New York State of Mind

We had such a wonderful time in NYC this weekend! A GIANT thank you to Tucker and Donna for being such excellent hosts and showing us all around.
It been 10 years since I had been in the city that never sleeps, and it felt like such a whirlwind then, it's was new years just a few months after terrorists attacked the World Trade Center. Understandably the city was in the midst of a transformation, the tension, fear, love was all palpable. Even for a first-timer I knew the atmosphere that surrounded me was different than usual. It was different than what i had expected all except for one moment - to be there, in the heart of Times Square to watch the ball to drop was something I will never forget. All of a sudden, I found myself counting down the end of that year with 500,000 other people and all o us had our eyes fixed in the same spot, and I like to think that we all had similar emotions of hope and renewal too.
Well it's been a long time since I had been and I was eager to see how much I remembered, what was different, and what else I could squeeze into 3 days! In a nutshell, this it what we did; had 2 delicious brunches, rode the subway a lot, central park - strawberry fields, the Guggenheim, consumed copious amounts of alcohol, had some o the best sushi I have ever eaten, NBC store, saw lots of sites- radio city music hall, MoMA, Katz's, walked the Brooklyn Bridge, ate pizza and all in all had one excellent time. I tried to document as much as I could without missing everything. I will post pictures below :) I believe that it takes a special type of person to live in NYC. The truth is, NY is great, but it's tough too. I feel in awe of those that live and make a home amidst the chaos. Returning home last night, I felt like DC was small peanuts compared to what we had just left. I did notice similarities between these two places though. The narrow streets, the masses of people that flood the sidewalks, the architecture, the homeless. The history that packs itself into the walls of virtually every building is hard to ignore. I tend to feel dwarfed by it all.
One of the best feelings I had this weekend was while we were walking home from our bus stop in DuPont. Our feet hurt, we were carrying our bags that seemed to get heavier at each block, but it felt so good to be HOME. And it felt even better to feel like DC is our home now. It's the best one monthiversary present that DC could have possibly given to us :)