Amazing New York City - Day 2 - Lordy, Lordy look who's 40

At 6:48 a.m. I offically turned 40! I woke up to an overcast morning, but a day of adventure ahead. I was able to rustle Dennis awake by around 9:30 a.m. and we were up and off. We decided to take the subway downtown to Ground Zero and work our way back uptown. I was expecting Ground Zero to be a somber site for me as I remember 9/11 so vividly. However, with all of the construction and people, it was very hard to find a quiet place or a quiet moment. I will be happy when construction for the memorial is done and people can find some peace to reflect on what actually happened there and the lives that were lost.

From there we made our way down to the Statue of Liberty via Wall Street. The sun finally broke through after a few showers at the pier. We decided to stop for a bite to eat and had the biggest sandwich we have ever seen! Luckily, we wanted to save room for our dinner before the show and asked to split the "Woody Allen". It was 1 1/2 pounds of corned beef and pastrami and two little bitty slices of bread :-) The Carnegie Deli was definitely a highlight on our list of places to visit today.

A little more sightseeing like Central Park and Tiffanys, of course, and then back to the hotel to get ready for the show. We had reservations at 6:00 p.m. for the View restaurant at our hotel on the 48th floor. It is a rotating restaurant with 360 views of New York City - wow! The meal was a pre-theater prix fixe menu and we were out the door by 7:15 p.m. "Wicked" here we come... we walked to the Gershwin Theater which was about 6 blocks away and were ready to take our seats by 7:40 p.m. Honestly it was above and beyond expectation. We loved it!!! Dennis was along for the ride to indulge my love of the Wizard of Oz and musicals and celebrate my birthday, of course; he was quite pleased that he actually enjoyed it as much as me :) We went to Roxy's Deli for a post theater dessert - a birthday brownie was my choice - and it was delicious. We were back at the Marriott with still a few birthday minutes to spare. I had a remarkable day today from top to bottom. Thank you so much Dennis for always encouraging and supporting my dreams and desires and still believing I am 22!!!!!

Amazing New York City - Day 3

So here is a short recap of our last day... we decided to take the train from Grand Central Station which was a quick subway ride from our hotel. The train ride was lovely and we really enjoyed the time to read the newspapers and talk. We were picked up by a Lincoln Towncar taxi in Rye, NY to drive us into Purchase and the PepsiCo Headquarters. What an amazing place! I was so pleased to get to see all of the sculptures that Don Kendall had amassed for the 145 acre compound. We had a guided tour by Karen which told us all about each sculpture and how is was acquired and how the gardens were planted around each placement. She was so knowledgeable and you could really tell this was the favorite part of her job at PepsiCo!!! Jodie Turner was our other consort for the day. She drove us in to Rye after the tour and took us to lunch. We ate at NewMoon and had some amazing Asian food and I enjoyd a wonderful Watermelontini - yummy! We took the train home and napped instead of reading this time :-) When we returned to our hotel we decided to go see a movie and a dinner out for our last night. We saw "Wanted" vs. a Disney or Pixar film which is what we normally see... and we loved it. Totally our kind of movie - thumbs up! We then ate at Juniors which is another great deli in NYC and I had the best eggsalad BLT ever. We finished up with strawberry cheesecake back at the hotel. Aaahhhh NYC, what a wonderful place to visit and I couldn't have asked for a better way to ring in the big 4-0.

Last Post As A Woman of 39....egads!!!!!

Okay, my friends this is it! I am on my way out the door for New York City and my final day of my 4th decade

of life. Wow!! Honestly, I feel great and I am embracing the future with unbridled optimisim and enthusiasm. Bring it on...Thank you to all of my family and friends who have supported, encouraged, loved, criticized (with kindness) and had my back for all of these years!!! I love my life and certainly wouldn't be half of who I am without each and every one of you.

Hugs and Kisses :-)

A Day at the Savannah Water Park

What a wonderful day :-) By shortly after 10:00 this morning we had 8 kids rallied and ready for the water park. We greased everyone up with sunscreen and set them loose. Savannah has such a great area for the kids and they love it all. Gage and Linsey made their first visit today as well as our cousin, Paige. Nathan, Jack and Uber were hard to to catch for photos, but I think they managed to sneak in a few. I got nothing but water splashes and feet when I tried to catch Josh and Nathan on the slide!! The cave was definitely a favorite spot, but too wet for the camera ;-( I feel as if I am posting from Mars by using Dennis' computer as I am having a hard time getting my pictures to layout exactly as I'd like. I hope you enjoy them in spite of their wacky configuration and you can tell by the smiles the fun that was had by all...

Party Pics