Snippets of New York

This is a long post of pictures. But it's New York! Let's face it, visiting the city is no cheap trip. Our good friend, Kelly, who lives there was so kind as to pick us up at the airport and even let us stay at her sweet apartment the first night. She encouraged us to stay more nights, but lucky for us, we were able to use my uncle's Marriott discount plus all my credit card points. So, we stayed at the 45-floored Marriott Marquis in Times Square for nights #2 and 3.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

The Marriott has six elevators that face the atrium and travel 1,000 feet per minute, causing major vertigo. It's fun too. Wheeeee!

Wikipedia tells me that people used to wait 30 minutes for these elevators, and, in 2005, the hotel received a major modernization for a five-minute wait. So all you do is enter your floor, and it tells you which elevator to go to. Modern, indeed!Excuse all the photos from now on as some trouble-making toddler had stuck a nice fingerprint on my camera lens, making all our pictures foggy for the next two days. Let's just say it's an effect I tried to capture, shall we? Below, a view from our hotel room.After all the moving about, these two were beat.

Hey, wait...why the gray? We caught some humid, summer rain on our parade. Carry on!We're up. Paloma made our plans for the day, making sure we hit FAO Schwarz some time.
We decided to just explore since we were in Times Square. Please note the shirtless 7-foot Herculean big black dude on the street.
A 26-foot statue of the famous 1945 picture between the sailor and the nurse kissing in Times Square was erected for the annual Kiss-In that following Saturday, an event which commemorates the moment when World War II soldiers returned home with their loved ones.

We would miss the kissing event, but we vowed to kiss each other every day to make up for it.

Toys R Us Times Square has an indoor ferris wheel. Could it have cost a cheap $10?Celebrity sighting. Down at Radio City Music Hall, we spotted Amar'e Stoudemire (in the middle, in the tan fedora. See?) for the World Basketball Festival. I did see my friend, the recognizable Spike Lee, but my slowpoke self couldn't get out my camera in time.
Rockefeller Square, which put Paloma to sleep.
Fancy taxi cab. Hey, where's the movie selection?
Don't honk or pay the city some more money, suckas.We ate dinner at a Southern restaurant, where Paloma had fun with our kindergarten teacher friend.
Is it the Naked Cowboy? No! It's the Naked Cowgirl. In pasties.
The lights, the city. Ta-daaaaa! Times Square feels more and more like a Vegas strip.
Enter the legend, the Apple store. Slick, indeed.
Fernando and Paloma strike a Broadway pose.
We made it! The FAO Schwarz guard decides to let us in the toy palace.
Toys! Toys! Toys!

Playing dress-up.You can design and take home your own muppet for $100. Awwww....
We couldn't miss the "Big" piano. Paloma took off to play some classic Bach.

But she and I rehearsed for "Chopsticks".
Our coordination was off. Maybe next year!
Paloma practiced her one-handed walking on the Manhattan streets to what would lead to independent walking. Watch out, world.

Back at Kelly's for some real New York pizza, and Kelly gave Paloma the classic "I heart NY" tee. (By the way, New York pizza is good, but not my thing.)

We finally spotted him. Ladies flock to the OG Naked Cowboy. Go get him, girls!

Next post - Central Park!

Random California Chillin': Part Tres

No more sitting at the edges of your seats, folks. This is the last and final chapter of the three-part series. I know, the suspense! Amidst the piles of pictures, I somehow deleted certain important events...oh well, c'est la vie. We'll have to remake those memories next trip!

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Beach time! My hair caught the ocean breeze. With....

Armilyn, David, and Alex! At...

Hint, hint. Look at the statue. Yes, Seal Beach!Alex fooling around with his dad.We cruised the shops downtown. This area is great for its laidback, unpretentious beach atmosphere.

Waiting for some pizza.

Alex let Paloma fiddle with his hair because he's nice like that.Alex tries on the coveted fedora.

My Uncle Pepe and Aunt Gertrude also flew to California from Washington to meet the little one.

We headed to Laguna Beach for a stroll.

On her way to independent uprightness.

Group shot minus the photographer, my dad.

We went to Fashion Island afterwards for some P.F. Chang's.

Moses and P play with the koi.

Ah, one of my favorite couples! Audrey and Bob in front of their impeccable home. Their blue door is tres chic too.

The book o' polaroids. I mentioned in a previous post that these guys take pictures of their guests and put it in a beautiful book. They have volumes and volumes. It's all indexed too!

A refreshing view of Orange County from their backyard in Anaheim Hills.

My friend Frances let Paloma feel the cool drops falling in the fountain.
Paloma touched all the lovely flowers one by one.

We also went to our friend Majesta's house....they have four kids, ages 3 to 6. It's always a party there!

A permanent jumpie house. See? Always a party!

After this...New York!