A Belated Halloween Post

This was our first Halloween in New York City so we decided to just jump in and spent the holiday in the Village. Halloween in the Village is wild. On your average day you'll spot plenty of people in wacky outfits. On Halloween? God only knows what you'll see.

I started off my Halloween volunteering at the Village Children's Parade which was a lot of fun. So many kids in incredible outfits. They put a lot of work into it! My favorite costume was a parent dressed as a Jawa from Star Wars complete with light up eyes. Unfortunately I didn't get any photos.

The Children's Parade wound around Washington Square Park before ending at a festival near NYU. I was given the extremely important job of line control for the Twisted Twister Slide. Lots of fun!

After the carnival finished we headed out and spent the rest of the holiday with family, in our horse head masks (of course). 

Happy Halloween! Now on to the best holiday, THANKSGIVING!

My slide had some difficulties and deflated mid-Carnival

SWAT Dog

Stilt Walker Scarecrow. Kind of creeped me out.

Scarecrow and a bunny

Here is my station in its full inflated glory... The TWISTED TWISTER

New York Marathon

This past Sunday we crawled out of our nice warm bed, picked up some bagels and walked over to Lafayette Avenue to watch 50,000 runners compete in the ING New York Marathon. The runners had a perfect day for their race, it was crisp and cold and all of the gorgeous fall leaves were out.

We made it to Lafayette Avenue just in time to see the two female elite runners in first place pass by. We waited around for a while to watch the rest of the female elite pack followed by the males, and then all the "regular" runners. In this case, regular means sub 2.5 or 3 hour total race times which is nuts!! We saw a man running in a full suit, someone dressed as superman, and a runner in full Mayan regalia.

Watching the race inspired me to join the lottery for the New York 1/2 Marathon in March. I'll find out on December 12, wish me luck! The nighttime NYC skyline photo was from my run home from work last night. I can't say that I'm a fan of the time change. I hate leaving work in the dark! Oh well, at least there's sunshine in the morning for now.

Buzunesh Deba and Tigist Tufa - Deba went on to finish second

Female Elites - So fast!

Panorama of spectators on Lafayette

Geoffrey Mutai (orange top, blue shorts) went on to win the men's division

Male elites running down Lafayetter Avenue in Ft. Greene

NYPD keeping an eye on things

Helicopters and birds at the Queen of All Saints Church 

Runners by the Queen of All Saints Church

Looking back to Manhattan on my run home. 

Princesa the dog and a walking stick bug

Kura Design Villas - Uvita, Costa Rica

Our first hotel in Costa Rica. Near Parque Nacional Marino Ballena. Famous for the whales tail beach and migrating pods of whales and dolphins.

Penn is on fire!!

Well, Cosi is. After walking into my office today to a power outage and Internet failure things died down for a few minutes. But then the sirens started, followed by the helicopters, and then there was the smokey smell. I headed outside to take a look. By now it's pretty well under control. Lots of smoke but no visible flames. The farmers market outside Cosi is still in full swing.

Eventful day and it's not even 10 AM yet!

Brooklyn Heights on the Fourth of July

Brooklyn Heights was one of our favorite neighborhoods. We really weren't considering the Heights before our walking tour, but it really stuck out to us. Lots of cute brownstones, patios, backyards. This was a beautiful park looking on to Manhattan. 

 

Lady Liberty in the distance

 

 

 

Neighborhood Shopping in Brooklyn

We spent our Fourth of July wandering around Brooklyn shopping for neighborhoods. That's right, we are leaving Philly behind sometime soon and moving to New York!

Monster Litter

Mmmm, a pork store

This place had a gorgeous turtle and koi pond in the front yard

A moss farm

Sorry for the blurry picture, but I had to post this. I just loved this little moss farm. So creative! I'd like to try making a living wall with succulents and moss. I think shadow box frames would be handy for a project like that. Maybe once we get settled. It's all I can do to force myself outside to water our flowers now!  

Adorable little old fashioned soda fountain

 We had a nice lunch at this soda fountain and I had my first egg cream! Egg creams are kind of a fizzy chocolate milk (no egg involved). My grandfather, Adam, always told me about egg creams but I'd never seen one on a menu until now. I love when little reminders of him pop up and surprise me. I think that's one of the reason I'm so excited for our move. Even though my grandparents lived in New Jersey and raised their family there, my grandpa spent a lot of time in New York and would always tell me stories about his adventures there. Maybe I can retrace some more of his steps!

Interesting sculptures outside of the Brooklyn Academy of Music Opera House 

  

Julius, the Ultra-Flexible Laundry Monster

Every weekend when I go to do our laundry I face this dreadful beast, the Laundry Monster.


He inhabits caves made from sundresses and attacks when you least expect it. 

 

When he isn't terrorizing the laundry pile, he can be found showcasing his contortionist abilities.   

 

Phair, Pink Lemonade Flowers, and Mounted Police

Last weekend we took a long walk along the Schuylkill River and ended up at Phair, a small flea market with a few food trucks on the river banks. It was too hot to stay for very long but we made sure to sample some pork belly bao buns and korean tacos on our way out.

Phair on the Schuylkill Banks

On our way home we passed on of my favorite gardens in Philly, a teeny strip of land near the Boy Scouts of America Headquarters at Van Pelt and Winter Streets.  

I call it the pink lemonade garden because of the gorgeous yellow and hot pink flowers. 

These bloom s replaced some lovely royal purple spring flowers. I hope I can learn to garden this well! At a recent library book sale I picked up a guide to container gardening but haven't had a chance to read it yet.  

That evening we met up with a few friends in Old City for a drink. On our way there we passed these horse cops patrolling the NEIGH-borhood (sorry, I had to).