What’s green, has a hand size of about 5 meters across, and stands tirelessly on a pedestal? I guess the title of today’s entry already gave away the answer, eh? It’s been about 15 years since I last visited the Lady on Liberty Island, so on a recent very clear day in NYC, I made the pilgrimage with the rest of the tourists. Most of us came through this last stop on the subway…
got our ferry tickets at the Clinton Castle…
and queued up for our boat ride (after clearing security):
Once on the ferry, the first thing I looked for was this:
I’m a terrible swimmer (mostly only in pools with my head above water–chlorine in my contacts is horrible) but if there’s a boat around, I’m on it! Anyway, before we knew it, there she was…
Err…let me move my head out of the way (btw this is the only ODJ shot I got from that day and it’s of the Chanel wool hat from the 11A season)…
And here was the crowd waiting to jump on our ferry to go back to Manhattan:
It probably took no more than 45 minutes to mill around Liberty Island, including stopping by the ranger’s station and gift shop since the statute itself was closed for renovation.
Then we all got back on the ferry to cross over to Ellis Island, where you could visit the Immigration Museum that used to be one of the busiest inspection stations from 1892 to 1954. While Ellis Island is not my own immigrant story (my family came via the west coast), it documents a point in time in this country where futures were made, dreams were broken, and families separated. All of which was very similar to the Vietnamese experience post-1975.
So much history passed through these doors and I couldn’t help but hear the whispers and feel the anxieties that must have permeated these halls while people awaited their fates in this strange new land…
called New York City.
When I got back to Manhattan later that day, as I took more pictures of this vertical city, I thought about the immigrants who were denied entry. Did they try to come back? If they didn’t, did they ever reunite with the family members or friends who came to America? A million stories probably told and retold over family dinners. I hope there were many happy endings.
Tags: Chanel, Ellis Island, Immigration Museum, Liberty Island, Statute of Liberty
So if you click on the ODJ (Outfit Du Jour) link in the right column of my blog you’ll see that I dropped off at day 244. A few years ago. You know, laziness. But a few readers recently encouraged me to pick up where I left off so I’m going to shoot for an ODJ renewal this year and do a few a week. And as I mentioned in the last post, I’m using Lil A once more as talent for kicking off the revived ODJ series.
We got to spend some time together while her parents were preparing for a move to a new place. I was there primarily to meet Mr. T. I was shocked by how much she’d grown in the last year. But most of all I loved how independent she’s becoming; wants to do everything by herself. Including taking this photo of auntie Larkie with Baby Brother (that’s what she calls him):
And I loved that she was always camera ready–would put up with my ten millionth shot of her in every pose. So here’s Lil A in her ODJ, very much a tribute to Mlle Chanel herself (all the way down to the ballerina flats) with my Chanel camera bag…
while still maintaining a funky vibe in her Harajuku Mini biker jacket:
But you wouldn’t know her downtown rocker chic persona if you saw her outside in this very uptown shearling:
Yesss…a fashionista after my own heart. All dolled up even while doing manual labor dragging the new suitcase I was buying to replace the one that was ripped up on my flight from DC to NY:
You laugh, but she dragged that suitcase all the way home from the store! That’s like lifting your own bodyweight! Could she be any cuter? I think not, but tomorrow is another day.
On my last trip to Europe I was given a very special present from a dear member of my host family. I wrote about visiting her family farm back in 2008, where I first met her, and 3.5 years later I got to go there again to see a few renovations and additions to their Hermetton farm, which was now becoming more and more Eco-friendly than ever.
This is one of the puppies that was in the litter from 2008–
he’s bigger than his mommy now:
Anyway, after sitting down to some delicious homemade quiches, tarts, and moonshine (!), mostly made of products culled from their own farm, we started dishing about fashion, and before I knew it, we moved the discussion into her closet where she showed me some of her fantastic creations. She would shop consignment stores for shirts, skirts, and coats, take them apart, and then reconstruct them into new articles of clothing or accessories. We looked at these fun concoctions she’d whipped up for her daughter. Not only are they labors of love but they also become whimsical one-of-a-kind outfits that suit the family’s somewhat bohemian personality.
Being my typical entrepreneurial self, I asked why she didn’t make a business out of this (Etsy came to mind as a springboard). She waived her hand and said she was too old to take on such an initiative since each project would take her days to complete. I thought her daughter would make great free labor, but that’s just me. I already farm Lil A out as free talent for my blog (more on this in the next entry), so I’m all about enlisting help wherever you can find it! Anyway, my eyes must have lit up when she showed me the bags she rebuilt or something, because as we were leaving that day, she gave me one of the purses I had marveled over. It was made from two skirts (you can see the original buttons and pockets in these photos) and completely reversible:
The first photo in today’s entry shows her embroidered signature (in place of a tag) refée pour toi, which is a play on words. Fée means fairy and it sounds like the word fait which means made. Or in the case of refait, redone, recreated or renewed. So if you put the whole thing together, you might say that this gift was given to me by my purse fairy.
What she may suspect till this day, however, is that the one thing I would have brought back from her farm had he fit in my suitcase is their new pony:
At least my horse wouldn’t be imaginary anymore 
!
Tags: Eco-friendly, Hermetton, horse, purse
Of all the times I’ve been to NY I’ve never strayed across the bridge to visit Brooklyn…till this trip. And as it turned out, it was there that I found my favorite pizza joint and bakery. Who knew I would love Brooklyn Heights (from where you could get a great view of Manhattan)
and DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) this much…
but I shouldn’t have been surprised, given how obsessed I am with bridges, including the Manhattan Bridge…
and the Brooklyn Bridge in the background…
I’m not sure it’s great to live this close to a bridge, but I could photograph this neighborhood all day long:
In fact, while I was getting semi-lost around all the cool loft buildings, I ran smack into Almondine, a bakery that I’d read about on tripadvisor.
I’d heard how great their almond croissants were so I was quite excited, especially on a drizzly and cold day (which put me in a constant state of hunger!). Unfortunately, I was too late–the morning rush had wiped out their inventory. Their huge chocolate chip cookies locked eyes with me from behind the glass case, however, so what could I do? Well, let’s just say I finally remembered after almost finishing it that I should take a photo to commemorate the best cookie I’d ever had. But darn that bridge–it always has to be the star of every photo:
Let’s try this again. Here’s what’s left of the best cookie on Earth:
Literally an hour later, as I was taking more photos, my lenses followed a long queue of people outside a white building:
There were no paparazzi and the crowd seemed to be local people, all seemingly giddy to go inside what turned out to be Grimaldi’s, a pizzeria with chains in a few more states. As I was trying to Yelp for more info on the place, the line got longer and longer, so we just decided to queue up and see what the fuss was about. All these people couldn’t be wrong, right?
Now that’s what I call a pizza! Best pizza I ever had outside of Italy. The location in Manhattan is also in a cool building but without the charm of this one.
So that’s how I spent my day visiting–or should I say eating Brooklyn. Because after all that pizza, I wandered into the Sunset Park area and ate my way through Chinatown.
It did occur to me, after my third squid on a stick, that maybe I shouldn’t be so quick to eat on the street. But a grilled honey sweet yam later from the same food cart vendor and all caution went out the window.
I love me some Brooklyn.
PS: I did go back to Almondine and yep, best almond croissant ever .
Tags: Almondine, Brooklyn, DUMBO, Grimaldi's, New York
So while you were all wooed by Wu a couple of weeks ago during the pre-launch buzz of the Target collaboration with Jason Wu, I was zipping through one of the many Smithsonian institutions during my free day. I stopped by the National Museum of American History, which I had never visited before,
and saw the most incredible thing–the original American flag, all 30 by 34 feet in its tattered splendor, that inspired the lyrics to the national anthem. If you are in the area, go see it. If you were born in this country, you will feel proud. If you were naturalized (like moi), you will feel humbled. Either way, you’ll come out feeling awed.
Then just upstairs, I visited The First Ladies exhibit of the gowns worn by First Ladies, including Jackie O, Mary Lincoln, Nancy Reagan, and Laura Bush:
There was a short video of Michelle Obama’s introduction of the exhibit. On the dais with her was no other than Jason Wu, who had designed Mrs. O’s inauguration ballgown:
So yes, dear readers, while I was watching this video, I was visualizing a mad dash through a local Target that would not happen due to my travel. But I was lucky enough to score these two t-shirts after all…
If you happen to see the black kitty tote near you, please let me know. It was the number 1 item on my get list that got away.
Tags: First Ladies, Jason Wu Target collaboration, Michelle Obama, National Museum of American History
