East Coast Day 6

Saturday was an adventurous day for us. We headed into NYC!

But first, I got my eyebrows threaded by an Indian lady. Threaded. I'd never heard of it! It probably took her 3-5 minutes and she used thread in both of her hands, twisted in a strange way and just ripped scads of hair out all at once. It was actually nice because it was a similar pain to plucking, but over with quickly. And it wasn't awful like wax. Wax is awful for me because it leaves my eyes red for days and leaves little acne-like bumps all around my eyebrows for a good week. Waxing= No good.

I wish I would just keep my eyebrows plucked... but I don't. It's kind of like my laundry. It wouldn't be such a chore if I'd keep up on it. But apparently, it's just not my style to do something so logical!

After that experience I got to have my first subway experience! Carmen actually let her picture get taken this time. 

Beary Bear and Birdie Alex were a little nervous, especially when Carmen pointed out the exact time that we were going under the Hudson River. Don't worry though, I was able to keep them calm!

I had SJ take a picture of me in the subway tunnel because it was something on my 'to-do' in NYC list. Two officers quickly approached us and told us not to do that though. It makes sense now that I think about it, because I know it's a 'target', but I just don't think about these things. I'm from Oregon for Pete's Sake! As they were walking toward us I thought about asking if they'd take a picture with Alex and Beary, but I decided not to. It didn't seem appropriate at the time...

Our first stop in the city was at Fox News where we had tickets for the Huckabee show! I have to admit, Mike Huckabee was my candidate of choice in this last election, so meeting him was an extra special treat!

Standing in line we saw Geraldo Rivera getting some lunch. That was kind of fun!

And I tried calling my family to squeal that I was in New York City and was getting to be in the audience at the Huckabee show. No answer :0(

The show was great. They filmed segments for two shows because they're not taping on Memorial Day weekend. So we got to see Joan Lunden (long time t.v. anchor-woman), Joanna Philbin (Regis Philbin's daughter who just wrote a book), Joe Guy (an Australian cowboy who's riding across America on horseback), and Daniel Amen (who wrote a book called change your brain, change your body). We also got to listen to a military singing group called 4 troops and Nikki Yanofsky (a 16 year-old who sang the national anthem at the Olympics this year.) We got books from all of them and a CD from 4 troops too. Mr. Huckabee joked between segments that we wouldn't be getting a car--this isn't Oprah-- but that we'd get a lot of loot! And we did!

It was so fun to be a part of the audience. Apparently we were shown A LOT. Lucky us, we sat right behind his wife who was in the audience that day!

After the show he came out to greet everyone and sign autographs. I can't tell you how down to earth and personable this man is. He'd still be my candidate of choice! Mike Huckabee for president!

Because, seriously, who else in politics wouldn't think twice about getting their pictures taken with some random woman's stuffed animals?

These pictures are all from SJ's camera, because I thought I broke mine for the first half of our trip. Then I realized I just hadn't switched the button back to auto focus after I'd tried to clean the sensors on the lens. I'm good like that! I seriously almost cried that my camera chose that moment to break. Meeting Huckabee and seeing NYC for the first time... not good timing! But, SJ had her camera, so we still got great pictures.

 

Then we headed into the chaos called Times Square. Pure and utter chaos!

Did I mention it was chaotic? Behind SJ is where the ball drops on New Year's Eve.

Well, it was! I officially determined that I am NOT a city girl! It was soooooo windy that my eyes were constantly full of itchy scratchy yuckiness. My hair was constantly smacking my face and I felt like I had a layer of pollution spread over my whole body like peanut butter on bread. It was icky!

Right before this picture we'd both gotten smacked in the head by a paper sack that flew through the air out of the middle of no where!

And I took this picture for my step-father in-law because his last name is Rosenthal and it was on this poster twice... so I had to snap this to let him know it made me think of him!

Then when we were on another train I had some time to fiddle with my camera and I realized what was wrong. I felt like such a ditz! We spent some time in a less populated area of the city where we took some fun pictures of random architecture and iron works. And we did a lot of walking!

We finally got to a place where we could eat some authentic NY pizza. It was much needed, we were both tired and hungry!

I went to the bathroom and I found this picture on my camera later. I think she was having a little too much fun in the mirror!

We walked around Union Square Park. Oh, and for those of you who think Portland's weird, you ain't seen nothing!

We saw some real estate signs posted. This is a condo for only $619/sqft. I thought I had it rough living in a condo. At least mine is, um, considerably less! The property taxes alone are more than my mortgage payment, not to mention the condo fees!

You know, we just don't have architecture like this where I come from. Sorry, I know the picture isn't great. But these buildings just have so much life and character. So much detail and creativity!

And this. Can you tell me how to get... how to get to Sesame Street? Now I know what Sesame Street is modeled after. I felt like I was walking down it every where I went. I kept expecting Big Bird to pop out from around the corner!

And this is just a tiny picture of how windy it was. You could put your arms out and lean into the wind without falling over. As much as we would have liked to have stayed in the city longer it was just too much wind. And it was a weekend so it was even crazier than normal. And we were tired.

But we got lots of sleep last night and we're headed back into the city today. We're gonna hit the 'biggies' today. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures! 

Would you expect anything less?