Glimpse of Chicago

We are having so much fun in Chicago and it is beautiful. Here is an unedited picture of the beautiful cityscape on the river, during our evening last night. Love it!

NYC Day 4 | Relaxing & Sight Seeing

After our exciting Broadway night, we decided to take Sunday easy.  We didn't necessarily have to be anywhere at any certain time, but we wanted to stroll through Central Park, visit Rockefeller Center, Grand Central Station, the New York Public Library and the Museum of Natural History.

I loved Central Park and really would have enjoyed to spend a longer time there, but we made our way up to The Great Lawn and actually took a good 45 minute nap in the nice warm sun and cool breeze.  We were not alone, as the park was full of people doing the exact same thing.  I'm glad that we decided to go it on our own, instead of take a bike taxi.  We were approached by numerous bike taxi guys to take their tour.  Did we look like tourists??? Silly question.

As the day progressed, we decided not to go to the Museum of Natural History, because we wanted to see Rockefeler Center and Grand Central Station, and wouldn't have the time to dedicate to walking all the way through the huge museum.  I did try to get a picture of the inside of the entrance with the dinosaur skeletons, but was quickly shooed away by the security lady.  She said that you could only take pictures past the entry point... after we had paid of course - sorry!  Kimby managed to snap this one before we continued our walk.

Then it was on to Rockefeller Center, the New York Public Library, and Grand Central Station.

Our day of sight seeing was complete, so we walked back to the hotel to freshen up for dinner.  We had already spent quite a bit of money, so we decided to go somewhere cheap, thinking we could just go to T.G.I. Friday's and get a meal that we were used to.  Yes, you can laugh now!  Since this was our last night in NYC, we had a few drinks for the occasion.  The first was at our dear friend, T.G.I. Friday's having not looked at the menu.  As we casually sipped our cocktails, looking through the menu, we noticed the prices...OH MY.  Kimberly was thinking of getting just a basic grilled chicken salad...$21.95.  And my Chicken Bruschetta Pasta... $22.95.  Ha!  We decided to pay for our almost $15 drink (each) and headed toward Rosie O'Grady's Times Square.

Our money was much better spent here.  The atmosphere was busy, but refined.  The food was tasty and the place had great service.  We shared the Watercress Salad, which was really appetizing and I ordered the Chicken Portofino.  If you know me well enough, I almost never order any type of cooked chicken breast (aside from tacos).  It just hardly ever sounds appealing to me, but this was great!  I'm glad we were "forced" to try somewhere unique to New York (I think it is anyway) rather than eat somewhere we could any day at home.

That night in the hotel was spent packing and preparing for our next day's visit to MOMA (Museum of Modern Art).  More to come in my final post :)!
 

A Day in the Life {Ashton}

This was taken on our trip to Atlanta.  I couldn't resist!

Fernbank Museum of Natural History {Atlanta, GA}

Well, this is far overdue, but I made it on here before my Christmas postings, haha!  Fernbank Museum is the last place we visited in Atlanta at the end of January.  This place was really neat, but everyone who told us about it boasted of the dinosaurs.  The only dinosaurs we saw, are the ones pictured.  Sculptures on the outside and skeleton's on the inside, which was very neat, but I was expecting more of an exhibit.  We visited the actual science portion of the museum, where there was a simulation of a tornado, carved out stations in the wall on either side of the room, where you could have a conversation without shouting, and the others pictured below (electricity, and sound pipes), among many others of which Ashton wasn't to interested.  We also saw many animals that were local to the area that had been stuffed and displayed throughout the floors of the museum.  His favorite part though was the nature play place.  There was a whole undersea area, where you could be the captain of a ship, put together a sea animal puzzle and other interactive videos throughout.  The river area had a canoe, a rabbit hole, and an alligator.  I was impressed with the simulated river throughout the play place.  On top of the drawing and textured floor where the river bed was drawn, there were lights and what I guess to have been video projections that made shadows of fish swimming around!  The best part was when you stepped in the river, it would actually ripple up and the fish would scatter.  So cool!  We spent several hours there, killing time, waiting to pick up Dustin from his work meeting so we could head out of town.  This is a huge picture share...so here goes!

Imagine It! Children's Museum {Atlanta, GA}

Warning, this is a huge picture share!  Ashton and I were able to visit the Imagine It! Children's Museum in downtown Atlanta several weeks ago and had a blast.  This place had so much fun packed into one place.  From, painting, to digging in sand, to fishing and shopping in a grocery store, this place is the perfect child's play place.  We were lucky that it wasn't too crowded with kiddos and we got there right as it opened.  That is a surprise for us, lol!  Ashton really loved the painting and digging in the sand.  They had small shaped pans, to pack the sand and small rakes, shovels and plates.  We got there at 10am and didn't leave until around 1pm, because this place was so cool.  Ashton also kept saying that he wasn't hungry, so we had a very late lunch and nap after.  If you're ever in Atlanta with your little ones, this is the place to go!