we've been busy!

We have been so busy this past week. Last weekend, we took the train out to Long Island to visit our dear friend, Patrick. It was my first time to take a train anywhere, and I loved it! I wish I could take trains everywhere. I much prefer train rides to flying. The weekend was wonderful. We stayed in a beautiful old house on a ranch, took a carriage ride, went to some beautiful beaches (the water was too cold for swimming), ate way too much, and saw a great fireworks show! It was the perfect way to spend our second-to-last weekend in NY.

When we got back into the city (on our 1 year anniversary), I walked into a clean apartment, with flowers and dinner waiting on the table for me. My husband is the best. He really is. He had our friends Dustin and Sunday come over while we were away and set it all up for me. He also made me a poster that I love! It was the perfect ending to the perfect weekend.

This is my first week of unemployment and I've worked harder than I ever did at my job. Packing and cleaning is hard. My back hurts, my whole body is sore, and I'm tired. Manual labor is not for me.

Tyler is coming tonight, so that will give me a break! We're excited/sad. I can't believe its already time to leave NYC.

this is harder than i thought

tomorrow is my last day of work. i have been looking forward to this day for so long, and now im sad. i guess something would be wrong with me if i werent sad at all though, right? ive seen these kids every single day for the past two years. i cried four times today, and im sure it will be even more tomorrow! i should've bought waterproof mascara.

henderson place

So, we went to the park, and discovered that tours of the Gracie Mansion are only given on Wednesdays. Then we walked and walked, in search of the Queen Anne houses...we walked much further than we should have. Turns out, the walking part was the adventure. On our way back to our apartment, we discovered the houses we'd been looking for. We've seen them hundreds of times before, and had no idea they were "adventurous". They're on a private street, so we weren't able to get close enough the actually explore. The houses are beautiful, but we were a little sad that we didn't get the adventure we wanted. The walking was fun though...so it wasn't a total disappointment!

52 adventures in NYC

Ryan and I only have a couple more weeks in New York, so we started the blog in order to record and remember the last moments we have here. Its important to us, and we've loved every minute of our time here...so of course, we never want to forget it. We've been trying to think of all the things we haven't done since we came here so that we can make sure to do them before we leave. We have thought and thought, and have come up with very little. Today a girl in my class brought a deck of cards, but not just regular playing cards...on each card was an "adventure in NYC". I carefully read through the cards and was happy to realize that we had done all but 2 of the adventures listed on the cards. The only 2 that we had not done were:

1. The Gracie Mansion tour
2. Queen Anne Houses at Henderson Place

I did a little more research and discovered that the Gracie Mansion is the huge house in the park that we spend every Saturday afternoon in. I always refer to the house as "the mayors mansion" (which it is), and I assumed it was completely private. I was wrong. We will be going tomorrow. It just so happens that the Queen Anne Houses are just a few blocks south of the park, so we will be exploring them as well.