Make My Cake! November 13, 2009

Harlem. We visited Harlem last year, and fell in love with a little bakery called Make My Cake. It has the best cupcakes I’ve ever tasted. Today, we were heading in that direction.

Ray and I love to walk when we visit places. We see more that way. We’ll walk for hours until we can’t walk no more. It’s usually me that suggests getting in something with wheels.

I wanted to walk up to Central Park and catch the subway there, instead of the subway right outside our Hotel. We’re on 8th and West 34th Streets, Central Park is along 5th Avenue and begins at Central Park South Street (aka 59th Street). It’s a hike, but I enjoy it.

As you walk around Manhattan, you catch a whiff of roasting Chestnuts. Man, they smell sooo good! We pick up some nuts before we head up to

Statue of Liberty - November 12, 2009

Today Ray and I went to see the Statue of Liberty. Last year we never got around to seeing her and knew we’d be back this year.

It was cool and a light rain from time to time. We jumped on the subway to the New York Harbor at the tip of Manhattan.

Great architect on this subway station.

Once we got out tickets, we headed to our ferry, named the Statue of Liberty. The ferry ride to Liberty Island is about 15 minutes. The view of

The City That Never Sleeps! - November 10-11, 2009

New York. Huge. Crowded. New York.

This was my second trip to New York. Ray and I went last year. He attends a seminar there each November and I follow along. Great way to vacation, for me.

We arrived late afternoon on November 10. We never rent a car in New York. What’s the point? There’s no parking to speak of. And you’d never get anywhere with all the traffic. The choice of transportation around New York City – a yellow cab. And believe me, in a sea of yellow, you’re gonna get one. As we drove to our hotel, I grabbed a few shots of the city viewed from the cab.

We stayed at the New Yorker Hotel on 8th and West 34th streets. A midtown Manhattan Hotel. Has quite the history. It was built in 1929 was considered one of the largest hotels in it’s hey day. The New Yorker is designed in

We're Off to New York

We heading out of here in the morning to New York for 5 days.

I'll be back soon with some cool shots of the Big Apple!

Trick or Treat

Carving pumpkins. For years I've carved pumpkins for my kids. They seemed to enjoy me doing all the dirty work of cleaning them out. And they seemed to enjoy the faces I come up with.

Since they have grown up and left me all alone (except for my youngest who's 22 now, for some reason he hasn't found the front door yet) I still carve pumpkins. I do it every year, and every year I try to make the scarest looking face I can, from scratch. I don't like using those templates you buy in a booklet that comes with your carving equipment you buy at the store. I like to use the ol' knives and gadgets I can find in my drawer. I like to make a couple 'scary' looking

Ellen’s Gift to Jayden and Kylene

What a busy 3 days we had in Los Angeles!

We arrived on Sunday October 25 to Burbank and picked up our rental car that the Ellen Show provided for us, including a GPS and a car seat for Jayden. Checked into the Sheraton Universal Hotel at Universal City, next to Universal Studios.

We spent Sunday evening visiting friends of Kylene and their family out in Lancaster, CA and Jayden played ‘baby football’ with 2-year-old twins and a 3-year old. What fun that was to watch! He had a blast.

Monday morning we headed to Disneyland and spent the day between Disneyland and California