Fourth of July NYC Style

Well friends, you know we Norwoods like to move a lot, and we're not really kidding about that. We were in Durham for two whole weeks, so it was time to pack up again and head out on the road. I'm not kidding. No, we didn't really move, technically, but as of yesterday, we are residents of New York City for the month of July. I know... in the midst of all the moving craziness, I almost forgot that I am also a grad student and I have classes to attend! I'm in Year 2 of my masters at Columbia, so I'll be taking four classes (one class a week) while I'm here in July. But this time, Brent AND Blazer are with me! If you weren't a blog reader last year, you can catch up on my NYC solo adventures that involved a dorm room by clicking to the right on the category "Adventures in Grad School".

This year, instead of going solo in a dorm room, we are going high class! We packed up the whole fam in the Honda Pilot and drove from Durham to NYC. That was a fun experience since I've never driven into NYC. We passed through Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Washington DC... it was fun!

We searched for months and months to find a good rental for the month in NYC. It's funny how when you only want to rent an apartment for a month nobody wants to talk to you!! We ended up finding a great apartment at 70th and Riverside on the Upper West Side. Coming from a dorm, having a kitchen and a TV is like heaven! The apartment is nice. Not Durham nice, but nice. However, it did not quite meet our cleanliness standards, so we spent the entire first afternoon scrubbing. The one REALLY good thing about renting this apartment is that it's actually being rented to us by a guy who sells high-end real estate in NYC. He's trying to sell a penthouse in the building next door... for $11 million. It's vacant right now, so he was having a party for the Forth of July. Kind of like a party/open house for his property. (P.S. Have you ever seen "Selling New York" on HGTV? If not, go IMMEDIATELY to your DVR and record it. It's one of our favorite shows ever. If you've seen it, we felt kind of like we were at one of those swanky open houses they feature on the show.)

Anyway.... we got to go right up to the penthouse for the Macy's fireworks show on the Hudson River. Oh my...........it was beyond amazing. The apartment had a GIANT balcony with complete views of the city AND the Hudson River. We literally had front row seats, 24 floors up, of the biggest fireworks show in NYC. It was one of those moments where you just can't believe it's real. We had a blast. And if I had $11 million, I'd buy it for sure. :-)

Me on part of the wrap-around balcony with a city view

Sunset on the Hudson

City View Hudson View - all the boats were out to watch the fireworks! You can see some of the thousands of people on the street below there to watch the show.

Not the BEST pics, but proof that I was actually there! I can never get fireworks to photograph properly. For great firework pics, check out Elicia's blog.

What a great memory! Not a bad first day in the city. Class starts tomorrow!