The Big Apple

Last Christmas, Derek gave me a plane ticket to New York City for mid-May. The trip was to be two fold, one for Kebra's (Derek's sister) graduation from Yale and two to see Manhattan, which neither Derek or I had been to before. Finally after months of waiting, it was time for the big trip to the big apple! Here are a few pictures of our time back east. 

The pre-planning process. If you know me, you can understand how much fun I had putting this together. 

We have arrived! 

Excited that we made it! Out and about. 

While getting lost in Greenwich Village, we stubbled upon a "Cheese Bar". Set up just like a sushi bar, with a specific person cutting the cheese (no pun intended).

 Strolled down Wall Street

Empire State Building 

Zero visibility at the top of the Empire State Building, due to the rainy spring day, but that didn't stop us. We hung out in a cloud!

More Empire State Building, beautiful. 

Walked down the High Line for a bit, very cool.

 More High Line, over looking the Meat Packing District

 9/11 Memorial, a very moving experience.  

Concrete Jungle

America

 Grand Central Station. Gorgeous. 

 Blocks and blocks of skyscrapers.

Derek loves 4 hour graduations.

Stoops.

This happened.

The Bull on Wall Street.

Rockefeller Center.

 NBC Studios.

 Radio City.

Hot Dog on the streets on NYC.

Congrats Class of 2013! Way to go Kebra!

Balls of Steel.

Manhattan Bridge.

Gelato... Yummy! And seductive. 

Home sweet home.

Thanksgiving

To give thanks. I am thankful for my family. This year was the first that I did not get to spend Thanksgiving with my family. I unfortunately was unable to afford the time off and plane ticket home for T-giving. However, the holiday wasn’t all lost.

Roommate, Heidi, had her mother come to Seattle for Thanksgiving. I didn’t refuse because Marilana is not only a good time, but she is an amazing cook. So for a holiday that is mostly based on eating with good company, of course she was welcome.

We had a delicious meal of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes with gravy, Giardelli rolls, asparagus, and of course pumpkin pie for desert. I always overdo it on Thanksgiving. Helping after helping, till I am so full it hurts. But I feel as though it is kind of exempt on Thanksgiving. Plus it will all get consumed eventually via leftovers for the next week!

After dinner we played Scategories, which was hilarious. Our family is a little competitive and when we get playing games, things get serious. Sometimes we even chant taunting cheers to our components.

As the turkey coma slowly set in, it was off to bed early for an exciting morning of shopping, Black Friday style. It was a good Thanksgiving. Pretty low key and calm. However, I did miss my family like crazy. Next year, I will work it out so I can be with them.