Vacation Time!

NYC and MD

(Warning: this is a long post. Sorry!!)

So we were off to visit Aaron's best friend from high school, Jeff, who is living in New York and working for NYU. We were only there for the weekend unfortunately but we still got to see and do plenty of really fun things. We took the train into the city from NJ and that was fun for Brady to stand up at the window and say "Choo Choo" at every passing train. On Saturday we took the subway and went to walk around the city. We ate a picnic lunch in Central Park, used the bathrooms at Trump Tower, walked around the rich neighborhoods of upper Manhattan and went to the big toy store FAO Schwarz.

That night Aaron and I went to Phantom of the Opera on Broadway while Jeff and his girlfriend Ale kindly watched Brady for us and we had a great time at the show and walking around Times Square at night.

On Sunday we walked down to lower Manhattan and saw the World Trade Center area, Wall Street and took the ferry out to Liberty and Ellis Island. Unfortunately, as we were in line for the ferry it decided to start pouring rain on us. Luckily we had umbrellas, but it was still raining when we got on the ferry so we didn't get as good of views as we would have liked. We had to fight the crowds for a spot at the window seats to see out and get pictures. And because Aaron and Jeff had to go to a Bruce Springstein concert that night, we didn't have time to get off and see anything on the islands because the lines to get back on the ferry to NY were too long and we did'nt have time to wait. But we still got to see a lot from the ferry ride even though it was raining and blowing and overcast.

That night, Ale and I walked around Greenwich Village where Jeff lives and saw all the nice neighborhood homes. It was more like homes than apartment buildings with trees and flowers and such so it felt more like a real neighborhood rather than big city like the other places we went walking. We also stopped at a cute little park to let Brady play for a while since he had been riding in the stroller the whole day. And of course I had been hoping to see a celebrity somewhere while we were in NY, but who would have thougth I would have seen one at the little Greenwich Park! OK, so it wasn't A-Rod or anything but it was someone famous. It was Nigel Barker, the "noted fashion photographer" and the hot judge on "America's Next Top Model". Did I mention he's the cute British judge on that show? Anyway, they say that some people you wouldn't recognize if you saw them on the street rather than TV but I spotted him a mile away! He looks just as good in person as he does on the show. He got to the park right after we did with his little boy and was pushing him on the swings. I should have just gone up and asked to take a picture with him but I didn't. I felt like if I were him and just trying to spend time with my kid, I wouldn't want to be bothered. So I tried to get a picture of him without letting him know that I was taking one. All my attempts were not very successful but I did get a couple. Aaron and Jeff had a great time of the concert and our weekend there went by so fast! Thanks Jeff and Ale for all the fun we had with you!

We left on Monday morning to go to Maryland to visit Aaron's family there in Salisbury. We stayed at his Aunt and Uncle's (Gary and Christine) house and got to play with his little cousins (Garret and Samantha and not so little Jake) and enjoy seeing them and his Grandma. Aaron hadn't been to MD in 5 years and it was time he returned to visit. On Tuesday we all headed down to his other Uncle's house on the coast (Gregg and Stefanie, cousins Logan and Sofia) and he took us out on his boat to an Island right across from the Boardwalk at Ocean City. We had a great day playing at the beach. Brady loved the sand but the water was too cold for him and he didn't really care for it much. He was running from it when it was coming toward him. He didn't care too much for the life jacket he had to wear on the boat either, but loved the boat ride. We stayed there that night and the next day we went back to Ocean City Boardwalk to the beach and then walked and enjoyed the boardwalk with some Thrashers famous fries and Dolles carmel corn! We spent the rest of the day back in Salisbury with some beef and dumplings for dinner and to the Salisbury Zoo and park where Aaron frequented as a child. It was fun to see Aaron taking his son to a place that he went to as a kid.

On Thursday we were headed back home so we were off to the Philadelphia aiport (we flew in and out of there because it was about 1/2 way from MD to NY there). On the way back, and because we had plenty of time before our flight, Aaron decided that he wanted to see the Rocky statue at the Art Museum in Philly before we went to the airport. There was a ton of traffic and construction and we didn't know exactly where it was so we ended up taking a couple wrong turns into random places and not so nice neighborhoods before we found it. But, it was not there. Aaron then remembered he thought he heard something a while back about them having to take it down because of vandals or somehting. Oh well! We also drove by the rest of the downtown which seemed to be really nice shopping as well as some historical places in US history. Too bad we didn't have more time to see those places as well! We got to the airport in plenty of time but got delayed leaving there and missing our connecting flight in Salt Lake City. So we also had an overnight stay there we hadn't planned for. Luckily, the airline paid for it! We got home on Friday morning instead of Thursday night.

We had a really good trip and it all went by so fast. But at least I got some good beach time in and we had fun visiting family and friends we hadn't seen in a while. Thanks! Ok, so I think I got everything in I wanted to but it is so long! I don't even know if any of you are still reading this or not but you can see some pics to go with our trip too!