Philly

Over the weekend Caroline and I decided to take a day trip to Philly to just see the city and go to Independence Hall and Liberty Bell National Park.

It is a 2 hour drive so we were able to go there in the morning and come back at night, the drive is not bad the long part is getting off this crazy island called Manhattan.

Once we got there we got in line to see the liberty bell, it was really neat to see it up close and the fact that it was not encased made it even cooler.

We both were hungry so we could not go to Philly without having a famous Philly Cheese stake. We went to a place that I had seen on Throw down with Bobby Flay. The place was Tony Luke's, and the cheese steaks were great. Really big and tasty, Caroline could not finish hers and I was not going to attempt to finish it off for here there were just too big.

We headed back to Independence Hall, they give you a reserved ticket time to go through the site so that there are not too many people going through. We took the tour of the complex of buildings that are there and learned about the history and the significance of these buildings. It was a really neat thing to finally see some of the history that I had learned about all of my life. Normally as Americans we don't realize our own history because our history is not very old, but it was so cool to see the birth place of the United States of America and to really get a sense of how amazing that history is. I am a big history buff so this was very exciting for me and so much fun to be where the Declaration of Independence was signed and to actually see a "copy" of it from 1776.

Philly was so much fun, it is a beautiful city and had a really fun vibe about it, we will definitely have to go back again and spent some more time there. It was a good day trip to learn about history and eat some good. It is so nice to get out of Manhattan with all of the running around that goes on here and to slow it down a bit. Hopefully we can go to many of the other great cities on the east coast.

The pictures are of Independence Hall, the room where the Declaration was signed. the senate and house chambers. and the Liberty Bell.

PUG

Since it has been awhile since I put pictures of our dogs up here I though that I would now. As you can see Vader has got a lot bigger than before, he is now taller than Yoda, but not quite as big as Yoda. They both are crazy and have way too much fun chasing and annoying each other.

Met's Game

OK so it has been awhile since the last time that we updated this blog.

Here are some pictures of Caroline and I at a Met's game we were able to go down on the field because it was a special thing that Macy's was doing with the heart association. The game itself was a bit uneventful, but it was fun to be there and we had a good time.

Quebec City

For Valentines day Caroline and I went to Quebec City for the Winter Carnival that is held there every year. It was extra special this year because Quebec is celebrating its 400th B-day. We left on Valentines day, so we actually celebrated it the next day. We drove to Montreal and stayed with Caroline's parents for the night and dropped the dogs off with them. The dogs didnt mind because they have the freedom to run like crazy in Caroline's house. Early the next morning we drove to Quebec city which is a little over 2 hours away. We got there and checked into our awesome hotel. For anyone who has seen pictures of Quebec City than you probably have see the hotel that we stayed in Le Chateau Frontenac. It is abeautiful hotel that is over a hundred years old and designed like an old Chateau from France. Our room was in the tall tower on the top floor so it was really nice and had such an amazing view of Old Quebec. We bundled up the temp. was around 20 degrees on that day, and headed out to see the sites and the Carnival. We went to the Ice Castle that is the home for the mascott of the Carnival a giant snowman called "Bonhomme". We got our picture taken with him and we were able to go around and look at all of the ice and snow sculptures that are made by different students and countries for the Carnival. It was really pretty and fun. There was not a lot of activities that were planned for that day, but there were many for tomorrow. We were out for about 4 hours walking around and by that time we were done we were so cold we went back to our hotel room and sat in the jacuzzi hot tub for awhile so we could get warm again. That night we had our Valentines day a romantic dinner in the 5 star French resturant Le Champlain. The atmosphere was so nice, it was like in a big living room with a large fire place and a view overlooking the river. The food was fantastic and so good and the desserts were amazing. It was a really nice time and a very romantic Valentines dinner.

The next day it was cold and I mean really cold, the high temprature for the day was to get to only 5 degrees and to feel a lot colder because of the wind. We went to all of the different venues that had things to do like ice skating, tubing, sleding, and other various activities that you could watch or participate. At one place they had an Ice Bath where people could take a bath in the snow with just their bathing suits on, absolutly crazy in that temprature. We watched some horse and sleigh races which was fun, but again it was so cold that I could hardly believe that the horses were having any fun. We had a traditional Quebec meal for lunch a split pea soup and a beef stew like meal. It was good because it was able to warm you up from the inside. Again it was so cold that we went back to our room and sat in the jacuzzi to warm up because we were going to go out at night and watch the night parade. We left to go see the night parade at 6 and at that time it was about -20 degrees F and with the wind about -30. We had camped out at the end of the parade route which was probably a mistake because we waited for about 3 and a half hours before the parade got there. There were a lot of people there so that helped the temprature go up a degree or two. The only way to keep warm was to dance around and keep moving. The parade was fun by the time it got there and it was really fun to see all of the floats and all of the fun stuff that they had. And of course Bonhomme was there in the last float to say goodbye and thanks for comming and he would see everyone next year. We then tried to walk back to the hotel, it was hard because we were so cold and could hardly move. And again we cooked in the jacuzzi and ordered hot coco and desserts. And that was all of our awesome Valentines Day weekend. We got up the next morning and said goodbye to Quebec City and drove back to Montreal picked up the dogs and drove back here to NYC. All in all it was a great weekend.

Rockefeller center Christmas tree

Christmas

Christmas

We had a great Christmas and a lot of fun just the 2 of us. Throughout the month of December we had several of our family members come and visit with us and it was really fun to have them here at this time of year.

Temple Sealing