Ingrid and Tony's Travels

We’re here and it’s a beautiful day although a tad windy, but quite balmy by comparison to NY.   Already checked out the White House but  there is serious security everywhere, machine guns and all. Police and security personnel stopped us from walking along some of the paths particularly around the rear of the White House fence, overlooking the Oval Office – even though it is kilometres away as you can see by the pics below! Must have been frightened by Tony’s Nikon SLR. It is a pretty daunting piece of photographic equipment.

Sitting at the train station – NO PLANES ANYWWHERE –  waiting for our train to Washington DC.  Tony’s perseverance in getting me to travel on trains now seems like a good idea, particularly following our experiences with planes/airports/weather last week.

And the overnight snow is pretty much no more this morning – sorry @Anthony Harrison but nothing much to photograph, just clumps of snow and sludge. But last night’s snow dump was pretty special!

More photos coming from Washington shortly. We’re back in NYC on Sunday.

Well folks it is definitely a white November here. What a shame it isn’t Christmas.  Just ducked out to have an amazing Italian meal, conveniently in a top restaurant in our block and you can see from our photo story that there is snow in the Big Apple in November! Bring your winter woolies, Greta Harrison and Matthew Vaughan!

It’s snowing here people .. view from our apartment window.

And by cool we mean cold. Today (Wednesday) the temperature plummeted. We decided to walk from our apartment to Greenwich Village / SoHo to do some shopping. Stupid idea. It rained and rained, quite heavily and by the time we got to Washington Square there were no photo opportunities.  Trying to juggle umbrellas and keep dry, neither of which was successful, makes it difficult to stop and take the obligatory photo or two.  We made it to Spring Street and Broadway and looked at a few shops, did some card damage, ran into a nearby restaurant to have some welcomed tomato soup and a good coffee, and then grabbed a cab to get back home.  When you are wet and cold, quickest is best. And as I post this blog I am looking out of the apartment to light sleet (snow) falling. Great!  At least we are snug back home. Hope the weather doesn’t follow us tomorrow when we head to Washington for a couple of days and that trip will be by train with not a plane in sight!

A photo essay.

All happening here.  Just saw Jersey Boys and what better place than Broadway?  Bouncing around the apartment now (11pm at night).  Seriously great cast and the guy who plays Frankie Valli has his voice to a tee! You can’t beat Broadway Theatre.  Ok, so the West End in London is some competition but have to say the audiences here are far more responsive.  Loved it!

Can’t take photos in the theatre unfortunately but the production was amazing! Website is http://www.jerseyboysinfo.com/broadway/ and this is the actual cast that we saw tonight.

Another chilly but sunny day in the Big Apple so a chance to go into the Apple store, as you do, and buy two iPad minis, as you do.

We are so central here close to the markets, lower Manhattan, obviously and the High Line which is a public park built on an historic freight rail line elevated above the streets on Manhattan’s West Side.  It is owned by the City of New York, and maintained and operated by Friends of the High Line. Founded in 1999 by community residents, Friends of the High Line fought for its preservation and transformation at a time when the historic structure was under the threat of demolition. It is now a non-profit conservancy.

After that trek we made our way back to our apartment stopping in the Chelsea markets to check out the goods and have a decent coffee at Ninth St Espresso. Bliss. Oh, and Tony had a wicked hot chocolate at Jacques Torres.

Our photo journey

A beautiful night tonight at Le Bernadin, a three-star Michelin restaurant with the most amazing food and service.  Truly spoilt.  And after that, a walk through Times Square and the obligatory cuddle with the naked cowboy it was back to our apartment.

Top top it off, husband gave me some magnificent Paspaley pearl earrings to match the drop necklace he bought for me for Christmas in 2010.

Here is a selection of photos of some of our courses and the Times Square experience!  And of course, those earrings.

We have finally made it to our New York apartment and it is a breath of fresh air – quite literally.  After living in hotel rooms and airports over the past week it is so nice to actually breathe the air and not the air conditioning. This very quaint apartment in the Chelsea district is filled with eclectic and quite stunning bits and pieces by its owner, the delightful Lawrence and is a place we can finally kick up and relax in. We couldn’t get in earlier because this area had lost power because of hurricane Sandy (she has sooo much to answer for).  Power was restored on Sunday but because of prior commitments (namely the basketball) we left it till today to move in. We are both so pleased to be here.

Just as an aside, felt a little guilty that Lawrence had to carry my (Ingrid’s) case up two flights of stairs, especially with the muscles I have developed at the gym but he offered and I accepted.

Our new digs …

After a pretty shattering day yesterday – waking at 4am to fly out of Halifax and finally arriving in New York at 11pm at night (more of the same, delayed flights and bad weather, this time, fog), we finally felt more like ourselves today. We have seriously thought of cutting our losses and coming home, and still may take a a few days off our travels.  Last week was pretty horrid – we seemed to spend the bulk of it sitting around in airports, haggling with airport staff or being delayed in airport hotels.

Today seemed to get us back on track although we are still pretty exhausted.  Seeing a good basketball game (New York Knicks versus the Philadelphia 76ers) walking from 42nd Street/3rd to 34th/7th there and back, probably got rid of a few cobwebs and lifted our spirits.

Check out the pics.