Archive for the 'photos' Category

I had a lovely time in michigan. I didn’t get to everything on my list – but I did do a lot. It was lovely to see my family, my Grandma, Emma Wad, and Jenth Sminy.

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James Taylor

Last year Emma and I decided we wanted to try hard to see James Taylor live in 2009. When his tour was announced, we were a little bummed that there were no east coast stops, or Michigan stops. I was willing to plan a visit to Michigan around a concert date, and if he had an east coast date then Emma could try to come out for that (though her schedule isn’t as flexible during the school year since she’s a teacher). The two closest stops were Indiana and Milwaukee. Milwaukee seemed like the most fun (and it’s a place I’ve always wanted to visit). Plus, Milwaukee’s date was on a Saturday, and Indiana’s was on a Tuesday night.

Having decided on Milwaukee, I was determined to get us good seats. I didn’t want us to drive 4.5 to 5 hours to sit in the balcony. Luckily, the presale was for Citibank credit card holders, and I have a Citibank card. I bought the tickets the second the presale started, and got us 3rd row seats! :) We were super excited.

Milwaukee

So we set out that Saturday morning, very early, to get to Milwaukee with time to explore before the show. We had our favorite bagels (Bruegger’s – which Emma and I both adore and don’t live near a location anymore), and went book shopping, sightseeing, etc. We had an excellent dinner at a place called Capone’s.

Milwaukee Theatre

We got to our seats at the Milwaukee Theatre about 7:58. I sat back and relaxed, and then noticed something very weird. Every single seat was filled. Normally people trickle into concerts during the first hour, to avoid being bored during the opening act. I’ve never been one to subscribe to that, since I’ve seen many excellent opening acts, some of whom went on to become famous themselves (most notably Andrew Bird). People who came late to the Flight of the Conchords show at Radio City missed a fantastic stand up routine by Kristen Schaal. But usually that’s how it is – the house doesn’t fill up until the “real” show starts. I began to wonder if these people knew something I didn’t, and sure enough – they did. James Taylor doesn’t need an opening act. He and his band came right out, and they played two full sets, with an intermission in-between. It was spectacular. He played almost all of my favorite songs, including: Up on the Roof, Your Smiling Face, You Can Close Your Eyes, How Sweet it is to be Loved by You, Fire and Rain, Hound Dog, You’ve Got a Friend, and Sweet Baby James.

People kept hollering for certain songs, and James was very funny and gracious – and ended up holding up the giant, two sided set list and showing it to us to promise that we’d get to the favorites.

James Taylor

He also signed autographs almost the entire length of the intermission – what a guy. Emma and I felt like the only people in the orchestra section who had never been to a James Taylor concert before. Fortunately, we won’t have to feel that way next time we see him, and we can’t wait. We’re definitely planning on seeing him again – it was a fantastic show.

Here are more photos:

James Taylor

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James Taylor

Here are all my photos from the show: http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=james%20taylor&w=58887120%40N00

Ryan had to stay in NY during my recent trip to Michigan and the road trip to Milwaukee, so I had fun keeping him updated on what I was up to by sending him photos from my iPhone. I think the collection is a decent summary of the trip – though it skews a little food heavy, since food tends to be happily photogenic. I’ll do a separate post with better (ie not taken on the iPhone) photos from the James Taylor concert too.

As a follow up to my post “Brooklyn on a cold, windy Saturday,” here are some photos from the afternoon at the end of Emma’s trip that we spent in back in Brooklyn. The sun was much more cooperative for this outing. The first part of the afternoon was spent in Williamsburg. We were not hipster enough to even be in Williamsburg, let alone how much of a ding-dong I would have felt like had I pulled out my camera. Hence there are no pictures from that part of the afternoon. Though I do have a lovely bottle of ‘November’ perfume from the C. B. I Hate Perfume gallery to remember it by. It smells so lovely – spicy and musky and rather indescribable – and it calms me instantly at first sniff.

Anyway, the only photos I have from that day are from our time at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden. It was too early for the Cherry Blossoms, so I’d like to get back out there soon to experience that. But nonetheless, we had a lovely time and got some great pictures.

Brooklyn Botanical Garden

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Brooklyn Botanical Garden

Brooklyn Botanical Garden

Tea House

Tea House Entrance

Hybrid Oak

Brooklyn Botanical Garden

My full set of photos from the gardens are in this Flickr set.

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On Emma’s first day here, last Saturday, we got up early to get a head start on all the things we wanted to do in Brooklyn. We had stayed up until after 3 am talking the night before, so it was a rough morning. It was also pretty cold for April and extremely windy.

First, we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge. Emma is afraid of heights, but the Brooklyn Bridge is a good bridge for anyone who has this fear, since you don’t walk close to the edge – you walk right down the middle. You also don’t have water below you, you have another layer of cement down below (between the two way traffic lanes. It was cold and windy, so crossing was a bit of an adventure. The bridge looks much more intimidating with a sky like this:

Brooklyn Bridge

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At one point in our crossing we were delayed by a very large group of people posing for a photo along the path, blocking everyone’s way. I got a very amusing photo of Emma while we were waiting for them:

 

Group photo in the way

She may be a Michigander, but she’s got a native New Yorker’s dislike of having their route blocked. :)

 

Next, we walked to Brooklyn Heights and explored some of the former homes of famous authors.

First up was 70 Willow Street, the Adrian van Sinderen residence. It was built in the 1830s, and Truman Capote lived here in the basement apartment, and wrote many of his most famous works there.

70 Willow Street

Next up is 142 Columbia Heights, where Norman Mailer lived. He was living here at the time of his death in 2007:

142 Columbia Heights

We also visited No. 22 Willow Street, where Henry Ward Beecher lived (he is also a distant relative of Emma’s!):

Emma

Along the way we saw many beautiful buildings that we decided we would gladly move into at a moment’s notice. One such building had a very lovely window with a piano:

 

Window

After visiting a few bookstores in the area, BookCourt and Rocketship book store, and eating lunch at a cute cafe, we hopped on the F train to Park Slope.

 

Brownstones in Park Slope

We visited the fabulous Community Bookstore, and fell in love with its charming children’s section in the back.

Community Bookstore

Children’s section at Community Bookstore

Next we went up to Grand Army Plaza, and took a picture of the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Arch before the wind pushed us out of the plaza.

Soldiers and Sailors Arch

Close by is the main branch of the Brooklyn Public Library. It’s huge and magnificent. The wind was getting out of control at this point. We watched people’s hats fly off their heads and travel 100 feet down the sidewalk. We tried to take Emma’s picture in front of the library, and as we were taking the first shot an enormous gust of wind blew the camera askew in my hands and almost knocked Emma over. We had to try another take. Here is the first attempt, and the second, successful attempt:

BPL picture – take 1

BPL picture – take 2

After exploring and admiring the library, we hopped back on the subway and went back to Manhattan to give some of our money to Strand before heading home for the day.

 

Strand

Further adventures and photos will be posted soon!

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Spring in Hoboken

On the way home from the library yesterday, I stopped in Church Square Park to snap a few pictures since the trees were so lovely. It’s been a gorgeous spring so far, and I hope it lasts a while before the 90 degree heat settles in for the summer.

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