More visitors, the Macy's Parade, an 18-pound turkey, and an 80th birthday!

I don't think it is humanly possible to catch you (whoever "you" might be) up on my life from the last week and a half. 

But have no fear! I am going to try my absolute hardest to reenact every single little thing that has happened into one, concise blog post. (Aka: I'm just going to show you a whole bunch of photos and describe a little bit about each one... if I didn't take a photo of something, I've already forgotten about it).

Bobby came to visit!

(Just look at how handsome he is. And how well his head fits perfectly inside the Washington Square Arch).

And we ate bagels by the water.

And stacked up creamers at Clark's Diner.

And went to Mona's for a fantastic night of jazz music. (I think we left at about 3 a.m... Bobby caught the Mona's disease, too.. he claims he could have sat there all night).

And we drank some delicious bubble tea while walking around 5th Ave.

And at some point, his lovely parents arrived!

And we took a little trip to Sleepy Hollow.

And looked at all of the beautiful Christmas lights.

And ate a delicious lunch at a cool, little bar.

And walked across the Brooklyn Bridge.

(Hey, Garrett).

And saw a WONDERFUL Off-Broadway show (Peter and the Starcatcher).

And ate sandwiches that were literally larger than our own heads.

(That was only HALF of the turkey sandwich).

And at some point, my fabulous mother arrived!

(And we were clearly happy. Or the sun was in our eyes. Or both.)

And we watched the hazmat teams blow up the balloons for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. 

And Spiderman was by far the coolest one.

And Bobby, Mom, and I had 2-for-1 martinis at Pazza Notte with Theodore Roosevelt.

And then it was an early morning! We woke up at about 6 a.m. to make our way to our seats for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. (Bobby's wonderful father gave us all tickets!).

Bobby was excited.

And I was, too.

And so were all of those people.

And the parade began! We were literally at the VERY front... so all of the people in the parade had tons of high energy and weren't frozen to the bone yet. It was so fantastic.

And we saw Kermit.

And Carly Rae Jepsen.

And a very sad-looking Spongebob Squarepants balloon.

And a really fuzzy Whoopi Goldberg dressed up as a pirate. (I know.. what?)

And the FAB FIVE WOMEN'S OLYMPIC GYMNASTICS TEAM. (Can you tell I got really excited about seeing them?)

And possibly the showstoppers of the entire parade....

Tap-dancing Christmas trees, of course! 

(They had some of the best high kicks I've ever seen).

And to finish off the wonderful parade...

...SANTA. (I swear he's looking right at me in the picture).

And then we all split up until Thanksgiving dinner later on.

And at some point, my awesome brother arrived!

And for the first time in four months, the family was together again.

(Don't be surprised if this ends up being the Christmas card you receive from the Royal family this year).

And we went to Central Park to watch the ice skaters.

And we ran across THE creepiest Elmo character. (We're pretty sure he got lost on his way to Times Square and somehow ended up in Central Park. He had leaves all down his back and a bag in his hand that read, "TIPS, PLEASE". Needless to say, parents were nervously steering their children as far from him as possible).

And I showed my brother my favorite place in Central Park.

And we were entertained by some of the most interesting music I've ever heard. I still can't decide if I loved it or if I absolutely hated it.

And then it was off to Carmine's for a lovely Thanksgiving dinner with Bobby's family!

The place was jumpin'.

And this is only HALF of the food that was on our table. (That back there is an 18-pound turkey. Insanity.)

It was SO incredibly delicious. I believe we were all so stuffed, we thought we would explode. That's a successful Thanksgiving in my opinion.

And we finished off the wonderful evening by exploring the roof of their hotel... which had views of the Chrysler building and the Empire State Building.

And the next morning, my mom, brother, and I all hopped on the train to Glens Falls to visit my wonderful grandparents!

And we had our usual salad and pizza supper at Harvest House. Because it was her birthday the next day, Grammy decided she deserved a sundae for dinner.

And we visited the free library and all checked out books.

And on Saturday morning, we celebrated Grammy's 80th birthday with a delicious breakfast!

And Grammy took a photo of me taking a photo of her.

And Grammy took a photo of her own birthday cake.

And then I took a photo of her with her birthday cake.

And then she asked me to take a photo of JUST her birthday cake. So I did.

And finally, after all of that, she blew out the candles. (It may have taken a couple of tries, but she was eventually successful).

Sidenote: We only ate cake immediately after breakfast, because my brother had to hop on a plane to fly back to Charlotte. Otherwise, we would have waited until after dinner or something.. like normal people.

And after Mike left, we all explored Barnes and Noble and had a delicious, little lunch there.

The next day, we ventured into Bolton for a breakfast at Hometown Diner. Then, we walked around the Sagamore, which was beautiful as ever and decorated for Christmas!

And we "ooed" and "ahhed" over Lake George.

And ventured around in the car to get different views.

And then it was time for mom and I to bid "Adieu" to them! We took another train back to Penn Station in New York City.

Whew.

That was the last week and half in a nutshell. Or several nutshells.

I hope that everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving! I have to say that this was definitely a Thanksgiving to remember. I couldn't feel more blessed than I do to have such wonderful, loving family and friends. This is a big "thank you" to all of you for making me feel like the luckiest gal in the world.

Now, I'm off to go write a million papers. It's technically finals week here, but I also technically only have about 15 days left in New York City... I must make the most of these next two weeks!

Love you all.

<3

Nat

Lake George escape and a new Kickstarter song!

Sooooo remember last blog post, when I was freaking out about the fact that it was "snaining" (snow/raining) outside?

Welp. Looks like there should have been an emphasis put on the "snow" part of that. 

That photo right there is the view that I had last Thursday morning at the nice and early time of 8:00a.m... I woke up at 6:00 in the morning, walked about 6 blocks with a rolling suitcase through the snow, and then stood for about 45 minutes right in that very spot, waiting for my very first Megabus experience to begin. 

But it was SO wonderful! I don't know what it was (maybe the sudden downpour of snow the night before), but I met so many lovely, friendly people on the way to the Megabus stop. Everyone was all smiles, I had a cup of warm coffee, and I was about to get whisked away to my grandparents' house in beautiful upstate New York.

Sidenote: I realized later (after boarding the bus) that people may have only been smiling and so nice to me, because I was wearing my boots on the wrong feet.

They probably just thought I was insane.

Okay. Back to the Megabus! It was SO wonderful. Really. If you've ever been on the fence about taking a trip using the company, just go for it. It only cost me $16 round trip to travel 3 and half hours to the Glens Falls/Lake George area. Easiest thing I've ever done.

When I arrived at the bus stop, my grandparents had literally just pulled up. And off we went to Barnes and Noble to get lunch/catch up/look at books, of course.

After quite a long time, we made our way to their house, where we sat and talked some more. (I'm pretty sure I talked more in those two days of visiting my grandparents than I have in the last two months).

And I stumbled upon this little creation in the guest room...

This is what grandpa does in his free time. He claims, "it keeps him off of the streets".

For dinner, we had delicious (and ridiculously cheesy) pizza from Harvest House in Glens Falls!

After a long, eventful day (full of talking), my grandparents were pooped. They claimed that I had worn them out... but honestly, I think they wore me out even more. 

Before heading to bed, though, we all sat and watched my grandma's favorite show-- "Jeopardy". (They are both quite good at answering the questions. Alas, I am not. Sadly, I only knew one answer the whole show, and it had something to do with "Honey Boo Boo". I have no idea what this says about me).

Friday morning, we woke up, downed our multiple cups of Black Magic coffee...

...and grammy and I talked even more. Yes. More talking. :)

There she is mid-sentence. I had to catch her in action, in her natural habitat.

For breakfast, we had some good, old fashioned, diner food at Hometown Diner. 

That is an example of the SHORT stack of blueberry pancakes. I don't even want to know what the regular stack looks like. And check out that entire TUB of butter. Literally. It is a plastic tub filled with butter.

Don't worry, I didn't use all of it. But I did pretty much finish all of the pancakes. They were too good to leave on the plate. 

Afterward, we drove into Bolton Landing, and spent some time admiring the beautiful view of Lake George from the Sagamore.

I mean, just look at that.

LOOK AT IT.

Lake George is beautiful at all times of the year, but there is something entirely different about seeing it in the winter, when no one is on it.. so incredibly peaceful. We sat there for quite awhile, soaking up the beauty and the warmth from the sun. I'm pretty sure grammy would have stayed there all day if she could... grandpa and I practically had to drag her off of the porch.

Then, we walked around the gift shop a bit, grandma bought little things, and we decided to call it a day. We had leftovers for dinner, we sat around, chatted some more, and all went to bed. Such a perfectly peaceful day in one of my favorite places on earth with some of my favorite people on earth.

Saturday morning, we had our usual coffee, our usual morning chats, etc.

And we went to the cutest little restaurant (Celia's Table) in downtown Glens Falls for lunch.

That right there is a delicious salad with the most delicious bowl of chicken pot pie soup. It seriously doesn't get any better than that.

Later in the day, it was time for me to head to the Megabus stop to catch a bus back to the Big Apple. Although it was a short trip, I can't even begin to tell you how wonderful it was. Not only did I get to spend some time away from the city in a beautiful place, but I was able to spend some alone time with my wonderful grandparents (whom I love dearly).

And guess what?? Good news! I am actually going to see them again this week for Thanksgiving. 

Grammy and Grandpappy: I know you both read this blog, so I just want to personally thank you for such a perfect few days. I love you both.

Basically, the rest of the week has consisted of school, internship (the internet is still down, so I only really went in for one day), writing papers, an awesome musical walking tour of the East and West village for class, a Veterans day parade that I stumbled upon...

a trip to the Trader Joes...

Quite a few fruit and yogurt parfaits....

A really strong (and cheap!) margarita...

...and a NEW KICKSTARTER SONG!

Yes. You heard me. A new song for my Kickstarter campaign.

This one is for my wonderful Kickstarter backer, Elizabeth Jensen. She wanted a song, on the ukulele, for her NEW fiance, Kyle.

You can hear the story and watch me play it live (in my awesome NYC dorm room) here:

And you can download the song FOR FREE here: San Antonio Line.

I must be off! I have quite a lot to do in a few, short hours. Because guess what? BOBBY ARRIVES AT 3:00pm. 

:)

And it gets better: His family arrives in the city on Monday, my mom arrives on Wednesday, and my brother arrives (just in time for Thanksgiving) on Thursday.

All is well in the world.

I love you all and I hope you have a wonderful, wonderful Thanksgiving. Eat lots of food. Give lots of thanks.. because we have a lot to be thankful for.

<3 Nat