise w/ Arup

Last night was really fun. Nathan and I have gone to a couple mixer things in the city with a couple different groups, and last night was really the first fun one. It was with an engineering group that a bunch of Arup ppl are part of so it was a boat full of engineers. Yeah, before you judge, engineers can really knock the drinks back. So hilarious. Like really. They even brought booze in their bags. Outta control. (smart, though. cheaper.) The cruise was called the BMW cruise because the yacht went up the East River under the Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Williamsburg Bridges. It then turned around and went up to the Statue of Liberty, up the Hudson a bit, and then back to the dock. All in all, it was a decent cruise and the weather actually got better later in the evening. I got to meet a couple of Nate's co-workers that I think are really cool. One of them took some pix that included me and Nate. Not necessarily the best shots but shows some of the fun.

Just getting on the yacht.

The boat started moving so we took dinner to the table.

My new friend, Wendy! She's so cute! That's Manhattan in the background.

Nate & I (kinda an awkward shot) with Lady Liberty.

An attempt at doing a Asian tourist shot. Also slightly awk.

Where we live.

On my first day here, I took a couple shots of the neighborhood. We're basically located right in between TriBeCa and the Financial District. Just a few blocks north is Ground Zero and the World Trade Center. Just to the southeast of us is Wall Street and all that stuff. It's definitely not a very neighborhood-y feel, but lots of people all over the place. Construction like crazy. A new school opening soon and lots of families. Good stuff.


This is a view of the Hudson River with the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island in the distance. A south facing shot.


We're in the Liberty Terrace Apartment Complex. Appropriate for the whole statue in the distance thing, eh?


This is the plaza on the river side of the World Trade Center. This is a few blocks north of us. Photo is facing south.


We're on Rector Place. =) That's our building in the background.


There's a great running/walking/biking/skating path that goes all the way around the area where we live. This is a south facing shot with our apartment being the one on the right with the pointy top.