2011 By City

Each of the below cities includes a one-night stay in 2011. Cities denoted by an asterisk include multiple visits.

• Philadelphia, PA
• Scottsdale, AZ*
• Ludington, MI
• Whitehouse, OH
• Dalian, China

See where I was in 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007 and 2006.

Dad's December Trip to NYC 2011

Dad was in NYC from December 9th through December 14th. Here are some highlights of what we did.

Friday night - Dinner at Bareburger in the Village and then walked to Washington Square Park because Dad had never seen this arch.

Dad also wanted rice pudding so we walked to Rice to Riches from the park. We made a stop at The Tea Spot as well.

Saturday night we saw a Broadway show. We went down to Times Square around 3pm to get in line at the TKTS booth to get tickets. We had a couple of hours so we came back to my apartment for dinner. I thought this picture was funny...I don't really have a table in my apartment so this is how dad ate most of his meals.

This was a fun show...not at the top of my list of Broadway shows, but not on the bottom of my list either.

Monday night we went ice skating at Citi Pond. I had never been ice skating at any of the rinks in NYC.

I don't think Dad really enjoyed it too much, and I thought it was ok.

Tuesday night we saw Spiderman Turn Off the Dark - GREAT show!

Wednesday morning we went to the 9/11 Memorial. On September 11th of this year they opened the two memorial pools. Each pool is in the footprint of the North and South WTC tower, and the names of everyone killed on 9/11 are inscripted around the pools.

This is the new Freedom Tower in the background.

How Did I Do On My Bucket List For 31?

Last year I created a "Bucket List for 31." Here is a review of how I did.

1. Run a timed 10k. I completed numerous runs while I was 31, including a 10k.

• More/Fitness Half-Marathon - April 3, 2011
• NYRR 4 Mile - April 23, 2011 (I walked this (time of 1:03.38) because I injured my leg doing the half-marathon and could not run at this point in time. No pictures posted.)
• Boomer's Run to Breathe (10k) - July 9, 2011
• Fitness Mind, Body and Spirit Run (4-mile) - September 17, 2011
• NYRR Dash to the Finish Line (5k) - November 5, 2011

2. New Year's Eve in Times Square. Mom was in NYC for NYE last year, and we did spend it in Times Square. I never blogged about it, so here are some pictures.

We left my apartment at about noon, and arrived in Times Square by 12:45pm. We got to what we thought was our spot, and this was the time on the countdown clock (10 hours and 40 minutes). After a couple of hours of standing in what was a pretty decent spot (we could actually see a stage), we were forced by the NYPD to move an entire block north. This took forever, and we ended up in a spot which was not as good as our original location.

This is the crowd we stood in for about 12 hours. We couldn't move...and no, there were no bathrooms. We were not drinking anything.

FINALLY...it was midnight. It was a long time of standing there...you could barely hear the singers, and they did not project any of the broadcasters through Times Square.

Decked out in our gear. I am glad I can say I did this, but would NEVER do it again.

3. Ride in the 5-borough bike ride. Fail...didn't happen.

4. Scrapbook 2009 and 2010. I really thought I would be more efficient doing digital scrapbooking, but I was a little over-zealous in this goal. 2009 is almost done, and 2010 will be up next.

5. Walk every street in the 80s from the East River to the Hudson. Nope, didn't happen. I walked a lot of Manhattan, but not specifically these streets.

6. Learn all the features on my camera. I upgraded to a Sony Nex 5 in April. Kellyn and Coby bought this camera for Christmas last year, and I really liked it because it had a small body but was a DSLR. I have learned quite a bit about photography this year, mostly from my friend Mike Anderson. I also signed up for a Grand Central Walking Tour photography class through Adorama, but was not impressed with this class. The instructor didn't do any instructing...he just told us to go take pictures so I don't really know what the point of the class was.

7. Focus on living my life rather than building my life. I have definitely had a lot more time on my hands this last year given the change in jobs so I was able to have more of a "life." I am looking forward to 2012 when I will hopefully be returning to AZ and can live life with the people I love most.

charity: water 10k 2011

Last year's charity: water 10k was such a success that we decided to plan another one. Jessica Joy took the lead last year, but she had a lot on her plate this year so I took the lead in planning the event. We had a total of 26 people participate in this year's event. It was a perfect morning in Central Park, and everyone did a great job!

Thanks to Mike Anderson and John Nelson for taking all the pictures.

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade 2011

On Thanksgiving morning, I went to my second "live" Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. I asked a few friends in the city if they were interested in going, but no one wanted to go given the early start. So...I was excited when Vu emailed me saying his family was going and did I want to hang out with them at all on Thanksgiving day. I said I would love to go to the parade with them if that was ok.

We met around 6:45am at 68th and Lex, and walked across the park to Central Park West. We found a pretty good spot at about 67th and Central Park West. It was a beautiful, sunny day, probably around 50 degrees. The pictures turned out great by having the colorful park in the background.