NYC!!

Alright here it is, the follow up to our Philly trip, as promised.

I’ve never been to New York. I know, crazy right? Well I finally made it. It was quite the experience. We got dropped off in Chinatown by the Chinatown bus which I would highly recommend if you need a cheap way to get around, just don’t expect a clean bathroom. We ambled around Chinatown and Little Italy from there. Checked out the rice pudding restaurant they used in Hitch, and then started walking. We were doing fine until we hit a wall of people and realized we were at Times Square. Such a crazy sight. A completely different place than I’ve been before. Words aren’t always enough to describe it.

Chrysler building (1), Central Park Sheep Meadow (2), the Subway (3), Lion at the Library because the rest of it was under construction (4), and two very bizarre things. Alfajor, an Argentinian dessert supposedly. They’ve decided to call it “Paradise in your mouth”. Yea. Seriously. And we saw the Naked Cowboy. I had to black out the faces of the poor young girls in the photo. I don’t think they knew what they were in for. And just in case you were wondering, he is from Cincinnati originally, and he has a record deal. The wikipedia article is more intriguing than his website unless you want info on getting married by the Naked Cowboy.

For an incredibly cool view of NYC check this out!

Philly

Wow it’s been three weeks already. We went to visit my brother who is living in Philadelphia right now. It was an awesome trip and we easily could have spent a lot more time there had we not been interrupting his normal life. Below are a few shots of the charter school he works at (1), us (2), him (3), his friend & housemate Joe (4), and a couple of cool paintings in their house (5 & 6).

I love this guy. Can’t wait to have him back in Cincinnati.

We also did some of the traditional tourist-y things. Watching people taking tourist photos for money in Love Park (1), checking out crazy old statues (2), racing up the steps at the Museum like Rock (3), buying awesome fruits at Reading Terminal, their farmers market (4), posing with the Rocky statue (5), gawking at crazy shrooms (6), checking out a really old church named after 2 of the apostles (7), snapping shots of my beautiful wife (8) and wandering inside the earlier mentioned old church (9).

Seriously it was a great trip. If you ever go, head to North Philly and get a cheesesteak at Lee’s. Plus some water ice or custard at Rita’s. Also there’s this awesome Chinese restaurant in Chinatown that has the word Rivers in the title. Great food, and tea! We’ll also stopped in NYC to visit some other friends. Those are a-comin!

Josh Garrels

Ok so I thought I had just heard about Josh Garrels from my friend Russ. Turns out my memory sucks and my friend Matt had told me about him quite a while ago. Matt is from the same town as Josh. Hence his indignation when I asked if he had heard of him.

Either way his music is amazing. I’ve been listening to the album Jacaranda lately. Incredible writing this fella.

Matt, my apologies to you.

Daniel & Katie

So my brother-in-law got himself engaged a few weeks ago and we went to tromp around Mt. Airy last weekend to take some photos of them together. It was pretty funny walking around in the middle of several huge graduation parties, birthday parties, and a wedding. Here’s the lovely young couple.

PS it’s awkward to watch your brother-in-law kiss someone in front of you so that you can make a photo. Just in case you were wondering.

Catching up

To make up for the lack of blogging while we were in Philly & NYC, I will now bombard you with randomness. First a couple videos.

Some friends showed us these a few days ago. I find it particularly hilarious as I do theatre and this is so true to what really goes on backstage.

First the original video. Take 3 minutes, watch the whole thing.

Now watch 3 Broadway dancers do the same thing in 1 take. It’s freaking amazing.

Photos will follow, I promise.