Christmas in New York

We liked New York so much from this summer that we just had to go back!! Well kinda, Chris and Jenny hosted the Swanson Christmas, so we all headed out to see the sites. It was a lot of fun, the weather was perfect for walking around and all the winter activities were in full swing.


Friday, we got up early and headed down to the Rockefeller Plaza to try and get on the Today Show. That didn't happen for several reasons: it was pretty cold, they are sissies, or probably more importantly we were just late. From there we hit up a few shops for some over the top shopping on 5th Ave. After while we split up and Mom and Leslie went to the MET while the rest of us went to the Museum of Natural History. Just like about everything we saw it was really interesting. I don't know how anyone can run out of things to do in that city!
Cathy really wanted to see a Broadway show so that night we got tickets for Beauty and the Beast. I was shocked with how good the show is, now granted my experience with plays and drama is slim to none, but even so this was excellent!

Saturday, we got to sleep in a little and got to the city in the early afternoon. We started off by walking across the Brooklyn Bridge and got to see the city. Once in the city we headed down to China town for a little taste of Black Market shopping. A guy was just sitting on the street and when we walked passed whispered "purses, purses" Jenny in her unbelievable street lingo muttered something back and next thing we know we are following this guy to a side street and the girls were getting in this fully tinted mini-van. As soon as they got in 'click' all the doors were locked. They guy told us not to stand around by the van because we looked suspicious and would attract cops, so we spread out on the street and tried to act cool. About 5-7 minutes later the girls got out with a few black plastic bags. They told us to walk a couple blocks before opening them up so the people couldn't be tracked. It was pretty sweet and I guess they scored some pretty sweet deals on some knock off Prada purses. We were going to another show later in the evening but before hand we stopped in at Central Park for some ice skating. The ice rink was packed but it was a lot of fun, I didn't bust out the triple toe spin but Cathy and I did dabut our doubles swan move - we should go on tour.

Sunday was another relaxing day. Church in the morning and then Cathy and Jenny prepared the best ham feast I have ever eaten. After that we opened gifts and played games the rest of the night.

Monday, was time to go home. The day before we called a car service and told them that we needed a vehicle to take 5 of us to the airport. Nobody speaks english so it was hard to get across what we needed. Finally after about 15 minutes they said they would send someone to get all 5 of us. Well just as I expected some guy shows up with Lincoln Town car, needless to say we didn't all fit. We argued for a while and then we told him to leave. At this point we are cutting into our time before the plane leaves. We called another service and they said they would send a van. Well this guy shows up with a mini van and the trunk all full of his personal stuff! He refused to take us but we all just jumped in and Chris started throwing bags on top of us. We all got in and the guy wasn't overly happy about it but took us anyway. Fortunately traffic wasn't an issue and we made good time to the airport.
WOW what a trip! It was a great time but it is nice to be home again.
Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!!

Melting away

Looks like we are going to have another year like last - an early snow to make you think it is winter and then gets warm and everything melts 'till spring when you are supposed to be riding out side and we get dumped on with snow.
I was in at the shop last night and Bob was saying that up north it has been really dry and that he is thinking about hitting up Levis/Trow this weekend. That would be really cool if that works out.
Well we sold a few bikes so that is good. Cathy's bike ended up in Oregon and my frame is heading down to Georgia. The basement looks really empty with only a couple rode bikes left. That shouldn't last for long though....

....and now it is winter

Wow I almost made it a month without any updates!! Anyone that is still reading this site really needs to get a life!
I guess the biggest reason for no updates is the lack of news this time of year. We took some pretty serious time off, riding maybe once or twice a week tops. Over Thanksgiving we got out a few times thanks to the beautiful weather, but that quickly ended. When we woke up on Friday we had snow piled up everywhere! I shoved out the car and we tried to get to work. After taking 30 minutes to got 5 miles on the interstate we turned around and decided to read a magazine and sip hot chocolate. Once the snow started letting up at 10am we ventured out again and finally made it to work.
The snow looks really nice and now it actually feels like winter. I think we are going to rent some skis this weekend and hit up Kettle for some XC action. I have only XC skied a few times last year but really liked it, hopefully the snow will stick around this winter so I can get better at it.
Lastly Cathy's bike sold this weekend. We are going to get it all packed up and off to it's new owner out in Oregon. Now I just need to get my frame gone and we can both be rocking Anthems next year.
I say this every year but I will try to keep this updated better through the winter.