The City That Doesn't Sleep....

When the Steelers packed up and headed to New Jersey to take on the Giants, so did this girl! I had the pleasure of staying in the ultra-chic New York City and had a fabulous time exploring the "Big Apple". I stayed with my college friend Kristie at her apartment in Murray Hill. Needless to say, the title of this blog says a lot about my sleeping habits for the weekend - haha!

I caught my flight at 7 AM on Friday so I woke up around 4:45 AM to get ready, finish packing and get to the airport on time. I landed in NYC around 10ish and was off to do some sight-seeing while Kristie finished work for the day. My first stop was Kristie's work building where I dropped off my bags and picked up a map of the city. From there I'll take you on a photography tour :-)

Gotta get in the "Empire State of Mind" by seeing the Empire State Building!

Love, Love, LOVE Bryant Park where I had a fabulous lunch at the B.P. Cafe :-)

Hello Times Square!

I see you Radio City!

Fancy seeing you here, Rockefeller Center!

And of course the beautiful St. Patrick's Cathedreal...

After a full day of walking I thought my feet were going to fall off...seriously, they were like numb! We cabbed it back to the apartment where I got to freshen up before heading out to dinner at ThaiNY...My first Thai experience! It wasn't nearly as scary as I thought it was going to be. I actually enjoyed it! At ThaiNY we met up with some of Kristie's friends and just overall had a great time!

After dinner we headed to a roof-top bar...very cool! I guess its pretty common in NYC but I had never seen anything like it before! It was an absolutely beautiful night and just seeing the city all lit up around me, it was just breathtaking! Another college friend, Katie, met us here. It was SO nice to see her! I'm so happy she could make it out for the night!!

Unfortunately, my lack of sleep was finally catching up to me at this point so I had zero drinks and was kinda looking forward to the night wrapping up. Before it did we hit up a little hot-spot called "The Joshua Tree" - if I was energized and my feet didn't hurt so bad I think I would have REALLY enjoyed this place! It was a super-fun atmosphere! They played all 80's music and played the music videos all around the bar. I remember specifically seeing The Rolling Stones "Start Me Up" and thinking to myself that Mick Jagger sure didn't look like the badass he is in his white pants and purple shirt dancing all over the place! Too Funny! Another favorite that was played...B-52's "Love Shack"...I LOVED this song growing up and so wanted to be the blonde in the video - haha!

After a few hours of sleep I was up and at it for another full day in the City! Kristie and I woke up early, got ready and grabbed some bagels at a little shop near her house. We saved them and ate them in Central Park. Gosh, it is so beautiful there!

As much as it is an "escape" from the City - there is no denying you're still there. We had a few little friends join us at breakfast...look closely!!

If you can't tell, that's two little mice scurrying away! They would run out grab some crumbs that run back in the bushes and chase each other. Normally I would have screamed and ran away if a mouse was just a few feet away but for some strange reason I accepted it and even wanted to document it - haha.

After breakfast we planned on heading to 5th Avenue for some shopping but I decided to detour our trip and splurge on a carriage ride - haha!

I've always wanted to do this! Ideally it would be on a crisp fall day with Patrick by my side (sorry Kristie!) but I decided to just go for it! Where it is a fun experience it is over-priced for the time you get. We were promised at 20 minute ride (no way in heck it was 20 minutes) for $50! The real kicker to make me do it was the fact that I found $20 on the street the previous night so I looked at it as spending only $30 on it - which is more reasonable for what you get! It was fun though...I'd suggest everyone to try it at least once!!

We spent the rest of the day shopping - including at least an hour in Tiffany's! I LOVE Tiffany's! I have a few pieces from Tiffany's and everything I've bought from there I've purchased from saving change for it. I think it's amazing that almost every year I can purchase a nice piece of jewelery just by putting aside my spare penny's. It's now a tradition and one that I just can't break. Currently I'm saving for the silver ball bracelet...to match my silver ball earrings. I'm just under half way there. I kept contemplating whether or not to just buy them while I was there. One minute I'd say "Yes! You have to!" while the next I'd say "Maggie, you don't need it...keep saving!". Surprise, Surprise - my brain won over my heart, who would have thought that would happen?! Unfortunately for me, but fortunately for my bank account I left Tiffany's sans the signature blue bag that I love oh so much.

After shopping we headed to "Sushi Samba" for some lunch. Mmmm! It was so good! After delicious sea bass and shrimp tempura sushi roll we were stuffed and all set to get ready for the Steeler game! After a quick swap of clothes and a pull back of the hair for me (I didn't do so hot in the heat!) we were off on the train to New Jersey. We got dropped off in the parking lot of the New Meadowlands Stadium which was so convenient!

This was the second game played in the new stadium. It was SO nice! One of the things I liked in particular were the four huge HD jumbotrons located all around the stadium!

It's a huge stadium so having those from every angle was really helpful. Our seats weren't the best - four rows from the top! For some reason visiting teams are never given good seats to games, but it was a seat none the less. The Jumbotrons were helpful from that high that's for sure. We did end up moving down before half-time though since there were a lot of empty seats.

Patrick started on Special Teams and went in as a second-string linebacker. He got a lot of playing time which is always a good thing! The Steelers ended up winning the game 24-17.

After the game we got to spend a little bit of time with him which was so nice. I've never gotten to see him after an away game that I've went to. Usually they get right on the bus and head to the airport. It was nice to get to say hello and congratulate him on a win :-) I'm also glad Kristie got to meet my man as she had heard so much gushing over him!!

After taking the train back to the City, Kristie and I cabbed it to grab some amazing desert at Serendipity 3! I loooooved this place so much!!! Serendipity is my all-time favorite movie so having one of the famous "Frrrozen Hot Chocolate" drinks from the movie was high atop my to-do list!

While the "Frrrozen Hot Chocolate" wasn't as to-die-for as I would have wished it to be, the "Strawberry Fields Sundae" was out of this world!

Try cheesecake, strawberry ice cream, whipped cream and fresh strawberries...AMAZING!!!

Serendipity 3 has such a fun energy about it. It's very sporadic with random knick-knacks hanging from the ceiling...

At the front of the building is a little shop full of different items that are very unique. This is where I treated myself to something nice to take home with me. I purchased their signature perfume called "Serendipitous" which has a sweet chocolaty smell to it. I also bought some cute spreaders for entertaining :-) Serendipity 3 was definitely one of my favorite New York experiences this trip!!

After we took a walk through Times Square all lit up at night which was so cool to see!

The night ended with rain which continued through the night and into the morning. It stopped long enough to walk down the block to grab some New York pizza...yum! The rain picked up again right as we got back to the apartment and didn't stop. It proved to be very problematic for me!!! First off, finding a taxi in the rain is zero-percent fun! Then the taxi-ride to the airport was zero-percent fun as the crazy cabbie hydroplaned at least 4 times...I seriously feared for my well-being. NYC cab drivers are scary enough, add rain to the mix and it's downright frightening! Fortunately I did make it to the airport safely only to find that my flight was delayed do to the rain. As the 10 minute delays kept piling up I soon missed my connecting flight in Baltimore. The delays soon after turned into a canceled flight which was a mess across the board! The entire airport was on hold and there were people EVERYWHERE!!!

To get home I had to get a stand-by ticket to Chicago and spend the night in the Chicago airport...can you say miserable?! All I wanted was my bed!!! But you always have to look at things positively, I at least made it home safely :-) But I do have to admit this blog is so long-coming because my sleep schedule was way off whack from this trip. It just took an affect on my entire life.

Overall this trip was very memorable. A big thank you goes out to Kristie for allowing me to stay with her...you're the best girl! I can't wait to visit the "Big Apple" again soon :-)

The Penguins New Home!

The streets of downtown Pittsburgh have been forever changed as a new piece of history was recently raised. Consol Energy Center, the new home of the Pittsburgh Penguins, now sits upon Fifth Avenue - directly across the street from the old arena (AKA Civic Arena, Mellon Arena, or my favorite "The Igloo").

Construction on the building wrapped up on August 1st and 10 days later on the 11th, the new arena saw it's first batch of fans! The first of many open houses at the venue was a private event for workers who contributed to the construction of the venue. The company my dad works for, McKamish, did all the plumbing in the building so he was offered tickets to the invite-only event. My dad had already been inside as he ran "Team Talbot" for the "Student Flush" a few weeks back. He offered me the tickets and of course I took him up! Get ready for all the details!

First off, the building is beautiful! I'm so proud to call Pittsburgh my home! We now house three new stadiums in the city...and 2 champion teams! It's just awesome! I just love my city!! But as I was saying...Consol is great!

I invited my Godmother, Lois, to come with me. Lois is a huge sports fan! Growing up she fed my sports interest by taking me to different sporting events and I was always so appreciative. It's so nice now that I'm older to start to repay her for all of those great experiences growing up :-) We've had so many great memories together and it was nice to add this one to the list! Growing up, Lois took me to my first Steeler game ever, let me tag along to Detroit when the Steelers played in and won Super Bowl XL and even let me pretend to be her assistant nurse when she was taking blood samples from the Steelers (She used to be the team nurse!) So this was a fun addition to our sports related memories :-) Here we are standing in front of the visitors side bench!

There isn't a bad view in the building...this birds eye view proves it!

I had a lot of things I liked about about the arena and only one thing I didn't like. I'll start with my ONE complaint. The pop or "soda" selection was terrible! Before I went in I wondered if they would offer Pepsi or Coke products well the answer is neither! Instead they offer RC Cola, Seven Up, Dr. Pepper, Diet Dr. Pepper, Sunkist and Lemonade. Maybe it varies from person to person but I wasn't a fan of any of these. But now for the things I liked...my absolute favorite thing was the "Highmark Put Your Game Face On" kiosk....

You can kind of tell what was going on here but I will tell you about it in detail...basically there are three stations and each has a camera and a TV hooked up to the camera. The camera picks up who ever is on the designated mat and they show up on the TV screen. Once on TV different touchscreen options appear on the screen which allows the person on screen to do an array of things such as become a bobble head, become the penguin mascot, get a black eye or grow a playoff beard...

LOL!!! You then get to e-mail the photo and within a few days it will be waiting for you with a personalized thank you from the Pittsburgh Penguins! I thought this was a brilliant idea! I had never seen anything like this before and I can imagine it will become a fast favorite activity to partake in at games and events at the arena! Also in the vicinity of this is an entire interactive room with...

Wii Machines!

Interactive Hockey Games!

The Crosby Dryer Challenge!

A Defensive Player Uniform!

And a Goalie Uniform!

Fun stuff! Another neat thing to see was the Hockey "Wall of Fame" which had a framed jersey from every local high school hockey organization. I was bummed to learn that my Alma Mater, North Catholic, no longer has a hockey team and didn't make the wall :-/ Bummer! I instead found one of my friends from my Alma Mater...Nick and I went to school together from Preschool through 12th Grade. It was so nice to run into him there! You can see some of the jerseys behind us...

Verizon Wireless is one of the big sponsors of the Pittsburgh Penguins. They have a wireless Internet station where fans can browse the Internet...

The next level up is where the club seats are located. One of the personal boxes was open to the public...check out the size of this place...!

And the view from the box isn't too shabby either...

Overall I was super impressed with Consol Energy Center! It's sleek and sophisticated...a far cry from the 70's style orange seats at the old arena!! Fans will find the seats more comfortable and definitely more roomie for long legs! Either way though, I will miss the Igloo! Gosh, I grew up going there! My first concert (Sharon, Lois and Bram's Elephant Show!!!) was there! I saw NSYNC there and had gum spit in my hair (true story!) and I saw the Backstreet Boys there after holding a sign for hours in an attempt to meet the band lol. I saw the Circus there many times. And of course I went to many a Pens game there :-) Lots of good times and lots of memories for sure! It's comforting to know the old Igloo will still stand across the street -- for now. I'm not quite ready to say goodbye to it just yet!

Happy Campers :-)

If you know me, you know one thing for certain, I am, always have been and always will be a HUGE Pittsburgh Steeler fan! It's really not saying too much being as EVERYONE from Pittsburgh is a Steeler fan (really, I'm not over-exaggerating...if you were born and raised in Pittsburgh you ARE a Steeler fan!). But I do look forward to the start of the season each year, it's kinda like Christmas coming a little early andddd it's that time of year again!! :-)

As ya'll may or may not know, my boyfriend Patrick is a linebacker for the Steelers. He's entering his third year in the NFL and is also partaking in his third football camp - all have been with the Steelers. Through him I've gotten to see some things up-close and thought I'd share my findings with with ya'll...one fan to another another fan :-)

Camp always starts at the end of July and wraps up sometime in August and for the past 44 years it has been held at St. Vincent College in Latrobe, PA. Latrobe is about an hour away from the city so it's not too bad of a drive for Pittsburghers to take a day trip to watch their team - and oh boy do they! Thousands of fans from the city and really all over the country head to St. Vincent and canvas the rolling hills of the campus. Take a look at these shots...

Family members of the team and booster-club fans (we think) get to watch practice from the sidelines. With this special access I'm able to follow Patrick as he switches places for different drills - which allows me to take some very nice photos :-) Below are a few of my favorites!

Patrick facing Rookie OLB Taddius Gibson while injured OLB James Harrison and Defensive Assistant, Jerry Olsavsky look on...

This would have been a sack by PB on Mr. Dennis Dixon...

PB applying some pressure

PB going against TE Matt Spaeth

PB facing OT Max Starks

I know people like to see players other then PB so I included a few of some of the other players...

Antwaan Randle-El goofing off with the fans while awaiting a punt

Hines Ward and the famous smile we all know and love!

Stephan Logan being Stephan Logan haha! Such a fun guy!

Big Ben signaling that the Offense got a rushing TD during the goal-line drill

After the guys finish up practice they head up what I so lovingly nick-named "Autograph Hill". I'm not gonna lie, I kinda feel for them here...They were just running around in 90-something degree weather for 2 hours, they're hot, they're tired and then they have to hike it up this hill while being hounded for autographs. I will say this though...no matter how tired they are, they ALL take the time and sign for the fans - which is nice to see! And I'm not talking about just the Rookies signing their way up the hill...you'll see the biggest star players out there signing for the fans...

The fan favorite for sure!

PB :-)

The "Big Legursky" AKA PB's Roommate...another GREAT guy!

Once at the top of the hill the players head into their training facility. I don't know about the other players, but Patrick always takes some time to hit up the hot tub/cold tubs and the swimming pool. He then showers and heads to dinner before meetings start at 7. When I'm there I get to go to dinner with him which I'm so appreciative of. It's so nice to be able to spend a little bit of quality time with him while he's away. In all we get about about 45 minutes together because he CAN'T be late! Any guy that is late for a meeting is charged a hefty fine!

Yesterday was "Family Day". It's my favorite for a lot of reasons :-) One of the reasons is because the guys are given the night off, meaning no meetings! They had a special dinner for everyone with a few activities for the kids. Being kids at heart our gang took part in the caricature drawings...

My hair was down when it was drawn...not too bad!

Sweetheart move...Tyler's wife Maggie couldn't be there as she was out of town so he showed the artist her picture and had him draw her in...TOO CUTE!

The Harris'

As you may notice, our friend Tuff is wearing a sling in the above picture. Unfortunately he was injured on Friday night at a practice at Latrobe High School. Gosh, as a girlfriend or wife of a player you try to prepare yourself and ANYTHING that can happen, and trust me I try to do so because so many things could happen in this game. Last week Tuff's wife Mary and I were talking about what if one of our significant others showed up anthers in a play...for example if Tuff intercepted one of our friend Tylers catches. Well the unthinkable happened on Friday night. Patrick actually was the one to cause the injury to Tuff. It happened during a special teams drill where Patrick was to charge at Tuff and Tuff was to push Patrick away. During the drill Tuff's elbow was out and Patrick ran into it and a shoulder injury resulted for Tuff. Currently Tuff is rehabbing his shoulder but a big question mark was put on his immediate future. Patrick feels so bad! But both guys understand it was nothing intentional and it's the nature of the game. Tuff had to come back to Pittsburgh and get X-Rays. This picture says exactly what Tuff's attitude is like regarding the inury...

To end this blog on a light note, check out this picture...our caricature artist thought Patrick and this guy looked alike and in a creepy sort of way they do resemble each other lol

Ta-Ta for now boys and girls! :-)