Day 8 - When Will I See You Again?

My flight back to Florida wasn't until the afternoon, so I got to accompany Joy and Ruby to Ruby's music class with Jeff.  What fun it was!  Ruby enjoyed it and they sang 'Hello' to everyone, using each name, and they finished singing 'Hello' to Grandpa.  Ruby smiled and waved!

Day 7 - On The Town - Movie Tour

Joy signed me up for a free tour on Tuesday morning.  Before I left, I had some of the muffins Joy made . . . they had two of my favorites:  coconut and dark chocolate chunks.  YUM!!!  All chowed down, I headed out in the heavy overcast day.  On the tour, as we passed locations where movies or TV shows were filmed, clips were shown on the overhead monitors.  It was cute.  In the bottom right picture, they're taping the Celebrity Apprentice in front of the Museum of Natural History.

That's Park Avenue thru the rain splattered bus window.  Holly Golightly's home.  The terrace on Sutton Square where Woody Allen filmed scenes from "Manhattan".  That's the 59th Street Bridge, now known as the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge.  Kinda now makes me not want to be lookin' for love, and feelin' not so groovy!  Our guide said that Sutton Place had the most expensive homes in Manhattan.  You can see Long Island City from the terrace.

The tour bus left us off at Grand Central Station.  Since it was still raining, I went inside to the marketplace and food court downstairs.  It was a good day for soup!  Then, back to the apartment.  Ruby is enjoying some leftover spaghetti.  I love the way she crosses her legs at the ankles.  Soooo ladylike!

Day 6 NYC - The Saga Continues

After Ruby entertained me while she ate her pair, Joy, Ruby and I headed into Manhattan to have lunch in Bryant Park.  Joe had a shoot up in New Jersey, up past Washington Heights, their old neighborhood.

Monday After we got back, we headed over to the Playground to hang out a while.  Ruby is doing the "itsy bitsy spider", in the top right side picture below.  Then we took a walk over to Malu Shop to check it out.  They do children's book readings there.  We just had to have an ice cream cone!  It was fun running back to the apartment as it started to rain, trying to finish our cones, and Joy trying to let Ruby have some too!

Joy made spaghetti for dinner.  Can you tell Ruby loves it?  She wears it well!  Soooo good!  And I could still fit into my clothes!

Day 5 - Happy 1st Mother's Day!

It was fun being able to celebrate Joy's 1st Mother's Day with her and Ruby and Joe! That first picture was taken just after Joe traced Ruby's hand on the card for Joy.  Ruby is sporting her DVF wrap dress before she and Mommy and Daddy head out to church.  While they were at church, I got my coffee and hung out at the waterfront, taking a short walk and chillaxin and enjoying the view!

Before heading out for brunch, Ruby modeled her DVF wrap dress . . . Think G-Pa takes too many pictures???

In the afternoon, we headed over to Café Henri for brunch.  Ruby, looking so "ladies who lunch", had a ball!  She went to town on her fresh fruit compote.  At one point, she even leaned over and ate a piece of fruit right off the table, sans les mains!

After brunch, we stopped at the playground.  Ruby looks a little tired in that swing!  Then we headed back to the apartment for a delicious buttermilk berry cake with fresh whipped cream, homemade by Joy!  YUMMY!!!  FYI:  I am still able to button my pants.

It was such a beautiful Sunday!  To work off a few of the thousands of calories that we had just consumed, we took a stroll along the riverfront.  The walk along the water here is a world of difference from my daily walks along Tampa Bay in St. Pete, but how awesome is that skyline here in NYC??!!!

NYC Day 4 With The Ruby Cube

Saturday was a beautiful sunny day!  Joe and Ruby and I walked over to the Andrews Playground which is two blocks away from the apartment. It's a nice shady playground.  Ruby loves to swing, and stand and look at herself in the mirror.  Later in the morning we walked several blocks to take a ride on the East River Ferry.  Our mission: pizza at Grimaldi's in Brooklyn.  Ruby was a bit cautious at first, but soon got her sea legs.

We had to wait in line for maybe 45 minutes to get into the place!  It looks like it was a former bank.  Joy took Ruby to the park under the Brooklyn Bridge while Joe and I waited in line (or should I say waited on line, since I was in New York?).  When Joy and Ruby joined us, Ruby wasted no time chowing down with us!

It was about a 45 minute wait to get into the place, which looks like it was a former bank.  Joy took Ruby to the park under the Brooklyn Bridge while Joe and I waited in line (or should I say waited on line, since I was in New York?).  When Joy and Ruby joined us, Ruby wasted no time chowing down with us!

Ruby was having a ball on the return trip.  When we got back to the apartment, there was a Mother's Day bouquet from Joe waiting for Joy at the front desk.  Then we headed out to Uncle Louie G's for some ice cream!

NYC With Ruby Day 3

Day 3, Friday began with Ruby's morning smiles!  I took a walk to the Sweetleaf Coffee shop for my cup o' joe fix.  Then a short walk over to the waterfront to snap some pictures for posterity and my own self gratification.  :-)

We went to Communitea for our lunch and smoothies (I had the coco-banana) and brought them over to the riverfront park.  It was such a beautiful afternoon to be outside with such a spectacular panoramic skyline!  We headed over to the playground for some outside playtime.  For dinner we picked up a variety of stuff from the huge selection of hot and cold buffet setups at the Foodcellar, a block away from Js' apartment.  I could eat B/L/D there 8 days a week!

N.B. my clothes still fit.

NYC Visit with Ruby Day 2

Thursday was mostly sunny.  Ruby and I played a little before we began the day.  She's pretty good playing 'soccer'!  She catches the ball with her leg and kicks it back, and manipulates it with her feet . . . no hands!  She had fun checking out the outfits that G-Pa had brought for her.  I can't control myself when I go in the baby / toddler departments!

Joe had a location scout around South Street Seaport, so I headed into the City with him. We had empanadas and gazpacho and cucumber dill soups for lunch, then headed over to the Seaport where Joe met his cohorts. I played sightseer while they rented bikes and biked across the Brooklyn Bridge.

I took a side stroll over to the World Trade Center to check up on the progress of the construction.  The 1 WTC Tower was recently topped off with steel.  The radio tower is yet to be added.  I passed Zuccotti Park on my walk.  Very normal lunch crowd, I guess.

When Joe et al returned, I tagged along with them, heading up to midtown / NBC as they scouted out some other locations.  When we caught the subway back to LIC, I was surprised at how short distance and time-wise the commute was!

We ordered Thai take out and had a fun and relaxing evening!  So far, I could still button my pants!

Learning to Read

This photo has nothing to do with my visit to NYC, but Joy posted it today and I had to re-post.  Look at what Ruby is reading . . . She must have taken one of those Evelyn Wood courses!

 

NYC Day 1 Wednesday Arrival

I left for NYC on a 6:25 AM flight into LaGuardia.  I figured that I wouldn't sleep much anyway, so may as well avoid some traffic and get an early start.  Here's daybreak over Tampa.  I had to switch planes in Baltimore.  As we were taxiing out from the terminal, just after the flight attendant announce it was only 30 minutes in the air, the pilot broke in and announced that we had missed our window, so would have to wait 30 minutes on the ground, and he shut down the engines.  After about 20 minutes, he announced that we would have to wait another 30 minutes.  So much fun!

Joe gave me great directions to their place, so after getting my checked in bag, I headed out for a short 15 minute taxi ride.  I love their new place in Long Island City.  I could envision myself living there so that I could spend more time with Ruby!  The waterfront has parks and docks with chairs and benches and tables and grass areas and walk paths.  And there are lots of new condos and apartments and plenty of markets and restaurants and shops within walking distance.

Ruby was sooooo much fun!  We went for a walk along the waterfront and Ruby had to show me her bench and how she likes to stand up and then sit down on her Mommy's or Daddy's leg.

Joy made a delicious black bean chili with goat cheese, one of Ruby's favorite dishes.  And Joy made these delicious chocolate cookies, with peanut butter inside.  I knew that I was in trouble.  I was hoping that after 8 days I would still be able to fit into some clothes for my trip back to Florida!

Back Again

OK.  So I'm in love.  

Broadway Baby Broadway Bound

Heading off to NYC early tomorrow morning.  Going to seek out these Ruby slippers!  One week in Oz with Ruby!

Sunset at Pass-A-Grille Beach

Dave and Kevin asked me to join them for dinner at the Brass Monkey at Pass-A-Grille Beach, and to enjoy some sangria while watching the sun set on the beach.  Wayne had to pass, since he has had a cold for the past several days.

We headed down around 6:30.  Since the Taste of Pinellas was going on for the weekend at Vinoy Park in downtown St. Pete, we figured it wouldn't be so busy on that side of the peninsula.  We found a parking spot right up the block.  These giant flies were on the side of the building.  I didn't flip the photo (should be rotated once clockwise) because I like the way they look this way!

We had to wait a short while to get a table on the front porch.  This is our view, looking north towards The Hurricane.  There's a Cinco de Mayo party going on on the roof.

Dave enjoying his crab pizza and Kevin enjoying his fish and chips.

I decided to try the crab pizza too.  Excellent choice!  Took some home for tomorrow too!

About ready to set.

This guy kept flying by and entertaining us.

It was the night of the Super Moon.

Heading over to the beach.

The moon was so bright, it cast moon shadows on the beach!  It looked like some bright street lights were shining on the beach!  I LOVE living here!

AFTERWORD:  I awoke with a moon burn this morning.

Farewell Old BayWalk

BayWalk is / was a project in downtown St. Pete that opened in 2000.  It's design added a nice flavor to downtown.  Like many places, it fell on hard times and was recently sold.

I took this picture when I visited St. Pete in July 2007 when I was checking out this area to see if I really wanted to move here.

It had many shops and eating places and a 20 theater Muvico with an IMAX screen too.
[Note:  The Ovation condo has not yet been built and is missing from the left center background.  See fourth photo down. ]

I took this pictures with my cell phone as I was walking by this afternoon.

These next two photos were taken the following day. (May 4)

Yes.  This is what the new owners are turning it into.  A page out of the Jetsons.  It sure doesn't take any local flavor into account.  Would probably look good in Tomorrowland in the Magic Kingdom.

Don't cry for me, St. Petersburg.