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i love owls from overseas

For my 21st birthday my junior year, my sweet roommates Katie and Amy gave me the most beautiful owl that they found while studying abroad in Italy the previous summer. It survived several dorm-room-moves, a move to New York, then a move to a second New York apartment where it now sits on my desk to serve as a reminder of my love for owls (duh!) and my greatly missed college roomies.

Now I have a second ethnic owl to add to my collection! My friend Maggie returned from her world travels on Monday and we spent Wednesday afternoon hanging out to catch up on her travels, my travels, and everything else in between since it had been over a month since we'd seen each other. And what a surprise: she brought me this adorable owl from Japan that is now sitting next to my Italian owl. Thanks Maggie, I love it!!


food, fireworks, and (f)ilharmonic

Tuesday and Wednesday night the NY Philharmonic gave their annual free concert in Central Park. Since this is my fourth summer in New York and I had (regretfully) never been before, I took advantage and went both nights. I can now join in with the hype and hoopla and agree: it is fabulous! Both nights were tainted by the dread of rain and thunderstorms, but both made it successfully without even a raindrop, just a little damp park grass from previous daytime showers. Then, to end the night, fireworks! Philharmonic in the Park is not something you should miss if you ever have the opportunity to go.

Food!
Fireworks!
at the Philharmonic! (I didn't get the memo to be overly, unnaturally excited about the Philharmonic. Brendan did!)

big apple bbq fest

4 years and counting. That's how long I've been going to the Big Apple BBQ Festival in NYC. Katherine, Pamela, LA and I sealed the deal on our friendship in the summer of 2007 when we went to the festival for the first time together. We were four southern girls in the Big Apple and we missed pulled pork sandwiches and sweet tea. Now, I plan weeks in advance to make sure I don't miss this event and drag all my northern friends to Madison Square Park with me.


Brendan's two attempts (above and below) at capturing an artistic photo. We were also trying to portray how much we missed our 4th BBQ-goer, Katherine.

belay on

I won't lie. I was pretty nervous as I walked into the climbing gym. Especially when Marco, our instructor, told us that we should get at least one size smaller shoe size than we normally wear because the shoes should be uncomfortable and our toes should curl at the end. If I'm climbing high into the air, shouldn't my feet at least be free from misery? Somehow, though, Margaret and I survived and actually loved our rock climbing excursion!



I had a little trouble remembering how to tie the double-figure 8 knot. Luckily, I fixed that before I belayed on...

i finally saw it!

The first time that I visited Philly, I had one request: to see the Liberty Bell. But as we hopped on the train that night to head back to Manhattan, the one thing we hadn't seen was the Liberty Bell.

That changed with this trip. We walked right in with no line, no problems and snapped a few front row pics:


A few pictures of the beautiful Independence Hall, where the first US Capitol was located.


Although I saw it on the first visit, I couldn't pass by the original LOVE sign:



A beautiful sunset from the bus window to end a fabulous weekend.