7 posts tagged “kristin”
After Orlando, rather than flying to PHX, I flew to JFK. (Interesting side note, I made it through security at the Orlando airport with a full bottle of water. I had put a water bottle in my backpack mid-week during training, completely forgot about it, and found it again when I was sitting at the gate.) Jenn turned 30 on August 17th, so she had a big party to celebrate. Jaime, Kelly, Jodi, Jolene, Kealey and myself all flew in for the weekend. I was supposed to land at JFK at 4:45pm on Friday, however, it was one delay after another. It was my first experience on JetBlue, and although none of the problems were really their fault, it turned me off from JetBlue - give me US Air anyday (even with all the extra fees now!). My plane was scheduled to leave MCO at 2:15. When I checked in, I saw it was delayed until 3. We boarded the plane like we were leaving at 3, but at 3:15 we had not even pulled away from the gate. The pilot then made an announcement that there was weather in NY and that we currently had a wheels up time of 5:10pm. We pulled away from the gate and waited for 2 hours. We did take off at 5:10, but had to circle for about a half hour because there was still weather at JFK when we got close and finally landed at 7:15. I go to wait for my luggage and I am waiting, waiting and waiting. Another announcement - due to the weather, the luggage ramps are closed. At 9pm I finally get my luggage and head to Air Train. At this point, Jenn and the rest of the girls had already gone to dinner and she had left keys to her apartment at her gym. Well, I know the gym closes at 10pm, so I have one hour to get to Air Train, take the subway to the West Village, and walk to the gym to get the keys. I did make it (barely) and ended up just waiting at the apartment for all of the rest of them to get back.
Saturday we all slept in and then went and got Murray's Bagels for breakfast. We then just lounged around before going to the Tribecca Grand at 3pm to check into the hotel (as part of Jenn's BD gift, Jaime had reserved a hotel room for the night). We walked across the street for lunch and spent the rest of the afternoon slowly getting ready. We had 9pm dinner reservations at Megu in Tribecca.
We stayed at Megu until about 2:30am, walked back to the hotel and sat in the lobby and hung out until 4am, at which point Kelly and I hopped in a cab to head to the airport. Happy Birthday JENN!!!
Since I have enjoyed teaching the new hires so much the last two years, I decided move up a "grade" and signed up to teach new seniors this year. The training is ICA - or In-Charge Auditor. The participants at this training had just been promoted to senior associate and most had two years' of experience. We were at the Loews Portofino in Orlando, which is right at Universal CityWalk. We didn't even need a cab to get there as there were water taxi's that left every 15 minutes or so. Another manager from the Phoenix office also instructed at this training, but unfortunately all of the new seniors from our office had already attended this training in June in LA. However, there were some experienced seniors at a different Loews hotel just down the road so we met up with them to hang out at night. The highlight of the training was going to Islands of Adventure and Universal. Our room keys acted as fast passes so we were able to get in all of the rides we wanted to in 4 hours. It took a lot of running around the park but everyone had fun. Close to the end of the night, we rode The Mummy in Universal which was incredible. Everyone wanted to go on the new Simpson's ride which was almost at the other end of the park. While we were waiting in line for that ride, three of us decided that we were going to run back to The Mummy after we got off the Simpson's and try to get one more ride in. Well, we got to the entrance of The Mummy, and the guy told us the ride was closed for the night. I explained to him that it was just the three of us and we had just run all the way across the park and could we please ride. He would not budge. Just as we were going to walk away, another park employee came up and we asked him if we could ride. He said sure but we would have to go in the back way. So, he took us in the stairs at the back entrance of the ride and we got tor ride it one more time! Afterwards we went to Pat O'Brien's (dueling piano bar) and hung out until midnight. I would have loved to stay until closing but I had to teach the next morning.
The Millsaps' kids (Alexi, Mack and Mikalie) usually come to Phoenix every summer to spend some time with each set of grandparents. This year, I promised Alexi we would hang out at the condo and that she could spend a weekend with me. I didn't want to leave Mack and Mikalie out so I invited them over for a night too.
I picked up Alexi on Friday after work. Diahann actually ended up being in town that weekend too for work so we hung out at the condo for a while before going to Stax with Diahann.
Alexi spent the night on Friday night, and then on Saturday we went and picked up the other two for a day at Sunsplash. There are no water parks in Albuquerque so they all had a blast. Sunsplash has definitely become more ghetto since I was there as a kid. The Master Blaster was a fan favorite, as was The Cauldron. Mack and Mikalie really liked the Bonzai.
We were at Sunsplash by about 10:30am (it opened at 10) and the kids were still going at close (8pm). At 7:45, Alexi said "If we hurry, we can ride 3 more rides in 15 minutes!" The kids had Taco Bell for dinner and then we came back to the condo for showers.
I had promised them gelato earlier in the day, so we headed to The Gelato Spot in Old Town in pajamas (not me, just the kids :)
After gelato, the movie of choice was Elf. It took me about 5 minutes to get the movie going, and I looked back to the couches and everyone was sleeping - I guess 10 hours in the sun wore them out.
A little over a month ago, I flew to San Francisco to visit Kelly and Paul who now live there. Jenn also flew in for the weekend from NYC. We had a fun "girl" weekend - although we did let Paul hang out with us some of the time :) Paul and Kelly live in Cow Hollow, a SF neighborhood. Their apartment was just remodeled and is huge compared to NYC apartments. My flight arrived about 5 hours before Jenn's on Thursday night, so Kelly and I went out to dinner in her neighborhood and then went to have Tutti Melon - just like Pinkberry but a little cheaper.
Friday morning we had lunch in Cow Hollow at Rose's Cafe. We then got cupcakes and took the bus to American Eagle - got to love Jenn's discount :) Paul picked us up there after he was done with work and we went to dinner at The Stinking Rose - I think I was still tasting garlic the next morning. We were so full from dinner so we decided to walk home. The night before it was pretty cold so we were all dressed in jeans and long-sleeves. Well, this night was extremely warm for SF and we were all sweating pretty good by the time we got home - no walk in SF is a flat walk either.
Saturday we walked to a bagel shop for breakfast and then went to walk across the Golden Gate Bridge. I guess this is my summer for walking across bridges - Jenn and I did the Brooklyn Bridge in May. As we were walking back on the bridge, we started talking to these two guys (who weren't bad looking). Come to find out that one of them was Montana's cousin - they were also about 23 so a little out of our age range :)
Saturday afternoon we went and got cupcakes again and then did a little shopping - I forget the neighborhood - Kelly, you will have to comment and remind me so I have it correct in 5 years when I actually get to physically scrapbooking this trip. Saturday night we went for Mexican food in the Mission and drove back through another interesting area of town (Paul or Kelly, you will have to help me out on the name of this one too).
Sunday morning we grabbed bagels again and headed to the airport. Thanks Paul and Kelly for having me - it was a fun weekend!
About a month ago I had a training in Montvale, NJ, so of course I would not pass up tagging on a weekend to NYC. After my plane was delayed for a couple of hours, I arrive in the city at about 9pm on Friday night. The subway station by Jenn's has an elevator, but it was broken so I had to do the stairs with all of my luggage. I started up the stairs and didn't get very far because this homeless guy saw me and offered to carry my luggage up the stairs for me. I thanked him and told him I did not have any cash on me but would be back shortly. I walked to Jenn's apartment, dropped off my stuff and Jenn and I walked back to the subway to give the guy some cash (I bummed a few dollars off Jenn). We then went to a Thai restaurant in the Village and then to see Baby Mama.
Saturday morning we slept in a little and left Jenn's apartment around 11am. We ended up being gone all day and got back a little after midnight. We stopped in Jenn's neighborhoon for bagels at Murray's Bagels, went shopping in Soho, went to South Street Seaport to buy Broadway tickets, walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, had lunch in DUMBO (Brooklyn), went to babycakes, went to Pinkberry (see previous posts), saw What Happens in Vegas and then went to The Hummus Place for dinner.
On Sunday we slept in again, had breakfast in Jenn's neighborhood at Soy Luck Club and then went to see Mama Mia. That is the most fun Broadway Show I have seen. That would be one that I would definitely see again. After the show we got Pinkberry again and went to Whole Foods before the car picked me up to take me to Montvale.
I am looking forward to going back for Jenn's 30th in August!
My parents and I made a trip to New York City in mid-December. I had two coupons for $99 fares with the purchase of a regular price ticket (basically I bought my ticket and my parents each paid $99 round-trip). Since I was not feeling well, we went back on forth numerous times as to whether or not we should go. I started on prednisone (steroid) the week before the trip so I was feeling good and we decided to go (which I am so glad that we did). We flew in to JFK on a Friday night and took the subway directly to our hotel. We stayed at a Doubletree in midtown (51st and Lexington) which worked out perfect as there was a subway station also on that corner. We checked in to our hotel and then went to dinner at Sea. Sea is a Thai restaurant that I had been to a couple of times with Lauren and loved it, so I wanted to take my parents there.
After dinner we were going to do some walking around, but we were all freezing so we just came back to the hotel. The average temperature was about 30 degrees during the day and probably in the teens at night. Our Arizona blood is not used to those temperatures :)
Saturday morning we did breakfast at H&H bagels on the Upper East Side. This was another favorite of mine from my visits to see Lauren. My dad wanted to go here also as this is where Kramer has a job for a short time.
After breakfast and Starbucks, we took the subway to South Street Seaport to buy tickets for a Broadway show. We had planned on seeing Mama Mia, but my dad saw that A Chorus Line was available so he wanted to see that. I had never heard of it, but I guess it is a long-running Broadway show. (I think we all wish we had seen Mama Mia.)
After we bought the tickets we headed down to Canal Street (Chinatown) as mom wanted to get a knock-off Coach wallet. Once we got into Chinatown, a lady came up to us and said "You want bag." I said yes so we followed her. In my previous Chinatown experiences, they always would take us into a warehouse building and that is where they kept the Coach, Gucci, Prada, etc. bags. This time was a little different. As we were walking down the street, the lady said "Man can't come." I just told my dad to keep walking as I did not understand why they wouldn't let him come (and if they were going to take us into a building and not let my dad in then I was not going in either). Finally, the lady starts to unlock a mini-van and I now understood why "man can't come" as there was not enough room in the back of the mini-van. So, my mom and I crawl into the back of this van and there was another lady in there with all the bags. They close the door so we can make the purchase and my dad waits outside. The lady who led us down the street told my dad "Be careful, Bolice." (I did mean to spell that with a "B" rather than a "P" as that is how she said it.) My mom found the wallet that she wanted and we negotiated the lady down from $20 to $12. On a side note, a few days after my mom bought the wallet, she went to pay for something and had to unload the entire wallet in order to get her credit card. The credit card slots in this wallet were extremely deep so all of the cards fell to the bottom. Kyle, Kellyn and I ended up getting her a real Coach wallet for Christmas but our Chinatown experience still makes for a fun story. I do not have any pictures either - I was hoping my dad would have taken a picture of us crawling into the van but I think he was a little nervous :)
After Chinatown, we went to the West Village to meet up with Jenn. There is a Pinkberry right near Jenn's apartment so we met there for yogurt. When I was there in the summer, there were long lines for Pinkberry - not so much in the winter. I wish they would open a Pinkberry in Scottsdale - the closest one is in LA and I can't justify driving 6 hours just for Pinkberry :)
After Pinkberry, we headed back to midtown to buy tickets to see the Rockettes. We saw the Rockefeller Tree and then went back to the hotel for an hour to warm up before the Broadway show.
When we came out of the show on Saturday night it was snowing and it snowed most of the night. On Sunday morning we went back to the Upper East Side to this place called Vinyl for breakfast. We then walked through Central Park and then along 5th Avenue to look at windows.
We walked 5th Avenue until we got to Rockefeller Center, and then we took a subway to Lower Manhattan because my mom wanted to go to a 9-11 firefighter museum. On Friday night on our way home from Sea my dad commented on how nice it was that I know my way around the city and he did not have to bother with subway maps or knowing where to go - he could just follow. Well, on our way to the museum I missed our stop and we ended up in Brooklyn - I figured it out fast enough and we just hopped on a train back to Manhattan :) After the museum we went back to the hotel for about a half hour before going to Radio City Music Hall for the Rockettes performance - which was amazing.
After the show we had dinner at Stage Deli in Times Square - dad's favorite restaurant and I think that he has eaten there everytime he has been to the city. On our walk back to the hotel we stopped at Rockefeller to get some pictures with the tree. Every other time we had been there it was jam packed with people.
We flew back to Phoenix on Monday afternoon. I love this city and I can't wait to go back :)
This is me and my parents 25 years ago. My uncle just emailed me this picture as he is scanning all of his wedding pictures. That blonde hair definitely did not stay :)
