A Stroll Around the Capitol

It's easy to overlook your own home country when you are so actively trying to explore new ones, but coming back to the good ol' U-S-of-A proved me wrong. There is plenty of beautiful and historic buildings and places right under all of our noses. Washington, DC is one of those places. So much history, so much beauty. It might not be as old as the Roman Forum in Rome, but it sure does deserve the same amount of respect.

BILLY JOEL

Whew! I am finally closing the book on the recap of our winter New York City trip. 

Here are several clips that I took at the Billy Joel 2013 New Year's Eve Concert in Brooklyn.

Enjoy! xx

GRAND CENTRAL

For those of you that have the opportunity to visit Grand Central, you should check it out. 

I was completely awestruck by the beauty of the building, inside and out. I mean, the ceiling has constellations on it-- how cool is that?! 

Considering we had no plans to visit Grand Central initially, this was by far my favorite NYC landmark that we visited.

**NOTE: Our pictures truly don't do it justice; you're just going to have to check it out for yourself!

NYC PART DEUX

Ah, New York City.

You can't say that you've seen New York City if you haven't experienced Time Square; it's practically a rite of passage! 

We successfully navigated the crowds and managed to get out without any major panic attacks.

After all that walking, we worked up an appetite, so we decided to get in line at Carnegie Deli. The food was good, but take my advice on this-- PAY THE EXTRA $3.00 TO SHARE THE SANDWICH WITH A FRIEND! There is just no way to finish one on your own!

 Our last stop, or, so we thought, was Rockefeller Center. I have never visited New York during the Christmas months, so I was excited to see the tree and all the Christmas decorations. Even though it was a few days past Christmas, there was still plenty of Christmas spirit in the air!

It was freezing out, so we found a close wine bar to post up at for a few. We were waited on by the only friendly bartender in New York City. He was amazing. 

Once we were warmed up, we set out to find our way back to Brooklyn!

NYC PART UN

This was James' first time to New York City, so we were determined to hit up all of the iconic tourist traps. We only had one day to do it all, so we were up and out the door early Monday morning.

We started out in the Financial District at Ground Zero. Though I have been to New York many times, I haven't ever seen the Freedom Tower, and therefore, it was at the top of our list.  Unfortunately, we didn't purchase tickets for the 9/11 Memorial in advance, and due to the line being super long and it being freezing outside, we didn't get to go in and pay our respects; it will definitely be first on our list for next time.

After experiencing Ground Zero, we hopped back on the subway and headed north towards the Empire State Building. I could not stress enough that it is NOT  worth waiting in that long line to go up to the top! #1: We really didn't have enough time to do stuff like that and #2: It was freezing!

Needless to say, we enjoyed it from a far!

WEEK FOURTEEN

I am officially jet lagged. It's miserable. All I want to do is sleep. Our flight home was extremely delayed-- I'm talking nine hours delayed-- because of a fender-bender on the tarmac (seriously, our plane was backed into by a Lufthansa plane that was reversing out of its gate). Our 6:15 PM departure became 7:00, then 7:30, 8:00, 9:00, etc., until we finally got our wheels off the ground around 3:00 AM. 

Once we got on the plane it was a good experience since James and I were able to fly envoy class which included sleeper seats. I'm telling you, this is the way to fly. I could've spent months in that cubby. So comfortable!

this is what 12 hours at the airport looks like

We were anticipating the jet lag, but with the delay in our flight it was just so much worse. We typically would have arrived in London at approximately 7AM so we would've had the whole day to start getting acclimated, but yesterday we arrived at 3PM(dusk) and got home close to 5PM, which in London is completely pitch black. I just hope James can sleep better tonight so that he isn't exhausted on his first day back at work.

On the bright side, we are finally home after our whirlwind tour. Following 12 days of living out of our suitcases, we were very antsy to get back to London-- back to our home, back to our normal. All I can say is that I am ready to start fresh in 2014 and get back into our routine again.

Alright, so back to the Week 14 recap!

Last Sunday we flew up to NYC and stayed in Brooklyn for three days. Unfortunately, my sister's family came down with the flu so James and I decided to keep our distance and not risk it. Instead, we had a date night in Brooklyn at La Vara, a Spanish tapas restaurant and then had drinks at Henry Public.

Since this was James' first time to NYC we wanted to fit in as much sightseeing as possible into one day, so Monday we woke up early and headed into town. 

Tuesday morning I met an old friend at a coffee shop in Brooklyn and in the flash of an eye, three hours had past. James and I found some delicious pizza near Prospect Park and then headed back to the hotel to relax and get ready for dinner and the Billy Joel concert.

As always, Billy was a gem. I will be posting videos and pictures of the concert and NYC later this week. My phone is just completely packed with pictures from this trip home; it is going to take me some time to filter through all of them. 

We flew back to NC on Wednesday morning, which sucked. I could have slept the entire day away and still not felt close to 50%. We got back to Raleigh and immediately drove back to Kernersville to eat a traditional New Year's meal (pork chops, greens, black eyed peas, cornbread... yum) and relax with James' parents and Winston. 

The only thing that could make me feel better was a sleepover with the dogs so that's exactly what we did.

Thursday, we packed and relaxed.

Friday, we said goodbye to Kernersville and drove to Charlotte to catch our flight back to London.

Saturday, was a travel day.  Our plans to be productive were compromised by the flight delay, so we only managed to find our way back to our flat, feed ourselves, and attempt to (finally) catch the season finale of Homeland (James and I slept through most of it).

And Sunday, well, James is sick and I'm still in my pajamas. So there.

How was your week?