NYC Tours and Travel

The view from my hotel room.

In May, I went to NYC.  The principle reason was to attend Book Expo America.  The BEA is a 3-day event where publishers get to tell booksellers and librarians about upcoming releases.  It's a winning situation for me, I come home each year with over 100 complimentary new books, most are ARCs, Advance Readers Copies.  I get to read books before they are published.  Several members of my Tai Chi class are avid readers, and they've gotten used to reading ARCs, too.  The disadvantage of ARCs is they are not the final printing and may have errors.

Each time I attend BEA, except when it's in LA, I make a week of my visit, giving myself time to be a tourist.  I've been to NYC quite often, so I try to always do new things.  This time I had time for 4 new to me activities.  On Memorial Day. I took the subway to Brooklyn and walked back home to Manhattan via the Brooklyn Bridge.

The rest of my adventures were professional tours.  The first was a walking tour, called Five Squares and a Circle.  It was a great tour.  It started in Greenwich Village, in Washington Square Park and ended in Central Park.  The tour involved a lot of walking and a couple of subway rides.  The tour guide was a historian and I learned a lot.

I've always wanted to see Manhattan from the water.  There are a lot of options, so I did my research and booked the AIANY Around Manhattan Architecture Tour.  We sailed around Manhattan on a small yacht.  Our leader was a member of the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects; the emphasis of the tour was the style and construction of the buildings and bridges of Manhattan.  It was so very interesting.  I highly recommend this tour.

Daryl, our leader on the Food Tour.

My final indulgence was Chelsea Market, The Highline & The Meatpacking District Food and Culture Walking Tour, offered by Foods of NY.  There were many tours to choose from.  I picked this one, leaving a 4 PM, after doing my research because it also included a visit to the nearby Gansevoort Market.  It was a great tour.  Foods of NY actually selects and pays for the food tastings.  During the tour I was on there were 3 "new" tastings and such a great variety.

View from the High Line.

I hope you enjoyed finding out about my NYC trip.  I did raise a few eyebrows since I took this trip four months after Bob had passed away.  My philosophy is "There're no guarantees".  We don't know how long we'll be around or what our health will be like, so just do what you want, when you want, as long as you can.

I already have more trips planned.  In September, my cousin Carol and I are going on The Ultimate Game Day Weekend.  We'll be traveling to Texas and we'll see two MLB games, a college football game, and an NFL game.  Carol and I are both baseball and football fans, but neither of us has seen an NFL game.  This trip is through Jay Buckley's Baseball Tours.  Bob and I and Sharon and Oden went on a tour with them three years ago.  They are a great company.

The family in Detroit.  Oden is now taller than me.

Carol and I are very excited, we booked our flights yesterday, and I booked the dogs at Rover.com and my airport transportation with a local service.  We also have purchased t-shirts of the home teams for all the games.  The family did that for the baseball tour and it's a great idea.

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Happy New Year

Bob and I are both under the weather, at the moment.  He's had an attack of the cold/crud that seems to be going around, since Christmas Eve.  I started yesterday with conjunctivitis in one eye and a sore throat this morning.  The conjunctivitis is under control and I'm working on the sore throat.

Hope you have a wonderful 2014, don't party too much tonight!  The source for all the images is here, and the pins are here.

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Surprise!

Mourning Dove's morning dance.

The Rockies, last June.

For an explanation of what's happenin' you can check out this post.

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Tuesday Humor

A short list of things you should know about flies.

1. Flies rarely carry handbags. This has nothing to do with their weight or the fact they could get in the way of their wings, but everything to do with the fact that flies get paid in shamrocks which they clip to their toes with hair slides, therefore rendering any handbag/purse type object useless, and a waste of shamrocks.

2. Flies can only eat one piece of sweetcorn a year, or else they implode.

3. Flies are a little bit scared of the actor Robert Downey Junior. It is something to do with his eyebrows.

4. Flies do not believe in goats. If they see a goat they pretend they haven’t as other flies will think they are mad and avoid them.

5. Flies can only count to seven and have to say the word ‘periscope’ after each number.

Flies also have an unexplained passion for anything by Tom Jones but can’t stand Val Doonican

Flies also cannot play hopscotch. It’s against their religion.

Flies are also horrible spellers, needing to google almost everything they have to spell. this doesn’t really work, as google has no idea what ‘ffudsiaop’ is, so it says ‘did you mean ‘ffudsiag’?’ which, of course, they never do.

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Rodeo memories

I grew up going to the rodeo.  (Play the video, while you read.  I know, I'm bossy)  When our kids were young, we had month long vacations in the summer, because of Bob's job.  At the time we had a truck with a camper and a travel trailer.  One year, when the girls were about 3 and 5, we went to Jackson Hole, Wyoming for the summer.  Talk about rodeo country.  We kept our base in Jackson Hole, and we'd take off for the day to one of the rodeos across the state.  It was such fun, the rodeos were small time, not necessarily PRCA, and they had a wider variety of events, including lots for children.

Recently, Sharon said she wanted to take Oden to a rodeo.  This surprised me, and I asked if she remembered the rodeos we went to in Wyoming.  She was only 3, going on 4, and she remembered them well.  They were the reason she wanted to take Oden.  They went to the San Bernardino Sheriffs Rodeo last month and had a great time.  Oden will be 14 this week, and he was surprised how much he liked it.

We've already made plans for all of us to go to the Antelope Valley Fair and Rodeo, next Labor Day.  It's the event that I went to most, as a girl, and it's still going strong 60 years later.



Have you ever been to a rodeo?  If you haven't I hope you do, someday.

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Giraffes on FB

Are your friends and/or family changing their profile photos to giraffes, on FB?  They're the ones who are losing when they answer a riddle incorrectly.

Since I haven't lost the bet, I didn't change my profile photo.  Giraffes are one of my favorite animals; they're so improbable!

So, if you need a giraffe photo, because you didn't answer the riddle, feel free to borrow one of mine.

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Pins

This was my most re-pinned item, last week.  I pinned it because it made me chuckle.  Apparently, it made a lot of people chuckle, too.

 

I clicked thru and discovered the backstory had even more images.  Here's one more to start your Wednesday off on the right foot.

Pins found here, and this is the source, if you want to see more.

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Sunday Smile

Maruyama Zoo Red Panda

I spotted this happy video on the Doubleday Books tumblr.  I haven't figured what it has to do with books, but I thought I'd share it since it brought a smile to my face.

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We have a visitor

This is Max, he lives next door.  He comes over once in awhile to inspect the bird feeders.

Well, I guess everything is in order, he's headed home, now.

This is my fourth post this month for NaBloPoMo, the first is on the book blog, if you're looking for a good read, the third is at Murrieta365, the other two are here.

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Baseball game

We haven't had much excitement around here, which is a good thing.  We did get to a baseball game last week.  We're Dodger fans and get to Dodger stadium about twice a season.  Dodger Stadium is over 61 years old and after years of neglect, is really showing it's age; it needs a lot of work, but the new owners are working on it.  Maybe, soon, we can stop joking about going to the ghetto.

We also get to Petco Park in San Diego about twice a year.  Man, we love Petco Park, whenever we go it's full of Dodger fans.  Really!  Here's some photos, from our last visit.

The view from our seats.

The Marine Band is always a welcome sight.

See, Dodger fans everywhere.

A couple of action shots.

When we got to our seats there was a note taped to my seat with my name on it.  It said they had a gift for me at the membership table.  I love free stuff, so I went right over.  When the guy saw Bob and I in our Dodger gear, he held up a Padre's ball cap and said he thought I probably didn't want it.  I assured him that I did, because we collect ball caps from the stadiums we visit.  When we got back to our seats I was doubly pleased the back of the ball cap said "Law Enforcement Appreciation Day".  Couldn't have been better.

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This is so cute..

This is brief, but so cute.  I've only watched 4 times, so far!

In other news, Saturday morning I emailed the etsy vendor that sent the small clutch and business card holder.  (This is a vendor I've never purchased from.)  I explained my confusion regarding the shipment.  So far, no word.  If I hear from her, I'll post about it.

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A Mystery

If you know me, you know I love a good mystery.  Here's the current one at my house.

I recently treated myself to a new summer bag.  This is the 3rd one I've purchased from etsy seller Creations by Evelyn.  Look at the interior, with four pockets there's a place for everything.

Now, the mystery.  I received a small package in the mail, today.  In it were a small clutch and business card holder.  I didn't order them, I even double checked my purchases, just incase I was having a "moment".  Nope, not my order.

Bob thinks I have a "secret admirer".  Doubt it!  But I do wish I knew who to thank for a great gift.

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Adventures with the Super Moon

I went out tonight to "capture" the Super Moon, I parked on the mesa, near Office Depot.  At first, at 7:47 PM, it was really hard to see.  Below, I circled it.  See what I mean?

It was still daylight out, but I kept trying.  Below, you can see it, in the center, right over the wire.

I posted these in the order taken.  Below is a crow flying by.

This one has both crows and doves flying to roost.

These last two were taken just after 8 PM.  I was by the golf course.

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