Springtime Love in New York City

I had a chance to visit Brooklyn as a guest of the A Slice of Brooklyn Tours, as part of a special combined Pizza and Brooklyn Tour, when I was in New York in April. As part of the tour, we strolled along some beautiful parts of the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood. The hyacinths were in full bloom, the trees were in bud and many homes had spring flowers growing in their flower boxes. (All photos can be enlarged if clicked on)

I always feel a nostalgic whimsy for the brownstone homes in this area of Brooklyn.

They are very well kept and very expensive to buy these days.

Much of the borough of Brooklyn has undergone a renaissance and is now considered a chic place to live.

I guess I will have to keep my dream of living in one of these houses as pure fantasy--especially now that I live 1800 miles away in Colorado!

Manhattan was also in bloom--tulips on Park Avenue, lilies in Rockefeller Center, trees in blossom everywhere and a cute doll dressed for April showers in the American Girl Place store of Fifth Ave.

Love is certainly in the air during the Spring season and that is especially true in New York!  Do you see all the locks on the fence along the Fulton Landing in Brooklyn? They are called "Love Locks," and were placed there as part of a growing trend. People in love place the locks on the bridge and then throw the key into the water, as part of a testament of their eternal love for each other. This has been a trend mainly in cities in Europe, and you can read the story of how it began here, but the custom has now found its way to New York City.

A close up of some of the locks.  

Our tour guide told us that the NY Parks Department and/or the Department of Transportation comes around occasionally to remove the locks on the fences and on the Brooklyn Bridge, as it is considered an act of vandalism.  He also joked that the people who used combination locks may be worried about keeping a long term commitment (smile).  What do you think?

One thing for sure--my husband and I don't need a love lock--we will be married 40 years this fall!  I think it is safe to say that our commitment will last forever.  Another New York City post coming up next time ...come back soon!

Have a very Happy Mother's Day!

I

 

The Faberge Big Egg Hunt in New York City!

The Faberge Big Egg Hunt took place during the entire month of April in New York City, and I was fortunate to be in New York for one of the last days of the final display of all of the 260 eggs in Rockefeller Center! Rockefeller Center was still festively decorated for Easter, as you can see in the photos above, and the final days for ice skating in their rink was also still available at the time of my visit.

The two and a half foot eggs were decorated by a variety of globally renowned artists and designers, such as Jeff Koons, Tracey Emin, Bruce Weber, Julian Schnabel, Carolina Herrera, Zaha Hadid, Ralph Lauren, etc., and were placed all around the city, waiting to be found! From April 1 to April 25, New Yorker's as well as visitors to the city, were invited to download a special Egg Hunt app on their cell phones that would enable them to enter a code on an egg they discovered, as an entry to a contest with the opportunity to win one of three Faberge jewelry prizes, that had a combined retail price exceeding $125,000 USD!

At the end of the contest, the eggs were gathered and displayed for a few days in Rockefeller Center and then auctioned online, ending April 26, for these two charities: "The Elephant Family," which works to protect these endangered animals, and Agnes Gund's "Studio in a School," which  benefits art education in under-served schools in New York City.

The Big Egg Hunt was a resounding success and raised millions for these charities!

I enjoyed seeing many of the eggs and taking their photos!  They were all very unique!

Faberge conducted a similar, equally successful Egg Hunt in London in 2102, so maybe their now famous Egg Hunt will be coming to your city in the future?

Above are photos of some of my favorite eggs. Click on to enlarge this photo and all the other photos in this blog post. You will be able to read the artists name on the podium of most of the eggs above.

What a giant Easter Egg Collage! Be sure to click on this photo collage to enlarge it to view it easier! I could not fit all 260 eggs into my photo collage, but if you click on the auction link page, here, you will see many more of them, and learn a bit about them!

We had our own version of a "Big Egg Hunt" at my daughter and son-in-law's house on Easter Sunday in Colorado! It was muddy outside, as we had rain the day before, so we hid eggs around her house for the children to find. Grandpa and Grandma also gave them small gifts instead of candy, which they enjoyed. The beautiful giant Easter Egg cake was brought by my daughter's friend, from Rheinlander German Bakery in Arvada, Colorado. It was a masterpiece, and very delicious--a chocolate cake and chocolate/raspberry filling!  My son-in-law is a wonderful cook and made a delicious Easter dinner buffet for all of us to enjoy. We had a wonderful holiday, and I hope you had the same. Since then I have been traveling quite a bit--I went to New York City for a week and then Chicago, so I'm behind in reading e-mails and comments but hope to catch up very soon!

 Please visit again soon, as I have many more exciting things to show from my recent trips!