New Camera

John has been eying digital SLR cameras for a while now and finally decided to buy one last weekend. After much research he decided on a Canon Rebel T1i. He spent all week reading up on it and learning how to use all the features of the camera. I'm really impressed with how much he's learned already.

I love photography and I really enjoy taking pictures but John's camera scares me! Its definitely not just a point and shoot camera. I'm hoping at some point John will show me how to use this fancy new camera so we can enjoy it together. I think right now though its his new toy and he's not willing to share quite yet :)

Babies (not the kind you're thinking of though)

My friend Susy and I went to the Bronx Zoo yesterday and saw lots of ridiculously cute baby animals along with their also cute adult counterparts. Susy and I both had been wanting to go to the zoo for a while and decided we would never be able to convince our husbands so the two of us went together instead. Neither of us being employed makes it easy for us to plan fun outings like this in the middle of the week, though it really didn't help because it was still super crowded. It took us about an hour to get to the zoo and after a little wandering around lost in the Bronx we found it. We spent about four and a half hours there and saw most of the exhibits but we were definitely worn out. I can't imagine doing the whole zoo in one day.

Blisters, ugh

It blows my mind how people are able to walk around NY with really nice shoes on. I see tons of women wearing heels or even just strappy sandals all the time yet when I try it the result is never pleasant. Even when I wear relatively comfortable shoes I get blisters just because I'm walking so much. I even got blisters the other day wearing tennis shoes because the seam of my socks rubbed.

The shoe issue has gotten much harder now that its summer. Everybody wears these really cute sandals that have no support in them and have tons of straps. I've been looking all over trying to find comfortable sandals. I finally decided on a pair that had really soft leather straps, sadly they don't have a lot of support. I wore them the other day and managed to get a blister on the ball of my foot. How is that even possible? Isn't the bottom of your foot made to not do that. My poor feet look horrible with blisters on almost every side.

This post is really just me complaining but I'm totally open to suggestions if anyone has any.

The High Line

I volunteered at a street fair promoting the new High Line park yesterday. The fair was geared toward families and had tons of activities and free stuff. I worked at a booth that was screen printing t-shirts with an image promoting the High Line. People went nuts for a free t-shirt!

The park opened in June and is really unique. Its actually an old railway that is raised off the street. Originally the railway brought deliveries into an industrial part of the city. The area is no longer quite the industrial park but more trendy now with tons of restaurants and shopping. The railway was abandoned in the 80's and started to grow wild plants. The park incorporated a lot of the existing plants but added walkways and seating areas. Its really neat to be able to take a stroll through a garden 30 feet off the ground in the middle of Manhattan.

Nice Car!

John and I went out to dinner last night and happened upon a collection of really awesome cars. Apparently they were all gathered for the kick off of the bullrun which I had to look up to see what it was.

"Each year up to a 100 cars, driven by celebrities and individuals from around the world, embark on an epic seven-day rolling road-trip, partying in a different city every night."

They started the rally this morning at 9 but last night it was like a big block party with all the cars parked along the street and people stopping to admire them. From our perfectly located table at dinner we were able to watch all of this and even spot Goldberg the wrestler. Its the weird things like this that you just happen to come across that make me really appreciate living in NY.

Happy 4th of July!

John and I just got back from watching fireworks with what seemed like the entire population of Manhattan. You don't really realize how many people live here until we're all gathered in one place. Holey Moley! We got to the river about an hour and a half before the start and we barely made it to where we could see. I think people had been scouting out seats all day. By the time the fireworks started it was wall to wall people with no room in between. The nice thing though was that there were four barges shooting fireworks, so anywhere along 12th avenue was a pretty good view. There was also a pretty nice breeze so that helped a lot too. Overall, definitely a neat experience.

The Empire State Building decked out for the 4th.

Feels like Paris

John and I try to get out of our neighborhood every once in a while for dinner and one of John's favorite areas to eat in is SoHo. We've been to eat at several restaurants in SoHo and John always wants to walk around afterwards. I'm not as big a fan of SoHo as John is, but I do love that we always make our way to Washington Square Park on our walk back home. The park recently finished a big rennovation. I don't know what it looked like before, but it certainly looks pretty great now. I think the fountain and arch are beautiful and the best part is that the fountain is built to wade around in. How great is that!