Another Christmas in New York

This year, we were lucky enough to enjoy our second annual holiday visit from my parents. The visit included less sightseeing than usual, due to a mix bad weather and being completely based in Queens for the first time.  I'm sure me waddling around had nothing to do with the less ambitious schedule.

Mom and Dad still made certain they didn't leave out the important stuff - making an appropriate number of visits to the local bagel shop and Russian bakery and a very cold and early trek to the Today Show.  And they got to do what every tourist hopes for: a doctor's visit to see the cutest baby in NYC squirming around on an ultrasound machine.

On Christmas night we went to see the Rockefeller Christmas Tree and amazingly showed up at the same time as every other tourist in the city.  I saw enough strollers to realize that would be a bad plan for next year.  We followed this up with a traditional meal of what all Americans eat on Christmas - Mexican food!

Pretty but far away.

One day we met some friends in Greenwich Village for brunch.  Unfortunately New York City showed it's ugly winter face with rain, wet snow, wind, and cold (sometimes all at once and at least two at all times).

The scene inside the restaurant was much better.  Warm, inviting, not drafty, and delicious food.

Randy's "Eggie Breakfast"

The Grandparents-To-Be indulged us and Baby R by purchasing a crib and bedding.  It hasn't been delivered yet but the next two challenges will be putting it together and deciding on a good place for it.  Thanks, IKEA, for your simple small-apartment-appropriate designs and affordable selection.

And I thought this tree was enormous before positioning my every growing bump in front of it. That's almost five pounds of baby right there, folks!

32 Weeks on Christmas Day!

My Favorite Things

(Pregnancy Edition)

 

Dessert

Dessert generally and ice cream specifically.  I only found this fabulous pumpkin flavor once but pretty much any ice cream will do.  And although ice cream has become a nightly staple, it should be noted that I have nothing against cake, cookies, or brownies.  This is actually true pregnant or not.

 

Black and Gray Clothing

I don't know if it's the pregnancy, the time of year, or living in New York City, but dark clothes just seem subtle and right.  So black and gray are the official colors worn by the baby bump.   Don't worry, the real baby will be much more stylish.  I tried on a hot pink sweater at Target and felt like a balloon at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Yep, that's 30 weeks for you.

Pants with Stretchy Waist Bands

I've always had a thing for elastic waistbands (who doesn't!) so it's super fun to have an excuse to wear them every day.  I might hang on to my pregnancy jeans afterward and just call them my Thanksgiving jeans.

Tiny Baby Clothes

To stick with the clothing theme, check out these strawberry and eggplant onesies from my friend Linda.  Gosh, how is everything sooo adorable when it's mini-sized?  Only cute babies can get away with wearing eggplants all over them.

And Randy's Current Favorite Thing...

Our Christmas Tree. 

Yes, it is 8 feet tall and, yes, it is hitting our ceiling.  Randy carried it all the way home (on foot) and is very proud of himself.  We had to buy more lights and stretch out our ornament collection to make it cover the whole tree.

Hello Third Trimester!

Before I go an entire month without a single post, I want to wish myself (and baby) a Happy Third Trimester!  Hard to believe it's already been 28 weeks and we only have 12 left to go.  It's like the last leg of a series of flights to New Zealand, where you're the most excited but also the most tired and uncomfortable.

So far, my favorite thing about being pregnant is having a convenient excuse/rationalization for everything.  Examples:  I'm too tired to go there.  I can't pick up this heavy laundry basket.  Let's have pizza for dinner again.  I want a cupcake.  Any of these will fly if preceded by "I'm pregnant."  Randy has picked up on this and tried to pull an "I'm pregnant, will you rub my feet?" but I didn't fall for it.

I haven't been terribly inconvenienced so far.  The biggest nuisance is that my bladder can't seem to hold it's own in my ever-crowded torso and has been reduced to the size of a field pea.

I'm way behind on progress photos so here's a November recap of bump action:

24 weeks

26 weeks

I may very well be wearing the same outfit in these two pictures, I can't tell for sure.  But I do know that my wardrobe is extremely limited these days so I wouldn't be surprised.  I haven't bought much so far and I've been meaning to run to Target or Kohl's for a few more maternity options but it keeps getting squeezed out of my schedule.  Hopefully this week!

27 1/2 weeks at Rockefeller Center

Apparently I can only face one direction in profile shots.

Chad & Casey in NYC

There's almost nothing we like more than having visitors in our own city (except maybe going to new cities ourselves).  It always gives us a good reason to act like tourists and not feel weird about it.  So we were totally stoked when Randy's brother Chad and his wife Casey came to visit.  Their visit was full of eating and sightseeing as any good visit would be.

Times Square: Mandatory tourist stop

One of the highlights was accompanying the Cs to a fancy pants restaurant, Le Bernardin, that we never in a million years would've thought to go to on our own.  The food was as interesting as it was delicious and the extremely attentive staff helped us push in our chairs, provided us with an unlimited supply of interesting breads, and even gave us "purse stools" for our handbags.  It was by far the best treatment myself or my fake Chloe handbag has ever gotten in a restaurant.

Striped bass entree.

Randy pondering his unusual looking dessert.

The Foodie Couple

Other fun times with C & C included seeing Wicked on Broadway, eating bonofide New York style pizza, walking around Lower Manhattan and Battery Park, and going to the Met.

Baby bump posing with the very distant Statue of Liberty.

The Gender Mystery

Now that we've made it past our anatomy scan without finding out the gender, I'm feeling confident that we might actually make it all the way to the end without knowing.  We successfully turned away at all the right times to keep Little Munchkin's gender a secret and keep ourselves in deep suspense.

21 Weeks with Mystery Baby

So why, in this day of coordinating the crib sheets with the wallpaper and having a whole set of monogrammed clothing before the baby is born, would we decide to deny ourselves such valuable information?

1.  More Excitement in the Delivery Room

How often these days does a doctor get to exclaim “It’s a [boy/girl]!” after catching the baby?  Gender reveal seems like a great joy of the profession and it’s been taken away by the ultrasound.  I also had someone tell me she was extra motivated during labor to get the baby out because she was dying to know the gender.  Hard to argue with that!

2.  We're Used to Being Under-Prepared

Living in NYC and Randy working as an airline pilot for the first 5 years of our marriage has resulted in us adopting a fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants lifestyle.  One time we decided to go to Budapest and that very evening we were on a plane over the Atlantic.  I’m sure having a little one will settle us down considerably but why rush things?  We are decently organized but long term planning remains outside of our comfort zone.  It’s best to keep things sudden and unexpected for as long as possible.

Ahhh, the carefree days of our twenties.

3.  Yellow is Swell-O

I have already been informed that our baby will be wearing yellow for the first year of his or her life.  That’s okay because thanks to this place we love yellow.  Also, it really keeps gift-givers on their toes.  Have you ever tried looking for gender neutral baby clothes?  It’s hard!  Only people who really love us will go through that, which may keep our inventory to a manageable NYC-friendly size.  Plus, there are some great looking gender-unspecific goodies here. 

And if you think it's impossible to find cute stuff in yellow, clearly you haven't been shopping with my mom or my Aunt Jane...

Thanks for the early gifts, folks!

4.  Down on Decorating

We won’t be decorating a nursery because…we don’t have a nursery!  At the risk of blowing a few suburban minds, I will inform you that we live in a one bedroom apartment.  It’s possible we might be moving but we have no firm (or even loose) plans yet.  So for now baby will either be bunking with us or in the living room.  Those are the only two options.

Note:  Decorating is my life’s weakness so I’m actually happy to skip the curtain hanging, room painting part of this whole baby thing.

And now for the most recent pic of the ever expanding bump...

22 Weeks and the belly's first time dressing up.  

Scrap Metal Collecting

Owning a storefront comes with a never-ending to-do list.  The last store owner left a ton (well at least half a ton) of useless junk in our basement and Randy's been wanting for months to clean it out so we have more room and can better organize our own stuff.

The junk in the basement was primarily wood and metal scraps from who knows what in the past.  Most notably there was an enormous metal air conditioning unit that was bigger than a refrigerator and taking up some serious floor space.  We store most of our inventory downstairs and space is at a serious premium in this city.

On day one of major basement clean-up, Randy hauled all the wood and trash to our dumpster and arranged for a special heavy pickup.  On day two, he rented a U-haul and carted all the metal out of the basement to take it to a scrap metal facility, including the a/c unit he dismantled - motor, turbine, shell, and all.  You'd have to see how narrow the stairway is between floors to truly appreciate the difficulty of this.

Randy scrapping with the best of them!

We went to the 24-hour scrap metal yard around midnight which was originally due to poor planning (and a lets-just-do-this-thing-now attitude) but ended up being good planning because there was hardly anyone else there at that time.  It's pretty cool, they weight your vehicle when you arrive and again before you leave, and pay you by weight.  The only downside is they don't handle money at night so we had to return the next day to get paid.

It's a seriously busy operation during the day.  There were about 10 vans dumping at one time.

Thanks to all my construction site experience, I felt pretty at home among the cranes, loud noises, and male dominated crowd.

The bottom line:

Total metal weight from the basement:  540 lb (Randy has sore arms!)

$45        450 lb #1 Steel
$24        8 lb #2 Copper
$72.50   58 lb Aluminum/Copper Radiator
$4.80     24 lb Electric Motor
$50        Money saved using U-haul truck for lumber delivery (for new shelves)
($110)   U-haul rental

($65)     Ticket for parking the U-haul in a residential area at night.  Doh!
$21.30

Getting this junk out of our basement and a metal scrap yard adventure...Priceless.  And approximately $200 saved by not having it done professionally.

We hoped to come close to breaking even by doing it ourselves, so mission accomplished, but it stings that we would've come out more ahead without the darn parking ticket.

Of course now we see metal ($$$) everywhere we look.  Trash can!  Car bumper!

And just so you know he cleans up well...

Randy's BBQ Birthday Dinner from earlier this week.  Happy 32 years!

This guy deserves some meat!

Vacationing

September = A great month for visiting Florida.

We spent last week with my parents and brother in Destin.  The weather was perfect every single day and since it was the tail end of the summer and school is back in, the crowds were very light.  There was hardly any competition for beach space, pool time, or restaurant seating.  And did I mention the weather was p-e-r-f-e-c-t?

Randy enjoying paradise.

We're simple people with simple pleasures.  So we spent the entire week swimming in clear water and stuffing our faces full of shrimp, fish, and dessert.

My dinner one night:  grilled shrimp!

One morning we went boating on the bay and saw lots of dolphins.  One group of dolphins came so close to our boat that we could hear them blowing air when the came out of the water.  It was like SeaWorld!

Matt at the helm.

We anchored at a sand bar where the water is only a few feet deep for a swim.  Although it wasn't much of a  "swim" in such shallow water.

Parents wading in the bay.

All five of us tried our hand at paddleboarding.  It's harder than it looks fighting against the ocean currents.  My super-fit parents were pretty good at it.

It's hard to beat that clear Destin water!

And a real life mostly-color-coordinated somewhat-posed family picture by Randy Photography.

All cleaned up and showing our good side.

I'm going off the deep end here with a swimsuit picture and my belly hanging out.  Pregnancy is sure making me immodest.  The bump really feels bigger than this picture shows.

18.5 weeks

Ahh, here's a better side view that does it justice.  Strangers are just starting to notice.

19 weeks

I Hate Cooking

1.  It's Not My Fault

I’ve never hidden my hatred for cooking.  I come from a long line of non-cooks.  I dislike cooking, my mom dislikes cooking, and I’m pretty sure her mom did too.  My most vivid memory of my grandmother’s cooking is a fragrant beef dish that tasted strongly of vinegar.  I'm amused that she was ever attracted to this recipe and, furthermore, that she made it more than once.  I know my other relatives MUST remember this infamous dish.   

The best cook in my family is actually my dad but for some reason his talent went undiscovered until long after I left home for college.  His mother was a pretty good cook but everything she made had a distinct Eastern European flair so I have no idea if she could make anything normal like lasagna. 

Randy’s mother is a rockstar in the kitchen and he was in for a rude awakening when he married me.  I tried cooking steak for his birthday, 21 days after our wedding, burned it in the oven, and set off the fire alarm.   I never tried again.

Thanksgiving with Randy's family, none of it made by me.

2.  I Have No Patience

 

To give you an idea of how lazy of a cook I am, I try to limit my meals to 10 minutes and 3 ingredients.  Because when I come home at 7:30 I want to eat NOW.  My go-to meal is spaghetti.  When Randy was a pilot and gone several nights a week, I would eat spaghetti more frequently than I want to admit.  It takes 10 minutes, has 3 ingredients (if you add meat) and I NEVER get sick of pasta sauce.  With a side of broccoli, it’s perfectly well balanced in my opinion.

I guess I'm more of an eat-to-live than a live-to-eat person.  I'm generally annoyed when (yet another) mealtime pops up because it means I have to go into the kitchen and figure out what the heck to make.  Again.  

 3.  Why It's Time to Improve

Now that I'm eating for more than just me and I'm out of the first trimester (meaning something besides mac & cheese sounds appetizing), I'm trying to step up my food game.  As in more variety and more veggies. 

I'm also trying to keep in mind that someday I'll have to cook for a family (yikes!).  I'm sure my kids will eat plenty of hotdogs like I did growing up (bless my hard-working parents), but I'd like to have a few decent homemade meals in my repertoire by then.

Since I've been trying to tone down the spaghetti habit to an acceptable frequency, this has become a new go-to meal:  Stir fry over couscous.  The brown things are turkey meatballs.

It's more than three ingredients but the vegetables are frozen and come in bags, meaning really easy, and it satisfies the 10 minute rule.  It's easy to change up by using different meats and vegetables.  I add curry powder for flavor and - this is what really makes it - a huge dollop of tzatziki yogurt sauce (the kind that comes on gyros).  Randy says he's sick of this meal already but I know it's only because he's not using enough tzatziki sauce.   

4.  Baby Steps (appropriately)

My cooking and health goals are to:

• Try one new recipe a month.  
• Cook vegetables other than broccoli.
• Eat more protein (meat and eggs) and drink more water.  For the baby.

Two weeks ago I made a chicken and wild rice casserole.  With a side of broccoli.  Progress!

If you know any nutritious and easy recipes, feel free to direct me to them.  I'm willing to bend the 10 minute rule...IF there will be leftovers.

And now the obligatory preggo pics (for my mom of course)...

 

17 Weeks

Artistic 16.5 week shot in front of the fountain at Flushing Meadows Park...

Is she pregnant or is she just hitting the beer and pizza a little too hard?  Beer, no.  Pizza, yes.

And finally, a couples shot.

Gender Guessing

First a friendly disclaimer:  You will not actually learn our baby's gender from this post.  For one thing, we don't know ourselves because it's too early.  Secondly, we don't want to know anyway.  But there's no harm in a little fun!

There are plenty of myths and superstitions out there about figuring out the gender of your baby.   I guess this is what women did before the high resolution ultrasounds.  These are from old wives tales and not at all scientific (in case you thought they might be).

Note: The website I got these from advises against buying baby clothes based on these results.  So we'll still be sticking with the yellow/green theme to be safe.

Myth #1:  Heartrate

This is a very popular myth, although it’s been disproven.  If the baby’s heart beats faster than 140 beats per minute, it’s a girl.  At the latest measurement, Little Munchkin’s heart was beating at a  rapid 170 bpm.  Must be a GIRL!

Myth #2:  Cravings

If the mother is craving sweets, it’s a boy.  If she’s craving sour foods, it’s a girl.  Shoot, I’m not craving either of these things.  What about pizza?  Inconclusive.

Myth #3:  Morning Sickness

If you have severe morning sickness, it’s a girl.  I'm a lucky lady without any morning sickness so baby is likely a BOY.

Myth #4:  The Wedding Ring Swing

Suspend your wedding ring over your belly.  If it swings back and forth, it's a boy.  If it swings in a circle, it's a girl.  I know this sounds ridiculous, but for the sake of entertainment, I did this with both of our wedding rings and it swung in a definite circle both times.  A GIRL, for sure.

Myth #5:  Chinese Lunar Calendar

Some guy in a tomb came up with this chart 700 year ago.  I don't know why this dude was hanging out in a tomb or why he felt this was a good use of his time.  I'm sure it's totally bogus, but...since I just suspended a wedding ring hanging by a thread over my belly...the lunar calendar says we’re having a GIRL.

There you go, folks.  With a score of 3-1-1, obviously Little Munchkin is a GIRL.

**In case you missed it the first time, it is not advisable to buy baby clothes or decorate a nursery based on these results.**

The test I did not try: 

Mix your urine with Drano and base the gender off of what color it turns.  This just sounds expensive and silly.  And since when should a pregnant woman be sniffing Drano fumes?!

And...here's a 15 week bump picture.

Originally, I had in mind that I would take all my photos with the same outfit on.  But that was before I knew how unflattering these pants would become.  On to more structured clothing for future bump pics!

Some Changes

A few things have changed around here.  For one thing, we no longer travel.  Well, not across oceans anyway.  For now.  Any international posts I have done in the past year have been catch-up posts from our travels the year before.  Yes, there was a time when we traveled so much, our blog couldn't even keep up.

Randy left his pilot job last summer when he was hired as an air traffic controller.  It was hard to lose those flight benefits but a positive change for Randy career-wise.  I hope we still have international travel in our future, but now we’re going to have to save up money for plane tickets like everyone else!

And, something more exciting, there won't be just two of us for much longer...

We are expecting a little munchkin in February 2013!

And here's the proof:  4.5 weeks pregnant (we'll consider this the before picture) vs. 13 weeks pregnant.  Randy says I don't look particularly thrilled in these pictures but I promise I am!  I was just nervous about the profile view.

A couple things you can tell from these pictures:

1.  My belly is expanding (among other things).

2.  My hair is in desperate need of highlighting.  I plan to get on this soon.

3.  If I'm not posting bare belly pics now, I guess I never will!

In other pregnancy fun facts, our baby is the size of a medium shrimp this week.  So cute!  It has quite a bit of growing to do before he/she can come out and wear the adorable outfit pictured above.  See if you can see any resemblance:

30 by 30

A few years ago I set an ambitious goal: to visit 30 countries by my 30th birthday. This was doable only because Randy was an airline pilot for nearly the first five years of our marriage, giving us outstanding flight benefits and free reign of, well, the world.

Thank you, First Officer Reese, for making this dream possible.

We quickly became experts in frugal and efficient travel.  We learned how to travel on a dime (staying in hostels, eating a loaf of bread for dinner, using public transportation) and made remarkably good use of our American vacation time of only two weeks per year. My 20-something mantra was "no kids, no pets, no mortgage." If we had a long weekend, we'd hop on a plane.

There's nowhere this North Face backpack can't go.

After serious deliberation, we decided that we can only say we've only "been" to a country if we'd spent a night and eaten a meal there. No running to a border crossing just for the stamp!  We've only bent the rules a few times along the way.

This is as much for documentation purposes as anything, before I get old and forget. Here are my 30 countries by age 30. I included pictures when I could find them.

30 Countries by Age 30

1. England, May 2002 - First time leaving US soil! Dad rescues me from a lifetime of stateside existence and allows me to tag along on a business trip. As a total travel novice, I had horrible jet lag and couldn't even enjoy the first day.

Kensington Gardens if I remember correctly.

2. Mexico, October 2003 - Visited my friend Lindsay who was studying abroad in Mexico City.  We took a nine hour bus ride to the beach.

3. Guatemala, September 2004 - One week of Spanish language school with some other Georgia Tech folks capped off with an exciting hike to the top of a volcano.

It's steamy on top of a volcano!

4. Spain, September 2004 through June 2005 - Studied abroad for two semesters in Salamanca.  Met lots of great people and learned to speak Spanish, among other things.

Ice cream and Spaniards in the Plaza Mayor.

5. Portugal, October 2004 - Crammed on a bus with a bunch of other exchange students for a weekend trip to Lisbon.  Nice city despite having to be part of a tour group the whole time.

6. Czech Republic, December 2005 - Found a cheap flight from Spain and fulfilled a dream of visiting my Grandfather's homeland.  It was bitter cold in December but the cabbage and potatoes tasted just like Grandma's!

7. France, June 2005 - Randy met me in Spain.  With Eurail passes in hand we embarked on 35 days of traveling around Western Europe. First stop: Paris.

The early days of A&R. Neither of us know what Randy was doing with his hair back then.

8. Germany, June 2005 - Scooted around the southern part of the country, hitting up Heidelberg, Munich, and the Black Forest.  Stuffed our faces full of weinerschnitzel and black forest cake.

 A nice view in Heidelberg.

9. Austria, June 2005 - We ended up here earlier than expected after missing our train stop in Germany.  Fell in love with the beautiful landscapes and the tiny salt mining town of Hallstadt.

In the Tyrol Mountains.  I still have that backpack and Randy still has those clothes.

9.5. Liechtenstein, June 2005 - Passed through this tiny country on our way from AU to SW. Never got out of the train so it obviously doesn't count, but worth noting anyway.

10. Switzerland, June 2005 - Took an unforgettable train ride past mountains and over bridges.  Spent one night in St. Moritz.

Train ride from the Swiss glaciers to the Italian Alps.

11. Italy, June 2005 - We hit up the usual stops on the well-beaten tourist route (Rome, Florence, and Venice).  Ate plenty of pizza and pasta and saw lots of naked statues, among other artwork.

 A famous Cathedral in Venice.

12. Vatican City, June 2005 - Day trip to the world's smallest independent state and we were lucky enough to see the Pope! Since we weren't allowed to spend the night, normal rules don't apply.

By shear luck, the Vatican's most famous resident was giving a speech that day.

13. Greece, June 2005 - Pretty country but we spent way too much time dealing with transportation strikes, being fined by "authorities," and sleeping on ship decks. 

On the island of Crete.

13.5. England (Round 2), September 2007 - After a long hiatus due to other life events (graduating from college, moving, starting jobs, getting married, moving again, and then starting other jobs) we visited my parents who were living outside of London for 2 months.

Along the River Thames.

 

14. Turkey, April 2008 - Long awaited trip to Istanbul (where the East meets the West!) and first set foot in Asia when we crossed the Bosphorus Straight.

Our hostel was right next to the Blue Mosque!

15. Bulgaria, April 2008 - Long overnight bus ride from Turkey with zero other tourists got us to Sofia. We travel to Rila Monastery and a few other towns. Tried to convince Randy we should name our future daughter Sofia/Sophia but he doesn't go for it.

Cliff side town of Veliko Tarnovo.

16. Romania, April 2008 - A single fleeting night in Bucharest. We fly back home on Easter Sunday.

Bare streets of Bucharest on Easter Sunday.

17. Canada, August 2008 - First time visiting our neighbor to the north (Prince Edward Island).

PEI is home to Anne of Green Gables.

18. South Africa, February 2009 - First visit to the Southern Hemisphere. We spent most of our time in Cape Town, took an unnerving hiking trip in high winds across Table Mountain, and went on a day trip to Cape Point.  Our African vacation made us finally start this blog.

Beautiful view from Table Mountain once the clouds broke.

19. Namibia, February 2009 - We flew into Windhoek to meet up with our African-safari-on-a-budget and spend the afternoon volunteering at an after school program.

Hanging out with kids in Windhoek.

20. Botswana, February 2009 - Spent a lovely week camping, big game spying, and traveling in a big un-airconditioned truck with 15 of our new best friends.

Looking for hippos in the Okavango Delta.

21. Zimbabwe, February 2009 - Our safari ended here. Against the recommendations of the US State Department, we spent a few days in Victoria Falls.  Political tensions made for few tourists.

Posing in front of those famous falls.

22. Zambia, February 2009 - Within walking distance of the Zim/Zam border, we can't resist going to the other side. Unfortunately we did not spend the night and we only ate a snack. We did hang out with a British businessman, visit a museum, got sufficiently harassed in "no man's land," and almost got arrested at the border crossing, so we're counting it.

A deadly deadly drop-off into a croc-filled gorge doesn't hold back this photographer.

 

23. Hungary, July 2009 - Fourth of July weekend in Budapest!  Goulash anyone?

The city that straddles the Danube.

24. Argentina, November 2009 - A long weekend of all you can eat beef and tango.

No, that's not us on stage.

25. Israel, May 2010 - Last minute decision after we cancelled our plans to go to Thailand because of civil unrest. Amazed by the unique beauty and fascinating religious history of this country.

Rooftops of Jerusalem.

25.5. Switzerland, September 2010 - Quick weekend trip to visit the parents on their 30th Anniversary trip. Went to Zurich and Lucerne.

Parents still looking adorable after 30 years of marriage.

26. Colombia, November 2010 - A scary bus ride over the Andes was worth it to see the lush and beautiful coffee region. Who doesn't want an arepa for Thanksgiving?!

Horseback riding through the Valle de Cocora.

26.5. Spain, January 2011 (again) - Return to visit old friends and the centuries old city that never changes.

Tapas and sangria, just like old times!

27.  New Zealand, May 2011 - Crossed many oceans and continents to see this fine piece of natural beauty.

The western coast of the South Island.

28.  Australia, June 2011 - Had an exceptional visit to Sydney, fell in love with the "New York of the Southern Hemisphere" and want to move there.

Nothing like a sunny day at the Quay.

 

29. Antigua, July 2011 - First trip to the Caribbean to finally see all the fuss over white sand and clear water.

Quite beaches and lush hills.

 

30. U.S.A., March 1982 - present - I know this is lame but I had to do it to make 30!

 New York, NY