WOW-- summer is just about over and we can't believe it! We are going to keep it alive for as long as we can and did our part this last week by living it up on Long Beach Island (LBI). We had the week off work and we headed down Monday am. We had originally planed to go to Ocean City, Maryland in the boat but Hurricane Bill (although much weaker than his reputation) and Frank deciding to eat some saran wrap and take a 24hr visit to the Vet ER (see prior post) changed our plans some.
LBI is one of our most favorite spots on the NJ Shore. You may recall that our last trip here included a 35 mile bike ride. This one, I am happy to report, did not! Tom did ride 15 miles while Lisa and I (John and Lisa came down for 2 nights in their boat) ran 6 miles to the end of LBI and back. It was HOT--90 with I'd say 80% humidity! Too hot to run was the consensus that we ended up at---after we were done running. Most of it was on the beach though and it was gorgeous, beautiful, spectacular and whatever else you can imagine. There is just something cool about running in a natural environment that makes the treadmill seem even more awful than it truly is...
We enjoyed our hot days by taking dips in the ocean and hanging out at a Pool in town. We had some great meals and some good tennis matches at the local court.
Hurricane Danny is now upon us, but like his buddy Bill---he is a wuss and even though it rained a bunch today, it will be gorgeous again tomorrow!
Back to work Monday for Tom and me so I am going to sign off now to enjoy the rest of our weekend!!
Happy last days of August!
Attached are a few pics from the week!
* John and Reeses
* Donna, Lisa and Di
* Di and Ollie
* Tom relaxing--wait, who is driving the boat???
* Mom and the babies (how cute are Frank & Ol?? SO CUTE!!)
Living in this area and touring around NYC has made me witness to many things that I shake my head at and think, sometimes out-loud, "Only In NY".
After looking up some pictures for a new tour guide website I am starting, I found some that are just too good to NOT post.
Enjoy... and please know, that I have posted the PG & PG-13 versions only...and regardless of what you see below---there are MANY more bizarre things (I can tell you some stories) and we STILL love living here!! New York City is the best city in the world.
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* this first picture seems tame... its our friend John and I at a VERY FAMOUS Deli SEEN IN MANY MOVIES LIKE WHEN HARRY MET SALLY on the Lower West Side whose floor was COVERED with rat poison ------all over the floor (and its a big place). Side note: we did not realize this until halfway through our DELICIOUS corn beef sandwiches. It was delicious there. A true NY deli-- in more ways than one obviously.
* a guy in a foliage covered/colored full body mesh suit frolicking in the thick ivy near the ball fields in Central Park.
*Some guy with a star wars helmet playing an accordion in Union Square. A week later I saw him featured in the local Time Out New York Magazine.
*A Santa Pedi-cab driver
* What we thought was a happy clown at the San Genero Festival in Little Italy, only to be accosted by him yelling obscenities at anyone that passed him by...
* Some live music high up on a rock in Central Park.
* Very interesting sculpture Kristen and I saw at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) hanging from the ceiling.
* Only in NY would there be a billboard in Times Square for Dog Perfume.
* Live Models. Need I say more. Wait--yes I must say more: whats crazy is, HOW DO THEY KEEP THOSE SHORTS ON!!??
* Yes the Hollister Live Models are hot (see above pic)... but this store just a couple doors down wanted to make their impression too! Check out his high heels. This guy worked the crowd too! Yes, he is on a treadmill in a storefront window.
* This crazy violin playing meditation opera singer guy in Central Park was in a post not long ago---but he for sure belongs in this post. He has earned it.
* During the All Star Baseball game last summer, there were Statue of Liberty replicas all over the city painted in the different teams' colors. This one Jean and I spotted near Union Square and the guy was saying what looked like a prayer while holding onto Lady Liberty's woman parts. Very odd. Maybe more odd that we took a picture.
Medical Definition:
Dietary indiscretion is the tendency of a certain animal eating unusual items. These are frequently relatively small items not encountered in a natural habitat and thus sampled because of mistaken identity, a familiar flavor, or simple curiosity. This includes modern manufactured items such as shiny metal foil or plastic objects, as well as foods harmful to health. Domesticated animals such as dogs and goats, and even circus animals like Ostriches are even more prone to the effect due to their contact with people.
Plain Term Definition:
Frank went dumpster diving and this time it wasn't the smorgasbord he had hoped for.
The medical definition was actually given to us by the ER Veterinarian when we took Frank in at 3 30 am the other day. He woke up with stomach spasms and was clearly uncomfortable. Poor boy. After a series of tests and xrays and IV's and some not so fun doses of Barium... Frank is back to his "regular" self, so to speak.
Of course, Daddy tells him he needs to get a job now to work off the medical bills... but of course, we are just SO happy he is ok.
Child locks have been applied to the garbage cabinets (that Frank had learned how to get into) so hopefully this is the only incident that we will have to deal with on this topic.
Poor Ollie was heartbroken without her brother. She was mopey and melancholy ALL DAY. I even took her for a car ride & bought her some doggie ice cream to try and cheer her up.
We are all hunkering down here this weekend (not at the boat yet). Hurricane Bill has caused the beaches to close with waters all the way up to the docks and sidewalks in NY and NJ. 5' and 6' swells still brought out the surfers---but most people stayed away.
Hopefully by Monday, Summer will be back and we will no longer be water logged (high tide, lots of rain and flood warnings in the Tri-state area).
Pics: Frank feeling good & sad Ollie missing Frank.
Hi everyone! Sorry its been so long since posting. Work has been nutty busy and its hard to find anytime latley when we are not working! BUT--I found some time now...
Last weekend we had ZERO visitors! Now, the fact that I used capital letters to emphasize the number of visitors we had and the exclamation point at the end in no way reflects that we do not rejoice when we do have visitors---it was just the one weekend of the year when we really had nothing going on! Its nice--no plans!
So what did we decide to do--- hang out with our friends John and Lisa and Mark and Donna who also had NO VISITORS therefore putting us all in the catergory of having visitors. Oh well--we are all Shore people so it was pretty low key.
The general consensus was that it was the best weekend of the year in regards to the weather! Perfect blue skies and 100 degrees in the shade.
Saturday we headed to Tyces Shoal where we often go for the warm (84 degree in the bay, 78 in the Atlantic) water. We closed the day with bbq'ing on the boat at the Marina!
Sunday we all jumped on our boat and headed to Donna and Mark's house on Silver Bay. Silver Bay is actually a favorite spot of many... well it used to be. Let me explain. The water is super warm, the boat ride close and the atmoshphere is fun and safe to be out swimming and just hanging out. Sadly, in the last couple years Silver Bay has been nearly TAKEN OVER by Jelly fish. If you have never been stung by a jelly fish you are lucky. They hurt and more than the sting, the thought of floating around in the warm water and the premonition that WILL come true--- having one of these clear monsters wrap their sometimes 2' long tentacles around your arm or leg (it feels like hair)--- the water loses its appeal.
Well, when its 100 + you have to have the water as an option, so we killed two birds with one stone: Visiting our good friends Mark and Donna who live in a finger inlet off the Bay (they are our neighbors up near our "real" house) and HANGING OUT IN THEIR POOL ALL DAY!! It was perfect. Perfect. I think I overuse that word.
Anyway--we all had a great time and got a lot of sun. Saw some breathtaking sunsets too which we never get tired of!
Now--for the title of this post:
Before we all leaped into Mark and Donna's pool, we took them for a boat ride down Tom's River in NJ. That is really the name of the river, not just my Tom's favorite river...
Anyway-- Mark was the tour guide and pointing out homes of the stars: Ann Taylor, Tony Soprano (of course he'd have a house here), Heather Locklear and a few more.
We got some pics but most are still on the camera at the boat--so I will load them this weekend. For now--here are some from Tom's excellent T-Mobile myTouch which I highly recommend all of you get!
*Sunset from the boat on our way back to the Marina
*Mark and Donna's place
Well, its officially been 2 years since Tom and I moved to the East Coast and every second has been AWESOME! From day 1 we have loved it here and I know we will continue to love it.
Also-- we have surpassed the 15K hit mark on this very blog! Thank you to ALL that read the blog and those that choose to leave comments--thanks! Let us know what you'd like to see more of or hear more about! Please!!!
We enjoy keeping the blog and we enjoy our life out here on the right coast (read that how you will...)
THANKS for reading!!!!
D & T
While in the city, Karen and I pretty much did the entire city top (Central Park) to bottom (Brooklyn & Battery Park). We saw the legit tourist spots and then we saw the "local" spots that make the locals feel like tourists---at times.
Dear readers, you have seen many of the hotspots of NY on this blog and regardless of the beauty and repetition of those pics on this blog, I LOVE those spots (the Empire State Building, Top of the Rock, Central Park etc) and I still continue to post them!
However, this trip with Karen brought some new sights I chose to take shots of. Its not that I have not seen things such as these before, but I think it was the first time visit to NY influence Karen brought that made me open my eyes and see some things that maybe I have overlooked before--mainly in Central Park.
Of course, we hit the Top of the Rock and it was gorgeous as always. For the first time I noticed sun bathers relaxing in the park from that high view. It was very cool and made the park seem so real. Once we walked through the park and went right by the same sun bathing place we saw from above----it all came together and the pride I felt for living and being in this city must have been obvious to Karen--it just bursts out of me!
At the entrance of the Park on 5th Ave, we went by the Pond and enjoyed our street bought hot dogs (delicious). until we came across the Tavern On The Green--a Central Park staple and a place I have been to once before in the winter months. (Side note: The Tavern was shortlisted as our reception spot if Tom and I had decided to get married in Central Park--its very quirky eccentric classy cool). Anyway----visiting in the summer months allowed Karen and I to sit in the outside patio surrounded by paper mache lanterns hung above our heads and large zoo animals carved out of bushes to surround us and shelter us from the rest of the park.
After Karen fully got the jist of the "Tavern", including the full tour of the restaurant, gift shop and being refreshed by the $15 cocktails (that would be $7 anywhere else), we headed on through the Park.
Attached are some normal pics of what we saw in the Park and also some different sights that are ever-changing----which is just another reason I LOVE this city!!
More to come--this visit of Karen's is somewhat of a mini-series! Enjoy!! Tivo it!
:)
Karen climbing rocks in the Park
Di and Karen in front of the Dakota (where Lennon was shot)
Crazy opera singer at Bethsada Fountain in the Park
Our pedi-cab driver Madison waving from one of the many bridges in the Park (all of which are different--one architect per bridge to ensure variety)
The Lake and rowers in the rental boats from the Park Boathouse
Strawberry Fields--Imagine. John Lennon Memorial
Roller Disco in the Park
Diana and Will Shakespeare on the 'Literary Walk'
Big Gorilla/Sasquatch at the Tavern
Top of the Rock shot (note the sunbathers in the field)
Those same sunbathers up close
Karen under the lanterns at the Tavern on the Green
This weekend we had the pleasure of hosting our sister-in-law and our friend, Karen! She is married to Tom's younger brother Ted and lives in Calgary, Alberta. Karen and I met for the first time a few months after Tom and I started to date and we hit it off immediately!
I am very lucky to have 2 great sister-in-laws on Tom's side-- and now both have visited us out here (you may recall that Kim and I took in the Greenwich Village Halloween parade last year).
Karen flew in late Thurs night and we spent the next 3 days going non-stop!! Tom and I had Friday off work so we headed to the boat Thurs night after the airport and spent the night there to prepare for a day of fun and sun on the Shore. It was SO nice out-- but windy--so we opted not to take the boat out and instead, Karen and Di headed to the Boardwalk at Seaside Heights to look around and roam the beach. Karen had never been to the East Coast so this was her first time in the Atlantic Ocean! She loved how warm it was!
After the boardwalk we met up with Lisa and the three of us laid out on the boat at the Marina and visited and relaxed--so fun!
Even though it was too windy for a pleasure cruise and ocean/bay swim off the boat, it wasn't too windy for Tom and John to head out fishing on our friend's boat with a fun group of guys. They went for Fluke (makes great sashimi)---but Tom ended up hooking a 4' Shark!! YES!! Really!!! Just as he reeled it in, the Shark bit through the line and got away. I'm sure Tom would have released it anyway, but wouldn't have that been an interesting sight--freeing the hook from a live shark...
Of course, no one expected a Shark to be on the other end of the line so none of the guys were ready for a photo op... so fair warning: without a picture, that 4' shark may grow to 6' or more the next time you hear this tale :)
After hearing this tale and seeing how hot and tired the guys were, a bunch of us went to dinner and called it a night! Great day!!!
Here are some pics from the Shore and my next post will detail Karen's and my exciting 2 days in NYC... with pics!!
*Diana and a possible summer job??? I think SO! :)
*Karen in the Atlantic
*Karen on the boards
*Karen meeting Zoltar from the movie "Big" from the 80's
*Part of the amusement attractions at Seaside
Tonight on the news my favorite and the most trustworthy newscaster ever, Brian Williams, reported that the cost for a middle class income family to raise a child born in 2008-- for the child's first 18 years (NO COLLEGE TUITION INCLUDED)-- has been calculated at $291,570.
Holy cow. HOLY COW. I am sure our dogs are just a fraction of that cost and now that I know this fact, even though children are no where on our life plan at all, I don't feel so bad about spending what some may feel is WAY too much money on name brand work-out gear (its worth it Honey!!) or wanting a new car...
That got me thinking on other ways, aside from not having kids, that one can save money in this horrid economy and especially in this part of the country.
That thought naturally led me to my friend Angie's blog. Ang and I were friends in high-school but lost touch after graduation. Come to find out, through the wonder of online communication sites, that we both moved to the East Coast the same month of the same year. I am sure you are recalling her name as you read this--she has been in many of my posts in the last year or so as we have had many NY adventures together--and more to come!!
Anyway-- Ang started a blog on how to live and live well on a Seattle budget, but in NYC.
Check out her site and even if you don't live in NYC--her info is timely, helpful and humourous---and releveant to all parts of the country!
http://seattlegrl.blogspot.com/
