Christmas in NYC

In 2008, my friend Kristin and I took a bus trip up to NYC to see NYC at Christmastime.  Her Mom, Aunt and Cousin went too and we stayed with them for a bit but mostly headed out on our own.  The bus ride to NYC from HarCO is about 3 hours.  We were lucky and didn't hit much traffic (we left super early) and made it in almost exactly 3 hours.

We started off by Radio City Music hall before heading towards Rockefeller Center to see the Christmas Tree.   I had heard it was huge but my God, that thing is ridiculous!  I am definitely glad we came to see it!  Our next stop was time square where we ran into the Naked Cowboy.  We also checked out some awesome stores including Toy's R Us, which was obviously the best thing ever.  The last place on our list was Central Park which we had a great time exploring.  We totally wanted to do a horse and carriage ride but the price was just a little too high for us at the time!  We ended our time in NYC by seeing the tree at night.

Us with the Naked Cowboy ... Duh

 

Random pic from Lunch.  Yes we ate at McD's ... we were broke haha

 

Book Review: UnEnchanted

UnEnchanted: An Unfortunate Fairytale

By: Chanda Hahn

Pages:430ish (Nook)

Read: 3/25/2013

"Mina Grime is unlucky, unpopular and uncoordinated, that is until she saves her crushes life on a field trip, changing her High School status from loser to hero overnight. But with her new found fame brings misfortune in the form of an old family curse come to light. For Mina is descended from the Brothers Grimm and has inherited all of their unfinished fairy tale business. Which includes trying to outwit a powerful Story from making her its next fairytale victim.

To break the fairy tale curse on her family and make these deadly occurrences stop, Mina must finish the tales until the very Grimm end."
{Goodreads}

 I LOVE this book!  I have mentioned numerous times that I like books that are different from anything I have read before and this one definitely was!  The plot was interesting and something I have never read before and there were really no slow parts to this book.  I love the incorporation of the Grimm stories and I love that there isn't a happy ending. I think it was very unique and fun to read!

 I gave this book a 5/5 on Goodreads and will be reviewing the sequel on Thursday!

Book Club Friday: The Perks of Being A Wallflower

So, mother nature has been pretty confused this week.  She seems to think that I am on Winter break instead of Spring Break.  She even made it snow and it has not gotten out of the 40's this week.  Since my plans for some fun day trips were all put on hold because of the weather, I have been reading.  A LOT.  I have finished 4 books so far (as I mentioned yesterday) and have a few more on my list.  Since it does not look like the weather is going to get any better, I will probably be reading more! YAY!  So as I mentioned yesterday, I will be doing book reviews throughout the week :)

After I gave up of "Life of Pi", I decided to read "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" and finished it last Friday afternoon.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

By: Stephen Chbosky

Pages: 213

Read: 3/22/13

"Charlie is a freshman.

And while he's not the biggest geek in the school, he is by no means popular. Shy, introspective, intelligent beyond his years yet socially awkward, he is a wallflower, caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it.

Charlie is attempting to navigate his way through uncharted territory: the world of first dates and mix tapes, family dramas and new friends; the world of sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, when all one requires is that perfect song on that perfect drive to feel infinite. But he can't stay on the sideline forever. Standing on the fringes of life offers a unique perspective. But there comes a time to see what it looks like from the dance floor.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a deeply affecting coming-of-age story that will spirit you back to those wild and poignant roller-coaster days known as growing up."

{Goodreads}

I really enjoyed this book.  I thought Charlie was a very unique character which made the book enjoyable.  I think if I were still in high school I would have been able to relate to the book a little bit more but I still thought it was good and it related well to what high school is like for a lot of kids, trying to fit in and find your place. This is a book that I read as part of my Day Zero challenge because it is a banned book.  It is banned because it deals with such issues as drugs and sex but in reality, that is what high school is like for a lot of kids.  Kids experiment with different things and I though the author did a good job portraying that without being too graphic and inappropriate.   It was a pretty easy read and I definitely recommend it and think it is worth reading.

I gave this book a 4/5 on Goodreads!

Book Review: The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden

It's spring break and it snowed on Monday, ewwww.  So, I have been able to read A LOT (so far 4 books read over spring break) so if I try to only review them on Fridays I will be playing catch up for months.  So, every day that I don't have a post planned, I will be reviewing books!

The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden

By: Jessica Sorensen

Pages: 190 (Nook)

Date Read: 3/23/2013

"There are those who don’t get luck handed to them on a shiny platter, who end up in the wrong place at the wrong time, who don’t get saved.

Luck was not on Callie’s side the day of her twelfth birthday when everything was stolen from her. After it’s all over, she locks up her feelings and vows never to tell anyone what happened. Six years later her painful past consumes her life and most days it’s a struggle just to breathe.

For as long as Kayden can remember, suffering in silence was the only way to survive life. As long as he did what he was told, everything was okay. One night, after making a terrible mistake, it seems like his life might be over. Luck was on his side, though, when Callie coincidentally is in the right place at the right time and saves him.

Now he can’t stop thinking about the girl he saw at school, but never really knew. When he ends up at the same college as Callie, he does everything he can to try to get to know her. But Callie is reserved and closed off. The more he tries to be part of her life, the more he realizes Callie might need to be saved."

{Goodreads}

My thoughts on this book are similar to my thoughts on the book "Beastly", though I did like this one better.  Another blogger (I can't remember who now) reviewed this book a few weeks ago and said it was free on Nook and that it was enjoyable, so I decided to give it a go, who doesn't like free stuff?

I will say that had I known that there was a sequel to this book that is not out yet, I would have waited to read it because the cliff hanger at the end is killing me and I need to know what happens!  Anyways, like I said, my view on this is similar to that of the book "Beastly" in that it was a good story that I enjoyed reading but it was a little mushy for me at times and I felt like parts of it were really repetitive.  However, it was overall a good story and I will read the sequel when it come out.  It was also a quick read, I read it in less than 12 hours. I think this book is worth reading and gave it a 3/5 on goodreads.

Mount Vernon, Virginia - Part 2

Yesterday I wrote about the day trip that me and my sister took to Mount Vernon this past Thursday.  I decided to break it up into  two post since there are so many pictures that I wanted to share.  Yesterday I shared everything that we did before lunch and today I am going to share what we saw after lunch :) Click here to start from the beginning at yesterdays post.

Heading back towards the house

Slaves Quarters

The Shoemakers Shop

Inside - The shoemaker made and repaired shoes for the slaves.  The Washington's got finer shoes from merchants or London manufacturers

The Stove Room

This room kept the green house next door warm and functioning

Male Slave Quarters

Blacksmith Shop

Outside of the Blacksmith Shop

The Overseers Quarters

From the outside

 Due to Washington being away from his home so much, he had one overseer for each of his 5 farms who were there to make sure that everything ran smoothly in his absence. 

The Spinning Room

The Gardeners House

The Salt House

Back to the main house!

The Servants Hall

Me and the Original Front door.

Me on the back porch

Walkway between the kitchen and the main house

The Potomac

The Storehouse

The Storehouse

The Outhouse.

And that concludes our tour of Mount Vernon.  We loved it!  We are planning a trip back in the spring when the flowers have bloomed because the grounds have two huge garden areas that should be beautiful in the spring or summer :)

I'll leave you with some instaphotos