The Cloisters

The weather has been really nice, every weekend we try to get outside as much as possible.

One Sunday we took a trip up to the Cloisters. I can't describe it any better than what is on the web page:

The Cloisters, the branch of The Metropolitan Museum of Art devoted to the art and architecture of medieval Europe, was assembled from architectural elements, both domestic and religious, that date from the twelfth through the fifteenth century. The building and its cloistered gardens—located in Fort Tryon Park in Northern Manhattan—are treasures in themselves, effectively part of the collection housed there. The Cloisters collection comprises approximately five thousand works of art from medieval Europe, dating from about the ninth to the fifteenth century.

http://www.metmuseum.org/cloisters/

Fort Tryon is pretty much right across the street from the Hudson river and was absolutely gorgeous that afternoon. It's also way up in the northern tip of Manhattan. Just because I wanted to see the sights on the way up to the park we took the bus. It's about an hour ride and goes through Harlem.

Seeing all of the works of art in what feels like an original setting is so awesome. Being medieval many of the artifacts are religious in nature - especially the many stained glass windows. Looking at a set of stained glass windows from the 1400's makes me wonder if the person who made them realized they would last for so long and who else has looked through that same window.....

Along with the religious articles there are plenty of courtyards and arches with fabulous architectural details.

Same courtyard, different view:

And a different indoor courtyard - the cats would love this!

And more arches....

one more arch - it's just so pretty I can't resist.

I loved the colors in this fresco - how do you move a fresco? And many of the items on display came from private collectors, how big is your home if this is on display?

New Yankee Stadium Tour

This tour was awesome. I am not a Yankee fan but I do enjoy baseball and I appreciate what you get to see on the tour. I think most people would enjoy it, baseball fan or not - but if you are a die hard Red Sox fan just take the tour of Fenway and call it a day.

This was the first time I had been to new Yankee Stadium - a huge improvement over the old Yankee Stadium. The old stadium had tight corridors that were always dark and packed with people. Now when you enter Yankee Stadium you enter a huge open and bright great hall. Banners line the hall, black and white photos on one side and color photos on the other side.




Also at the entrance there is a large club store and Hard Rock Cafe. (Yes, Ernie I bought you a t-shirt, it's in pile of packages I need to mail.)




The first stop on the tour is the Yankee museum. They really did a nice job with the space and the collection. The memorabilia is incredible.

The first thing you notice is a glass display case in the middle of the room. The display case and statues are honoring the perfect game thrown during the World Series in 1956. On one side is the pitcher, Don Larsen, and on the other side is the catcher, Yogi Berra. The top of the display case was built to mimic the exact trajectory of the game winning pitch. The display case also holds hundreds of signed baseballs - the Yankees are trying to get a signed ball from every player to wear the Yankee uniform.





The next part of the museum is divided in the eras - the Joe DiMaggio era, the Mickey Mantle era, and the Derek Jeter era. They have everything from uniforms, unused World Series tickets stubs, and World Series trophies on display.

The museum also holds the locker of Thurmun Munson. He was a charismatic player from the 70s who was killed in a plane crash during the season. Out of respect for him, they left his locker untouched in the clubhouse. When the new stadium was opened they moved the entire locker to the museum.

Next stop on the tour, Monument Park. The Yankees have a small portion of the field set aside for a small park filled with all kinds of commemorative plaques and statues. It was raining on and off all day during our visit. While we were in the museum it was pouring - when we first stepped out in to Monument Park the rain had stopped, but that didn't last for long as you can see by all of the open umbrellas.

This was erected in honor of the heroes and victims from 9/11.

This is for the visit by the Pope last April.

JasO and MW in Monument Park - at least with the rain most of the other people on the tour were not in the open part of the park.

After about 10 - 15 minutes in Monument Park they herded the tour group over to the Yankee dugout! The rain stopped and we were able to look out on the field and sit on the bench just like all of the players.

This is the view from the expensive seats, walking down to the Yankee dugout.

Hey look at us - were standing in the Yankee dugout!

Here is Michael is watching the action at home plate. (OK, so there is no action at home plate, but it sure is fun to imagine yourself a major league ball player. Seeing the stadium from their point of view is awesome.)

Hey look who's sitting on the Yankee bench - JasO and KO. Do you think this is Jeter's spot on the bench? The dugout is air conditioned (there is a vent right behind my head) - after all we can't have the players getting too hot during the game. But the league has some rule that the visiting team must have all of the same amenities as the home team, so the visiting team gets an air conditioned dugout too.

Hey, now who's on the bench - it's JasO and MW. KO must be at bat (or taking the picture - one of those two things).

This picture wasn't taken to highlight the fine hair styling of this die hard Yankee fan (she was so excited to get the free key chain at the end of the tour -she immediately unwrapped it and put it on her key ring) - but to show our great tour guide. He knew so much about the Yankees past and present, he gave us a great tour and was sure to highlight some of the little things that make the stadium special.

Looking up behind the dugout.

Looking across the field to the scoreboard from the dugout.

Looking over to home plate from the dugout.

And they saved the best part of the tour for last - but no cameras were allowed. They took us from the dugout in to the Yankee clubhouse (locker room). The clubhouse is huge, it is a big oval room with the lockers lining the outside and two seating areas with leather arm chairs in the middle. The carpet has a big Yankee logo in the very center of the room. The lockers were really modern looking and stylish. They just barely let you in the door about 15 - 20 feet and then usher you out a side door. All the way at the other end of the room are the lockers for the big name players. It was interesting to see which locker was where and what was in the locker. Lots of clothes and uniforms, some dry cleaning, some mail and packages.

Right behind the dugout, before you enter the clubhouse there are batting cages for the players to use during the game - one even has a pitcher's mound.

There is also a wall dispenser of Purell, which prompted someone on the tour to say - that is the hand sanitizer Derek Jeter uses! But if it is hand sanitizer, doesn't that mean there really should be no trace of anyone who uses it? Just a little something to ponder.

After they move you through the clubhouse the tour ends in true Disney style, at the gift shop!

It's a really great tour and I recommend it for anyone that is remotely interested in baseball. The tour tickets have been a hot item this season and I had to purchase our tickets on Stub Hub. I don't think they offer tours on game days, and even if they did I don't think they would let you in the dugout or clubhouse on a game day - so best to wait until the team is out of town or in the off season.

A blur of cardboard

Where are the scissors? Where is the tape gun? Are we going to have enough boxes/how can we have so many boxes? Those are the phrases that have taken over our life for the last 2 months.

How can scissors never be where you need them? How do they always move from where you are sure you left them?


Once we made the decision to move we knew two things - this would consumer our summer and the hottest day of the year would be the day we moved. And yes, this did take over the summer and yes the hottest and most humid days of the year happened during our move. (Amazingly enough, for the last week the weather has been nothing less than perfect, and now that we are moved and reasonably unpacked we can get out and enjoy it!)



It all started with Michael reading about good deals on rental units - with so many people losing their jobs, the real estate market has been at a low that he hadn't seen before in NYC. We started looking and found it was relatively easy to find a nice place without using a broker and many places were offering one month free rent, previously unheard of in NYC.



I was really looking to move neighborhoods, stay on the east side of NYC but somewhere more 'trendy'. But we could get a so much more value for our dollar by staying in the Upper East - so we're just a few blocks away from our first apartment. The amenities of a 'full service' building totally swayed my opinion, between the elevators, 24 hour doorman, on-site gym, and roof deck I knew I was done with a charming (yet crappy) walk-up.

We found the perfect apartment on a Sunday afternoon. Sunday night we decided it was the right place for us and Michael called to commit first thing Monday morning, unfortunately it was already gone! We tried our second choice apartment - wuh wuhhh, it was gone too. We then moved to our third choice apartment...it was nice, but under full renovation. It was a mess but all of the appliances and fixtures in the bathroom and kitchen would be brand new. The good apartments were moving fast, we decided to take it and signed the lease hoping it would be ready by move-in mid-August.

The new place is on the 11th floor and has big windows in the bedroom, living room, and even the kitchen. I can see the RFK bridge (formerly Tri-borough bridge) and the East River from the kitchen! The natural light is amazing and KO and cat approved.

View from the living room:




View from the bedroom:





View from the kitchen (you can just make out the bridge in the background):





Now is when it gets fun....time for the actual move.



Step 1:

Enlist cats to help with packing.











Step 2: Remind cats boxes are for packing and stacking, not napping! (And wonder again why you have so much stuff?)






Step 3: Hire movers to take all of those boxes of stuff from old apartment to new apartment.



Step 4: Wonder where are we going to put all of this stuff?




Step 5: Say goodbye to old couch, tv, and desk in style:

Step 6: Say goodbye to old apartment and remember how much you liked it until the door buzzer quit working:

Step 7: Fly in help!

As her birthday present, Michael flew his mom in to NYC to help us unpack. She stayed about 5 days and set up the entire kitchen (contact paper and all)! We went out to dinner every night, saw a show and had a great time while she was here even though she left with sore feet. She unpacked at least 1/3 of the boxes and left us with a functional kitchen and organized linen closet.

One night during her visit we went to High Line Park in the Meat Packing District and had dinner at halfsteak (in the bar area of crafsteak). This was the start of the really bad blisters for Mom Waldron, but that didn't slow her down.

We also spent lots of time enjoying the view from the roof deck.

Even caught a few sunsets on the roof (we can't actually see the sun go down, due to that big building in the background - but maybe as the seasons change the position of the sun shifts we'll get better views).

Step 8: Kristin and Michael get separate closets! Yay! For nice big closets. We're both still working on the best way to organize, but look at the built in shelves (there are shelves in the middle, but you can't see them in this picture) and double bar. I'm in heaven. Michael has a walk-in closet all to himself, he isn't complaining about that turn of events.

Step 9: Have Jason visit to give a second opinion on the comfort level of the new sofa bed. We played and played while he was here, Mets game, new Yankee Stadium tour, adventures pocketbook shopping on Canal St., pub crawl, visit to High Line Park (our new tourist destination du jour), and of course dinner at Brother Jimmy's.

We also hit some balls at Chelsea Piers. It is so much fun, but a pain to get too - just like seeing a Broadway show. Of course any time I go to Chelsea Piers or see a show I always think, 'why don't I do this more often'.....

Step 10: Keep unpacking , keep unpacking, keep unpacking....here is the living room one week after move in. It's still a work in process but the stacks of boxes are getting smaller and smaller.

Our next round of guests are scheduled to arrive in October - and we'll be unpacked, pictures on the wall and ready for hosting.

It's a Heck of a Town

It was about 6:30 last night and after running a few errands I still needed to go to the pet store and get fresh kitty litter. (And by 'get' I mean, pay for the litter and have it delivered.)

Michael suggested I call the store and see if I could order it over the phone and pay either by credit card over the phone or with cash when it was delivered.

Sure enough, I was able to do just that! With no more effort than dialing the phone I had a fresh bag of kitty litter sitting in the apartment in about an hour.

This is a great place to live!

Destination Birthday

My new favorite way to celebrate a birthday - the destination birthday.

This year the plan was to get Michael out of NYC, I totally surprised him and we spent the weekend in Washington DC. (I got lucky with the timing of the July 4th holiday this year - the past two years we have been stuck in the city because of my work schedule.)

With all of my planning skills focused on the reunion I actually didn't have a clue of what to do for Michael for his birthday. I got inspired and lucky at the same time. I decided to check out the Atlanta Braves schedule to see if we could go see them play. (In case you didn't know, the Braves are his favorite baseball team.) Turns out they were playing the Washington Nationals in DC - great! Not only is it an easy trip from NYC but I was really excited to celebrate the 4th of July in Washington DC.

I found a great deal on the hotel (thanks Travel Zoo) and airfare and both were along the Metro line, making it easy to get around town to see the sights. Michael's family was in on it too - I know we were all excited to give him such a fun surprise as a birthday gift.

I played it pretty cool with him - just letting him know I made plans for Saturday night that "might spill in to Sunday" and then I told him I found somewhere great for lunch too. I kind of wanted him to think we were headed to the beach for the day.

I secretly packed a bag for both of us. It was kind of hard to pack for someone else. I had to mind out the different outfits we would both want and then figure out how to minimize everything so I just had a carry-on tote. I didn't want to check a bag for one night and I knew if I just brought a tote when we left the apartment Saturday morning he wouldn't suspect anything other than a day trip.

The bummer was we had to leave the apartment by 8:30 Saturday morning - this got us in to DC by 11:15am and plenty of time to get to the hotel to leave our bag and then head to the baseball field for a 1pm start. Neither one of us really like to get up early, especially on a weekend. He was a good sport and sucked it up, we were actually out of the apartment 15 minutes ahead of schedule. We stopped at the corner bagel shop to pick up breakfast. While we were waiting for our bagels I almost asked him if he wanted something to drink - but I had to stop myself, as we had to wait until after we were through airport security for drinks. He caught me and guessed that I had drinks packed in my bag (not this trip, but a good guess).

The very best part was getting in the cab and telling the driver to go to La Guardia. At that point Michael was really surprised, he thought we were headed to Penn Station to take the Long Island Rail Road to the beach - hearing we were going to the airport was not what he expected at all. He didn't want to know where we were going, but he asked a few key questions and was able to figure out we were going to DC to see the Braves play.

From there is was an easy trip. The plane was relatively empty and we had an entire row to ourselves. We landed at Washington National and caught the Metro to our hotel. We stayed at the Omni Shoreham, off the National Zoo Metro stop (the station with the longest escalator ever - just look at this shot on the escalator).

The Omni is a beautiful hotel, I would definitely stay there again (the pool wasn't quite as nice as pictured on the web site - but it was acceptable).

http://www.omnihotels.com/FindAHotel/WashingtonDCShoreham.aspx

And there was a great diner/coffeehouse/bar right across the street from the hotel (Open City in the Woodley Park area of DC) - we ate there twice. It had a cool vibe, tons of seating, and an eclectic menu that had some healthy options along with the standard burger and fries.

Our seats for the game were great - for whatever reason I thought they were going to be in an upper deck, but they were field level.

Here is a picture of Michael calling his parents from the game. I know they couldn't wait to hear from him once he found out about the trip and game. (Yes, I made sure to pack Michael's Braves shirt and baseball cap - I didn't bring the foam Tomahawk.)

About the 6th inning an usher started talking to Michael, he decided to upgrade our seats after hearing the story about the surprise birthday trip. (He's in the red cap and yellow shirt in the photo below.)

We ended up in amazing seats - 5 rows back from the visiting team dugout. For the rest of the game the players were life size!

I liked being so close to the catcher you could hear the ball hit his glove after a pitch. Unfortunately the Braves didn't cooperate and they lost the game. Bummer! Didn't they know, that wasn't part of the plan.

We were also supposed to eat at the ballpark, but we were so caught up in the game we didn't leave our seats (especially once we were moved down to the 5th row). We did see Adam Dunn (player for the Nationals) hit is 300th career home run, that was pretty exciting. Unfortunately it was this home run that pretty much lost the game for the Braves.

We headed back to the hotel after the game for some pool time. On the way we stopped and had a very late lunch at Open City. I had a sandwich with turkey breast, cucumber, and cranberry mayo served on ciabiatta bread with house made thick cut potato chips served as the side. A nice combo for the sandwich, it was really good. (Michael had a burger and fries - I didn't try the burger but he liked it and the fries were tasty - definitely home made and fresh.) From there we hit the pool - it looks lush and big and beautiful on the web site. Well the web site used some creative liberty in the photo, it was a nice pool but on the 4th of July it was filled with kids. We had some cocktails by the pool (OK, Michael had a beer and I sampled the 'Orange Dream', 'Absolut Mango', and 'Cola Float'. The cola float was my favorite of the 3 - vodka, Kahlua, and cream served in a big glass over ice and topped off with cola.)

We were able to watch 5 different fire work shows from our hotel room - it was great, no fighting the crowds!

In doing some research to find a place 'off the beaten path' to watch the fireworks I came across a seafood restaurant in Georgetown. It was recommended on the Chow Hound blog - and those people don't mess around. If it is recommended on Chow Hound chances are it is pretty darn good. The best part was I was able to get a reservation after the fireworks.

We ended up having a show during dinner as well - not fireworks but the crowds of people in Georgetown. The restaurant had a big open window and we were seated just a table away from the window - the parade of people walking by provided great entertainment.

The restaurant is called 'Hook' and features local, very fresh seafood.

http://www.hookdc.com/

We started the meal by sharing 1/2 dozen Virginia oysters. They were so fresh and delicious. I'm used to oysters being a little briny - these oysters were very light and just had a good clean taste to them. They were an excellent start to the meal.

Second course - I had the shrimp and corn salad (two of my very favorite ingredients in one salad!). The presentation on my salad was very cool, the shrimp were shelled but then placed back in the shells for plating. So it had the fancy look of the whole shrimp but I didn't have to do the work to get the shrimp out of the shell. The seasoning on the shrimp was something I haven't tasted before, definitely something mixed with fennel. It was savory and sweet at the same time. I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it - it was a new taste combination for me and I found it very interesting. Michael had the grilled calamari. It was very cooked to perfection, the calamari was so tender and that is hard to do, calamari can turn to rubber in an instant.

Third course - I had the crab cakes which were served with some marinated cucumbers on the side. The presentation was fabulous. It was a square plate and the crab cakes were stacked in the middle with some sauce along the sides and the cucumbers were sliced in half moons and few were in each corner of the plate. The crab cake was 3 layers, two that were pretty much just crab and some kind of starch layer in the middle. The starch didn't do much for me so I just focused on the eating the delicious crab (nice big chunks, very little breading or fillers, and definitely not crab with a 'k'). Michael had the salmon - the color was amazing. He'll have to remind me of how it was served, apparently I was too focused on my own plate to remember.

I didn't plan any activities for Sunday (Michael's actual birthday) so he could decide between seeing another baseball game, lounging by the pool, or sight seeing. He wanted to tour the city. We started the day by walking around the White House. We didn't see anything more interesting than some protesters yelling a chant that was very difficult to understand.

From the White House we walked by the Washington Monument to the World War II Memorial. I had not seen the WWII Memorial before (I haven't been to DC since 1994 - but Michael was there in 2004 and not surprisingly he knew the subway system and which way to head for any place we needed to go.) The WWII Memorial is really well done and quite beautiful. It makes me sad that most of the people it is honoring will never get to see it - but it is a good reminder of their sacrifice for the rest of us.

Next we walked along the Potomac to the Jefferson Memorial. (It was kind of funny, the trail along the Potomac had trees with very low hanging branches - even I had to duck a few times. Any way, Michael was being funny and pretended like he got hit in the head with a branch - he grabbed the branch with his hand and ended up getting sap all over his hand, we were still walking as he was looking at his hand and trying to get the sap off, he wasn't looking where he was going and he almost ran in to a tree branch for real - the trees were going to teach him a lesson for messing with them!)

After the Jefferson Memorial we walked up 14th Ave (we stayed clear of those trees along the Potomac) and spent a couple of quick hours at the American History Museum. I was a little disappointed by the First Ladies exhibit. They have enriched the experience to show more than just the ballgowns - it now shows the contributions made by the First Ladies. That is all well and good, but I just want to see the dresses and shoes and bags. There was a fabulous dress worn by Mrs. Taft on display - it was a lovely cut and the fabric was heavily embroidered and tastefully accented with rhinestones.

The American History Museum is now home to Julia Childs' kitchen! Her entire kitchen (except for one wall of pots and pans that were donated to a culinary institution). She was so tall the cabinetry was built 2" higher than standard cabinets (my custom kitchen would have to be just the opposite, 2" shorter than standard). She was a fan of cats, her fridge had cat magnets, she had a painting with 3 cats kind of poking out in front of asparagus stalks (it doesn't look as strange as my description), and a classic Kliban cat drawing. Her kitchen was well designed, with metal counter tops next to the stove so you could set a hot pan down and not burn the counter, stainless steel counter tops next to the sink, and butcher block every where else. She did have many more pots, pans, and gadgets than I expected - but they were all on display and within easy reach. The cookware was hung on peg boards on the walls and if you looked closely there were Polaroid photos along the walls so you knew how to put away each piece in the correct spot.

From there we headed back to the hotel to pick up our bag and then to the airport. We had a bite to eat at Open City. I enjoyed the vege hero - a roll loaded with hummus, eggplant, onions, and zucchini. Michael had the fresh mozzarella, tomato, and basil sandwich. The cheese looked so fresh and delicious and the tomatoes nice and red. I didn't try a bite but since he ate it all I'm pretty sure it was tasty.

Our flight home was easy and uneventful. It was a quick trip, but really fun and we can't wait to go back to DC.