I (heart) NYC

I can officially say I have been to New York City! On Friday morning at 2am I took Carl to the bus station and as he headed home for the weekend, I was headed to NYC! I left home at about 7:30am and drove to Syracuse, New York (just under 2 hours) to pick up Catherine, my friend from home! From there, we headed to NYC! As we drove, we saw a sign that read "Welcome to Pennsylvania"...We had to triple check the GPS to make sure we were headed in the right direction and sure enough, we were, we just didn't realize we'd be popping into another state along the way! And just a side note, pumping your own gas in Pennsylvania is illegal (found that one out the hard way - don't worry, they didn't call the cops! ). After another 6 hours of driving, we parked our car at Newark airport in New Jersey (which is a state, not a city as Cat and I both learned this trip!). We decided not to drive right into New York City and thank goodness we didn't, the traffic was CRAZY! From New Jersey we took a shuttle to the airport where we caught a bus that took us to Time Square and about 4 blocks from our hotel! By the time we got to our destination, we had probably sweat out the 6 bottles of water we had consumed on the way! We had heard it was about 40 degrees plus humidity!

This is us waiting for the bus in the HOT weather after already traveling for several hours! As I took this picture, I felt a trickle of sweat run down my leg! We arrived at our hotel, or should I say "Yotel" and were impressed right from the start!

Not only did we get a good deal but we were about 4 blocks from Times Square, the staff were super friendly and the place was brand new and very cool! It was kind of futuristic looking, complete with "Yobot" the robot who stored your luggage!

We settled into our hotel and headed out for dinner and our first preview of Times Square!

Although we had had a long day and it was getting close to 9pm we decided to get into full tourist mode and purchased a bus tour (yes, the tacky tourist, double decker kind!). It was one of the best purchases we made! All weekend we hopped on and off the bus and explored every tourist attraction we could! Our first tour was a night tour where we drove over the Manhattan Bridge and got a beautiful view of the Brooklyn Bridge and Manhattan all lit up!

We peeled our sweaty bums off the plastic chairs of the bus and headed back to our hotel where we slept in peace in the air conditioning! On Day 2, we again hopped on and off the bus exploring the sights! We went to Chinatown where we got "Coach" bags and "Tiffany" jewelry, had lunch in Little Italy, saw some famous buildings such as the Empire State Building, the Trump Tower where Donald Trump lives, Central Park, the Guggenheim Museum and the list goes on!

As we got closer to the site of the 9/11 disaster we passed a firehall. We were told earlier that if we knock on the door of any firehall we could get a tour. So we popped inside this one and spoke to one of the guys on duty. We were just climbing into the fire truck to get our picture taken and the fire alarm went off! We had to quickly jump out so the firemen could jump in and attend the call! In the garage of this firehall was a memorial to all the men that had worked in this particular hall and had lost their lives on September 11th.

Further down the street we got to the actual 9/11 site where they are building a new World Trade Centre and Memorial.

The Memorial will feature waterfalls in the spot where the original buildings stood. There is currently a small Memorial Museum with artifacts and video of the disaster along with 2 walls full of photos of those who lost their lives. It was heart wrenching to walk through...

After a full day of exploring we went back to our hotel and got all dolled so we could head to Broadway in style! We saw "The Lion King" and loved every bit of it! It was bedtime after that!

The following morning it was back on the bus and onto the boat! We took a short harbour cruise to get a water view of Manhattan and the surrounding area and of course, say hello to Lady Liberty (which I kept referring to as the Eiffel Tower for some reason!). And here she is!

Just kidding! Now for the real one...

Tada!

And one of all three of us!

After the boat cruise and a quick peek down Wall Street, there was just one more place Cat really wanted to visit. So we figured out the New York subway and headed to New Jersey to see the one and only Carlo's Bakery!

For those of you who don't know, this Bake Shop is the location for the TV show "Cake Boss", one of Cat's favorite shows :) We weren't about to wait in the 2 hour line up to get inside so we snapped a quick photo instead! We also snuck behind the the building where we saw Buddy's car parked outside and talked to a few of the employees!

And that about sums up our experience of NYC! Even with the heat, the humidity and the sometimes unbearable smell of rotting garbage on the street, we had so much fun exploring the city together!

Take me out to the ball game....

As I sit and sweat...I mean as I sit and write this, it is currently 31 degrees and feels like 37! It's HOT but it's supposed to get even hotter this week as the forecast reads "Thursday 29, feels like 40"! The rest of the week is about the same...Maybe we really should have invested in an air conditioner! Despite the hot, sticky and often wet feeling this weather leaves with us, we have enjoyed this past week, the highlights being a group bike ride, my birthday and a Jays game!

Last Sunday, I organized a bike ride with our young adults group to bike to Wolfe Island, enjoy some beach time and bike back. There were about 13 of us touring the roads of Kingston, hopping on the 15 minute ferry and riding the 10km stretch to Big Sandy Bay beach! Altogether, we figure we rode about 25km! It was lotsa fun and Carl and I are looking forward to possibly doing it again sometime soon!

Our group, waiting for the ferry!

On the ferry, checking out the wind turbines on Wolfe Island

Riding to the beach!

Enjoying the beach!

Riding back to the ferry!

Filling our bellies at a BBQ afterwards!

On Wednesday it was Leah Day! I decided at birthday number 26 I didn't want to get any older so since then, we refer to July 13th as Leah Day, no numbers involved! Not only was I spoiled at work with TWO cakes and TWO deliveries of flowers but then Carl took me out for the best dinner we've had in Kingston so far - delicious!

Yesterday we decided we better take advantage of our last free weekend at home this summer so we headed to Toronto to watch the Toronto Blue Jays!

Although my favorite part was the hot dog, Carl had fun! Unfortunately the Jays didn't win.

This coming week, besides sweating, we will be packing for our separate trips! On Friday, Carl heads home for a super quick visit and I head to New York with my friend from home, Catherine!!! So excited!!!

Summer Fun!

I can't tell you how much I am enjoying summer! It brings out The Flowers, The Summer Activities and for us - more Visitors!!!

The Flowers

Awhile back my friend Tiffany sent me a card with some flower seeds in it. At first, I didn't think I would use them as we don't really have a garden but then I thought, "what the heck, let's see if we can make em grow!" So off to the dollar store I went to find some hearty soil and good pots! We planted the seeds a few months back and much to our surprise, every pot except one has blossomed making this our first homegrown garden!

The Summer Activities

Carl and I are enjoying and trying to take advantage of everything Kingston has to offer in the summer! From bike riding, to kayaking, to summer festivities like "Movie's in the Square". We love the square! In the winter, we ice skate there, in the spring, summer and fall we go to the market and now, every Thursday night we go to watch a free movie! So far, we've seen the old Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (thumbs up) and Close Encounters of the Third Kind (2 thumbs down)! We're looking forward to many more!

Visitors

This is our favorite part of summer! Just this past week we were lucky enough to have 2 groups of visitors pay us a visit! My cousin Amy and her boyfriend Jake were in the area visiting family and friends and stopping for a visit with Will and Kate in Ottawa! Jake, who now lives in the Greater Vancouver area actually grew up in Kingston! He gave us a few tips before we moved out here! They came by last Wednesday night for dinner and a nice visit!

And then, just today we had my best friends parents/my parents good friends/our ex-landlords/hopefully our future landlords, come visit us! Vic and Lorrie flew into Ottawa where they are staying with cousins, Dean and Elizabeth. The drove to Kingston for the day where we showed them our place, Queens Campus, downtown and caught up over lunch!

As long as the sun keeps shining, the flowers keep growing, the activities keep happening and the visitors keep coming, I just don't want summer to end!

Algonquin Provincial Park

This weekend we headed about 3 hours North of Kingston to Algonquin Provincial Park.

The park was established in 1893 and is the oldest provincial park in Canada and approximately 7653 square kilometres. I had heard that Algonquin was a popular camping destination so I made sure to book it early...Back in February to be exact! The drive to the park took us off the main highway and through some small towns, farmland and beside numerous lakes and wetlands. On our way, we saw a small coyote and 2 porcupines! The coyote was walking alongside the road but the porcupines were, well let's just say they were lying very still on the side of the road - either way, they were still neat to see! We entered the park and headed straight to our campground - there are numerous campgrounds in the Park but we stayed at Cannisbay. We asked the park ranger about seeing moose and she said that if had been there a few weeks earlier she could have almost guaranteed that we would see one. But the bugs got so bad that it drove them out of the park and it would now be rare to see one. We didn't get to see a moose but we would rather that than have to deal with the bugs which weren't bad at all by the time we got there! We were lucky enough to see a raccoon though! It was close to 10pm, dark and our fire was fading. Carl was in the tent and I was just sitting by the fire. I had my glasses on so I couldn't see as well as usual and all the sudden something larger than a squirrel came running through the bushes! There were warnings that a bear had been spotted in the campsite so needless to say, I got a little freaked out! Luckily, it was just a raccoon coming to check out our garbage! Brave little bugger it was!

Here is Carl, making what has become our usual camp breakfast of banana pancakes and bacon!

I must say we definitely did not experience Algonquin to its full extent but we still had fun! We spent all our time on the beach soaking in some rays and swimming!

The park has so much more to offer, with hundreds of lakes, canoe-in campsites, hikes and portages! Unfortunately we weren't really prepared for that and would love a chance to go back for longer but I'm not sure that we'll have the opportunity too! We packed up and drove home today and passed a sign that read at 6pm, it was still 30 degrees in Kingston! This week looks like it will be hovering around the 30 degree mark - summer is here!