A Post The Size of Its Subject

Foreward: I apologize for taking so long to write this. You see, my wonderful wife decided that she would write all the posts, except for the one that would actually end up being the longest. And, since school has started back up, there really hasn't been a great time to sit down and write this monstrosity of a post. I am starting this on Monday the 18th; I guess we'll see how long it takes me to finish it.)

One year. That's how long it's been. One year. O.K., at the time it hadn't, but it was close enough that we are counting it as one year. Bliss, happiness, newness, randomness, getting-used-to-ness. All of the above. That's how you could describe the last year. And to celebrate One year, Nicole and I decided that we were going to spend it in the Big City. New York, NY baby!

Our first of many hot dogs. Do you see the elation on Nicole's face here. Who knew that crappy, cheap, New York hot dogs would make her so happy. Maybe it's simply because we had just won the lottery! (No, seriously. We won the lottery. Stay tuned.)

The center of it all. Times Square. Interesting note: That building just over my shoulder used to house the New York Times. Before that, the center of the city was considered publishers row. Then the New York Times started the ball drop, and then Broadway became popular....yada yada yada. Probably one of the best places to people watch. Top 3 places ever actually.

Our prize for winning the lottery. The In the Heights lottery that is. Haha. How many of you were fooled? You should be ashamed of yourself. This is my favorite musical of all time now. The music, the dancing, the stage, the actors, and perhaps more importantly, the story. Plus, knowing the back story of how it got made is so cool and inspiring. I've listened to the soundtrack 8 times in 5 days. I'm a little obsessed...

After the show! Look how happy we are. The lady next to us isn't happy. Perhaps because she didn't have front row tickets like we did.

Juliard. I think the name speaks for itself.

This is one of the neatest things in the world. So you ride the subway uptown. It's filthy, but fun. You get off the subway, and it's loud. You ride the escalator up, outside and it's beautiful, because there are actually trees, and then you turn around and BAM! there is the Manhattan Temple. You step inside and BAM, or should it say bam! it's dead quiet. Such a good way to spend the morning.

The gem of NYC, Central Park. I can't imagine Central Park when it was filthy and unsafe to go to. Now it's the most beautiful place in Manhattan. And only 2 blocks from the Temple. We wish we could have spent a whole day there. Or a week.

Got to give a little love to my Love. We actually bought fruit across the street there. And according to Nicole, the best Gyro in the world. She wanted to keep going back. Over and over and over. She has the street memorized if you want one...Moving on.

Historic Radio City Music Hall. And Glenn Beck broadcasts from across the street. We didn't see him unfortunately.

Hopefully a sign of things to come for our city in 2 days. I should get all the credit for creating good Karma for the Pens to get to the Finals.

Do you ever get the feeling there are some things that you are just lucky at? I won the lotto a second time! And it was great to see this modern take on Romeo and Juliet. Though "I Feel Pretty" was sung in Spanish, so we didn't get to sing along.

Hey there Miss Liberty!

We didn't want to fight the crowds on Ellis Island. So we stayed on the boat. It still looks like we got off though. So forget those first two sentences. We got off. It was great. We don't remember much. This was the best picture...

Thinking about better days on Wall Street...

So the WTC is a big walled-off hole. There is nothing to see there. Just empty space. But inside this church there is a great memorial to all those who died and were part of the rescue effort. And it's where George Washington immediately came after his inauguration on Wall Street. So it's pretty cool.

Soon honey, I promise. Just 3 more years of struggling. Hang with me now...

We were able to find some really sweet tickets on Stub Hub for a NY Yankees game. It was...interesting. It was raining, as you can see in the picture. We couldn't see right field, but there were nice plasma TVs for us to watch, which actually was pretty nice. The fans however, they were absolutely terrible. I don't even want to explain how they acted. Just let it be known, Nicole is now a Yankees hater. Like, she won't ever cheer for them again. But the new stadium is palacial and amazing.

I was pretty happy to quietly cheer for the Angels. Who lost in the ninth.

Sports + Tyler = Happy.

And this is the end of this photo essay of our Big Anniversary Trip. And it's a pretty cool photo to end it on. It's been one year, and this was a great way to celebrate it. Next year, we'll probably go to the beach, (not Hawaii honey, we can't afford it yet remember) but we came to the conclusion that we are most definitely not city folk. We like to visit, but we would rather live where it's quiet, and you can see the stars. So call us Country Mice, 'cause we are not City Mice.