HAPPY 2012 ..... AND A SNAPSHOT OF NEW YORK

Hello my friends

It's been a few weeks since I've posted on my blog .... being rather overwhelmed by pre-Christmas preparations, and then rushing off on holiday the day after Christmas, I haven't had a chance to sit down and catch up with you all.  So, rather belatedly, I must say Happy New Year!!  2012 is full of promise for me, and I hope it will be a great year for you too.

I am still in a bit of a creative slump, post-Christmas.  Until I can come up with a card to show you, I thought I'd share some photos of our fabulous holiday.  Our family travelled, with friends (who also have 2 kids), to the US for 2 1/2 weeks.  We started off in New York (one of our favourite places to be - just love it), then went to Walt Disney World in Orlando, before finishing up in Las Vegas.

Here's the first instalment - a snapshot of our time in New York.


First up, the iconic Times Square, at night.

The location of our hotel in Manhattan was brilliant; here's the view from the hotel bar, over Times Square.  Unfortunately, we couldn't enjoy this view on New Year's Eve ....  a table cost $15,000!!!  Even a 'standing room only' ticket, to be in the room, was $1500.

Instead, we had a private party in our room.  I stuck my camera out the window to try to capture a portion of the crowd.  It is INSANE in Times Square at this time; around a million people crammed like sardines, into the 10+ blocks around Times Square.

A pretty cute shot of Ethan, a bit footsore after traipsing for miles around Manhattan!

Check out the gorgeous Christmas decorations inside Tiffany's on 5th Avenue.  Such a beautiful store, spanning 5 levels (spent hours there!).  I'm not a big wearer of jewellery, but did buy myself a little something ..... how could I not?!

Here are all 'the kids' at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx.  Loved the tour, and we helped prop up the American economy while we were there!

You can't go to New York without experiencing Grand Central Station.  It is absolutely beautiful.  I also get a lot of pleasure out of reading destination names like Poughkeepsie, and Yonkers (it's the simple things)!

After capturing this shot, I became the official photographer of squirrels on our trip!  Just love these little creatures.

We caught the subway from Manhattan to Brooklyn, then walked back to Manhattan over the Brooklyn Bridge.  That was one of the highlights of our time in New York; it was great.  The weather was beautiful ( there was no snow at all this year), and there were heaps of great photo moments along the way.  I'll share but one with you:

How beautiful do the clouds look, reflected in the Freedom Tower?  This is the building being erected on the Ground Zero site.  Still lots of construction going on.

A perfect Sunday in Central Park.  We walked from one end to the other on this day; glorious.

These cute little bridges dotted around Central Park really took my fancy:

I hope you've enjoyed this little snippet of our visit to New York.  I miss it already!!

I will be back with the next instalment, of our time in Walt Disney World in Florida, once I've trawled through my hundreds of photos to narrow down the selection.