Real World

My oh my does life move fast.  In the past few months I have done so much.

I've done a bit of traveling, starting with a cruise to the Bahamas, Aruba, & Curacao in January.

Me, Brie & Christine on board before leaving port.

It was my first cruise and CERTAINLY not my last.  It was a lot of fun and was great to be in the Caribbean sun in the middle of New England's winter.

Upon returning to New England wicked tan, I chose to spend time at home, opting to hold off starting my job for 6 months.  Not even a month later, this awesome (sarcasm) snowstorm named Nemo came through, dumping over 2 feet of snow.  Normally, I wouldn't care, but this being the first serious snowstorm that I was home for, and my brother no longer living at home, I became my dad's right hand man for snow removal.  It was much more difficult that I ever could have imagined, but it also was more snow that man dad ever tried to snow blow at once.  It literally was over the top of the snowblower.

Just casual snowblowing.

The rest of winter was rather uneventful.  Then, in April my parents and I went on a trip for my graduation to Arizona (Phoenix, Sedona, and the Grand Canyon) and Las Vegas.

Every moment of the trip was memorable.  To start, we met one of my dad's clients.  This man is a holocaust survivor and hearing his story from him (as opposed to a textbook) was so remarkable.  It was a little too long ago for me to perfectly quote, but what he experienced is more than any human ever should.  Yet, he is so proud to now be an American and lives each day happy to be in the greatest country on Earth.  While many people complain about anything and everything in their life, he doesn't let it effect him and lives each day to the fullest.

The whole group at dinner.

Being a family of avid sports fans, we went to an Arizona Diamondbacks game and the following day did a tour of the stadium.  It is quite a remarkably stadium, everywhere you looked there was something interesting.  From the rightfield pool, to the retractable roof and AC, to the tire by the dugout so players no longer take their frustration out on the toilet.  It was also rather surprising that you could see so much of the stadium on the tour, where as at Fenway, it takes the same amount of time, but you only see a fraction of the stadium.

In the dugout.

We then left Phoenix and drove to Sedona, which is one of the most beautiful and photogenic places I have been.  Everywhere you look there are red rock formations many with walking/hiking trails.  Although we didn't follow any of the trails, we went to a park where great pictures can be taken of cathedral rock.  Ideally, I would have loved to stay longer taking more pictures of the rocks with the sun setting on them, but you can only do so much when you are on a vacation and trying to see many places.

Cathedral Rock

There was also a bit of wind when we were here, but normally, the water in front of the rock would be perfectly still and the rock formation would be reflected.  Oh well, I guess I'll have to go back to Sedona!!  While in Sedona we also decided to go on a Pink Jeep Tour.  Specifically, we chose the Diamondback Gulch tour.  It was absolutely amazing.  We were the only people on the tour and that made it much easier to ask if we could stop to take more pictures.  After doing some light driving, we then go to experience the true range of their custom jeeps.  Not only was it necessary to be buckled in, you truly needed to hold on as the jeep drove down steep inclines that were practically vertical.  

In the jeep preparing for a steep decline.

Big Dan had some bright white hands from holding on so tight!

After a fun day and a half in Sedona, we drove to the Grand Canyon, and again, what a beautiful sight!  We went on another Pink Jeep Tour because with our limited time frame there was no way to see more of the Canyon than on the tour.  We did a sunset tour and sadly, it got extremely windy so we had to move away from the edge where there are some of the most magnificent views.  None the less, it was an experience I will never forget, and a place I will most certainly visit again!

Me, Mom and Dad at the Grand Canyon

Dad, Mom and me in front of the entrance to the park

The last leg of our trip was to Las Vegas.  While I'm sure I would have had a much different experience with friends as opposed to my parents, it was still fun and exciting to be in Vegas.  Aside from a little gambling, we did one of our favorite city excursions - double decker bus tours.  Having travelled a lot in the past year, we have now done the double decker bus tour in London, NYC and Vegas.  It is a great way to see a lot of the city, and hear the local perspective on it.  It also allows you to park your car in one place, and allow someone else to do the driving, affording everyone the opportunity to experience the area without the hassle of attempting to navigate.

The three of us on the wrap around balcony at our hotel

View of the strip

From Vegas, we also took a road trip to see the Hoover Dam.  It is an insane creation!!!

With the dam behind me.

On top of the dam, with the bridge in the distance.

In all, this trip was absolutely amazing.  I would love to return to any and all of them at some point in my life as I'm sure the experience would be different, but equally fantastic.

NYC Week 6!

So, it's been a while since I should have posted this but again, better late than never!!

This past 6 weeks have absolutely flown by and I can't believe my time in NYC is coming to a close.  I try my hardest to enjoy every moment that I have here in the city and this week was no exception.  Outside of working roughly 8:30-5 plus the one hour (or more) commute, during the week I don't have the energy to do much more than a little shopping or exploring, and dinner. This week, as always, there were some notable events.

On Wednesday night, at the tree lighting at Rockefeller Center occurred.  Unfortunately, when I got there a little before 7pm (the event officially started then with a number of performers) the place was filled with people.  The sidewalks were packed, the crowd must have been in the thousands.  I would have loved to have gotten there sooner, however work comes first and the commute after work didn't get me back to Manhattan until 6:30, I grabbed a bite to eat and suddenly the event was about to start.  I couldn't even get close enough to see the tree so in the end I gave up and decided to go back to my apartment and be warm while watching the event on TV.  It was a great show to watch with performers including Cee Lo Green, Mariah Carey and the Rockettes, and while it would have been amazing to be there, it was nice to be able to sit in the warmth of my apartment, away from the mass of people and relax.

Heather and I at the Bryant Park Christmas Tree

Friday, I wasn't feeling great so I spent the day working on our project report from home and trying to relax my body so as to not get sick.  Friday night one of my best friends, Heather, came to visit and explore the city.  We went to this little Italian restaurant near my apartment where I ate some delicious spinach and cheese ravioli with pesto sauce.  It was the perfect size meal and best of all it was reasonably priced.  We then went to Bryant Park, where we saw a Christmas tree, the Empire State Building and Macy*s.  It was (I hope) a great start to seeing NYC without being overwhelming.

Saturday on the other hand, I packed full of all the things she just HAD to see in NYC.  We started with breakfast at Pershing Square, aka the busiest and best breakfast place in New York City.  It certainly lived up the the 'busy' aspect with every table filled and a line that never went away.  And while the food was great, I doubt it is the BEST in the city.

Angel Mo - Swarovski Crystal

After Pershing Square, we went to Rockefeller Center to see the ice rink and Christmas tree.  It was great to see people starting to get in the Christmas spirit!  Across the street from the tree is a small Swarovski Crystal store (the star at the top of the tree is Swarovski). While most of the ornaments and decorations were traditional, there were some, such as Angel Mo in the picture, that were... a little more unique! Apparently, there is a whole collection of Mos that are created a few times a year. From there we went to 53^rd Street between Madison and 5^th Avenue where there is a segment of the Berlin Wall (the same segment that I first saw about a month ago with my dad.  We also went to Central Park and stopped by Serendipity 3, which is known for their Frozen Hot Chocolate, but the wait was between an hour and an hour and a half so we didn’t stay and instead went to a small cafe to grab a bite to eat.  We decided at this point to take a small break and get a little warmer back at my apartment. 

After a little while, we took the subway to the Wall St area where we took pictures with the “Charging Bull.”  The line to see the bull was probably 20-30 people long and went along the right side of it.  However, all too often, a group would walk along the left side to cut the line and get a picture with the bull.  It was irritating to see people doing this so once we got close enough to the front, we made sure these individuals were made aware of the line that was formed on our side.  All of the people seemed utterly shocked by this and apparently “didn’t realize” there was a line. 

Ummm, HELLO!!! No, I just like standing in a line of 30 people and looking at this side of the bull. DUHHH.

Anyways, after that we went to see the New York Stock Exchange, where they were in the process of setting up a Christmas Tree in the middle of the road and Federal Hall, the place where George Washington was inaugurated as the first president of the United States of America.  As if this wasn’t enough, we then went to Tiffany & Co. and browsed all of the sparkly pieces of jewelry.  Upon attempting to exit, the doorman began to chat us up.  He asked us how we liked Tiffany's, and being a college student with no current income, I responded that it was on the upper-end of my price range.  The conversation lasted for fairly long, with occasional interruptions of him saying "Hello, welcome to Tiffany's" and "Have a nice day!" to customers walking in and out.  At the end of our conversation, he suggested that Heather and I apply for part-time jobs at Tiffany's particulary because of the great discounts employees receive.  Maybe I will!

Eventually we were able to leave and make our way to the Ground Zero memorial.  It was a great moment to reflect on how lucky we each are for another hour and even minute on Earth.  

With a few other stops, we eventually went to see the Rockettes!  Neither of us had seen them before but it is suck a New York holiday thing to do, so it was impossible to pass up!  

Early the next morning, Heather headed back to Worcester and I tried to catch up on sleep.


The next day was quite interesting, as I'll write about next!!