Marty and I had been planning on going to NYC this fall for months, but it depended on whether or not he sold his home in Cedar City. Clearly that happened because here we are! Our good friends and neighbors, Kirk and Heidi Tidwell, joined us and we had a great time doing just about as much as we could in 4 days. This first picture is just a pretty bridge in Central Park. Some of these pictures include eating at Lombardi's in Little Italy, crossing the Brooklyn Bridge at midnight, a ritzy, gorgeous neighborhood in Scarsdale, the new Yankee Stadium, and a bunch of Central Park. More pictures to come when I get a hold of the Tidwells' memory card...
Here we ate at Tavern on the Green for my birthday. Ironically, everyone's food was yummy except mine. Roar. But the ambiance was nice and the company was enjoyable :). 
Empire State Building at midnight. A breathtaking experience.
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In case you REALLY want to know where "the Big Apple" comes from:
The Big Apple was first popularized as a reference to New York City by John J. Fitz Gerald in a number of New York Morning Telegraph articles in the 1920s in reference to New York horse-racing. The earliest of these was a casual reference on May 3, 1921:
J. P. Smith, with Tippity Witchet and others of the L. T. Bauer string, is scheduled to start for "the big apple" to-morrow after a most prosperous Spring campaign at Bowie and Havre de Grace.
Fitz Gerald referred to the "big apple" frequently thereafter. He explained his use in a February 18, 1924, column under the headline "Around the Big Apple":
The Big Apple. The dream of every lad that ever threw a leg over a thoroughbred and the goal of all horsemen. There's only one Big Apple. That's New York.
Two dusky stable hands were leading a pair of thoroughbred around the "cooling rings" of adjoining stables at the Fair Grounds in New Orleans and engaging in desultory conversation.
"Where y'all goin' from here?" queried one.
"From here we're headin' for The Big Apple," proudly replied the other.
"Well, you'd better fatten up them skinners or all you'll get from the apple will be the core," was the quick rejoinder.
Fitz Gerald's reference to the "dusky" stable hands suggests the term's origin may lie in African-American culture. Support for this is found in the Chicago Defender, an African-American newspaper that had a national circulation. “Ragtime” Billy Tucker, a vaudeville/ragtime performer and writer for the Defender, there used "big apple" to refer to New York in a non-horse-racing context on September 16, 1922:
I trust your trip to 'the big apple' (New York) was a huge success and only wish that I had been able to make it with you.
The same writer had earlier used "Big Apple" as a reference to a different city, Los Angeles. This example, from May 15, 1920, is the earliest known use of "Big Apple" to refer to any city. It is possible that the writer simply understood "Big Apple" as an appropriate nickname for any large city:
Dear Pal, Tony: No, Ragtime Billy Tucker hasn't dropped completely out of existence, but is still in the 'Big Apple', Los Angeles.
By the late 1920s, New York writers other than Fitz Gerald were starting to use "Big Apple" and were using it outside of a horse-racing context. "The Big Apple" was a popular song and dance in the 1930s. Walter Winchell and other writers continued to use the name in the 1940s and 1950s.
By the 1960s, "the Big Apple" was known only as an old name for New York. In the early 1970s, however, the New York Convention and Visitors Bureau (now NYC & Company, the official marketing and tourism organization for New York City),under the leadership of its president, Charles Gillett, begin promoting "the Big Apple" as the city's moniker. It has remained popular since that time. Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani in 1997 signed legislation designating the southwest corner of West 54th Street and Broadway, the corner on which John J. Fitz Gerald resided from 1934 to 1963, as "Big Apple Corner."
Since 1980, the New York Mets baseball team has featured a "Home Run Apple" that rises when a Mets player hits a home run at Shea Stadium and Citi Field.
Mom totally hijacked your blog! Anyway, looks like you had fun in New York. See you guys soon at Pond Town, which is at least as cool.
Wow, mom! Interesting. I'll be careful what I title my posts from now on so you don't feel like you have to do homework. I know you're kind of in that mode so I don't want to burden you any more than you are. But thanks for the history lesson.
I totally agree with Gregan. It that cool or what? Pond Town is at least as cool as The Big Apple! At least it is at Christmas time when EVERYONE comes home... :)
Kindra~ Love the pictures! New York looks so beautiful in the fall with the leaves changing colors. I wish we had that in AZ!
Cute pics and looks like fun! I think I need a New York trip for my birthday one year...good idea :)
Two things brought a tear to my eye when I read this post:
1. How happy you are
2. Those adorable boots
Love you.
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