Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Christmas Day {NYC Trip Day 2}

Christmas morning we woke up and relaxed with the family. The night before I helped Patty (my cousin) play Santa and get all the gifts wrapped. It was a fun cousin bonding experience :-P

This is Patty's apartment view:
apt view

She lives on Roosevelt Island, which is a small sliver found in the east river between Manhattan and Queens. I LOVE it there! When I live in New York for a year, I attended SUNY @ Stony Brook out on Long Island and that summer I stayed in Patty's apartment while she was at her house in the Cape.

So everyone opened presents Christmas morning then Patty fixed us some star wars pancakes with a new mold Santa brought!
star wars pancake molds star wars pancakes

We had heard there was a blizzard coming. Kyle and I had a helicopter ride scheduled for the next day (Sunday), and figured we were going to have to reschedule - but we were going to call first thing Sunday morning to get that lined up. ---- back story to that helicopter ride. I purchased it through Groupon and went to make a reservation a few weeks ago (I procrastinated) well when I first talked to them they said there were no openings the remainder of December. I explained we were only there for a week and was their ANY way they could squeeze us in so he gave us Sunday at 5:00pm. So hearing that the weather was going to possibly postpone our ride was a little discouraging.

Once we lazed around the house for the day, my other cousin Celine and her mom Michelle came over to visit. Kyle, Celine, and I went into the city to see the Rockefeller Christmas Tree.

Okay family back story now, Patty is my 1st cousin once removed, her four kids are my second cousins. Patty has 4 siblings and they are also my 1st cousin once removed. Patty's dad is my great uncle. If that all makes sense, lol.

So we took the train into midtown and was hoping that since it was Christmas evening that no one would be out and about. We were WRONG. it was MOBBED everyone had the same idea "Let's go see the Christmas Tree" lol.

We first stopped to watch a light show that was being projected on the side of Saks 5th Ave.
bubbles on building

Then proceeded through the crowd to the tree.
rockefeller tree

It was so crowded. We were walking down the side walk and to the right was a line for the ice skating. We made it a little farther, going at a slow pace and a girl in the ice skating line asked "What is this line for?" motioning at the 'line' we were walking in. I replied "this isn't a line, it's just a side walk". But we did manage to get our picture taken, thanks to Celine who put up with my many adjustments on my camera before I just said screw it and set it on auto, lol.
kyle daisy tree
Thanks for putting up with my camera adjustments, Celine, love you!

After making it by the tree (not close enough to see the ice rink since it was so packed) we walked up 5th Avenue to see the windows in the shops all decorated. We also went into St. Patrick's Cathedral. Again mobbed with people wanting to go in and see. We make our way in and are standing in the back of the cathedral when we hear the Priest say "And this concludes our mass" We all look at each other in panic "Let's get out of here" lol It was so funny. They didn't come rushing at us but we knew they all would soon.

Then we walked up to the corner of central park and then over east to get on the tram back to the island.
tram arriving

This is actually a different tram than the one I rode back in 2004 & 05. They shut it down for about six months to replace the whole system and put new cars in. It just opened a week after Thanksgiving or so, I'm SOO happy. New York would not be the same to me without the tram.

Here is the view of the Chrysler building (my favorite) and the Empire State building from the tram.
tram view night

And Celine on the tram
celine on tram

1 comment:

Ali said...

Wow. What a prime spot your cousin has! I'm totally envious of that view.

Such a great city - your post makes me want to go back, Daisy.

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