Tuesday, September 15, 2015

The big 3-0

Two posts within a week?!  Let's not jinx it... ;)


My birthday this year was absolutely wonderful.  Let's back up to the previous weekend when Mom & Dad came for an early birthday celebration, now that I have a few photos uploaded from their trip:

with the Woman in Gold! well, not the real one, but a nice big replica for photos by the bathrooms ;)

very squinty, but it's the only one I have of us BOTH looking at the camera ;)  this is outside of the restaurant where we ate with our families

As a result of the early presents I got from my parents and in-laws, I bought myself a FitBit at Costco last Tuesday. It is appropriately kicking my butt!  I am enjoying reaching for the 10,000-step goal, and think this will get me to be more careful in my eating habits.  My one complaint is that since it only tracks "steps", I don't think it's giving me as much credit for my Jazzercise classes, since those involve more than just stepping (think ab routines and light weight exercises).  So I feel a little gypped only getting about 4,000 steps for my hour-long classes... ;)

Overall I highly recommend it.  It was under $100 at Costco, and took me no time to set it up on-line, which is a big deal for me.  I also use it for tracking my sleep patterns, which has been interesting as well.

So on my actual birth day, the stars aligned and Kamil had the day off so we got to spend the whole day together.  We had breakfast and went for a nice long walk.  I took a nap in the afternoon and when I awoke he had gotten a hair cut (I love him having shorter hair) and gave me a sweet sweet card.  Then he took me to dinner at lovely little family Italian restaurant and I got amazing fettuccine.

After dinner we watched TV and then around 9pm I met up with his mom, who was gracious enough to drive me into Manhattan and pick up my dear friend Deidre.  Deidre spent the weekend with me and it was awesome to have her hear!  Unfortunately, I just realized we never took a photo of the two of us to commemorate the occasion :(

Saturday we had an educational morning by getting a tour of the grounds of Nikola Tesla's lab here on Long Island.

This property was built for his lab back in 1903 and then due to Tesla's financial issues, was sold in the mid-20th century.  A photography company used the land for production starting in the '60s and unfortunately dumped chemical waste into the soil for many years, so the land couldn't be used much after they left in the 1980s.  In recent years, there has been a movement to restore the original laboratory building, and the Serbian government even donated a statue for them to have.

The original lab building.  Can't you imagine a bolt of lightening hitting it?

Tesla had built a tower that he hoped to use for generating electricity and telecommunications across the Atlantic.  The tower went deep into the ground to use the earth's energy for this project.  Here is the site for that tower:


the original tower
I think the group now working to restore the property hopes to build a replica, and I guess some folks in Russia have almost completed one out there as well.  All very informational!

Finally, on Sunday morning, Deidre and I walked around Port Jefferson, which is a cute cute waterfront town.  It's where a ferry to Connecticut leaves, but it's not as congested as you might think.  Here's the waterfront, which had a MUCH higher tide when Deidre & I were there, compared to when we showed our parents!

Looks almost surreal how high the water is, and how peaceful it seems. It was nice to be there earlier before the hustle & bustle of a Sunday by the water began.

So now it's back to the quiet of life.  Fall arrived yesterday with a chilly morning, which I loved.  I'm looking forward to training in a week with Chick fil A, and having that to keep me busy.

Until then,

Loves,

LL





No comments:

Post a Comment