Hello New York

I finally broke down and bought a new card reader for the camera.  It's one of the things I didn't think to bring with us.  We will now have 42.  I never seem to have one when I need it.  So I bought yet another because a post about our first week in New York would be rather boring without pictures, don't you think?  So here goes, week one, with pictures and all.  This may not be interesting to many of you, but it's mostly for our families so they can picture where we are.  

This is Troy, New York.

  

 

This is the building we are staying at in downtown Troy.  It is very old, but it works for us.  Troy has a bad reputation and there are some parts that are not very nice (I didn't take pictures of those).  However, I commented to John today that we don't hear police sirens here.  Where as, sirens were just part of the nightly ambiance in Dayton.  

We walk down this street everyday to where our cars are parked.  Supposedly a scene from "Age of Innocence" was filmed here in 1992.  I wouldn't know, I've never seen the movie, I've just seen the plaque.  Sirens or not I'm always relieved to see that our cars have not been broken into over night.

The view of the square in front of our apartment building.  Did I mention we are living here only temporarily while we look for a house?  House hunting is how we have spent nearly all of our time the past week.  

John did check in at work and has gotten a few things taken care of there.  His office is in this funky castle looking building.  I did not take this picture.  I've only seen this building once and I was too busy freaking out that there was a Mo's Southwest Grill across the street that I didn't get the camera out to take any pictures.  I'll admit I've been genuinely concerned about New York's lack of Mexican Cuisine.  Not that Mo's qualifies as good Mexican, but it was the first place other than Chipotle I'd seen that even served chips and salsa.  And I'm not allowed to eat at Chipotle since I can't pronounce it and I think it's gross.  I fear it's going to be a long hard quest to find a good chimichanga in New York, but I will not relinquish the search!  Anyway, John's office building at RPI.

The lobby of our apartment building.

The kids check for any mail.

This is the elevator in the building.  It's an antique and it scares me.

I call it the Tower of Terror.

This is inside the Tower of Terror.  John assures me it's perfectly safe and proceeds to rock it back and forth as we travel up.  I pray we don't plummet to our death. 

 Having survived the Tower of Terror we enter our apartment.  This hallway is like a football field long and the kids love to run up and down it.  Thankfully, we are above a store so we don't have to worry about neighbors below us.  Having a herd of elephants above your shop can't be good for business though.

View of the Hudson River from the kid's bedroom.

Kitchen area.

 Our Holiday Decorations!

(I didn't pack a card reader, but I packed Christmas decor!) 

And lastly, our Christmas tree.  Thank you Cheryl!!!  When we set up the tree Gabe was adamant that we dance around the tree.  I was eating dinner and he declared, "Every family who believes in Jesus dances around their Christmas tree, even if their dinner isn't all the way gone."  So we put on some Christmas music and danced around the tree.  I've decided as long as there is a Christmas tree and presents the kids don't care where we spend Christmas.  

 Merry Christmas!

We hope you all take some time to dance around your tree!