Chez Larsson

New York Day 2

On the Tuesday we hit the streets of New York City as soon as the stores opened.

 

We had some things we wanted to check out and get on this trip. Wille wanted sunglasses and second hand stuff, preferably army related. I was on the hunt for a bag. We had a couple of addresses for army/navy surplus stuff but unfortunately both Kaufman and Galaxy were closed the week after Easter.

 

Kaufman was our only stop in midtown but after realizing they were closed we decided to take a quick walk over to Times Square, because we were so close by.

 

At Times Square we saw banners about a Harry Potter Exhibition at Discovery. We hadn’t heard about it beforehand and it turned out it was the very last week it was up so of course we went to see it. It was so great to see so many of the original costumes and props from the films. Photos weren’t allowed inside but we did snap this in the foyer before leaving. Oh, and also a wand was purchased. You never get too old for HP.

 

We did A LOT of walking during our stay. It was pretty cold and super windy but sunny. Here we’re in Washington Square Park.

 

Spring was late in New York, same as back home, but there was no snow and the Magnolias were just about to open. Beautiful.

 

Several pit stops a day were made at Starbucks. I had latte and Wille had juice and on this occasion we also had the giant chocolate chunk cookies. Oh, and internet!

 

I love the streets of New York city.

Stay tuned for day 3 tomorrow.

New York Day 1

So I’ve been trying to figure out how to best tell you about our trip to New York and at the same time keep it as a diary for Wille and I so I’m going to post each day as it went by basically.

We left on Monday April 1st and flew in to JFK via Helsinki, Finland. On arrival the immigrations ´procedure took forever. After traveling for god knows how many hours we had to stand in line for another 2 1/4 before we could get through customs and be on our way to the hotel.

We stayed at the Hampton Inn Chelsea on W 24th St. If you’re looking for a hotel in Chelsea I can totally recommend it. It’s got 3 stars and a 4.4 out of 5 rating by previous guests and I can totally understand why. On the plus side; Great location, friendly staff, good size and CLEAN room, GREAT breakfast with ALL the trimmings (home made waffles, bacon and eggs, bagels, croissants, fresh fruit + LOTS more) and cookies and milk in the afternoons. On the minus side; The water pressure in the shower wasn’t great. Yeah, I know not a lot to complain about. The photo is of our view from our 6th floor hotel room. City views would have been great but the NYC fire escape façade worked well in our book too.

 

Since we were so late in arriving to the city all we had time for that night was to get dinner. We went to Chelsea Market and took a quick tour there. As you can see it was already a quarter to eight which meant 1.45 am for us and we were getting pretty tired.

 

We chose to eat at Giovanni Rana which a couple of you recommended when I asked for New York tips. Thanks for ALL the tips btw guys, they were great!

 

The restaurant had great atmosphere, nice decor and friendly staff. What more can you ask for?

 

Oh yeah, great food! I’m usually on a LCHF (sort of) diet but on this trip I decided I’d eat whatever took my fancy so I had the cheese tortellini and a spinach salad on the side. SO good! And not just because I hadn’t had pasta for ages.

After a brisk chilly (temperatures were quite low and it was pretty windy during most of our stay) walk back to our hotel we finally jumped into our beds after a loooong day. 

Stay tuned for more of our trip tomorrow.

NYC

New York City here we come!

Wille and I have booked flight tickets to NYC in April. It’ll be our third time there together. This time we have no particular plans. I want to do a bit of shopping and Wille just wants to wander around the city. I’m up for that! We’ll probably stay in Chelsea this time around but we haven’t booked a hotel yet. If you have any Chelsea tips, hotels, restaurants etc we’d love to here them!

At my Mom's House

So I spent last weekend at my mom’s house. Mom’s 82, has poor eyesight and a bad back so I came to tackle a to-do list that included some painting, organizing and cleaning.

 

I also did some gardening, took her patio furniture out from winter storage, set up her water feature and envied her magnolia tree.

 

In return I was fed well, had more than enough wine and got a break from my daily routine. A nice weekend!

List No.15: Stuff to Do on the Train

So last week on Friday I was sitting on the train to my mom’s which is a five and a half our train ride and then back again on Sunday. I both enjoy the ride because it’s time that can be spent doing nothing but after doing nothing for ten minutes I get bored and try to amuse myself. This week’s list is about how I kill time on a train.

I…

* … read. Preferably crime novels but home design magazines have also been known to appear in the seat pocket in front of me.

* … check out blogs. I always bring my laptop and go online using my mobile internet thingy.

* … do cross word puzzles. There’s always one in the free magazine on the train and it’s just the right level of difficulty.

* … snack.

* … sleep, trying not to drool.

* … watch the landscape pass by. Those are the ten minutes of doing nothing.

* … make lists or add to them. On this trip my bathroom list got filled up.

* … watch movies. I didn’t on this trip because I was so busy list making but when I do I use a service called headweb on my laptop.

* … read junk mail. I brought some catalogs with me and ripped out ads and articles I wanted to check out further. Mostly related to stuff for the new house.

* … update cell phone contacts, sort messages and check out iPhone apps.

* … clear out and organize my tote bag. Martha even cleans her purses and bags with baby wipes when traveling, I just toss empty receipts and sort straying stuff into the different pockets. Oh, Martha!

That’s about it! Please feel free to add your time killers in the comments for next time I and the rest of you travel.

Happy weekend!

Ps. Please excuse the photo, I took it on a very shaky train with my iPhone...