Spain - Granada Day 2, Part 1 : THE ALHAMBRA

Our second and final day in Granada was packed full of pre-planned activities.  The main thing to see in Granada (and some would say all of Spain), is The Alhambra.  And that is where our day began.  There was some mix-up with our tickets (I can't remember what now), so we ended up with quite a bit of time before our timed entrance to the Palace.  This ended up being a good thing because it gave us ample time to explore the gardens and The Generalife (their "country" home).  These might have been the best parts of the whole thing!  The grounds were so beautifully maintained and so well manicured.  There were the most amazing flowers, tons of orange trees, lots of water features and pools.  The views of Granada and surrounding mountains from the Alhambra were also breathtaking.  The country home was just gorgeous.

Anyway, lots of pics to share!

Entering the ticket area...yeah, this is before you even get inside!

Neat ceiling inside one of the many other

buildings surrounding the palace

The next couple of pics are of another palace on the grounds.

Emperor Carlos had it built because the Alcazar Palace

"wasn't meeting his needs".  Um...I went to the Alcazar

in Seville and it was AMAZING.  It would meet my needs!

(I'll tell you about it in a couple posts!).

We had fun exploring these little passageways

that ran along the old water moat

 Chapel on the grounds

 I really loved all the orange trees!

 We didn't do a great job of taking pictures with ourselves

in them on this trip.  But, here's one of Michelle for you!

 SNAIL!

 There's the "country" home.  Wayyyyy out there in the country.

After quite a bit of time wandering through the gardens and other buildings, we made our way to The Generalife.  I still think it's strange that their country home was right next to their regular home. Then again, I guess a Palace isn't really a regular home.  I will say that it was an extremely peaceful place and had a nice pool with surrounding gardens, so in that sense, it did feel like a country home!

View of the Alhambra from the "country"

One of my favorite pics!

Finally, we made it to the palace itself.  It was full of neat architecture, tons of beautiful tile, and very intricate/detailed plaster work.

It rained on us this day, but it wasn't terrible! 

So, that's the Alhambra!  It was very fun to explore.  We spent hours there and didn't regret all the extra time we ended up with at all.  We had afternoon plans, too, so stay tuned for the next post!

Tupac!

We spent the last couple of days in the spring of 2012.  Now, we're flipping back to Fall 2011!

My friend, Mindy, is an aspiring actress.  Well, I guess she technically is an actress, but she aspires to do more acting and for more money...a full-time gig, if you will.  I got to see her in a few plays in NYC, but the play about the life of Tupac Shakur was my favorite, by far.  The cast was almost entirely black, of course, but Mindy got cast in the role of Tabitha Soren, the MTV V-Jay who interviewed Tupac.  This was a fun play!  Tupac's life story is pretty interesting and you know I love a true story.  Also, it was exciting to see Mindy in this role.  It was her first Off-Broadway* play and the first play where she got any compensation at all.  She put a lot into her performance and even how she looked.  It was at a respected theatre on the UWS and my friends Alejandra and Stacy went with me to dinner and then to the show - we all enjoyed it a lot!

The show did so well at this theatre that they took it to other theatres.  Until the producers were threatened by Tupac's estate who had not given them the rights to tell his story.  The producers wanted to continue on, but things started to look sketchy so most of the cast, including Mindy, bailed.  And wouldn't you know....right about that time, an announcement was made that a Broadway musical on the life of Tupac Shakur was being created.  It's actually still in creation and I think it is supposed to open sometime this year.

*I might have explained on here before, but I didn't learn until sometime after I moved to NYC how you distinguish a Broadway theatre from an Off-Broadway theatre from an Off-Off-Broadway theatre.  Turns out it has nothing to do with proximity to Broadway, the street.  In fact, there are hardly any Broadway theatres in NYC that are actual located on Broadway.  (Of course, most are within just a couple of blocks).  The true way to determine the type of theatre is by the number of seats it has.  Any theatre with less than 100 seats is Off-Off Broadway.  Theatres with 100-500 seats is Off-Broadway.  And any theatre with more than 500 seats is truly a Broadway show.  I got to see Mindy in her first Off-Off and Off-Broadway shows.  Can't wait to see her Broadway debut!!

Lunch Box

Sometimes I just don't have enough hours in the day to do a big post, especially one that is going to include lots of pictures to sort through, select, and edit.  So, some days this month, I might just pick 1 single picture and tell the story.  Like yesterday with the NHL cup.

Today, you get the Lunch Box.  I love to try new restaurants, but occasionally, I like to stick ones in my back pocket to reuse over and over again.  I found the Lunch Box early on during my NYC years.  It was just up the street from my first apartment.  I stopped in randomly one day at lunch time and ordered the #10.  Tuna, avocado, swiss, (hold the tomato and sprouts), and a bit of mayo on a baguette.  That sandwich became a staple during my 2 years in that neighborhood.  After I moved uptown, I had to go out of my way to get my beloved sandwich, but I did so on occasion.  So good!

Although my move from NYC seemed somewhat abrupt, looking back, I realize that I was so, so blessed to have an entire month (including 2 weeks that were work-free) to enjoy the city before I left.  During that last month, I had an impossibly long list of all I wanted to do and see and eat.  When I lived there, I always said my list of things to do there was always growing longer, never shorter.  So, my last month there was spent not only knocking off some of those things I'd never done, but also re-visiting some of my very favorites.

And one beautiful afternoon, I managed to get back to the Lunch Box for one more #10.

NHL Drinking Fountain

During the 2012 Stanley Cup finals, the NHL erected an enormous Stanley Cup fountain in Times Square.  Not only did it have water sprouting out the top of the cup, there were also water spouts along the sides and workers were passing out cups so you could fill one up and drink the water.  Of course I had to run by during lunch one day and check it out myself.  A lot of people commented that they weren't about to drink water from ANY fountain in the middle of Times Square!  Ha!  I have to admit, it was a slightly weird marketing idea.

Red Carpet Events!

Until we finish up this blog, I'll probably be going back and forth between Spain and my last year in NYC.  No order to this whatsoever...sorry!

One thing I definitely miss about NYC is all the fun events I got to go to.  In the fall of 2011, Stacy and I got to go to a few red carpet events.  I'm going to write about 2 of them here and do a separate post on the 2011 Glamour Women of the Year Awards...because it was awesome (as always) and deserves a post of its own.

On September 11, 2011, Stacy and I got tickets to attend Sarah Tuft's 110 Stories.  It was a reading of first account stories of 9/11 survivors.  They pulled together an awesome group of actors to read the stories.  It was amazing and a great way to observe the 10th anniversary of that awful day.  The stories were definitely touching.

Steve Martin on the left, Ralph Macchio on the right 

Samuel L. Jackson and Katie Holmes

 Jeremy Piven

 Cynthia Nixon

 Stephen Baldwin

Tony Shaloub

Jaime Lynn Sigler

 Kathleen Turner

 Of course, we stopped by the stage door after the event to get some more up close looks at the stars, along with a bunch of crazy paparazzi.  We didn't have too much luck there though.

Jaime Lynn

 Stacy with Cynthia Nixon

 That's the back of Ben Vereen

(google him...you'll recognize him)

 So, one of my dreams while living in NYC was to go to a fashion show at Fashion Week.  That never technically happened.  However during fashion week of fall 2011, I did get to go to a Fashion Week show...it just wasn't at Lincoln Center.  During fashion week, there are fashion shows, trunk shows, private events in upscale boutiques, and parties all over the city.  I was happy to partake in just a small part of that.  A guy at my church was working for a company that had something to do with this show (I can't remember the details) and he sent out an email looking for people to come and make sure the show was full.  It was very full!!  We didn't get a seat, but standing was fine.  It was super fun!  Some of the clothing was really nice and quite classic.  Some of it was Rated-R!

On the red carpet!

The designer was Nami

 We even got little programs.  Oh, and Alejandra joined us, too!

 The designer giving an intro to the show

Okay, I don't know if you can tell here, but this outfit

was definitely Rated-R!  Completely see-thru.  No bra.

 But this, on the other hand, quite tasteful!

 And of course at the end, all the models

came out and did one final walk.  The

whole thing was just like Project Runway!