New place w/ a view!

Today I'm enjoying a beautiful view of the city from our new apartment in Devonport! We've been here just over a week and we're loving it. Since we were tired of the construction noise in the city and were hoping for a more scenic (beach friendly) spot, we looked around at several suburbs of Auckland. After days of searching online we finally found a place worth looking at... we looked, discussed over lunch, and called back to take it!

It's a cute flat that's actually part of our landlord's house (yet totally separate as far as living space) with corner windows that look out over the harbor and city skyline. It's even got a tiny porch and flowerbed/lawn outside... which we'd been dying for after being cooped up in our downtown apartment. Just down the hill is the main street of Devonport as well as Andy's office and we can easily hop on the ferry to go into the city and don't feel like driving. It was fully furnished and incredibly clean and our landlords are great! They're really nice and have make this move a breeze... even had us over for drinks.

I've got a much better working space here, Andy can come home for lunch, we're even closer to the gym, grocery store, etc. and several beaches are a short walk away. It's also really exciting to see all the activity in the harbor... yachts racing, barges coming and goes and even the occasional navy ship coming in. Anyway, enough talking about that... take a look: (you can click them to see more or go to my Picasa album)

New York City, NY - 1st Stop

New York City 20-23 July 2007

New York was exciting and overwhelming! Even though we arrived in the evening, we were able to fit it quite a bit including a cruise around Manhattan and a visit to Times Square on our first night. First we navigated the bus system and subway from La Guardia to the upper west side while lugging our baggage. This was NOT an easy task considering NYC's old, crowed, cramped, non-handicapped accessible subway system. We made it though, and then walked the few blocks to our possibly questionable New York hostel. It was far from 5 stars, but was fine, so we were happy.

Right away we walked to pier 81 for our Circle Line cruise of Manhattan. It took us from the west coast of Midtown down around the lower part of Manhattan, under the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges, then back down for a look at the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and back to the city as the lights were coming on and the sun was setting. It was really good and got us acquainted with the city. That evening we wandered around Times Square taking pictures, having dinner and taking in the sights and massive crowds.

Notes from first day of travel:
#1 - luggage & Manhattan subways don't mix
#2 - K-State gear = meeting random alumni (from Mexico)

On our first full day in the Big Apple we had big plans. We set off across Central Park which was packed with people enjoying the sunny Saturday to the Guggenheim. Unfortunately the entire exterior of Frank Lloyd Wright's famous museum was under restoration so there was nothing to see but scaffolding covered w/ banners. We did venture inside though to see the beautiful spiraling interior space.

Next was the MET (Metropolitan Art Museum) for a quick run through where one of our highlights was seeing the enormous "Washington Crossing the Delaware" painting by Emanuel Leutze (1851). When we were museumed out and starving we left and walked the rest of the length of central park enjoying the tree-lined cobble stone sidewalks. After a pretzel from a street vender, we made our way down 5th Ave. for a look in the Apple store (which stands out from the solid building lined streets because of it's plaza and large glass cube that serves as the entryway to the below ground store). We saw Rockefeller center, then got swept up in shopping (and window shopping) along 5th Avenue.

The next day, we set off to see lower Manhattan. First stop was the World Trade Center Site, Ground Zero. Because of the large amount of construction going on it was hard to get a sense of space, but it was good to see that the rebuilding is well underway and that the city is remembering while moving forward. The Freedom tower (building 7) is already complete and a large memorial/commercial building is going to stand where the twin towers did. From here, we walked down Wall Street which was quiet on a Sunday, but still powerful.

Working our way uptown, we wandered through Canal Street in Chinatown (where I couldn't resist buying a purse... even if it was a notorious cheap knock-off). The busy shops and colorful fruit & veg stands were quite a site. Just around the corner was Little Italy where the crowds took over the streets and were flanked by authentic looking Italian cafes and shops and red, white and green street decorations. We picked a cozy cafe where we had a pizza and chatted with some friendly New Yorkers who were also in the city just to visit.

After some gelato and a look around, we went to Soho for some shopping. It was good to see some shops more in our price range! Andy got a T-shirt with a unique funky screen print from a street stand, made by a small local company. We enjoyed wandering through the cute streets where the buildings were slightly shorter and where things had more of a neighborhood feel.

Back to mid-Manhattan we had a look at the Empire State building and were hassled buy some "hip hop musicians" who were "giving away" their CDs - for a donation... traps and scams are an unfortunate part of traveling. Pretty beat, we stopped for dinner then wandered by Madison Square Gardens before heading home.

Our last day in NYC was dampened by the rain... and lots of it! After a little shopping that got old quick we took a lunch stop at Chipotle that was a tasty farewell to American food. Finally, we picked up our luggage and made the long, wet trip to JFK airport. We braved the subway again, but w/out too much trouble, changed out of our wet clothes and got ready for an overnight to London.