California Dreamin'

California was beeeauutiful! We stayed at Hotel Del Coronado, which was gorgeous. Our room was right on the beach and enormous. We went to the Zoo, had a spa day, hung out in a cabana by the pool, and went shopping. I noticed that everyone in San Diego is in such good shape with the best tans....kinda crazy. (FYI, half of these pictures are from you Ms. Corene...so thanks again, and of course mucho gracias to Ms. Nancy for the trip)






San Diego Zoo was so much fun! Our favorites were all of the monkeys... I could watch them for hours!


Here is the fishing cat.





Tribute to Michael Jackson...


We went to the best brunch buffet I've ever been too. Joey and Justin were super exited because of the containers of candy, haha.


That Sunday, we stayed outside by the adult pool all day. Next year, we'll be splashing around with baby Harper in the kiddie pool. :)



Here is Megan and Harper. :) She is such a cute little pregnant person!


For the night of the 4th, the hotel put on an awesome firework show! My favorite was the smiley face. :)



Ms. Nancy had taken clients to this restaurant, Marine Room, a few years ago and fell in love with it. If you look out the window you'll see why...what a great view! In the past, their windows have shattered because of the strong tides slamming against them.



Joey went golfing with Justin and failed to wear sunscreen, so he was blessed with a sunburn that literally made him a redneck. I on the otherhand wound up overusing my spray sunscreen and felt like a Jersey girl when I got back...cause it took days to wash off.

Wish I was still there.....

Planning a Going Away Party and Packing.

Since the job market is terrible here in the city we are temporarily moving back to Louisiana until a job pops up. And because we don't know where that job will be (could be Louisiana, Jersey, DC, or freaking Flint, Michigan), we are leaving all of our stuff in a storage unit up here and flying back. I feel like everyone I talk to up here has been laid off and can't find a job, or just graduated and is frustrated with no call backs. This is just a road bump. I mean he just finished his Masters at NYU...which is still crazy to me.

We've been trying to hangout with all of our friends as much as we can before we leave. We went to our favorite Greek restaurant (Symposium) and neighborhood bar (Dive 75) with some friends. Ian took us to this fabulous jazz club in Harlem where we met some of the most amazing people in the city. We went to see Bruno and took up an entire row like a bunch of high schoolers that got dropped off by mom's carpool. Nadya then took us to Sahara, a cool hookah bar near Union Square.

Ian has planned a going away party for this upcoming Wednesday at a few placed in the Lower East Side. I hope we have a good time, and it doesn't turn into a sob fest. Although, Ian said he would cry in public for weeks if we ever "left him", so who knows- haha.

We've been picking up some boxes from our local grocery Pioneer and will officially begin our packing today. Our plan is to move all of stuff out on the 30th, stay at Ian's apartment for a night or two, and clean our place from top to bottom. A real estate agent brought over a couple to see our apartment the other day, and I told Joey the next time that happens he should say the cat comes with the apartment! What a deal...

After Joey did his daily "apply, apply, apply" online, we went for a really nice, long walk in the park. The weather is gorgeous today, and I want to enjoy our last two weekends here. Tonight we will walk across the Brooklyn Bridge....which is something I've always wanted to do. There is supposed to be an ice cream shop at the other end....like a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.

As I type this, we are watching the celebrity golf tournament....and it's awesome. Carlton from Fresh Prince just did his dance, and Kevin from the Office almost got a hole in one.

I'll post pictures from all of these escapades in a bit. My iphoto has been hating me and deleting all of my pictures...so it's been slowing me down.

-Ms

Tori's leavin' for Houston :(

Joey's band played at the Annex last night! We had all of our friends meet there for Tori's going away bash.

Beforehand we had a small dinner at the Clinton Street Bakery, where we gave Tori her official first cowboy hat :) Then we headed to Mason Dixon for a yeeehaw good ol' time.

Best picture ever...

Alli had some pretty funny tags for her suitcase...thought you guys could appreciate them too. :)

Tomorrow we leave to meet Joey's family in San Diego!!! It will be niiiice.

Happy 4th of July in advance :)

Alli Oop's Visit

As I write this, Alli is on a plane heading back to Louisiana. I'm so glad she came up, cause I sure do miss her!

We went to the John Lennon Exhibit at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, shopped, relaxed in the park, went to my favorite cafe'- Edgar's, taught her to play the wii, went to the Met...fun and exhausting!

Here are our license plates at Soho cafe'....who has great burgers! I think it was Alli's goal to sabotage my Abs Diet while she was here. I find it very suspicious that all I ate was hotdogs, burgers, and pizza while she was here...

We went to Topshop and acted silly by trying on ridiculous outfits in the dressing room. They have some pretty outrageous stuff there.

Alli and Rachel checking out street vendors...which is my favorite!

The Met is both me and Alli's favorite place in the city, so we had a nice and relaxing Friday night there.

Here is the Temple of Dendur in the Egyptian Exhibit.

Does this statue look familiar to you??

We discovered this awesome home inside the Met that is supposed to replicate Old America. You could walk inside and go up all three floors...it reminded me of an old Southern plantation.

(Here's my favorite part of the night....)

Joey and I always manage to stop in front of Stephen Hannock's paintings at the Met.

When you look closely you'll find hidden messages and tidbits of magazine scraps, etc. and you'll always find something new no matter how many times you've seen them. Well, this time I saw something huge.....I was looking at it for a minute and thought, that sure does look like those waterfalls in the Catskills...

Remember this picture?

Sure enough, Stephen Hannock painted these waterfalls from the Kaaterskill falls. Quite funny.

Here is his other painting that's filled with little messages.

I still can't believe that Michael Jackson is now in our past. :( On Friday, every delivery truck was blaring "Thriller" and Topshop was blaring his beats....rest in peace.

Coney Island/Relaxin'

We ventured out to Coney Island Saturday. I hadn't been since my senior year in high school, so I honestly wasn't sure what to expect, but it turned out to be pretty fun! Got to lay out, get our feet wet, and ride the Cyclone...

Alli and I busted out some of our old school cheerleading moves...

The Cyclone is a lot more intense than it looks. I thought it was going to be a kitty ride, like the lady bug ride at City Park in New Orleans...but oh no! It's old, so it jerks you left and right, and the drops are pretty intense. Last night at Ronda's, Freddy told us that two people have died on that ride, haha... made us all feel lucky to be alive.

Nathan's hot dogs are supposed to be on the Travel Channel's list of places everyone needs to go to....but I'd disagree. Overrated! (Hence the thumbs down to the Nathan's cup)

We are so tough. Doing pullups while waiting for the train to go!

Today we went to Zara and a cool vintage store downtown, all while being able to see the Gay Pride Parade getting setup. Then we headed over the park for some relaxation. :)

I said I sometimes wish Joey was really small cause I'd pick him up and cradle him. Here is me attempting to do these things to poor Joey...hahaha.

Here's Alli nearing her time to leave...