NEW YORK, NEW YORK!!!!!!

Well the little farm girl from Kansas has been to the Big Apple and made it home fine. We left a week ago this morning (Saturday) on a trip to New York City and returned home Wednesday evening. It was a great time, but tried to pack too much into such a short time. There was lots of walking and was very warm. Should have been used to it since it is also hot in Kansas, but I don't do hot very well. The trip was centered around baseball and getting to see both Yankee Stadium and Shea Stadium before they are torn down after the 2008 season. On Sunday we saw the Yankee's play the Kansas City Royals from a suite. Royals lost. Boo! Hoo!

This photo is taken of the Yankee Stadium field taken from the Press Box when we did the behind the scenes tour on Monday afternoon. There is a lot of history and mystic surrounding Yankee Stadium.
Below is a picture of part of our group in the Suite on Sunday afternoon. The guy in the yellow shirt in the foreground was one of the organizers of the trip. He is the host of a local Sports Talk Show where the idea of this trip came up. A travel agent that listens to the show and is a big baseball fan actually did the trip planning. And they did a great job.As I said, on Monday afternoon we had the behind the scenes tour of Yankee Stadium including Monument Park that houses placques honoring all of the Yankee greats. Here is a picture of the plaque honoring Babe Ruth. Yankee Stadium is billed as "The House that Ruth Built".

What trip to New York would be complete without seeing the Statue of Liberty. We did both a Twilight Cruise and a Day Cruise of New York Harbor. The day cruise actually went all the way around Manhattan Island. I have included a picture of Lady Liberty by day and at night. The night shot is not very good, but I tried to do some editing to make it better. At least you can see more than just that flame as it came out originally.

As time allowed, we did more of the traditional tourist things. Went up to the Observation Deck of the Empire State Building and visited the big Macy's store. Some of the escalators in Macys are still wooden. How cool is that.

Below is a picture of the front entrance to Macys taken from the top of the Empire State Building.

In the tradition of a true stitcher, my purchase at Macys was a bag. Loved it because it said Macys- New York. What could have been a better souvenir for a person that loves all kinds of bags. Something else to carry stitch projects.

While gone on the trip I did not get as much stitching done as I wanted to. One evening I was so tired I did not do any stitching. Also our hotel did not have the best lighting. I have learned to deal with that in lots of hotels. This one was particularly bad. One lady said that she had to go to the bathroom if she wanted enough light to read anything. All in all it was a great trip and we had a wonderful group of people to travel with. There were 40 in all. Everyone had memorable experiences, some more memorable than others. One group had their taxi stopped by a cop in a John Deere Gator because the taxi driver was driving on a bike path. Evidently the taxi driver did not know how to get them to the proper pier for one of our cruises. The cop let him off with a warning basically because he had customers with him waiting to get to their destination. The group had many laughs on that one.

A while back I joined a Yahoo Group to get involved with a Halloween SAL that Julie, Weathered Barn told me about. Well, it started August 1st and you were to stitch at least one Halloween ornament each weekend beginning last weekend. Being out of town on the weekend complicated matters, but I did get one stitched before we left on our trip. It is called "Beware of the Cat". It was to be stitched in red and white and I did not like that so I changed to WDW Sweet Potato and Whitewash on 10-ct Black Tula. I took several pictures trying to get it to look right. This is the best I could come up with. Now it is another weekend and I need to do another ornament. Not sure how I will finish this one. The SAL is also having a little contest at the end with those that want to participate in a tree decorating contest. Not sure I am going to compete, but would like to get a tree made to hang the ornaments on.

I am almost done with the 3rd ornament from the PS Cranberry Christmas pattern. I did not take time to take a picture. Stopped at the LNS yesterday and she has in the WDW wool that we are going to use to finish these ornaments. Maybe we can get on them this week sometime.

Other stitching activities include the starting of some of my Christmas present stitching. I will not be putting pictures of these up until after Christmas. Most of those I am stitching for also read my blog. I don't want to spoil the surprise.

Continue to stitch on a design for The Sunflower Seed. Maybe done in a week or so. I just went and checked her web site. The newest designs are up. www.thesunflowerseed.com. I stitched both the "Give me a Home" and "Kansas Xmas VI". The Xmas one is available now and the Give me a Home will be available very soon.

When I was at the LNS yesterday she had gotten in the Vicki Clayton Hand-Dyed Silk for me for the 1st block of Village of Hawk Run Hollow. Still waiting on the fabric to come. I am so excited about starting this BAP. I am going to try to follow the plan that others have used of stitching one block a month.

While I was gone to New York, I got a call from one of my sisters that had taken my 87-year old father to his WWII Army Reunion that the men had decided to come back to the town where I live to have their reunion next year. That will involve a little work on my part, but it make my dad so happy to go to the reunion, I will gladly do the work. I think that in the beginning their were about 195 men in his outfit. He thinks now there are about 15-17 living. There were 5 at the reunion. Most are brought by their children. My dad and another man had been to every one held since they started them in 1967 until this year. The other man died the end of May. It was a bittersweet get together for my dad this year. Hopefully they will all we around for it next year.

This has really gotten longer than I planned, but I have always been accused of being long winded when I write anything. Besides I have not posted in over a week. I thank everyone that stops by and reads. Also thank those that make comments. Being gone several days put me behind in reading e-mail, blogs and comments. Should be caught up by the end of the weekend. Again thanks for reading. Hope everyone is having a good weekend and staying cool. I just looked at the temp here and it is just after noon and it is 90 with heat index of 97. Predicted to be 100. I am staying inside and stitching.

Happy Cool Stitching.