New York Was Irish (At Least For A Day)

So sorry I haven't been visiting or posting, but I've been really busy (eliminating some non-essentials in the house, and also busy having a grand time when not busy cleaning out the house) , and then I wasn't feeling well at all for a few days. I'm a little better now, and I'll post about some of the fun I'd been having before I got sick:

On St. Patrick's Day my youngest daughter Ellie took off from work so that she could pick Jayden up from school while my friend Barbara and I went downtown to enjoy a day in the city:

Barbara and I were Blessed with great weather again (last year on St. Patrick's Day we went into the city to see Riverdance at Radio City Music Hall), and we have now decided that we are going to make 'spending St. Patrick's Day in New York City' a tradition (even if we both move to different states in the future!). Manhattan is a fun place to be on St. Patrick's Day!

We saw lots of green:




And lots of shamrocks:




And lots of people out and about in Times Square enjoying the beautiful weather:


Here's where the ball drops in Times Square on New Year's Eve and at one point Barbara turned to me and asked, "What year is it? Isn't this 2011?" And then she pointed to this:




At first I didn't see what she was talking about, but then I took a closer look:





They've been practicing already for the ball dropping on 2012!




Barbara and I got a kick out of this woman's green wig, but that's not the only thing in this picture we got a kick out of, if you take a closer look at the side of the building behind her...





...you will see the Mini Cooper!




B and I also got a kick out of this!




And I love looking up at the buildings (with Barbara as my guide crossing streets and making sure I don't knock into an unsuspecting pedestrian). I love the mix of the old and new architecture in the city, but of course my favorite is the old. Such character! Just look at the dentil crown molding on the exterior of that old building! And the old church next to it with the turret that looks like a castle!



Our first stop was the Regal Theater to see "Lord of the Dance", the 3-D movie starring Michael Flatly. The theater was great, with wonderfully plush, comfortable seating! And afterwards we stopped for a nice leisurely lunch here:

We were thinking about stopping at an Irish Pub for fish and chips, or eating the traditional corned beef and cabbage, or stopping at one of the Pig & Whistle's but they were packed! So we opted for this pretty little French restaurant.

We were seated at a table by these big windows:



We shared a delicious appetizer of grilled octopus and grilled squid, and we should have shared our entree of grilled salmon because we were way too full to try any of their desserts! The food was scrumptious!



And I loved the restaurant and the decor:



And I love that they kept the old tile floors!





Then we walked uptown and made a quick pass by the ice skaters at Rockefeller Center...





...on our way to St. Patrick's Cathedral (still undergoing renovations, so there is still lots of scaffolding over the doorways):



Once inside we made our way to the front where there was an altar set up in honor of St. Patrick's Day:




I like how they used the green candles here:





Then B and I made our way over to Radio City Music Hall where we saw Celtic Woman. Absolutely beautiful voices! The show was fantastic, and everyone was on their feet, cheering and clapping, and we had great seats:





From the picture I took of our seats, it looks like they played to an empty theater doesn't it? ( It astonishes me how late people come to shows!)
But you can see from the crowd in the lobby after the show that it was a packed house!



Barbara and I were catching the eleven o'clock bus home, and it amazes me how at that hour there is still lots of people and lots of traffic, you would think it was the middle of the afternoon:







We also celebrated Ray's birthday over the weekend. He wanted a cranberry/apple cake/pie thing that we saw on the show "The Barefoot Contessa", but we couldn't get cranberries so I tried it with cherry and apple instead:




He loved it (and so did my sister Diane). I liked it a lot, but the cake topping was a little too sweet for me.



We had the usual crowd but because I wasn't feeling too well, and our daughter-in-law Lori is due to deliver Sophie in a few weeks, they didn't want to chance getting sick, and I don't blame them. We were disappointed not to have them there, and Jayden was especially disappointed not to have Mia. But he had lots of fun outside playing sword fights and wrestling (I don't know what happened with those pictures, they are just a white blur) with Christian. And Brian's girlfriend Flora was very good about occupying him too.


Here's Jayden enjoying a game of 'Tic Tac Toe' with Flora:

Flora is a first grade teacher in a very poor school in the Bronx. She was happy to take some of Jayden and Mia's books for her students, and since Ray and I are trying to purge our house, we were happy to send her off with three boxes full of books!

And here's Ducky Jayden:



And here Flora encouraged him to camouflage himself just in case there were any duck hunters about!



It was a fun few days, and then a not-so-fun few days for me being sick. But I think I'm on the road to recovery now, and we are looking forward to our new little granddaughter making her entrance on March 31!