A Rest Day?

Wednesday was planned to be a rest day. A short shopping trip to the discount outlets for a Coach handbag then became a trip to Little India in Edison NJ, and ended up developing into quite an outing and a feast day!

In Little India we had a buffet lunch with an amazing variety of choices and so spicy and tasty. Then we went browsing/shopping along the strip there – beautiful saris, gold, spices, gold, costume jewellery, did I say gold!?

The trip to Little India had been inspired by Paul’s desire to learn to make Indian curries and Naz’s love of cooking and teaching. Despite falling asleep (Paul says a ‘power nap’) on the way back to the house, Paul sparked up and cooked an outstanding lamb korma and saag. Wait for the gourmet delights when we get home.

Jealous ... girls?

Yummy Indian banquet

Kids in a Gold Candy Store! Mmmm

Power Nap - Sleeping beauty :)

A Walk in the Park

The day after the Independence tour in Philly, Paul and I went into New York, all by ourselves! Train, subway and walking.

We caught the train into Manhattan and after fortifying ourselves with a coffee in a Russian coffee house, we then caught the ‘blue line’ (subway) up to 86^th street and walked across Central Park, past the Jackie Kennedy Onassis Lake. Here we met a Dutch couple (who took our photo) in between their apartment hunting – at $6000 per month!

Then to the Guggenheim museum, a striking building (see below) where we saw a number of major exhibitions all with audio guided tour included in the entry fee. There were large sculptures made of car parts (odd but very good), impressionists, a photographic exhibition and a multimedia presentation about oppression particularly in Burma, Kashmir and other less fortunate parts of the world.

We walked back through Central Park, past the Great Lawn, the Belvedere Castle, the Boathouse and the huge fountain, where it started to rain. Umbrellas and coats on, we continued on to 50^th street and back to the subway to meet our connecting train back to NJ (New Jersey), all in peak hour.

The Guggenheim Museum, New York

The lobby of the Guggenheim

Central Park Lake

They were everywhere!

Freedom, Liberty and Democracy

Monday, and Naznin drove us to Philadelphia. We saw the Liberty Bell and walked around the historic precinct until it was our timed slot for the Independence Hall tour. There were lots of primary school kids everywhere, and their understanding of American history and detailed knowledge of the prominent people was surprising. Their level of pride was impressive too – not something you see in many Australian primary school kids.

Interesting that although at the time many of these buildings were constructed, the US was at war with England, most of the architecture, fittings and clothing were very, very English, even down to the rose garden.

Being Monday quite a few of the museums were closed, such as the Carpenter’s Museum and the Portrait Gallery. 

On the recommendation of Naz’s friend we had philly cheese steak for lunch – a bit like the Aussie steak sandwich but with provolone cheese that melted through the steak – but of course, no beetroot, egg or sauce.

We walked up Chestnut Street past a diversity of restaurants, Italian, Russian, Turkish, to the Irish Memorial at Penn’s Landing. A large number of Irish went to Philadelphia around 1845-1850, a similarity with Australia.

We wrapped up the day with a lovely dinner at Bobby and Raj’s house and a ‘welcome’ cake. We had met them when they visited Australia a couple of years ago.

Liberty Bell

Carpenter's Museum

 Naz and I continue to find freaky similarities, even down to our favourite flower and our lipstick brand!

A hearty (yummy) welcome

New York! New York!

We spent all Sunday in Manhattan with our friends Naznin and Mitra. 
We put on our walking boots/shoes and visited the World Trade centre (or should I say center?) museum and memorial park and on to Wall Street. Then to Seaport historic district (on the lower east side) where Paul 'tickled' the top of the Brooklyn Bridge, and up through Chinatown to lunch in Little Italy – pizza, pasta and calamari, and cheeky waiters on the sidewalk, not to mention the 'boys' trying to talk like 'The Godfather'. 
Resisting the amazing looking desserts we then walked through Soho to catch the subway to the Rockefeller Center, Times Square and 5^th Avenue. We got to Times Square late afternoon so almost got the full effect of the big screens and ‘light shows’ as it moved towards dusk. Here we met Elmo but missed the 'naked cowboy'! It was getting pretty cool by then (probably why the naked cowboy wasn't there) and we hadn’t carried warmer clothes around with us so we resisted the guy who tried to talk us into the stand up comedy show and started home.

Paul at Wall Street

Brooklyn Bridge

Sharing lunch at Little Italy

Times Square

A lazy start, a very long friendship

A slow start to my blogging.

Our first stop was LA (without easy access to wifi), to sleep off some jetlag and buy a temporary phone – that’s right, Paul can’t really live without one, especially at $14.

Great hotel (Westin), very quiet room with good block out curtains and very helpful concierge. Thanks Bryan Wye of Turramurra Travel. Flights and connections all went well too.

We’ve now had two nights in Bridgewater, New Jersey with my penfriend from Form 1 (Year 7) – a friendship longer than we own up to being old enough for! We hadn’t seen Naznin since our wedding or her teenage children since they were toddlers, and Paul hadn’t met her husband Mitra. So, lots of eating, talking, eating, sharing photos, did I say eating? 

Boosting the US economy

Yesterday we went to some discount outlets nearby, Rockport, then a cute village style shopping centre called Liberty Village in an area full of houses straight out of an old American movie.

We had been told shopping in the USA was great value and it is but the prices at these outlets amazed us, especially shoes – two pairs of Rockports for $50! Even Paul liked shopping, stocking up on Izod golf clothes so he’ll look better than his golf game now.

Our total spend at Rockport was the cost of one pair of ladies boots (on sale) in Australia and we got 4 pairs of shoes, Tshirts and pilates pants. Our total spend at Izod was the cost of two quality golf polos and we got so much we had to buy a new suitcase – well, we did come over with only one suitcase between us, planning to replace an old one. 


Heading into New York today.

At th airport

My first post from the iPad. Sitting with my feet up in the airport lounge. Will I ever be happy flying economy again!? And, Paul has left his mobile phone at work, deliberately! Thanks Greg for driving us to the airport,much nicer than the train and a lovely side benefit of having house sitters.