A wintery weekend in NYC!

Spending a couple of days in New York with my girlfriend Ariel--before flying home to Indiana--was such a fantastic way to wrap up my travels! We saw and did a lot in such a short time (story of my life, haha).

We spent Saturday in Uptown and Midtown Manhattan -- Saks Fifth Avenue, Central Park, Time Warner Center, Rockefeller Center, Radio City Hall, Macy's on 34th Street, Times Square

Ariel standing strategically in front of Lady Liberty. Who knew that she's located just outside Central Park? ;)

Ice skaters! I *loved* Central Park and the beautiful view of the city. :)

This photo doesn't show it, but just outside Radio City Hall was craaazy busy! So many people!

A really sweet lady took this photo at Rockefeller Center for us. Again, the place was packed with people, just like at Times Square too...

I could totally be on Broadway! haha

Day #2: Downtown Manhattan -- Wall Street, New York Stock Exchange, World Trade Center Ground Zero, Greenwich Village, SoHo shopping district, Chinatown, Little Italy

We also went to Brooklyn by accident since we stayed on the subway too long, oops! But it allowed us to see a nice view of the city & the Brooklyn Bridge, which we wouldn't have seen otherwise.

We arrived at the financial district around lunch time and bought some hot dogs from a street vendor--the NYC thing to do, right? For the record, they were pretty good. :)

The World Trade Center site is being rebuilt with six new skyscrapers and a memorial to the casualties of the attacks.

Despite the freezing cold weather, we walked around two different neighborhoods in Lower Manhattan--Greenwich Village and SoHo--and did some window shopping. Later that evening, we went to Chinatown for dinner and foot massages, and walked through Little Italy on our way back to the subway...

Ariel lives in an apartment in Queens, so it was a long subway ride from Downtown! It was so nice spending time with her and seeing so much of the city.

And now it's nice to be back home again in Indiana for Christmas time! I'm not sure yet what I'll be doing next year, but I'm not going to stress about it. Instead, I'm just going to enjoy this time with my family. :) So I'm taking a blogging break, until my next travel adventure...whenever & wherever that might be.

Have a happy holiday season!

Au revoir, France!

I spent my last day here touring the big, yet charming city of Lyon with a new friend from CouchSurfing. (I am quickly becoming the number one fan of this Web site, no joke.)

It was freezing outside, and I needed lots of hot tea & hot chocolate to keep me going as I walked around the city...

See Lyon's own version of the Eiffel Tower? (Haha, not really...it's just a TV tower.)

Lyon has it's own version of the London Eye, too. ;)

Crossing a bridge to get over to "the old city." Lyon doesn't usually get snow this early in the season; while it wasn't fun to walk around in, it was pretty to look at. :)

At noon, this clock inside St. John's Cathedral came to life with music and dancing figurines at the top. From there, we went to a silk shop...

Lyon is known for producing silk. It's also known for its sausages...

...which I tried at lunch. (along with some gratin) Deeelish!

After lunch, I took a cable car up to the grand cathedral (the great big beautiful white building in the first photo of this blog post), where I had a nice overlook of the city...

I couldn't wait to get out of the cold and inside the beautiful cathedral!

My pictures of the gorgeous interior (and amazing mosaics!) really don't do them justice.


I loved this nativity set...

...as well as the Christmas market I went to tonight! I need someone to explain to me why there are umbrellas on this tree, haha.

Ah, I'm getting sooo excited for Christmas!! I can't wait to spend this weekend in New York City (which will look very Christmasy, no doubt) with my girlfriend Ariel...and then going home to spend the days leading up to Christmas with my family. :)