Happy Birthday, Jill!
February 26, 2006 | Filed Under friends, nyc, visits | 5 Comments
Jill and Jackie made a weekend trip up to New York. They flew out of Atlanta EARLY on Saturday and got to New York about the time we were getting up and going. We spent the rest of the day walking around some of our favorite places: Rockefeller Center, Central Park, Soho, Union Square, and Chelsea. The girls also spent a lot of time shopping while leaving me to sit with the rest of the extra baggage (boyfriends and husbands.) We had dinner at Maroon’s (one of our favorite dinner spots that we always take our out of town guest to.) After dinner, we came back home to have Jill’s birthday pie on the roof of the apartment. We ended the night playing Whoonu © with the addition of Liz our neighbor.
We went to Mosaic Manhattan Church on Sunday morning. The girls then went shopping at Century 21 while I stopped by our local Border’s. Their fun but short trip ended when they left for the airport around 2:00.
Jill and Jackie, we loved spending the weekend with you. Come back anytime!
Taylor in the NYC
January 6, 2006 | Filed Under family, nyc, visits | 4 Comments
You heard right. Taylor was in NYC before Christmas. And despite being hounded by all the papparazzi, we managed to have a great time. Oh, and Clay Williams was in town too, so he got to tag along… just kidding Clay, you know we love you.
If you are interested in the trip itinerary, it’s all here. Just click on the link below.
Read morepearl in nyc
December 6, 2005 | Filed Under nyc, travel, visits | Leave a Comment
Our friend April came to visit on Sunday. She’s in town for business, but we managed to steal some of her time. Yes, they are standing in snow.
Amelia and Marc - you know the number
November 20, 2005 | Filed Under family, nyc, travel, visits | Leave a Comment
well, if you don’t, it’s 7. I promise we’ll stop counting off our visitors once we’ve hit the designated limit.
The Mahan’s flew in on Thursday, October 27 for a chilly, Halloween-ish weekend in New York. We all met up for dinner at our – mine and Ashley’s – favorite Jamaican restaurant, Maroon’s. Maroon’s has lots of great southern dishes, wonderful macroni and cheese, the best jerk chicken, grits, etc. Fantastic!
On Friday, we met at another favorite restaurant – Mama Mexico’s. After dinner, we went to see the Producers which now ranks as one of my favorite broadway shows. And I finally get Ashley and Taylor’s inside joke -”your tie is Ah-SKuuu”
Interesting side story here. Marc and Amelia didn’t have in-depth conversations with many New Yorkers excluding Ashley and me. But on Thursday night, we had a fairly long conversation with a video store clerk while we were touring the Village. And then on Friday night after the Producers, we stopped at Dale and Thomas popcorn in Times Square (best popcorn in NYC,) and the guy behind the counter is none other than the video store clerk. I don’t mean someone who looked like the video store clerk… it was the same guy. He and Marc recognized each other. Weird, huh?
On Saturday, we went uptown to take the NBC tour and then took a stroll around Central Park. Here are a couple pictures from Saturday. To see more, you’ll have to join Flickr and let me add you as a Friend. (Our blog isn’t very picture friendly. It sort of blows our the proportions. But they look better on Flickr. I think it’s the page layout…but I’m not sure.)
Dad’s day trip from Philly - visitor numero cinqo
October 16, 2005 | Filed Under family, nyc, travel, visits | Leave a Comment
My dad took the train up from Philadelphia this Saturday, and I met him at Penn Station. Ashley and I gave him our patented “first time visitor tour of the city.” ©
First, Dad and I got off the subway at the World Trade Center site and walked around the site and through St Paul’s. We then met Ashley at the apartment and went to the roof for the spectacular view. It was a beautiful, clear day, and we could see the entire city. It’s an incredible site for someone who has never been to New York before.
We then went for lunch at the South Street Seaport. The restaurants there aren’t that great, but it’s fun to go sit by the water and eat. We then went on the Staten Island Ferry… a must when you’re visiting the lower Manhattan and the weather is so nice. After the ferry, we took the subway to 66th street and walked through Central Park along with every other New Yorker who has been couped up inside for the last 8 days waiting for the rain to end. After the park, we took Dad to Times Square just so he could get a taste of it. I think that all of the sights, advertisements, and people really impressed him (as they do everyone visiting New York for the first time.)
Dad and I rode back to Penn Station around 7:00. We had been touring non-stop since 10:00 that morning, and we were both exhausted. It was definitely worth it.
Here we are in Central Park. I look a little goofy… must have been the angle…
Mom’s trip (aka Fourth Visitor)
October 13, 2005 | Filed Under family, nyc, travel, visits | 1 Comment
Mom came up for her first visit to see us. We decided to try something a little different since she’s come up a few times already this year. So, instead of doing the typical touristy thing like going to Times Square or Central Park, we saw partsof the city that are usually reserved for people new to New York (still excited enough to want to discover the city but experienced enough to know to avoid the major tourist stops.) update On Friday, Mom and I met a couple of Mom’s good friends, Marianne and Mike, at a small Mexican restaurant in the east village. The food was delicious, and it was great to finally meet Marianne who I’ve been meaning to meet for a while now. On Saturday, we went to the Forbes Museum and then to Buster’s Garage for the UGA/Tennessee game (which Georgia won with authority I might add.) On Sunday, we took the A to Fort Bryon Park and the Cloisters ( see this map)
Fort Tyron Park is beautiful and felt totally disconnected from the rest of Manhattan. Ashley loved breathing in the fresh fall air and really didn’t want to leave. The park overlooks the Hudson River and has beautiful trees and small gardens. It’s Central Park without the people. Ashley and I will have to go again when the leaves start changing colors (very soon.)
Here’s a picture we took at the Cloister’s. I turned on black and white because it was overcast, and I thought it would have a cool effect on the picture, give it some depth. Now I think it would have been better in color, but that’s alright. I still like this picture.
Third Visitor… yes, this is out of order
October 2, 2005 | Filed Under atlanta, family, nyc, travel, visits | Leave a Comment
Please read this post immediately after or preceding the post about September 11, 2005 because that’s when the events described occurred.
We had our third visitor recently… well, it was Ashley’s dad who is actually a repeat visitor, so how do you count that? Since it was just him for the weekend, I say we count his visit as visitor number 3.
As a birthday treat, Jerry (aka Dad to some) came up specifically to go to the US Open with Ashley since Robbi Ginepri was playing in the semi-finals against Andre Agassi. They had a great time at Arthur Ashe stadium and Robbi almost came away with the win losing in the 5th set. Afterwards the two of them met me at Buster’s Garage, our local spot to watch UGA football with the UGA Alumni Association.
Sunday was September 11, and Jerry and I went to ground zero which I wrote about already. He called Taylor to let her hear the names being read out, and after I went home to make breakfast for Ashley, he attended a church service at St. Paul’s which he described as one of the most moving sermons he’s ever heard.
Here are Jerry’s own words about the rest of the day:
Later on Sunday, something fantastic happened. We went on the best bike ride ever (excluding Sanibel) for 20 miles. We went several miles with the Hudson River on one side and tall buildings on the other. Near 59th street, we cut over to Central Park, about 600 acres and a six or seven mile ride of perfect land. Thousands of NY’ers were all over the park having a super time. There were so many bikers and skaters, it was so fun. I also got something I was looking forward too, that is a relish hotdog and a sour kraut hotdog (YUM YUM). Daniel got a fairly plain dog, something is wrong with him. We biked several miles back and finished of the ride in typical NY Norton fashion, cream filled doughnuts before returning home. After a quick shower, we were off to Times Square. You have to see this before you die, you have too. There are just too many incredible lights and advertisement signs lite up with so much activity. It is to die for. We ate at the Times Square Brewery and I had the best ever crab meat sandwich.
Here are a couple pictures from his visit.
second visitors
August 8, 2005 | Filed Under food, nyc, visits | 3 Comments
Ashley and I had dinner with the second set of Atlanta visitors last weekend… and by last weekend, I don’t mean the weekend that preceeded today. I mean the weekend that started Friday, July 29. I would mean the real last weekend if I wasn’t so lazy and had not waited over a week to say that we had dinner with friends from Atlanta.
Anyway, Lee and Melanie Blackburn were in town for a vacation. We had dinner at Lombardi’s, a great Neapolitan brick-oven pizza restaurant just north of Little Italy. It is our defacto restaurant to take out of towners (simply because we really like it and most people have not heard of it.) We also walked back to the apartment building to visit the roof. Again, it’s going to be a defacto standard for visitors because it’s so cool. And by so cool, I mean I’m not very creative and couldn’t think of any better way to describe going to the roof.