My Birthday Celebration

Eric and I are back from a great weekend in Cleveland with my family! We had a wonderful time, and I will be telling you all about it soon. As usual, I need some time to get my life in order and go through my pictures. I also have some work coming in this week which might slow things down a bit, but we'll see. Hooray, work!

But before we get to the reunion recap, let's talk birthday. I had a very low-key birthday last week, but it was very nice! I feel great about how I celebrated my 28th year. I received lots of phone calls, cards, Facebook posts, and emails wishing me well - thank you all for thinking of me!

Eric and I stayed up till midnight Wednesday night to officially welcome in my birthday (dude, how old are we that this is big news?). Thursday I lounged in bed until Eric left for work, then woke up and read the beautiful card he left on my computer. Then I opened up my computer and this is what I saw:

Eric wrote 28 Post-It notes in honor of my birthday and left them around the house for me to find. Obviously, a large number of them covered my computer. My favorite was this one, with the smiley face with "teeth:"

He also left notes in the kitchen cabinets, bathroom vanity cabinet, A/C unit, on the kitchen table, on my cereal box, and in the dog's food bowl. He's so sweet! I loved finding his notes all morning.

The big, fancy birthday celebration was my lunch with Eric. I left the house a little before 1:00, hopped in a cab, and met him at his office. From there we walked a few blocks to Sushi Yasuda, the best sushi restaurant in NYC. In fact, not only does the 2010 NYC Zagat Guide have Sushi Yasuda ranked as the #1 sushi restaurant (and one of the top five restaurants for food overall), they also claim it is the best sushi outside of Japan. So, we kind of thought it might be good. And you know what? It was.

We had a 1:30 reservation at the bar, but we arrived a little early and they were able to seat us right away. They're very strict with their reservation policies - you must confirm your reservation the day before or they will cancel it, if you are more than 10 minutes late you will lose your reservation, and you only have an hour and a half to eat before they will rush you out. (For what it's worth, we had no problem dining in that time frame.)

Outside, there is no name over the restaurant, just a picture of a fish. Inside, the decor is very minimalistic. It was actually kind of refreshing to see a NYC restaurant without tons of tables crammed into their tiny space. It was open and simple. Very nice.

  The birthday girl in front of Sushi Yasuda

Home of amazingly incredible sushi 

(Quick note: I felt awkward taking pictures inside the restaurant, so any pictures in this post of the interior or the food were found online, mostly from Yelp.com.)

We took our seats at the bar and placed our order. They offer a prix-fixe lunch option that we both took advantage of. Eric ordered the salmon teriyaki (yes, don't worry, I already gave him a hard time for not ordering sushi), and I ordered the sushi and sashimi combination. They brought us hot towels to wash our hands, then we began our meal with miso soup for me and salad for Eric, plus some iced green tea to drink.

The bar at Sushi Yasuda. The gentleman on the right is Mr. Yasuda himself! The man next to him was our chef.

Miso soup

Rather than choose what specific pieces I wanted for my meal, I opted for the omakase, which means letting the chef choose what to serve you. I was most certainly not disappointed. To be honest, I don't even know what most of what I ate even was - but I know it was divine. My main course began with sashimi, which looked very similar to this:

Three types of thinly sliced sashimi. Yum.

Now, I definitely know that I enjoy sushi, but I am not well-versed in what everything is and how to eat it. And, my chopsticks skills are deplorable (at one point I actually told our chef that it was okay to laugh at me as I struggled with my chopsticks). However, our chef was very nice and explained to me exactly how to eat everything. For the above sashimi, he instructed me to take a tiny bit of wasabi and tsuma (paper-thin strips of white radish) with my chopsticks and place it on top of each piece, then just lightly dip the edge of the fish into my soy sauce. Let me tell you what - that fish melted in my mouth. It was incredible. Eric tried a piece, too (he does like sushi, just doesn't often eat it), and he even described it as "exquisite." I do not disagree.

Next up were three pieces of sushi that, again, I have no idea exactly what they were. I know that the first was my favorite and I am kicking myself for not asking the chef to repeat what it was so that I could order it by the truckload to eat every day for the rest of my life. For these pieces, our chef informed me that soy sauce had already been applied so I should just eat it as it was. And it was good.

My mouth is watering right now.

Finally, I was served six pieces of maki (sushi wrapped in dried seaweed). And yes, again, I do not know exactly what they were. I think one was some kind of tuna, and maybe yellowtail? But that's all I've got. And again, I was in heaven. Once that was gone, Eric and I decided to keep the party going just a bit and ordered another toro roll to split. Hey, guess what? It was amazing.

Toro roll

We finished our meal with some green tea ice cream. I have to say, I was sad to see the end of that meal. This sushi has definitely changed my life. I'm already anxious to go back again!

In addition to the food being so delicious, it was very cool to watch the chef make it right in front of you. They go so fast and are so precise. It was really neat to watch. I found this video of a Sushi Yasuda chef in action online to give you an idea:

VIDEO: Sushi master at Sushi Yasuda

All in all, it was a fabulous birthday lunch. Thanks for taking me, Eric!

With my husband outside Sushi Yasuda after an amazing birthday lunch

After lunch I went back to Eric's office for a few minutes then made my way home. I spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing, then met up with Eric when he got out of work to pick up some dinner and champagne for the evening. I had to do some laundry before our trip (oh, the joys of being a grown-up - now I do laundry on my birthday!), then we got ourselves packed and ready to go. We then stayed up late talking and drinking champagne. It was a great day!

Thanks again to Eric and everyone else who made my birthday so special! I'm a lucky girl.

Our Next Step?

You know that a couple weeks ago, we made a trip to Hoboken with Jeff and Jaime. What you don't know yet is that we went back again this past weekend because we are considering moving there.

As I have mentioned before, Eric and I have been putting a lot of thought and consideration into what our next step in life will be. The cost of living here in the city is just too high to be sustainable much longer. We get by just fine, but it is difficult to build savings, and what we do save ends up being spent on travel (not that I'm complaining about that, but it's our situation right now). We have been considering where we might like to go in February when our lease is up, but to be honest, it will be difficult to move and get ourselves set up again with little extra money in the bank.

While we were in Hoboken, Jeff asked how much apartments over there generally cost. Eric and I brushed it off, assuming that the cost would be very similar to the cost in Manhattan, since Hoboken is just a short train or ferry ride away. However, when we got home, Eric did some checking into it, and that is not actually the case. Things are much less expensive there. And, there's even a building owned by our property management company right off the train in Hoboken. We had been under the impression that we could move to another building by this company in the middle of our lease with no penalty, so we decided to go check it out this weekend...just to see.

Well, it turns out we were wrong about the moving policy - the new building has to be at least 30 miles away from the current building, which Hoboken is not. So, if we decide to make this move, we would either have to wait until our lease is up in February or talk to our building manager now to see if they might be willing to let us out of our lease. The woman we spoke to in Hoboken seemed to think they might be willing to do that if 1) we live in a highly desirable unit (we do) and/or 2) they could lease our apartment for much more than we currently pay (they could). So, breaking our lease is not out of the realm of possibility.

But anyway, back to Hoboken itself. We took the PATH train out there on Saturday to check it out with fresh "could we live here?" eyes. The apartment building is just blocks from the train station, so it was quick and easy to get there (and we passed Carlo's Bakery on the way!). We had about an hour to kill before the leasing agent would be able to speak with us, so we spent some time wandering down Washington Street. And let me tell you - I loved it. It was so charming. It reminded me a lot of Old Town Alexandria, my favorite part of D.C. (and the area I'd like to live in if we ever move back there), just a little bigger. There were shops and restaurants and cafes, and it was just adorable. There were tons of cute little local restaurants I would love to try, and some of my old favorites like Crumbs for cupcakes (if we ever didn't feel like dealing with the crowds at Carlo's) and Five Guys Burgers & Fries. I just loved Washington Street, and I could see us spending afternoons or evenings strolling down that street.

Washington Street

More Washington Street

After spending some time on Washington Street, we went back to the apartment building to check it out. The leasing agent filled us in on the policy that we misunderstood, and showed us around the building and some of the units. I really loved one of the corner unit we saw, and if we decide to move to Hoboken I definitely want a corner unit. The unit we saw (identical to the one we would want) was 799 square feet (compared to our current 650) and beautiful, with a substantially lower monthly rent. It had walk-in closets (I think I actually said, "I could sleep in here!" to one of them), a kitchen window (hello, sunlight!) and wraparound corner windows with a view of Manhattan. It was fabulous. I know that if we decide to make this move, one of the hardest parts for me will be leaving our apartment and our view, so a new apartment with another great view would really make it easier to stomach.

 This isn't the view we would have, but the windows would be very similar to these.

Our kitchen would have a window like this one, and the bathroom would look similar to the one here, too.

 Our potential floorplan

The rest of the building was nice, too. They have free coffee in the lobby in the mornings, a free gym, a much larger laundry room than we have now, and a big sundeck with a view of lower Manhattan. All in all, we weren't disappointed.

But I haven't even told you the best part yet! Guess what is in walking distance from the apartment? A Target. TARGET, PEOPLE! I love Target, and I miss it immensely. To be able to walk to one? A dream come true. (At the very least, I now know I can take the PATH train to Target to get my fix, even if we stay in Manhattan!) There is also a grocery store and shopping mall. It's glorious. A real shopping mall! No fighting the 34th Street crowds! An actual mall! It's all so suburban America.

Behold, Target in all its glory, complete with trees and a parking lot and everything.

After checking out the Target/shopping area, we were pretty beat so we decided to head back to NYC. Instead of hopping right on the train, though, we decided to take the ferry back. We walked back north along Frank Sinatra Drive, making a quick stop at Pier A Park, which is also just blocks from the apartment building. It's really nice - a big grassy area, gazebos, fountains, people fishing and relaxing - all with a great view of that city skyline.

Pier A Park

People relaxing in the park

VIDEO: A look around Pier A Park

So now we have to make this decision.

We're thinking of just mentioning all this to our current building manager to see if he can work something out for us to break our lease and move early. If he can, great - we could move and start saving money right away. If we can't, also great - we can stay in Manhattan through February and then decide where we want to go, be it Hoboken or elsewhere.

Our main reasoning in favor of this is that this move would give us the ability to still enjoy Manhattan while also enjoying the ability to put some money aside. Yes, we would be in another state, but with the close proximity to the train, Manhattan would be just minutes away. For example, it would take Eric the same amount of time to get to work in the mornings, he would just be taking the train instead of walking. That's huge to us, because a big reason why we have always been so opposed to suburb living here is that it would give Eric a longer commute. That's not the case here, though. This would extend our time here, but at the same time it will enable us to build a cushion to pull us through whenever we may decide to leave the area. Even just a year in Hoboken, with disciplined saving, would really enable us to stockpile some money to help us get on our feet whenever/wherever we decide to start fresh. There are lots of positives to this plan that I won't even go into right now, but logically, it seems to be a really good move for us.

Of course, I will have a terrible time leaving the city. I already think about it and get sad, and we haven't even decided on this yet. But I am trying to remind myself that much of that is just a mental block - again, it will take me the same amount of time to get out to 34th Street for some shopping (for example) as it does now, I would just be taking the train instead of walking. We would still be so close, but it would quieter and less expensive. It's hard to argue with that.

So, this is what we're currently considering. Again, nothing is definite, but I just wanted to throw it out there. We'll keep you posted as we think it over!

Twenty-Eight

Care to venture a guess as to what Tim Brown, Bob Dole, Meghan W., John Leguizamo, Keyshawn Johnson, Willem Defoe, Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, Alex Trebek, Selena Gomez and David Spade all have in common?

We were all born on July 22, of course!

Today is my 28th birthday, and I'm feeling pretty good about it. Of course, Eric has spent the last few weeks going on and on about how incredibly old 28 really is (let's see how you feel about that come December 1st, pal!), but I'm feeling good. This afternoon Eric is taking me for a delicious lunch at Sushi Yasuda, and then tonight we'll be getting ready for our trip to Cleveland tomorrow! I'm very excited about both.

In addition to looking up celebrities who share my birthday, I also checked out what historical events happened on this day. Some of what I found was pretty interesting, and some was pretty depressing. In addition to my birth, these are some other things that have happened on July 22 over the course of time:

• 1298: King Edward I of England and his men defeated William Wallace and the Scots at the Battle of Falkirk
• 1686: The city of Albany, New York was officially chartered
• 1775: George Washington took command of U.S. troops
• 1796: Surveyors of the Connecticut Land Company named an area in Ohio "Cleveland" after Gen. Moses Cleveland, the superintendent of the surveying party (Yeah! Go Cleveland! We share a birthday!)
• 1918: 504 sheep were killed by lightning in Utah's Wasatch National Park (I had to include this one because it is so totally random)
• 1934: Outside Chicago's Biograph Theater, "Public Enemy #1" John Dillinger was mortally wounded by FBI agents
• 1937: U.S. Senate rejected Franklin D. Roosevelt's proposal to enlarge the Supreme Court
• 1942: The U.S. began compulsory civilian gasoline rationing due to wartime demands. Also, the systematic deportation of Jews from Warsaw to extermination camps began.
• 1967: Atlanta Braves used a record 5 pitchers in the ninth inning
• 1982: The biggest mass wedding in history took place in New York City (surprised?) - 2, 200 couples! Also, yours truly was born! This day rocked.
• 1990: Phil Mickelson won the U.S. Amateur Championship
• 1991: Jeffrey Dahmer confessed to killing 21 men in 1978
• 1994: O.J. Simpson pleaded "absolutely 100% not guilty" of murder
• 2003: Members of the 101st Airborne killed Sadam Hussein's sons Uday and Qusay in Iraq
• 2009: The longest solar eclipse in history (6 minutes, 38 seconds) took place over parts of Asia and the Pacific Ocean

Was I right? Some interesting events, some depressing, and even some random (504 sheep hit by lighting? What??). Thanks for the info, Wikipedia!

Regardless of what else may have happened on this day in history, I just have to say thanks to my mom for giving birth to me on this day 28 years ago! And thanks to all of my wonderful family and friends for making my 28 years so great. I'm so lucky to be where I am and to have all of you in my life. Now let's get started on year 29!

Soup For Me!

Yesterday Eric and I met up for lunch at a pretty well-known spot: Soup Kitchen International, now re-opened as The Original SoupMan. This walk-up soup stand is only a couple blocks from our apartment, and in its heyday its owner, Al Yeganeh, was the inspiration for the infamous "Soup Nazi" character on Seinfeld.

VIDEO: The Soup Nazi on Seinfeld

After the Seinfeld publicity, Yeganeh closed up his original location and now The Original SoupMan is a franchise with 22 locations. He no longer owns or operates the store, but the reopening of the flagship location still drew crowds. Yes, people lined up around the block for soup in the middle of a heatwave at the end of July. I keep telling you - New Yorkers are crazy.

SoupMan at work! Big sign on the side of the building at 55th St. and 8th Ave.

People lining up for soup

The menu included some favorites: Lobster Bisque, Crab Bisque, Mulligatawny, and George's Favorite Turkey Chili, among others. The Soup Man/Nazi's three rules still apply, and were posted above the soup stand in probably 10 different languages: 1) pick the soup you want, 2) have your money ready, and 3) move to the extreme left after ordering. And in case you still didn't know what to do, painted footprints on the ground led the way.

The soup stand - all those white signs above the stand are the "rules" in different languages!

Instructional footprints on the ground. That's my dress on the left - see how good I am at following directions?

Of course, we're always a couple of people to get out there and join the crazies for events such as this, so Eric and a co-worker came out this way for lunch and I met them in line. We waited in line for about an hour. They had a DJ set up across the street playing music, and some crazy dancing man with a cane that kept me quite entertained.

Dancing man across the street. My favorite move of his was when he used his cane as a bass guitar.

We also saw Reggie Jackson ("Mr. October!" Eric says), who is somehow involved with the company and was there to headline the event. Eric got a picture with him, but frankly, he was quite rude and that kind of soured the whole thing. He was definitely the most unpleasant celebrity we have encountered. But, he was wearing his World Series ring, so if you like that sort of thing, maybe that makes up for it?

Eric and Mr. October

We finally made it to the front of the line and picked up our free t-shirts they were giving out (they say "Soup for me" on the front and "No soup for you!" on the back), then reviewed the menu and made our selections. We placed our order, had our money ready, and moved to the extreme left. We had planned to get both a crab bisque and lobster bisque, but they ran out of lobster bisque so we ended up with only crab. Each serving of soup also comes with bread, fruit (apple, strawberries, grapes) and a piece of chocolate (Lindor truffle).

Soup, front and center

Waiting for soup!

Success! Showing off my t-shirt and bag o' soup

We all went to a nearby park and ate our soup - which we all agreed was good, but we were somewhat underwhelmed. Maybe it was all the hype, maybe it was the fact that it was nearly 90 degrees out and we were eating soup outdoors, or maybe the soup just isn't what it used to be. Who knows? Maybe we'll have to try it again on a less crowded (and less hot) day to give it another chance. It definitely was good - very flavorful, lots of crab - but we weren't quite sure it warranted the "Soup Nazi" attention.

Regardless, it was fun to be a part of the reopening of a famous NYC lunch spot!

Happy Birthday, Dad!

I have to give a quick shout-out to my dad, who is 55 years young today! Happy birthday, Dad! I wish I could be in Florida so we could celebrate together, but I can't, so instead I just made you this picture of what it would probably look like if I were there:

Although really, I probably wouldn't be wearing my wedding dress. I imagine you would be wearing a tux, though, in honor of the day. So snazzy! Also, that's a spice cake that I'm holding. Obviously.

Happy birthday, Dad! Hope it's great!

"Dinner For Schmucks" Premiere

Last night Eric and I met up in front of the Ziegfeld Theater to watch a little more red carpet action. We've really gotten hooked on these red carpets! This one was for the Dinner for Schmucks premiere, starring Steve Carell, Paul Rudd, and Zack Galifianakis.

 Ziegfeld Theater, set up for the Dinner for Schmucks premiere

We actually thought our red carpet watching might be a bust because they had the whole carpet enclosed with plastic sheets for some reason (you can see it a little in the above picture), but we were able to see people as they arrived, and once they turned on all the lights along the carpet we could see through the plastic with no trouble. This premiere didn't draw nearly the celebrity turnout that the Sex and the City 2 premiere did, but we still saw a few people including all three of the above-mentioned stars plus Ron Livingston (Office Space guy) and Bill Hader (from SNL). And, the lighter star list meant lighter crowds, which is always nice!

Plus, all three of the main stars (Steve, Paul and Zack) came over to greet the crowd, take pictures and sign autographs. Paul Rudd was the nicest - he really took his time and went through the crowd, all the way to the end of the line. Steve Carell went about halfway down the line (unfortunately he stopped right before he got to us) and Zack Galifianakis only went to the first few people. Regardless of how far they went, I always think it's nice when celebrities greet the fans at this type of an event, and few of them seem to do it. At the Sex and the City 2 premiere, only Sarah Jessica Parker and David Eigenberg (Steve) came over, and at the Tony Awards Daniel Radcliffe was the only one to greet the fans. I just think it's nice when they acknowledge all the people lined up to see them, you know?

Here comes Steve Carell! Like his crazy blue jacket?

Zack Galifianakis running over

Someone asked Paul Rudd for a picture, so he offered to take it for them! Ha! I don't think that's what they meant.

Me with Paul Rudd and his awesome beard

Bill Hader snuck past all the red carpet craziness and went straight into the theater

Ron Livingston doing an interview on the red carpet

The premiere almost turned into even more fun for us - after the red carpet was finished, someone from the theater came over to the fans and started handing out tickets to the premiere that hadn't been picked up! They were giving them out in groups of two, and we were so close to getting some! There was a girl right in front of us asking for just one ticket because her two friends already had theirs. You could see that the ticket-giver-outer-guy didn't want to split up a pair, but he did it. Then it was our turn and we asked for two, but all he had was that one left over from the split pair, nothing else! We were so close! We've been wanting to see a movie at the Ziegfeld anyway (it's on our NYC To-Do List), so it would have been awesome to get to see a premiere, and for free, too! Oh well.

On a somewhat related note (if we're talking Steve Carell performances), did you know that someone on the cast or crew of The Office is apparently a Florida Gators fan? Eric and I were watching an episode the other night (the one where they hire Ben Franklin to be a "stripper" for Phyllis's office bridal shower), and Michael Scott was in the kitchen talking to someone when I noticed a magnet on the fridge behind his head. I thought I made out the letters "A T O R S" and I thought, "huh, that looks like it could say 'Gators.'" So I rewound a bit and sure enough, that time around not only did I see "Gators" plain as day, but also saw that wonderful Gator head logo. I knew I liked The Office for a reason! Go Gators!

Well, well, well...what is that on the fridge there?

A closer look - Go Gators, indeed!

All in all it was a fun evening, and now we'll definitely want to hit up more of these smaller movie premieres - less crowded, better chance of the stars coming over to the fans, and the possibility of tickets to the premiere! What's not to like about that?

"Put Some Clothes On!"

On Friday night, Eric and I watched a bunch of people run around Central Park in their underwear.

Sometimes I like to just say these things out loud and listen to how ridiculous they sound.

The NYC Triathlon was this weekend, and each year triathlon weekend kicks off with the 1.7-mile Jamaica Underwear Run in Central Park, led by - who else? - the Naked Cowboy. We actually checked out this event last year, too, but I don't think I ever blogged about it.

Achilles and the Naked Cowboy at last year's Underwear Run

We had talked about actually participating this year, but didn't realize that registration had already filled up before we even heard about it again. So, we were spectators this year, too. It's really just a goofy event - there are no timing chips or anything like that, just people running in very few clothes. They hold a contest for the best "Jamaica costume," so people get creative. You also see a lot of superhero costumes and other crazy attire. Young people run, old people run. Even kids, babies and dogs participate. It's quite a scene.

Underwear runners heading off through Central Park

A dog getting in on the Underwear Fun

That baby is totally sporting a denim diaper! Have you seen those commercials?

A nice family activity?

It's Batman!

Achilles watching this year's Underwear Run

My favorite part this year was actually a man hanging out in Sheep Meadow as the crowds of runners dashed by at the start of the race. He just sat there yelling, "What's going on? What are you people doing? Where are your clothes?! Put some clothes on!" I do wonder what people think is happening if they don't know about the race, and they're just out for a stroll through Central Park when hundreds of people run by in their underwear. You just never know what you may see around here.

Music in the Parks

I have mentioned before that one of the things I really love about New York City is the park space. We have some really fabulous parks, and they are such a great escape from the city noise. And during the summer months, they also host a number of great outdoor activities: concerts, yoga, movies, etc. There's always so much to do (for free!) if you pay attention!

For the past week or so we've been taking advantage of some of the free music in our local parks. Every Thursday during the summer, Bryant Park (my favorite!) hosts Broadway in Bryant Park at lunchtime. They bring in performers from several Broadway shows (different each week) and have them perform a selection of songs from their show. It's free and a great way to spend your lunch hour. Bryant Park isn't far from Eric's office, so for the past two Thursdays Achilles and I have gone to meet him for lunch and Broadway. There's just nothing like eating outside in a beautiful park while you listen to "Music of the Night" from Phantom of the Opera, you know?

This week they had performances from Memphis, Billy Elliot, South Pacific, Phantom of the Opera and the Rockettes. Last week they had Stomp, Nunsense, In the Heights and Promises, Promises. They're just so fun to watch! I mean, they don't act out full scenes (rather, they just sing the songs), don't wear costumes and it's often the understudies who perform, but it really is a fun way to spend your lunch break. I think we'll try to keep this standing Thursday afternoon lunch date for the rest of the summer!

Crowds at Broadway in Bryant Park

Not only do you get to enjoy the park, lunch and music, you also get this view.

Stomp performers at Broadway in Bryant Park

Achilles and me enjoying our Broadway picnic

VIDEO: Broadway in Bryant Park

This past Tuesday we also enjoyed another summer park tradition around here: a New York Philharmonic Concert on the Great Lawn in Central Park. Each summer, the NY Philharmonic does a whole series of concerts in local parks, in Central Park, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and the Bronx. They had concerts in Central Park on both Tuesday and Wednesday this week. We only made it to Tuesday's concert, where both the New York Philharmonic and Shanghai Symphony Orchestra performed. For my music aficionado readers, this was the lineup for the concert we saw:

Shanghai Symphony Orchestra 
• Wagner - Overture to Tannhäuser
• Rossini - Largo al factotum della città from The Barber of Seville
• Gounod - "Je veux vivre" from Romeo and Juliet
• Mozart - "La ci darem la mano" from Don Giovanni
• Guang Zhao - Ode to the Expo
• Gershwin - Rhapsody in Blue

New York Philharmonic
• Tchaikovsky - Polonaise from Eugene Onegin
• Bernstein - Symphonic Dances from West Side Story
• Ravel - Boléro

Both Central Park concerts were also supposed to be followed by fireworks, but due to a rather rainy day leading up to Tuesday's concert, the fireworks were cancelled. However, we were able to see some of Wednesday night's fireworks from our apartment! (Our view was obscured by the Time Warner Center, but hey, we still saw them.)

The concert itself was fabulous. The Great Lawn is, well, great (as in huge) so there was plenty of space for everyone to spread out their blankets and crack open their bottles of wine. I got there before Eric and he joined me a bit later with some Subway for dinner. We were quite a ways back from the stage, but they set up a great sound system so you can hear perfectly well from any part of the Lawn. There's just nothing like listening to live classical music under the stars on a warm summer night. There were even lightning bugs! It reminded me so much of concerts at Blossom Music Center in Cleveland as a kid - my family would head out there with a blanket and picnic in hand, eat and listen to the music on a warm summer evening. I loved it then and I love it now.

The stage set up on the Great Lawn

Laying on the grass, enjoying a great concert

VIDEO: Concert in Central Park

I just love having these sorts of things to do all the time! I mean, what a fabulous way to spend a random Tuesday evening. There's just no place like New York.