i DO love Tucson (and meat-packing district, manhattan)

we flew out of LA and into Arizona...a state that is far too hot to have the inhabitants that it does. but thank God it's not the middle of the summer. i've heard of tucson, but who knew i loved it all along? that's what i'm learning in these travels, that there are so many cities out there that i love and i've never even been there. it's crazy how much of the world that we live in that we'll never see...

so, here's the view of Tucson from our hotel window:

cute right? it's every bit as southwestern as i wanted it to be.

my need for all-natural laundry detergent led me on a long walk to 4th avenue, which happens to be the coolest part of town. very hippie, but 'hippie' always makes for the best areas, right? it was like a southwestern version of Little Five Points in atlanta, but much cleaner, and no homeless people. not that i have anything against homeless people. i love homeless people, there just didn't happen to be any that i could see in this area. i snapped some shots of the street scenes that i liked.

i stopped in this great Co-Op for some natural snacks and detergent, and a little bookstore to buy Twilight. i will only allow myself two sentences of this blog to talk about Twilight, because I am inappropriately obsessed with it: I am reading the Twilight series. It is awesome. There, two, as i promised.

we ate some delicious Mexican food that night, and the next day the band played at a festival at the Fairgrounds there, and then we flew out to NYC. i didn't let myself get too excited about going to new york, knowing i would only be able to have a one day love affair with the city. it's nice to know that we'll be visiting there a lot, so i don't have to try to absorb all of it every single time i'm there. so i could relax a little, and just enjoy what i could.

there's virtually no where to park a tour bus in manhattan, so we stayed in a nice hotel in sacaucus, nj. but the night we got there, our new tour manager was finishing up Fall Out Boy's tour with Blink 182, so he gave us all free tickets to Madison Square Garden! we had never been there before and it was so much fun! in one 24 hour span i lived the life of a typical american teenager: i read 1/2 of Twilight and watched Pete Wentz shave his head on stage. and yes, little man definitely came with us. he never misses a rock show, hence his new nick-name, Indie Rock

we ate at a diner and then took a bus back the hotel to get some sleep. the next morning we drove into manhattan. the show was at the Highline Ballroom, right in the center of the Meat-Packing district in Chelsea, which is my second favorite district after the Village. so i was happy to stay in that area for this trip. it has a completely different feeling and vibe than most of the other areas in Manhattan. it's right next to the river, and there aren't any sky-scrapers. but instead quaint cobblestone streets filled with both old original meat-packing buildings as well as modern new condos and store fronts. i love it. i ate in the Chelsea Market at a restaurant that only uses foods fresh from the local farms (called Green Table), and then had a perfect latte at one of the best espresso shops in manhattan, 9th Street Espresso. i spent time with the other band wife and a band member's new GF, who is beautiful and sweet with the most humble, gentle spirit. as you can imagine, it is very important to me who these boys end up marrying, because i will be living with them. i definitely approve, and i told him so and that he better not mess it up:) he's in love, so i don't think he will.

then we walked on the Highline (a park that they built on an old railroad above the streets that i have blogged about before), and walked around more. stopped in a bookstore to buy New Moon (2nd in the series), a journal and Sense & Sensibility, and then headed to the concert. for some reason we've heard that New Yorkers are the hardest crowd to win over, but for us they are always the easiest. concerts in NYC are always the best--everyone dancing and clapping and going wild. little man now watches the shows intently and points to his daddy and claps between the songs (so adorable!) then, half-way through the set his eyelids get too heavy and he falls asleep for the rest of the night. forget bath time and books and lullabys--this is our new bedtime routine! i just hope he loves me for it one day...
here's some pictures of the area

the beautiful, busy streets

wall art:

views from on top of the Highline:

the next show was in Poughkeepsie, NY which is upstate. it was just a typical small town with nothing to do. the best part about it is that it sits right on the Hudson River. we walked down the long hill to find something decent to eat and a coffee shop