Walkin' in a Winter Wonderland

Well, I obviously didn't get my next round of pictures posted yesterday. I woke up yesterday feeling even worse than I did the day before, so I spent the whole day laying on my couch, catching up on the bad TV I've had waiting for me on the DVR. Just what the doctor ordered! I'm still feeling a bit lousy today, but less like my head might explode, so let's do this. As I describe my weekend to you, it will probably become clear why I am sick.

Last week was our first week back after our Florida trip. In the eight days we spent in the Sunshine State, we drove over 1,000 miles up, down and around the state of Florida, spent time in 4 different cities, slept in 4 different beds, visited 17 family members, 1 friend and 5 pets, and saw one National Championship football game. Of course we enjoyed every moment of it, but needless to say, last week we were in full-on recovery mode and our only plan for the weekend was to not make any plans.

Friday night we decided to see a movie. More specifically, Marley & Me, which I had been dying to see. I will say I enjoyed the book more than the movie, but the movie was also very good. As expected, the end was almost to much for me to bear but I made it through and went home and gave Achilles a big ol' hug. Oh, and by "went home" I mean walked 14 blocks in NEGATIVE FOUR DEGREES. You know, the kind of cold where your face hurts. That was probably Strike One for getting sick.

Saturday was also pretty mellow. We hung out around the house most of the day then went to see another movie, this time Bride Wars, which was very cute. We went to the theater at Lincoln Center instead of our usual Times Square, and after it was over we did a little shopping before heading home.

Sunday brings Strike Two. Eric had a firm flag football game at Riverside Park on the Upper West Side. It was really a nice park, right along the Hudson River.

Football games going on at Riverside Park

The icy Hudson River

Let me pause here and backtrack for a moment. See the picture above of the icy Hudson River? All I could think about when I was looking out at that on Sunday afternoon was the US Airways flight that crashed into this very river last Thursday. I'm sure you've all heard about it extensively on the news, but considering that it happened so close to our apartment, I figured it warranted a mention. It crashed into the Hudson River at approximately 48th Street. We live about 1-2 blocks east of the Hudson at 54th Street. From our living room window, I could see the flashing police lights down by the river. Achilles and I walked out to the river to see if we could see anything, but other than the flashing lights on both the New York and New Jersey sides of the river, we couldn't see much and Achilles was too cold to walk any further to check it out. Needless to say, it was quite a miracle that the pilot managed to land that plane in the river in such a way that it stayed in one piece and all 150+ people on board made it out alive. Selfishly, I'm also very glad that the plane went down in the river and not on my apartment. But after seeing the frozen river up close and personal, I sure do feel for them for having to stand in it and wait to be rescued.

Note: I did not take this picture. You've probably seen this one on the news. Someone on one of the ferries that went to rescue the plane passengers took this. After seeing the ice in the picture above, can you imagine having to stand on the wing of a plane in that like these poor people are doing?

Now this one, I did take. This is taken from Hudson River Park, right by our apartment. You can see a string of red lights across the river - that's the emergency vehicles in New Jersey responding to the plane crash.

Anyway, back to Sunday's happenings. When Eric and I arrived at Riverside Park, the first thing we saw was children sledding, something I realized my husband has never done! Can you imagine? I just can't imagine a Floridian childhood, a childhood that does not include bundling up in snow clothes until you can barely move, building snowmen, building snow forts, sledding, tobogganing, etc. How deprived he is! So now we will have to find ourselves a sled and give it a go one of these days.

Sledders in Riverside Park. How cute! Also, very smart - they had bales of hay in front of the lampposts so that kids wouldn't go face-first into the post. That's probably a much better solution than just saying "Don't hit the post/tree/fence/whatever!" as your friends are on their way down, like we did back in my day. These kids today with their crazy technology.

A man who has never been sledding watching kids sledding

We made it down to the field and soon the football game was underway. The highlight (at least according to this commentator) was an interception in the end zone made by Mr. Eric W. himself. Unfortunately, despite Eric's best efforts, their previously 2-0 team is now 2-1. But, at least Eric got his first experience of playing football in the snow!

There's Eric, about to make the interception!

That's him in the green shirt, running with his intercepted ball!

The football game provided us with a very chilly afternoon, so we spent the rest of the evening in watching TV/movies. That was when I started to feel a sore throat coming on. Not good. But, Sunday night was also when I got the email about my interview! So that certainly brightened my spirits!

On Monday, Eric had the day off work and as you know, it was the anniversary of our engagement. I still wasn't feeling wonderful, but I wanted to get out and do something nice with Eric, because if he has a long weekend, I want to do whatever I can to enjoy it fully with him! It was snowing all day so we decided to take advantage of it and go to Central Park to take some snow pictures. And it was just beautiful. I think most of our pictures came out very well, but they just can't convey how lovely it was. It was quiet and peaceful and just so pretty.

We took a ton of pictures, so I'll try to limit what I share to just my favorites. Ready to feel cold?

Statue at the entrance to the park

Hansom cab

Watch your step!

Snowy scenery

Check out the snow accumulating on the brim of my hat!

There were so many ducks in the water by the bridge! People were feeding them and I loved them. How are they not cold?

Winter wonderland

Watching the ducks from the bridge

Lamppost!

Snowy Eric

A very pretty gazebo up on a hill

In honor of the anniversary, our rings had a little photoshoot!

Snowy branches

Subway!

Isn't it lovely? After wandering Central Park for a while, we made our way over to Fifth Avenue with the intention to do a little more shopping. We made a couple stops, but soon I started to feel really lousy. Suddenly the snow wasn't feeling so magical. Instead, it just felt wet, cold, and gross. So we hailed a cab home and I spent the rest of the night resting on the couch. Strike Three, I was out.

And that was our winter wonderland weekend!