oh, and because chels&i are teenagers shaped by societies expectations (or lack there of) we spend every waking minute on Facebook so if you have fb please add us as we are also posting a lot of photos etc on there (:
NY - so us girls shopped up a STORM in the big city and took in a few sights as wells (aka the shops) but the highlight was definitely new years eve. unfortunately mum was sick but dad, chels & i were with a (marmion) family, the Morgans. dad wrote this truthful account of the night (inspirational because english is his second language) - see below
New York City had turned on its best winter weather, a fine day with a relatively warm 8 degrees (celsius) and no wind. We had snagged a choice hotel - 'The Muse' on 46th no more than 150m from the centre of Times Square. It must have been good as we were later to find both Justin Beiber and Lady Gaga were there with us!
# I must now make a sad note that Ricki had not been well and was to be suspiciously absent for part of this adventure (more later).
We managed to catch up with the Morgan clan for breakfast and arranged that they could use one of our hotel passes to get back into the restricted area later that evening. They returned to our lobby ready for a dinner at around 5pm. We had made a booking at the famous 'Ellen's Singing Diner'. Our first issue was how to get through the barricaded crowds of over 1 million people?
Enter doorman 'Willie' - for a small cash handshake he took us for an unforgettable 10 minute tour through all security right up the middle of Times Square! We all truly felt like 'Movie Stars'. We shook Willie's hand and he left us there. Unfortunately, there had been a change of schedule at Ellen's Diner and unless we were happy to pay the $125- per head we needed to find a new place to eat.
# I must now make a sad note that Ricki had not been well and was to be suspiciously absent for part of this adventure (more later).
We managed to catch up with the Morgan clan for breakfast and arranged that they could use one of our hotel passes to get back into the restricted area later that evening. They returned to our lobby ready for a dinner at around 5pm. We had made a booking at the famous 'Ellen's Singing Diner'. Our first issue was how to get through the barricaded crowds of over 1 million people?
Enter doorman 'Willie' - for a small cash handshake he took us for an unforgettable 10 minute tour through all security right up the middle of Times Square! We all truly felt like 'Movie Stars'. We shook Willie's hand and he left us there. Unfortunately, there had been a change of schedule at Ellen's Diner and unless we were happy to pay the $125- per head we needed to find a new place to eat.
So, after a stroll out of Broadway, along Sixth Avenue and back to The Muse Hotel we decided on the quaint Irish Pub next door for dinner. Here we received our New Years headwear and nice meals.
We then returned to the hotel room for Champagne (alcohol free for the kids) and nibbles. It was at this point that we lost Ricki who had gone as far as she could. The crew continued down to the lobby to negotiate our return into Times Square. There was an real buzz about and things started to get pretty crazy. Suddenly, Willie (our doorman) was running back and forth to the hotel escorting people and talking madly on his CSI style comms. Our crew were starting to doubt that Willie could get us back into Times Square.
Next thing we know Lady Gaga herself is escorted out of our Lobby into a waiting SUV. It was then I had an epiphany - could Ricki actually be Lady Gaga? When I saw the headgear I though - probably not. Her car then traveled the 150m or so to the stage in Times Square with body guards surrounding it. Willie it seemed, was free from his last official duties and almost ran out of the hotel toward us. It was around 11:40 and we had all but given up hope.
"Stay close and follow me." he said as he rushed toward the first police check-point. "I have press and talent" he explained to the first officer barely slowing as he constantly muttered into his mouthpiece. This however, may have been one trip too many. The cop wasn't happy and we werer not getting passed easily. As it happens, at the speed we were moving, all but three of us (Chelsea, John and Chris) had passed him before he could make his objection.
"Don't stop" Willie warned. "I'm really sorry about the others."
I was last in line and looked back to see three pairs of stunned eyes. Was I going to continue and abandon them? I pleaded with the officer that I could not leave my daughter on her own. We made it clear that Chris was the last of our group and with this the final three were allowed through. We ran to catch the others just before the final check-point. Willie gave his last performance, and after another quick cash hand-shake we were smack bang in the middle of it all!
We then returned to the hotel room for Champagne (alcohol free for the kids) and nibbles. It was at this point that we lost Ricki who had gone as far as she could. The crew continued down to the lobby to negotiate our return into Times Square. There was an real buzz about and things started to get pretty crazy. Suddenly, Willie (our doorman) was running back and forth to the hotel escorting people and talking madly on his CSI style comms. Our crew were starting to doubt that Willie could get us back into Times Square.
Next thing we know Lady Gaga herself is escorted out of our Lobby into a waiting SUV. It was then I had an epiphany - could Ricki actually be Lady Gaga? When I saw the headgear I though - probably not. Her car then traveled the 150m or so to the stage in Times Square with body guards surrounding it. Willie it seemed, was free from his last official duties and almost ran out of the hotel toward us. It was around 11:40 and we had all but given up hope.
"Stay close and follow me." he said as he rushed toward the first police check-point. "I have press and talent" he explained to the first officer barely slowing as he constantly muttered into his mouthpiece. This however, may have been one trip too many. The cop wasn't happy and we werer not getting passed easily. As it happens, at the speed we were moving, all but three of us (Chelsea, John and Chris) had passed him before he could make his objection.
"Don't stop" Willie warned. "I'm really sorry about the others."
I was last in line and looked back to see three pairs of stunned eyes. Was I going to continue and abandon them? I pleaded with the officer that I could not leave my daughter on her own. We made it clear that Chris was the last of our group and with this the final three were allowed through. We ran to catch the others just before the final check-point. Willie gave his last performance, and after another quick cash hand-shake we were smack bang in the middle of it all!
This was a New Year none of us will forget. Watching the 'Ball Drop' in the middle of Times Square!
mexico - what can i say about mexico? we came, we ate, we left. when i found out we were staying at an all-inclusive resort for our ten day stint in playa del carmen mexico - unsurprisingly to most of you no doubt - the first thing i thought about was the food. oh, the food. essentially all bar to of our days at 'grand sunset princess resort' went as follows:
wake up
eat breakfast
walk to pool
get drink from swim-up pool bar
lay by pool
get another drink from swim-up bar
if we were feeling especially energetic we may move from the poolside to the beach and as a reward for our exercise, get another drink from the beach bar
eat lunch
return to pool/beach (passing by the appropriate bar of course)
lay by pool/beach
go home
shower, get changed
pre-dinner drinks
eat dinner
post-dinner drinks from the sports bar (open 24 hours)
bed
i kid you not - IT WAS AWESOME!!
bu i dont want to talk down mexico as nothing more than a place to go to eat&drink as much as you possible can (although, in my opinion that is plenty enough of a reason to go). arguably the highlight of mexico was our day trip to xel-ha (pronounced shell-ha), a kind of natural adventure world not too far from where we were staying. we arrived for breakfast then spent the first part of the morning wondering around the gorgeous inlet, floating on blue spongey things, riding tubes through mangroves and snorkelling in tropical fish infested waters (no pirahanas luckily!). this was much more exercise than we were used to and we soon had to go and eat lunch. after lunch chels and i relaxed in the hammocks whilst mum&dad walked around the entire park (it was where the river met the sea and when we snorkelled you could actually see the fresh and salt water mixing which was pretty cool). after her recon of the walk mum ran chels and i around to see & do all the things worth seeing&doing - this included the floating bridge which made us look like we'd enjoyed one too many mohitios, the tarzan rope, the mangrove tube tour (again - it was pretty cool), jumping off a 15 or so ft cliff face into the water, walking along a tightrope type contraption over the water and a flying fox over the water (i'll try and put the photos of all of this up). after allll of that we managed to make it back to the hammocks in time for a drink before boarding back on the bus to go home. so yeah, xel-ha was pretty awesome (:
our other 'day-trip' in mexico was to chichen itza - the famous ancient ruins. on our way chels&i swam in a 'cenote' which is a natural sinkhole, the one we swam in was massive and full of tourists but still very cool (: we jumped off a ~20ft ledge into the ridiculously deep cenote multiple times in an attempt to get a half-decent photo (judge for yourself below!). when we got to chicen itza we were greeted by disturbing cries which were not dissimilar to what i imagine a monkey would sound like if it was horribly constipated. turns out it was just men playing weird instruments. we got some cool photos near the ruins and a court used in the good ol' days to play a game where, to put it simply, the winner was decapitated. after wondering around for a bit and taking lots of photos it got to 5pm and the area was closed off. we couldn't decide whether or not to stay for the 7pm light show which (dad had been told) was apparently very impressive. chels&i were pretty keen to head home because it was about a 3 hour drive but dad had heard this rave review and so we decided to give it a shot. we drove into the town nearby and had dinner at a cool little mexican restaurant before heading back at 6:30 to buy our tickets and line up - there was a line, which was (falsely) promising. we got headsets to translate the voice over to english and sat down to enjoy (ha) the show. i think we lasted about 20mins? it was a few coloured lights flashing on the pyramid style building thing we had already ben looking at all afternoon. and the voiceover? i would like to say it was educational but i actually felt like the people reading it were mocking their own culture - a group favourite was the repeated "were they already here? or did they come? were they already here? or did they come??" which was whispered in a creepy manner that made the wooden fold-out chairs seem even more uncomfortable. anyways, it was bad.
BUT i don't want to end mexico on a low note because it was super super amazing (:
im gonna try uploading some photos now (:
No comments:
Post a Comment