Kissable

This past Saturday we had another one of those great, unpredictable New York days - the kind where you set out to just wander around, or maybe check something out, and it ends up being way more fun than you expected.

As is my usual weekend routine, I started the morning by checking the daily calendar of New York events on NewYorkology. There was a ton of stuff listed, and we had a hard time deciding what seemed like our best option. It was an absolutely gorgeous day (low 80s and sunny), so we knew we wanted to be outside.

One of the things that piqued my interest was a Kiss-In in Times Square to celebrate the 65th anniversary of the ending of World War II. To celebrate, they had brought in the huge "Unconditional Surrender" statue inspired by that famous photograph from V-J Day:

That morning, hundreds of people gathered to reenact that kiss. We weren't entirely sure what time this big kiss was set to take place (we just knew the entire event was scheduled from 11:00 a.m. till 2:00 p.m.), but we headed out that way anyway to check it out. We were too late to see the kissing, but we got to see the statue, which was very impressive and inspired our own kiss! (If you want to see some pictures of the actual kissing event we missed, there are some good ones here.)

"Unconditional Surrender" statue in Times Square

 Our own Times Square smooch, with the statue behind us!

They also had a Maybelline booth set up where you could have your lipstick done (so you could be totally kissable, of course!). Then, when you were all done up, you could take a photo with Maksim Chmerkovskiy of Dancing With The Stars! I'm not sure how he really fit into the whole thing but hey, he's adorable, so who's complaining? (Maybe they consider him especially kissable?) This past season he danced with Erin Andrews, a fellow Gator alum, so they were my favorite team and I was excited to meet him. And, once they took your picture with him, they put it up on the big screen in Times Square! I'm totally famous now.

Having my lipstick done in the Maybelline booth

With my buddy Maksim (is he not super cute?)

I'm on the big screen in Times Square! See it behind the real me?

What ended up being just a "well, let's stop by and see what's going on" ended up being a pretty fun little event! You just never know what to expect in this city.

After Times Square we were in the mood for some more time around town, so we decided to head down to Chinatown and Little Italy. I had such a good time wandering around down there last week with Megan, I took Eric back for more! We perused the inexpensive goods in Chinatown, and picked up a new hat for Eric in Little Italy. We also walked north to SoHo and did a little shopping there, though no purchases. It really has been a while since I've been to that area with Eric. In fact, even though I have been to Little Italy countless times with various visitors, I think he and I have only been there together twice: once when Eric was a summer associate here before we were even married, and again when Ronnie and Tom visited after we first moved here. As we walked around this weekend, we reminisced about our early days in the city (during Eric's summer here) and even recreated a couple old photos!

Little Italy - they close down Mulberry Street to traffic on the weekends, and it's a lot of fun!

We love this alcoholic shark! On the left is Eric circa summer 2007, and on the right is me on Saturday.

Gotta love the festive fire hydrants in Little Italy. Left: Eric in 2007; Right: Eric on Saturday, sporting an awesome new hat.

One of these days I'm going to show you more pictures of our first experiences with New York together, before we lived here, so stay tuned for that!

We picked up lunch on our way home, then spent the rest of the evening relaxing at home, drinking wine and watching a movie. A casual day with no plans really turned into a fun little afternoon! Sunday we just spent running errands and hanging out at home, which was also very nice.

This was our last weekend with no plans for a while, so it was nice to relax and enjoy it together. Now, as usually happens in August/September, things are going to get a little crazy for us for a while. I'm excited to share it all with you soon!