Holidays rock!

After one of our best holidays ever, we're back...I'm glad to be home but of course miss the whole holiday vibe. Am going to go and stay with my mum for a few days so will be off blogging again until next week, so thought I'd take this opportunity to share just a couple of my favourite photos.

Guggenheim, New York
Unfortunately the outside is being renovated (well, of course that's a good thing, but it is swathed in hoardings etc so no pics of outside, which is also spectacular).

What a great piece of architecture for an art gallery. There was a special exhibitation taking up almost the entire gallery space - Spanish Painting from El Greco to Picasso: Time, Truth and History. It was great - fascinating to see the influences from one generation to another and how artists build on other's ideas and make them their own (in it's own modest way, knitting is very much like this, I think).

There is a permanent (rotating) display of the gallery's collection of Kandinskys - I found the current selection a little disappointing - mostly later works which to me aren't as diverting as the earlier ones.

Central Park, New York - Australia Day
This was taken on the coldest day in NY for two years!!! It was either -10degC or -17degC (I heard both!!) - the only time I think I've ever been in below zero temps! (thank goodness it was not below zero in farenheit!!). Because of the sunshine, it was not nearly as cold as we thought it would be. We were staying on the upper west side, so to get to the upper east side (museums, 5th Ave etc) we would usually catch the train to 81st Street and walk through the park - even though this was the coldest day, it was the best day to walk because of the sun! Would love to see the park in summer, and also autumn - so many leaves, so much fun!

Statue of Liberty
Of course, the ubiquitous photo! I went a bit snap happy with the Statue, but I wanted to get a really good one! Shame about the grey sky but you can't have everything!

We got off to a bit of a late start this day (in fact, that happened most days - jet lag was a real killer the first week in NY - woke up every morning at 4am and when finally got back to sleep about an hour later, slept til 9.30am).

The late start meant we missed getting to Ellis Island, which was a shame as it sounded really interesting. But after we managed to clear the two separate security checks - one to get on the ferry to go to Liberty Island, the other to go inside the statue pedestal, we wandered around the statue, braved the cold, climbed up inside the pedestal (you can't go in the actual statue anymore) and took eleventyhundred pictures.

I even got some knitting in on the ferry on the way back to Battery Park (oh, and most days I knitted on the train too - one of the benefits of staying on the upper west side - longer train trips everywhere!!)

And perhaps the best photo to finish with:

Waikiki Beach, 8am - from our deckchairs on our "private" beach (hee!)
Hawaii was just wonderful after NY - while we loved NY, Hawaii was a great change of pace and a good way to relax before coming back home. Also the stopover means the jet lag on the way home is not nearly as bad - only a 3 hour time difference (oh, and a whole day, but you can't win 'em all!!).

The first few days were unnaturally windy (so the locals said) but once the wind died down, it was gorgeous - about 24-36degC, perfect beach weather. I even have the makings of a little tan (obtained very carefully with liberal use of 30+ sunscreen and beach umbrellas!). I find it amazing to see the number of people, mainly retirees by the looks, who could just lie on the beach all day without any shade or apparently any sunscreen! Of course, their skin was like mahogany...very wrinkly mahogany. I'd just get too hot!

We stayed right on Waikiki Beach. It is a lot like the Gold Coast (as people told us it would be) - but since we pretty much just beached it every day, we didn't mind one bit. I didn't brave knitting on the beach - I only had bamboo sticks and they felt a bit stickier than normal perhaps due to the humidity, but I did see two other ladies, on different days, knitting away - one by the pool, the other on the beach - weeeeeeeeeeee!

Our typical day - breakfast (sometimes on the beach), beach/poolside sunbathing, swimming in ocean (so calm, just the way I like it!), lunch by pool/beach, more swimming, perhaps a cocktail, change, wander the shops, have dinner, bit of telly and knitting. Delicious! But I can't believe I have to wait about 3 months before I can see "new" episodes of Grey's Anatomy!!

Best end this long post. I promise kniting content next week - including, of course, a review of the yarn stores visited in NY. Oh yes, there was yarn shopping. There was much yarn shopping...