#4 Day 2 continued

Central Park continued...

How much is this cutey pie enjoying her merry go round! It was a real live carosel with creepy music and everything...
Central Park on a Saturday is like Vancouver during the marathon...insane! You risked your life trying to cross the street. One local pointed out that nobody absolutely nobody has a yard or a quiet street that they can run on in Manhatten. So...this is where everbody absolutely everbody goes for a run on the weekend (they close the road to traffic on weekends). Crazy!

Classic stretch of elm trees along a long path known as 'The Mall' as seen in hundreds of films...

OK this is not a shot I am proud of. But man this is the real thing! A real Central Park old school roller skater!! Yes, I said 'skate' not blade. Look at Danis face...pure distaste.

Love this little outdoor amplitheater...I can picture Shakespeare in summer...

WOW. Just look at this ceiling! And this is underneith a walkway in the park! The best part was the heavenly songs that came from beneith...

This family had a gift. The gift of song. It was hypnotic. Their voices drew us all in under the walkway to experience the beauty. All in synch...gospel with the most heavenly acoustics you could imagine...I wish I picked up their cd...

Another classic Central Park shot of the pond where everyone goes to row those little boats. Cheese!

Meters from where John Lennon was assasinated lay this simple memorial in the park. Fresh flowers and a crowd of visitors left me with an intense feeling...this was a great man.

And now...into the MET! Metropolitan Museum of Art to those who are in the know...

And on the rooftop their was a show...

And inside there was endless masterpieces...

A rest on the step after a loooong day of walking...

More to come...wait for day 3!

Sarah.

NY Update #3

On day 2 we got up early and took off for Central Park & the MET (after sipping on NY lattes and nibbling NY bagels with NY creamcheese in our sweet little NY apartment/suite) . It was to be a big day of walking. We walked until we thought our legs would fall off.

Here the girls are heading underground for their first subway ride ever...

I love this next shot in sepia...so NY!

And like WOW! This is what we were greeted with when we exited the underground at Central Park! The perfect photo op! I LOVE this shot and can't wait to blow it up for my wall...Classic Central Park pigeons with runners stretching in the background...who could resist?

More coming right away...

S

NY Update #2

I call this one...'Bicycle'.

Here are some of my fav pics from our first day in NY. I still can't believe how much we packed into our few days!

Dani and I got up early and took a taxi down to the south end of Manhattan Island to the Seaport...waterfront full of action with water taxis, fitness classes, mega tourists, boat tours, bus tours, tall ships and skyscrapers.

The view from the seaport looking back at the business district...I love the wider angle of this shot and the extreme contrast between the old ships and the crazy modern buildings. And of course the sky co-operated and gave me a perfect glowing cloudy look.

Brooklyn st Bridge...the oldest one there...and the first superbig one built in NY. They didn't trust it so they sent elephants across to test it out. Brooklyn is the cityscape on the other side.

Dani enjoying our first real view of NY from the seaport. Brooklyn is in the distance.

We spent the morning in line for cheap Broadway tickets and our efforts really paid off...we got 3 tickets for Chicago!!! Once we got our tix we went back to our suite and grabbed Jenni before walking to Grenwich Village for our 3.5hour walking food tour!

My beautiful sisters:) They are just so dam photogenic! When they aren't pulling faces that is! Here they are in front of a great deli we stopped at on the food tour.

Olive and Co. was a beautiful little specialty olive oil store that we stopped at. I loved the rows and rows of oils...

Look closely at this sign...and you will see something very cheeky. Who ever who put this marker here had a good sense of humour!

Here is the narrowest house in NY. (Or probably anywhere in the world!). It is only 2.5 doors wide and 3 stories high! It used to be a space between the other 2 buildings and the entrance to the horse stables behind. Now it is owned by a family who paid millions for it...and must have really narrow furniture. I would just love to get in there and see how they have decorated...

Fun with colourful doors...I love this one...lot's of people painted their doors brightly and they popped out against the monotony of brick walls.

Address: 2 and a 1/2. Not sure why but it is what it is. There are a lot of weird things in New York which made for lot's of good laughs and puzzled looks. Here is Dani, hoping that she doesn't get caught posing on this strangers stoop. Reminds me of the trouble we used to get her into when she was a wee girl (Nicki9doors)...younger siblings are such suckers and will do anything for their older sisters!

Crazy but true! There were plenty of pie shaped buildings to reflect the 6 or 7 street intersections. Again..I would love to get in there and see how they made use of this space.

Our last stop on the food tour was this wicked bakery that was packed with rows and rows of ooey gooey creamy dreamy treats...I had never seen anything like it!

After the food tour it was time to roll back to our hotel and get ready to go downtown for (gasp) dinner and our broadway show! Here are my fav shots from the evening...

Here the sisters are hamming it up as usual...

This was a really weird (again) and really cool room ontop of Rockafeller Centre. We wen't up there to see the cityscape at night. These little panels of light would change colour and a crazy videogame like sound would go off when you moved or touched them. We had fun in there and took lots of photos.

Times Square. PS It is WAY bigger and crazier than it looks on TV! I thought it was just one intersection but it is like 4 blocks of crazyness...and it never ever get's dark here. It makes me think WHY THE HELL are we working so hard at being 'energy smart' and turning off our kitchen lights when we leave the room when THIS is what they are doing 24 7 in NY! Eeesh.

More nightlights. Every corner, every block, every street looked just like this...or brighter. This town NEVER sleeps.

And THAT, folks, was just the first day.

S

NY First Post: Our Hood

NY was amazing of course and I can't wait to go back! I want to share some of my favorite pics from the big trip but there are so many that I think I will break up the postings and take you along for the ride bit by bit...

All of these shots were taken within 1 block of our suite "Off Soho Suites" http://www.offsoho.com/. A HUGE thank you to Dale and Kristin for the great NY recommendation!

This is completely random and there is nothing artistic about this photo. It just sums up New York. Anything goes...fun...friendly...weird...bright lights...big colours...expect the unexpected!

Bowrey Street. A typical busy street at night. I like the glam gal in heels and a trenchcoat waiting calmly between lanes of flying traffic- all yellow taxi cabs of course. " I need a yellow taxi cab..." Look up that song by Matt Costa...so good and so reminds me of NY.

Here is my sista Dani looking oh so Sex in the City walking to the subway... They had the orange pylons out cause they were preparing to shoot a movie on our street that day:)

Ready for filming...

One of our favorite restaurants is actually situated in a wee little alleyway directly across the street from our hotel...Freemans. And how sweet is the front door?

Dani and Jenni hamming it up for me in a spur of the moment graffiti wall photo shoot. These would be great promo shops for Paradise Boutique! http://www.paradiseboutique.ca/

Super Uber Model Sisters:)

Home sweet home. Isn't our little hotel soooo cute?? This guy in the flourescent 80's biking gear just makes the shot.

More to come...check back soon:)

Sarah.

My First Apple Pie

Can't you just smell it? Can you see the steam rising?

I had to capture my first apple pie...made with apples from our little Shamrock tree! I was pretty nervous about making the crust. For some reason I have always thought that making a pie crust was some special gift that only certain people had...and that it was really really hard to pull off. Well, that's just hogwash! For all of you who have been scared to try your first pastry for fear of failure : Roll On I say! It was easy and looks pretty good so what the heck:) We will have to wait to find out how it tastes until Thanksgiving when it comes out of the freezer, however. Question is...can I actually wait that long?

Man does it smell awesome in my house right now!

S

Secret Cove

It was so hard to choose a few pics to post from my stash of 500 + but here are some of my favs:

Real live wolf trax...

Stormy skies...