New York City, Day 2

The only planned activity on our second day was a matinee of the Rockettes' Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall. We filled the rest of the day with wandering around and seeing the sights. We started out at 8am by walking a few blocks to find a breakfast cafe, then taking the subway to the Museum of Natural History. (I can't believe I didn't get to see a single art museum while in NYC, but this gives me an excuse to go back!) This was the museum featured in the movie "Night At the Museum". The girls had fun finding various characters from the movie in the museum.

They also enjoyed the other exhibits. Both Helene and Becca love science, so there was plenty to enjoy. Here they are with an elephant tusk:

And they enjoyed finding the differences between the human child skeleton and the chimpanzee skeleton.

And posing with the Easter Island head from the movie . . .

In front of the museum, just being girls . . .

The museum is on the edge of Central Park, so we grabbed a quick lunch at a hot dog cart and took a brief stroll in the park. It was so beautiful; we all agreed we needed to spend more time there another day.

The Rockettes' show was truly spectacular. Part of it featured a drop down screen with a little movie, for which we had to put on 3-D glasses. There were also fireworks and streamers shooting over the audience. Not to mention excellent choreography, tap dancing and high kicking.

After the show, my cousin Claire, who lives in Brooklyn, came to meet us. She took us to Grand Central Station for cheesecake. I didn't even know there was a food court there, but it was a great excuse to see another sight.

This is the outside of the building:

This is the ceiling:

Helene twirling:

and some gigantic slices of cheesecake at Junior's:

Another great discovery was the market at Grand Central. It reminded me a bit of the fish market in Seattle. We bought fresh veggies, challah, cheese and wine, and ate a picnic dinner in our hotel room that evening.

New York Subways

Riding the subway was an adventure for the girls.

The artwork in some of the stations was truly beautiful.

They didn't have to stand up; there were always seats available. I think they just liked trying to keep their balance as the train started and stopped.

New York City, Day 1

This trip has been in the works for many months. It finally got here, and it was everything we hoped for and more! 3 generations, 2 families, 1 big apple.

Here are Helene (with her doll, Samantha) and Becca (with her doll, Elizabeth) at the LaGuardia airport, waiting to meet up with grandmothers.
Grammer arrives!

The big surprise for the girls: we get to ride from the airport to the hotel in a limo!!

Kathy and my mom:

Sandy in the foreground, with the girls in the background, still oohing and aahing:

skyscrapers ahead:

Helene's comment when we got in the limo was that it was not what she expected. She thought it would have several rows of seats, all facing the front (like a bus). Also heard several times during the ride: "Campbell will be SO jealous!!"



We stayed at the Doubletree on Times Square. Here is the view from our window:

After arriving and settling in, we wandered around Times Square and did some window shopping. There was a three-storey M&M store right across the street from our hotel. Yes, three full floors of M&Ms and M&M-themed products. Being a Saturday evening on Broadway, the place was packed. We had to wait in line for the escalator to go up and see more M&M junk. Crazy. Then we walked out the door and realized there was a Hershey's store right across from that. Plenty of chocolate to be had in Times Square.

We wandered for a while, then met Chris's aunt for dinner at the Olive Garden. I know, it's not the tourist destination most people head to New York for, but at that point, we just wanted to sit and eat, and soup & salad sounded really good.

Canning, Preserving, and Drying

I spent about 6 hours today preserving some of our garden's abundance. It is hard work, but fun. Much of this is new to me, and I am learning as I go.

A couple of days ago, I harvested this huge basket full of grapes. This was our second harvest of this size this year. The first harvest made 7 pints of grape jelly. This time I made that same amount, plus had a couple of cups left over for us just to drink as grape juice. Grape jelly is relatively simple. Step 1: harvest, wash, remove grapes from stems
Step 2: Add about a half a cup of water, boil, then simmer for 10 minutes.
Step 3: Separate the juice from the skins and seeds. First, I tried pouring it through a strainer. That got most of the juice out. Then I wrapped the grapes in cheesecloth and hung them above a bowl. I got quite a bit more out this way. Step 4: Profit! Okay, silly joke, and I know that's not even the right step number, but I had to throw that in there to see if my South Park fan friends are paying attention. I just followed the directions on the pectin package, adding sugar and pectin and then using the boiling bath method.
We also had a lot of ripe tomatoes. Those are easy. Cut, squish into the jar to create some juice, add a little lemon juice, can.

I had never seen a tomatillo before last year. They grow in a husk. When the husk is full of fruit and the tomatillo is starting to burst out of it (picture the Incredible Hulk), they are ripe.

When removed from the husk, the tomatillos are sticky. Very strange. I cut them in half and roasted them, then added onions, garlic, jalapenos, lime juice, and a few other ingredients, blended them all in the food processor . . .
and made salsa verde.

John planted some black beans this year. They look just like green beans on the vine, but you wait until they are brown and kind of dry before you pick them.
Then all you have to do is pop out the black beans . . .
And set them out to dry for another day or so, then they are ready to store as dry beans.

Helene's New Do

Helene got her hair cut today:

After:
Before:

Maybe brushing it in the morning won't be such a struggle now!

My First Tournament Sparring

I signed up for two different types of sparring for this tournament - continuous and point - because I wanted to get experience and see which category would be better for me. In continuous sparring, you continuously spar for 30 seconds and points are tabulated as you go. In point sparring, as soon as a point is scored, the fight is stopped, competitors return to their starting spots, then you start again until the next point is scored. You have to be the first one to make contact with your strike, or you're out of luck. I suspected that I would be better at continuous; that is what more of my training has been, and I think I have a slow initial reaction time but can come in and score some points after someone has tagged me. Unfortunately, no one else signed up for my division (18+ beginning and intermediate continuous sparring for feather weight women), so I still don't know!

Adults were awarded swords at this tournament instead of trophies. The top one on the display stand is the 1st place sword I got for being the only woman brave enough to sign up for continuous sparring. :) I asked some other women about it later (women that DID compete in point sparring), and they said the idea of continuous sparring intimidates them. I just want to get some practice at it before I'm up in the advanced/black belt division, because I've watched that and am a little intimidated, myself.

(I competed at the "intermediate" level since that is my current rank at Alpha Martial Arts, where I started over because the style is slightly different. I have not been training enough since earning my black belt to feel like I am at a black belt level, and since this was my first competition, I thought it better to ease into it.)

When it came time for point sparring, there were actually 4 of us signed up for my division. They drew names and paired me with Becky from Five Knuckle Bullet for the first match. Their school focuses on fighting, so I was a bit intimidated going into it. I also didn't know what to expect from a point sparring match and didn't completely understand what the rules were. I hung back and figured things out for the first bit. You can see in the video where I finally figured it out and started to get the hang of things. (Points are visible on the table in the background - I was white in this match.) Just as I started to improve, time was called. I didn't even know there was a time limit in point sparring. I thought it was first one to 10 points. Oh, well. The entire reason I did this tournament was for experience, and I definitely learned a lot.

link to video here:

my first sparring match

Since I lost the first match, I was not eligible for first or second place. I fought the loser of the other match to determine 3rd and 4th places. I think her name was Luellen. I had a slight height and leg length advantage. I did get in one kick to her head towards the end, which I was excited about, because that scores 2 points instead of 1. Once again, scores can be seen on the table in the back. This round I'm red.

my second sparring match

Since I won the second match 9-1, I earned 3rd place in point sparring. That's what one of the smaller swords is for. The other small sword is for my 3rd place in forms competition (out of 17 competitors - I'm proud of that one!)

Overall, this was a fun day and a great learning experience. My school took home lots of awards and gained quite a bit of recognition. We were the new kids on the block and represented ourselves well. I am proud of Alpha Martial Arts and looking forward to my next tournament!

My First Martial Arts Tournament

Click here to see my form.

I competed in my first tournament today. It was a great learning experience. Since I started over at white belt when I joined Alpha Martial Arts, I am now only an orange belt in their style. So I competed at the intermediate level. The people who do tournaments at the black belt level have been competing for years, so I think this was a good place for me to start and see how the whole process works. There were 17 competitors in my division, males and females, 35+. The first place winner was my training partner, Chris, with scores of 9.04, 9.05, and 9.06. The second place winner was a Kung Fu/Mu Shu man, with scores of 9.04, 9.03, and 9.02. I came in third place, with 9.04, 9.03, and 8.97. I see lots of room for improvement, but I am proud of myself and glad to have this first tournament under my belt. I can't wait for more!