We’ve been back in Germany for about a week now and life is full-speed ahead.  I’ll spare you the details, but rest assured that I am not doing such an awesome job of balancing it all.  Ah well.  We did have an amazing time, however, back in the US — first in NYC and then in Western Massachusetts.  There are way too many photos to cram into one post, so I’ll start with our time in the Big Apple.

First up: the food.  We ate more bagels than we should have, I devoured a cupcake from the Chocolate Room, and we gorged ourselves at Blue Ribbon Sushi, Bogota, Grimaldi’s, Quantum Leap, and Joe’s Shanghai (to name a few).  Basically, it was an awesome tour of our favorite restaurants and food shops.

We also checked out the High Line — an abandoned elevated railway line along the West Side of Manhattan which was transformed into a park.  The High Line wasn’t open yet when I left New York. I *loved* it, and vow to spend time there every visit back to the city.

We also spent a morning at the 9/11 Memorial.  During my entire time as a New Yorker (from 2002-2008), I avoided Ground Zero.  It was really just too much emotionally and I also couldn’t handle the swarms of tourists photographing something that wasn’t there anymore.  The memorial, however, finally offers a place where visitors can go to reflect on what happened.  Though the two fountains in the footprints of the original towers are still surrounded by loud construction, I can imagine it will be a relatively peaceful place once they finish.

Without a doubt, I’m still in love with New York!  There are lots more photos of our adventures here.  And I’ll share some stories from Western Mass soon!