Turkey Day weekend in Massachusetts

We celebrated our first major holiday here in the commonwealth. We missed our traditional family gatherings but made the most of the four day weekend. On Thanksgiving Day we ate dinner at the Blue Heron restaurant. We ate there on our anniversary, so we knew it was good, but the four-course turkey dinner was amazing! Grandma Bauer and T.L. Bear make better turkey, though.

On Saturday we set out to explore New York City. We drove to New Haven, CT and took the train into Grand Central Station.

Jay can barely contain his excitement on the train.





Grand Central Station is a great welcome to New York City. The classical architecture is amazing, but the huge crowds are a little overwhelming. Jay compared it to the most crowded day at the Minnesota State Fair, minus the cheese curds and pronto pups!



Times Square hypnotized us with the flashing lights. For some reason we left feeling like we should buy something...I'm sure it had nothing to do with the dense concentration of ads we saw.
















We gave in to the pull of the street vendors and got hot dogs but resisted the temptation to buy "real" Prada handbags, although there was a lovely blue leather one that would look stunning with Jay's eyes...

Even though it hasn't been officially "lit" the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center is impressive! We were surprised at how small the skating rink was, however.

We walked through the Theatre District right in the middle of the Saturday matinee rush. If you look closely at the people in the bottom of the picture you'll notice a man being arrested, which on its own isn't very entertaining, but it happened in front of the families in line for "The Lion King". Jay was particularly impressed with this scene.



Hanging out in Central Park enjoying the beautiful weather. We didn't see any celebrities during our visit (we tried, Sarah!) but Jay swears he saw a guy who looked exactly like Brian Lien in the Park. Hmmmm......

After Central Park we went to the American Museum of Natural History, where we came across this statue from the Olmec culture in Mesoamerica. Heidi was especially excited to find it since she had talked about them in a lecture she gave on the Olmec just last week. Jay was not expecially excited to find it, even though he sat through Heidi's practice lecture. He lost even more points when he laughed at the fact that the evolution wing of the museum was closed for renovation.











Before we left the museum Jay got a call on his cell phone from his grandma. When he told her where we were, her response was "Oh, for heaven's sake!"

Our final stop was the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We only had a little time to spend there so we went straight to the European wing. The Impressionist art is amazing! After the museum we walked down Park avenue to Grand Central Station to catch the train home.

-hbc