Saturday the 27th of September Rebekah, her niece Chelsea, our cousin Mindy and I met my brother Clifton in the city. He was here on business last week from Seattle. IT WAS SOOOOO WONDERFUL TO SPEND TIME WITH HIM!!!!! I really have missed him. Clifton Bruce Koon is my only brother. 
We met him at his hotel then took the subway to Battery Park to meet Mindy so we could catch the Staten Island Ferry. It really is a beautiful ride. 
We met him at his hotel then took the subway to Battery Park to meet Mindy so we could catch the Staten Island Ferry. It really is a beautiful ride. 
You go right past the Statue of Liberty. The best part.... its totally free! The round trip ferry ride is an hour. If you will notice Clifton doesn't smile much in the pictures! The few that he actually is smiling are because we told him we were going to give them to Grandma. So Grandma, the smiling ones of Clifton are for you! He wouldn't smile in the ones we said were for mom! We got back to Manhattan and started our search for China Town. We got a bit side tracked because we talked poor Mindy into taking us past Ground Zero. She walked us to the site, unfortunately we could only see the tops of cranes and the fence that surrounds the site.
We realized how truly hungry we were and took off for China Town where we ate lunch. (about a 20 minute walk) We had Dim Sum, which is my favorite. I must admit though, I have not had amazing Dim Sum since the King Cafe' in Seattle! CLIF! You and Bree have got to go! We got seated, the waitress came over, we had looked at the menu and wanted one of each of their Dim Sum items. The waitress told us no. We explained to her a few times that we wanted one of each item so we could share. She continued to tell us no. A young man from the next table over interpreted for us saying she thought we were requesting too much food. So we cut out about 5 of the 17 items and reordered. She still wasn't happy, but she finally let us order.
Ok, for those who have never ordered Dim Sum, the best way to explain it is most Dim Sum is some sort of meat pureed with vegi's, rolled into balls then tucked into rice wraps, like a Chinese dumpling or pot sticker. Each order consists of 3-6 "dumplings" and costs on average about $3.00 per plate. So it really isn't unheard of for 5 of us to order 12 plates. I hope that makes sense. If it doesn't, well, when you have time and can find a good Dim Sum restaurant, call me and I will take you! So lunch cost us about $6-$7 a piece. We weren't full, but we didn't really care considering we knew where Mindy was taking us for dessert!
We realized how truly hungry we were and took off for China Town where we ate lunch. (about a 20 minute walk) We had Dim Sum, which is my favorite. I must admit though, I have not had amazing Dim Sum since the King Cafe' in Seattle! CLIF! You and Bree have got to go! We got seated, the waitress came over, we had looked at the menu and wanted one of each of their Dim Sum items. The waitress told us no. We explained to her a few times that we wanted one of each item so we could share. She continued to tell us no. A young man from the next table over interpreted for us saying she thought we were requesting too much food. So we cut out about 5 of the 17 items and reordered. She still wasn't happy, but she finally let us order.
Ok, for those who have never ordered Dim Sum, the best way to explain it is most Dim Sum is some sort of meat pureed with vegi's, rolled into balls then tucked into rice wraps, like a Chinese dumpling or pot sticker. Each order consists of 3-6 "dumplings" and costs on average about $3.00 per plate. So it really isn't unheard of for 5 of us to order 12 plates. I hope that makes sense. If it doesn't, well, when you have time and can find a good Dim Sum restaurant, call me and I will take you! So lunch cost us about $6-$7 a piece. We weren't full, but we didn't really care considering we knew where Mindy was taking us for dessert!
Max Brenner! Need I say more? Yes, probably. Max Brenner is a chocolate restaurant. They do have real food, but they have a FULL MENU of chocolate soup, chocolate pizza, chocolate fondue, hot chocolate, chocolate shots, ice creams, etc. IT WAS WONDERFUL!
We ordered their chocolate pizza, a couple of their spicy hot chocolates, and a fondue to share. The pizza is on a pastry crust with chunks of chocolate, marshmallow, toffee chunks, and peanut butter drizzled over top then melted to perfection. The fondue had a taster of most of their specialities. We had a chocolate waffle, chocolate shot, another one with pop rocks on top, milk choc. ice cream and white choc ice cream, another thing I don't know the name of and then a bowl of marshmallows, banana chunks, and strawberries. They gave us a bowl of melting chocolate that had its own tea light candle to keep it melted so we could dip our fruit in it. They also gave us a burner to roast our marshmallows then dip in the melted chocolate. I was seriously in HEAVEN! I highly recommend Max Brenner to EVERYONE!
Mindy and Chelsea sang happy birthday to me. It was sweet. I enjoyed it. Our waiter overheard their singing and brought me my own complimentary chocolate with a candle at the end. How truly SWEET!
We sort of fell from Heaven and ended up back on the streets of NYC...lol! Mindy took us to a shoe outlet store of sorts...I can't remember the name of it. But we did get some shoes for quite cheap! I was happy. I needed some new running shoes. Clifton kept calling me "Megan" to try to motivate me to hurry. That was the longest I have ever shopped for shoes and it was only 1/2 an hour. I think Clif calling me "Megan" is a compliment cause she is ONE HECK OF A SHOPPER!!!! (She hasn't always been that way though! When we were kids, OH man! She and Annika were unbearable to shop with. Megan has gotten TONS BETTER!!!!! She is SOOOO much faster. She knows exactly what she wants, how much it is going to be, almost to the penny, and can be in and out so fast your head would spin. So thanks Clif for the compliment!)
Mindy and Chelsea sang happy birthday to me. It was sweet. I enjoyed it. Our waiter overheard their singing and brought me my own complimentary chocolate with a candle at the end. How truly SWEET!
We sort of fell from Heaven and ended up back on the streets of NYC...lol! Mindy took us to a shoe outlet store of sorts...I can't remember the name of it. But we did get some shoes for quite cheap! I was happy. I needed some new running shoes. Clifton kept calling me "Megan" to try to motivate me to hurry. That was the longest I have ever shopped for shoes and it was only 1/2 an hour. I think Clif calling me "Megan" is a compliment cause she is ONE HECK OF A SHOPPER!!!! (She hasn't always been that way though! When we were kids, OH man! She and Annika were unbearable to shop with. Megan has gotten TONS BETTER!!!!! She is SOOOO much faster. She knows exactly what she wants, how much it is going to be, almost to the penny, and can be in and out so fast your head would spin. So thanks Clif for the compliment!)
After we got our shoes we saw a few of the normal sites, Radio City Music Hall, NBC studios, Rockefeller Center, Time Square.
OH! We ran into Morgan Freeman there! Check out our picture! 
We went to the HUGE Toys R Us store, I vowed never to take my kids there. Mindy found a friend there! I thought it would be a perfect gift for her cat, isn't he a cute puppy? And check out the two story Barbie house! A girls dream! Rebekah had been buggin us to do the caricature pictures so we did finally do those, it was actually pretty fun. I am glad we did it! Good job Rebekah! Then we went to dinner.
Most of us had never had Ethiopian food, so that was where we went. We didn't get any silverware at all. They put the food on a huge vinegar flavored crepe', handed each of us our own crepe' and we went at it. You use the crepe' as silverware. It really was interesting! I enjoyed it. It really was some good food. I didn't care for the flavor of the crepe' but the rest of it was very delicious.
By the time dinner was over we were completely beat. So we boarded our subway train and went to pick up Clifton's luggage. We rode back to Port Authority and caught our bus to my house. Rebekah and Chelsea had to get home to save the brave John from being eaten alive by 8 tired children.
Clifton and Mindy spent the night at my place. My kids were SOOOOO excited to see them. Hannah came in after about 10 mins of spending time with Mindy and mentioned to me that "Mindy is sooo nice mom!" They loved having a little bit of time with Clifton too. Brock even made him a fancy jar when they went to the museum with Brian while I was in the city. It was too darn cute. They wanted to have every lasting second with them. It was torture to put them to bed. They informed me the next day that "Uncle Cliffy-poo acts and sounds just like Grandpa Koon!" Now they miss you Grandpa!
The Adults stayed up talking until midnight then watched Transformers since neither Mindy or Clifton had seen it. Brian and I scampered off to bed around 2:00 am while Clifton and Mindy talked a bit longer. We skipped church to be with Clifton and Mindy until they had to catch their bus back into the city. We fed them German Pancakes and sausage for breakfast, more of a brunch since they didn't wake up til 10:30. Then I sadly walked them to the bus stop not 4 minutes from my house. It really was tough seeing Clifton get on that darn bus. I just miss him so much. We used to really get into crazy things when we were younger. I really loved having him around.
OH! And if you will notice...I am the only one from our weekend in NYC that wasn't red headed! I honestly never thought I would have that problem again! ITS BEEN YEARS! Its too bad Kirsten and Tyson weren't there! (my other red headed sister and cousin!)
By the time dinner was over we were completely beat. So we boarded our subway train and went to pick up Clifton's luggage. We rode back to Port Authority and caught our bus to my house. Rebekah and Chelsea had to get home to save the brave John from being eaten alive by 8 tired children.
Clifton and Mindy spent the night at my place. My kids were SOOOOO excited to see them. Hannah came in after about 10 mins of spending time with Mindy and mentioned to me that "Mindy is sooo nice mom!" They loved having a little bit of time with Clifton too. Brock even made him a fancy jar when they went to the museum with Brian while I was in the city. It was too darn cute. They wanted to have every lasting second with them. It was torture to put them to bed. They informed me the next day that "Uncle Cliffy-poo acts and sounds just like Grandpa Koon!" Now they miss you Grandpa!
The Adults stayed up talking until midnight then watched Transformers since neither Mindy or Clifton had seen it. Brian and I scampered off to bed around 2:00 am while Clifton and Mindy talked a bit longer. We skipped church to be with Clifton and Mindy until they had to catch their bus back into the city. We fed them German Pancakes and sausage for breakfast, more of a brunch since they didn't wake up til 10:30. Then I sadly walked them to the bus stop not 4 minutes from my house. It really was tough seeing Clifton get on that darn bus. I just miss him so much. We used to really get into crazy things when we were younger. I really loved having him around.
OH! And if you will notice...I am the only one from our weekend in NYC that wasn't red headed! I honestly never thought I would have that problem again! ITS BEEN YEARS! Its too bad Kirsten and Tyson weren't there! (my other red headed sister and cousin!)
2 comments:
What a blast!!! Hey just wanted to tell you - you are so beautiful!!! The pictures of you and yours look so fun, it's good to see you so happy.
Love ya tons!
It looks like you guys had a blast! I'm so glad you were able to meet up and spend some time with Clifton. It's been forever since I've seen everyone!
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