Thankful...

This year I am spending my first Thanksgiving completely away from my family, friends and home. I have had to work during Thanksgiving in the past, but I was still able to see my family for a little while, or join some friends for their Thanksgiving celebration. This year is much different. I am away from home, and have no family nearby. I am currently living in the crewhouse in Fort Lauderdale. I am fortunate to be living with some truly lovely people, and we will all be sharing our Thanksgiving together. We are each other’s family this year and we plan to spend the day barbecuing and relaxing.

Being that it is Thanksgiving, I have been thinking about all of the things that I am grateful for and I wanted to share them:

• I am thankful that everyone that I love and care about is healthy.
• I am thankful that I was able to pursue my dream and set out on this journey. I have undergone a substantial amount of personal growth and for that I am truly grateful.
• I am thankful that my Mom and I have become so close over the past year. We were always close in the past, but now I feel that my Mom is one of my best friends.
• I am thankful that my Dad was able to pursue his dream to open a wine bar. I am so proud of him.
• I am thankful that I was able to reunite with Lisa this year. She was such an important part of my life for so many years, and I had missed her a great deal. Thanks to facebook she is back in my life.
• I am thankful for all of my wonderful friends. They are all remarkable and I am a better person for having each of them in my life.
• I am thankful that I am learning to live each day with passion, to slow down and enjoy the beauty surrounding us, and to worry less because everything has a way of working itself out.

I hope that everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!

The Big Apple...

I arrived in NYC on a Friday evening. I was so excited to go and visit Justin in his new Manhattan apartment. We spent Friday evening catching up since we hadn't seen each other for quite some time.

Saturday we walked from his place to Central Park. The walk was astounding; Justin lives on such a beautiful street. I couldn't get enough of the architecture. Every block we would walk down something would catch my eye. I would point it out to Justin and he would always say that he had never noticed it before. It was a lot of fun to explore the city together. Justin showed me a lot of cool places that he has found while living there. And I was able to show Justin NYC from my perspective by bringing things to his attention that he had never noticed, which happened quite often!

One of the buildings on Justin's Street

Central Park made for a beautiful walk as well. The park was bustling with people out on their Saturday strolls. While exploring the park we got caught in a torrential downpour. Of course we weren't prepared with umbrellas, so we stood under a tree to wait it out. We had to wait for quite a while, but the rain was nice to watch anyway.


Saturday evening we headed to Little Italy for some dinner at Casa Bella. After dinner we walked around and explored Little Italy when we stumbled upon Ferrara Cafe. This cafe was packed, so we decided that we would get some dessert and check it out. This was a wise decision. Their desserts were like eating a little slice of heaven. Little Italy was touristy, but the food was well worth it.

My priority on Sunday was to go to the Guggenheim Museum. I had never been and always wanted to see it, so off we went. The architecture of the building itself makes the visit worthwhile. The exhibits were also phenomenal. I highly encourage anyone visiting New York City to take the time to explore the Guggenheim. You won't be disappointed.


Monday I met up with Justin in Chelsea for lunch at Kiku Sushi. After lunch we walked to the Chelsea Market. Justin used to work in this area and he had stumbled across the indoor marketplace. The building used to be a bakery, but it was more recently refurbished into a charming little marketplace. We enjoyed a scoop of gelato as we explored the shops. This is another place that I recommend visiting if you are in NYC.



Justin had to get back to work, so I set off on my own to explore the great city. I walked by Ground Zero to see the progress they have made thus far.


Next I walked through Rockefeller Park. I literally just stumbled upon it, and it was a lovely discovery. It lies right along the Hudson River. I followed it along until I reached Battery Park. Battery Park pales in comparison to Rockefeller Park. Rockefeller Park is so beautifully maintained. Battery Park is often overrun with tourists looking to visit the Statue of Liberty. As I walked through Rockefeller Park I felt as though I had discovered one of New York City's hidden gems. This is where the locals picnicked with their families. As I left Rockefeller Park and made my way into Battery Park it's as if I entered into tourist hell. I went from a splendidly manicured park to a deteriorated and chaotic park within minutes.


Justin works in Brooklyn and he wanted me to meet him at his office when he was off of work so we could hit up a pizza place he had discovered. I decided that I wanted to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge instead of taking the subway into Brooklyn. This was a great decission on my part. Everything about the bridge is exquisite. The architecture, the view. I can't believe that I had never made the time to visit the bridge during my prior trips to NYC. In my opinion, if someone has a very limited amount of time to visit New York City, walking across the Brooklyn Bridge should be very high on their priority list. I took so many great photos of the bridge, but I think it's pretty much impossible to take a bad photo of it.


We had dinner at Grimaldi's Pizzeria. I must say, as far as pizza goes this place has some of the best pizza I have ever had. It was amazing. During dinner I told Justin about how much I had enjoyed my walk across the bridge. Now, he lives in Manhattan and works in Brooklyn, and he had never once walked across the bridge. So I suggested we walk across it after dinner so that he could see how truly amazing it is for himself. And I was excited to see the view from the bridge at night since it would be an entirely different perspective. Justin also fell in love with the bridge, but how could he not?!



More to come.....

Picturesque escapades in the city...

Late Tuesday morning I decided to head off to the Art Institute of Chicago on my own. I love to get lost for hours upon hours exploring museums, and since Sonny was at work this was a perfect opportunity for me to do so. I was pretty impressed with the art exhibits at the museum. They had a decent selection containing Picasso, Matisse, Seurat, Monet, Wood & Hopper just to name a few. They even had an Egyptian exhibit which I have always been fascinated with, but it hardly compared to the Egyptian exhibit at the Met in New York (which I will be visiting again next week!).

Picasso

Monet

Seurat

Wood

Hopper

Later in the evening Sonny and I headed to Navy Pier. He had challenged me to a game of putt putt (which he totally kicked my butt) and he also wanted to show me the view from the Ferris Wheel. The pier was a little touristy, but it was fun to experience it nonetheless.




Wednesday afternoon I met Sonny for lunch at Rivers. We sat outside at a table right on the river. The food and the atmosphere were superfluous. Sears Tower is just down the street from Rivers, so I headed over there right after lunch. Sears Tower is another touristy attraction, but the view up there is spectacular.



To finish off our day we headed to a White Sox game. It was fun, but not nearly as fun as the Cubs game. There was a different feel at the Cubs game; the people there seemed to be more energized. I'm glad that I had the opportunity to experience both.

Ravinia...

Sonny asked me if I had any interest in going to a park outside the city to listen to string quartet perform while enjoying a picnic on the grass. I answered with a resounding ABSOLUTELY! The concert was on a Monday evening, so Sonny had to work during the day. I spent Monday afternoon packing an amazing, if I do say so myself, picnic for us to enjoy. Goat cheese. Check. Brie. Check. Prosciutto. Check. Almonds, hummus & cherries. Check, check, check. Oh, and how could I forget about the wine?! I packed 2 bottles for good measure.

With the picnic all ready to go I headed down to meet Sonny at the train station. The string quartet was due to start at 8 PM in Ravinia which is about a 45 minute train ride outside the city. We wanted to arrive early so we could set up our picnic and relax in the park. At Ravinia you can watch the performance from the Theatre (or the Hall or Pavillion depending on the concert) or you can purchase lawn tickets and picnic out on Ravinia's expansive lawn. The concert is broadcast out onto the lawn audience from their state-of-the-art sound system so we didn't have to worry about not being able to hear the concert.

The Martin Theatre

The Lawn

The Julliard String Quartet commenced promptly at 8. They performed beautifully. As the sun went down everyone began to light candles which created an amazing ambiance. Earlier in the evening the sky was slightly overcast, but as the evening went on the curtain of clouds dissipated to reveal the star encrusted sky. It was a magical evening.

A leisurely Sunday...

Sunday morning Sonny decided to take me to Chinatown to introduce me to Dim Sum. Apparently everyone else in Chicago had the same idea as us because we had quite a wait at Shui Wah. The wait was well worth it. It was a fun new dining experience and I encourage everyone go and to try it. After eating entirely too much food we explored the streets of Chinatown before hopping on the Red Line to Lincoln Park.

When we got off the train we walked through the most gorgeous neighborhood on the way to the park. The streets were lined with trees and decadent homes. If I were to move to Chicago someday this is the neighborhood I would like to live in.


While exploring Lincoln Park we stumbled across a charming lily pond. Chicago seems to have captivating little jewels strewn amongst the entire city just waiting to be discovered!

Adjacent to the lily pond was the Lincoln Park Zoo. Exploring the zoo was a perfect way to spend a leisurely Sunday afternoon. It's not too big, so you can go and see it all in a couple of hours. After viewing the animal exhibits we grabbed a table near the South Lagoon and people watched as we enjoyed a beer.
We had been nonstop busy since I arrived in Chicago and so this day was much needed interlude.

A Wicked good time...

Saturday morning we awoke with a bit of a hangover from the festivities the prior evening. There is no better cure for a hangover than a big greasy hamburger, so off we went to Boston Blackies which is famous for their "hefty" burgers. After lunch we decided to catch a movie. We went and saw The Happening (which is NOT happening in case you were curious). After the movie we headed home to get ready for our evening affairs.

We met Sonny's friends for dinner at Dao Thai before heading off to see Wicked The Musical. I must say that I was most impressed with Wicked. I wasn't too sure what to expect, although I had heard several people rave about it. It was very well written and highly entertaining. It was Sonny's idea that we go to see the show and I am so glad that we did!

You say goodbye and I say hello...

Goodbye...Reno

Hello...Chicago!

I am having an amazing time. Sonny has kept me busy with an extremely full itinerary. Today is the first day that I have had some free time to sit down and write about my adventures in the Windy City.

I arrived in Chicago Wednesday evening. Sonny surprised me by picking me up in a Zipcar so he could give me a guided driving tour into the city. After driving around the city and taking in the sights we headed back to Sonny’s apartment. I sipped his homemade san gria while he cooked us an extraordinary dinner consisting of baked brie with apricot jam, honey balsamic salmon, scallops, asparagus and mashed potatoes. Yumm! After dinner we headed to the Signature Lounge on the 96th floor of the Hancock Tower. We sipped a cocktail as we looked out at the spectacular view of the city.


Next we walked around and took some photos as we headed to The W Hotel for a cocktail at Whiskey Sky. We had a really fun night. And this was only a glimpse of what was yet to come!

Thursday I woke up to a yummy home cooked breakfast. Afterwards we walked to the marina and the pier.


Next we caught the Red Line and headed to the Cubs game. We were almost to the game, literally approaching our stop, when the train broke down. We were stuck. Stuck, might I add, with a train packed to the gills with people all of which were eager to get to the game. Fortunately, this only lasted about 15 minutes. A very long fifteen minutes.

Finally, we made it to Wrigley Field. We grabbed some bratwurst and beers, and headed to our seats to watch an awesome game. The Cubs beat the Braves 3-2.


After the game we headed to the Red Ivy in Wrigleyville for a cocktail. We killed some time there until it was time for us to head to dinner with Sonny's friends at Tango Sur, an Argentinean Steakhouse. The food there was okay, but not nearly as good as Sonny's dinner that he prepared the prior evening. We wrapped up the evening at Coobah. The atmosphere in Coobah was perfect. The tasty mojitos paired with the live music was impeccable.

More to come...

I'm leaving on a jet plane, don't know when I'll be back again...

So, it’s official. I am leaving Reno on June 11^th, and I don’t know when I’ll be back again. I am overcome with excitement! It is becoming so real. I have put a lot of thought, planning and research into this, and now it’s finally coming into fruition. I will be heading to Fort Lauderdale to take a required STCW 95 course. After I have completed the course I will begin looking for work. There really is no telling where I will end up. Ken is currently on a yacht that is traveling the globe. I could end up on a yacht working in Greece, Spain, the Caribbean. Who knows! Wherever it is that I end up, I am incredibly eager to begin this new journey.

I am taking a little detour on my way to Fort Lauderdale to visit my good friend Sonny in Chicago. I have never been to the Windy City and so now is the perfect opportunity for me to go. We have an exciting few days planned that will encompass a Cubs game, Wicked, Museums and a whole lot of shenanigans! Whenever Sonny and I are together good times are had (see photos below, he he). I am so excited to finally be able to go and visit him!

Sonny & I at the Whispering Vine in Reno

Me in the infamous Elvis Shades

Sonny in the infamous Elvis Shades (I brought them to Cabo!)

Sonny & I in Vegas