Betwixt and Between?

Irresolute.
Undecided.
Torn.
Willy Nilly.
Waffling. (oh, I should NOT use that one!)
Hot and Cold.
Vacillating.
Ambivalent.

All these words can describe my relationship with what food path to take.  I seem to blow in all different directions when it comes down to a dietary plan.  I get to a point and I jump ship.  You've seen it. I started with trying Vegan (Forks Over Knives) in March 2011.  That lasted a few months. Then I came back to it this year. This time, limiting pasta and avocados. Gail sent me the titles of some books by Gary Taub. I read them, and it lingered in the back of my head. I lost a little weight but it started to plateau. About that time, Linda told me she had read Taub's book and was doing great with the High Protein, No Carb diet...just adding in a few strawberries for breakfast.  So I decided to do that. I was a little nervous about all that meat, knowing I have high Blood pressure and high Cholesterol. But focusing on insulin production made medical sense to me - I was diagnosed pre-Diabetic as well.

Then I read Dr Fuhrman's analysis of ketogenic diets like this.
Actually, he looked at lots of them: Dr. Fuhrman Compares Eat to Live with Other Diets.

While I certainly never felt hungry AT ALL with the high Protein diet, I never really felt like it was a good idea to eat sausage several times each day. What if I really was endangering my health? After all, I'm over 50, severely overweight, and already with multiple diagnoses. Sounds a little like playing near a highway, to me.

Shifting Gears Again
Are you surprised?
I've decided to join Pam in a 6 week trial - no exceptions, follow the very best we can.
So here's what I'm going to do: Eat to Live Dr. Fuhrman's 6 Week Plan
UNLIMITED: eat as much as you want

• all raw vegetables (goal: 1 lb. daily)
• cooked green vegetables (goal: 1 lb. daily)
• non green nutrient-rich cooked vegetables (such as eggplant, mushrooms, peppers, onions, tomatoes, carrots, cauliflower)
• beans, legumes, bean sprouts, and tofu (goal: 1 cup daily)
• fresh fruit (at least 4 daily)

LIMITED:

• cooked starchy vegetables or whole grains
• butternut or acorn squash, corn, potatoes, rice, sweet potatoes, breads, cereals (not more than one serving (1 cup) per day)
• raw nuts and seeds (1 oz. max. per day)
• avocado (2 oz. max. per day)
• dried fruit (2 tablespoons per day)
• ground flaxseed (1 tablespoon per day)

OFF LIMITS:

• dairy products
• animal products
• whole grains
• between meal snacks
• fruit juice
• starch vegetables and whole grains

More to Read and Watch
Healthy Permanent Weight Loss Strategies That Work
How to Eat Healthy When You're On the Go
Who to Trust?
I'm not sure about this, but it's interesting: Powdered Gooseberries - Anti-Oxident Breakfasts

This is long, but REALLY worth watching!

Food Guides and Pyramids

I wish we could get our facts straight. Facts that aren't influenced by people selling books, marketing machines, or even entire industries based on selling something to us.  I've been reading so many conflicting articles and books designed to help me. But they cannot all be right. What's a mere mortal to do?

So after years of the referring to the "regular" Food Pyramid - I am sure that's not right. Heck, even while my kids were competing on a Nutrition Quiz Bowl team, the pieces of that pyramid were shifting.

We're all familiar with what we started with...

It's interesting that even back with this pyramid as The Rule, we were to eat more fruits and vegetables than meat. Yet, we always referred to the Main Course as the Meat dish. And, we'd have bread as a side item - not as the main piece of the meal, as this pyramid would imply. Still, one has to wonder why we were being encouraged to eat so much bread and grains. 

Then in 2005, MyPyramid was adopted. I think the little stickman was supposed to encourage us to get exercising. In this shift, the dairy component seemed to grow a lot. Breads and grains stayed strong though.

A lot of people began to wonder how much the agricultural industry's lobbyists were influencing these pyramids. And frankly, at this point, I stopped being interested in it. They (the FDA, the Powers That Be) simply lost their hold. The unfortunate part for me is that it was kind of nice to be able TRUST someone out there. But, just like most things, you have to explore it for yourself.

The latest quasi-pyramid that I've seen lately is this:

If you can't read this, you can download it for free as a pdf at http://honestfoodguide.org/downloads/21407.2_HonestFoodGuide.pdf

It gives quite a bit of (albeit simplified) information. Still, I much prefer to see diet being talked about on a continuum of health, instead of servings and portions. Maybe if we understand the why a little better, we'll be able to make more healthy choices!

And... lest you think that only serious official people use the concept of pyramids to show how people should or are eating, check out these two:

Denny's suggestions

Zombies-Go-Rawr were taking a stab at Deviant Art

Sue's Monthly Update - Month 3

Time for another update.

FOOD-wise
My Vegan ways have veered off-track. When it's possible, I choose vegan. But I was probably at about 70% of the time. Healthier than not at all, but, I'd like to get a little better at this. I have pretty much ditched the dairy altogether, without a lot of trouble. I thought I'd have a harder time without the cheese, but it's not a big deal to me.

From last month, I didn't meet any of my food goals. So I'm bringing them over to this month:
1.) 1 skip day per week for Vegan
2.) Order the Vegan Cookbook I mentioned last month
3.) Do the Tofu "class" with Cydney - might actually get to that this week.
4.) Go eat Tofu Scramble with HeatherB and see how it is at Kerbey Lane

One thing I did do was contact Veggytopia. Last week, I had a week of Vegan meals delivered to my house!!! How cool is that? I loved most of it. But my main point in doing it is to taste the different foods and see what I'd like to learn how to cook. I didn't get it ordered for this week, but I might just go to Sprouts or Whole Foods to buy some pre-made vegan entrees. I'll let you know what works. 

Here's the breakdown:

Asparagus and brown rice - great!

Macaroni - not that great. It's too much of the vegan cheese.

Polenta and beans - delish!

**My 2 favorites

Blonde Brownie - yum - especially with coffee!

Quinoa & veggies - I really love quinoa recipes

BBQ - ok

"Chorizo" and potatoes - ok

**Mock Chicken salad - wonderful

**Parsnips, carrots, dates - wonderful

They tell me that your food consumption is 70% responsible for your weight, while your exercise is only 30%. So need to focus a little more in this area. 

I've lost 18 lbs. so far.

EXERCISE-wise

I'm still doing well with this. Better each month, really. I exceeded all the goals I set for myself last month. Now I just have to keep up with them. I got a trainer and worked with her twice a week for a few weeks. We're starting once a week this week, and I really have to prove to myself that I can push myself as hard as she pushes me. I can't afford her forever, so I simply have to make this happen.

• Lake walking  (3 miles) - doing that at least 4 times per week
• Weights - 3 times/week is the goal. I've done about 2x/wk consistently
• Water Aerobics - 4x/week (Tues & Thurs this happens twice/day)
• 1/4 mile swim 3x/week - my goal is to do this after the weight training (I did it twice last week, now have to keep it up)

With the switch to healthier lifestyle, I've been reading more about being meatless and dairy-free.  I have a hard time explaining to people what and why I'm doing what I'm doing.  So all this reading helps. Many people have given me suggestions, so I thought I'd share some of them here.

Shattering The Meat Myth: Humans Are Natural Vegetarians
I liked this article. Some of the arguments I've heard are disputed. People often point to our canines saying  that's why we are designed to eat meat. But the size of our canines compared to animals that are REALLY carnivores - much different. And our hands, more designed for berry-picking than ripping and tearing. Meat-eating is simply a tradition we've adopted, and we're slow to let it go for cultural reasons.

"Although we think we are, and we act as if we are, human beings are not natural carnivores. When we kill animals to eat them, they end up killing us, because their flesh, which contains cholesterol and saturated fat, was never intended for human beings, who are natural herbivores."

What Eating Too Much Sugar Does to the Brain
This was good because it talks about how sugar IS needed by the brain to function, but the amount of ADDED sugar is simply not necessary (and quite harmful). The article gives links to several research studies, and makes a lot of connections to some of the health problems I'm seeing in myself. Even memory issues - an area in which I seem to have an increasing problem.

In other words, chronically eating added sugar reduces "brain-derived neurotrophic factor" (BDNF), and then the lowered levels of the brain chemical begin contributing to insulin resistance, which leads to type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome, which eventually leads to a host of other health problems.  

Changing Food Choice and Dietary Habits Requires Breaking Old Behavior Patterns
He talks about the problems and the reasons people have with creating new ways of dealing with food - why people resist the changes when they know that some of the foods we eat are toxic for us. For instance, with the typical bacon cheeseburger:

Sodium nitrite in the bacon -- that's going to cause colorectal cancer.
Saturated animal fats in the bacon and in the burger itself -- that's going to promote heart disease and atherosclerosis.
The bun is made from refined white flours -- that's going to cause nutritional deficiencies and promote diabetes and obesity thanks to its high glycemic index.
The fake slice of cheese melted across the burger -- that's made with saturated milk fats which are going to further promote heart disease, and also, since it's a dairy product, it's going to cause system-wide stagnation, meaning it may clog up your sinuses or cause constipation.
The ketchup has tomatoes and lots of corn syrup, so you get more sugar.
Tons of salt in the whole thing: there's salt in the bacon, there's salt in the cheese and of course there's salt in the burger itself. So you're going to get hypertension and high blood pressure from the salt, plus you'll promote chronic dehydration of your internal organs due to excessive consumption of salt. Then you've got kidney stress, liver stress, uric acid in your blood, suppressed immune system function, impaired oxygen diffusion in lung tissues, and so on.
Not to mention all the preservatives and chemicals!

Now, I didn't know there was anything wrong with TOMATOES! And I know this list sometimes makes us all gloss over with a big "whatever!" But then I read this:

Pretty soon, you're into a self-perpetuating cycle: you eat well, you feel great. Then you have the motivation to eat even better, and suddenly you feel even better! Little by little, you transform your diet because it makes you feel good: better energy, improved mental clarity, better sleep, fewer aches and pains, heightened physical performance, improved sex drive, you name it!

That seems like a better motivation to me!

Meatless Mondays, a Movement that Has Legs
This article starts with Chef Mario Batali instituting a Meatless Monday in his 14 restaurants. The authors give a little history of the meat industry's resistance to people choosing to eat less meat in their diet, which was interesting and expected. The article is simply showing how plant-based dieting is making its way into the mainstream.

It's enough to make the meat industry nervous. Over the past year, lobbying groups including the American Meat Institute, the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, the National Pork Board and the Farm Bureau have launched a quiet campaign to try to reverse the momentum. They have fired off missives to institutions that embrace the call to reduce meat consumption, and they have posted talking points for meat producers on the Internet. They are also making a final push to ensure that the government recommendation of two servings of meat per day remains enshrined in the new dietary guidelines that the Department of Agriculture will release this fall.

Engine 2
Engine 2 is what started me on the Vegan path. I started last year, with reading the book, discovering their website, recipes, encouragement, etc. The Forks Over Knives website has been revamped, and has more info there too.

New 21-Day Vegan Kickstart Plan (Pam & I talk about doing this one)
Beauty that Moves - 30 day workshop (thinking of doing this with Heather Boothe, but I may have missed the deadline)

Blogs
Mighty Vegan
Salad of the Day - Pam's blog about ....um, salads

Going Vegetarian

My love of food has been no secret! And now, 51 years later, my Carpe Diem attitude about eating is staring me in the face. NOT a pretty sight!  I have the diagnoses of Hypertension, High Cholesterol, and Pre-Diabetes - and medications for all of them. And then there's that All-American diagnosis of Obesity.

Last year, when I had just turned 50, I tried the Engine 2 Diet for a month. It's plant-based, no meat, no dairy. I actually liked it but my learning curve was HUGE!  Tempeh and Tofu would sit in the fridge staring at me DARING me to figure out what to do with them. Add to that, the excuse that I don't like the layout of my kitchen.  Oh, and that my family wasn't really interested in giving up their meat and dairy. I was full of excuses. After completing the month (only one slip when I ate a BBQ rib that was left from a night FULL of BBQ beef!) I was successful.

But it didn't last.

I played with the vegetarian aspects. I chose vegetarian or vegan if the option was there. But VERY often, what they took away by being plant-based, they made up for in FAT. I lost no weight at all.

Yes, I know I need to up the exercise in my life. And I've been doing that. About 3 times a week I've been walking the dogs at the lake for 30 minutes. Sometimes I add the Sunday afternoon dog hike with Alyssa and Josh. But it is NO FUN when you are heavy. I don't think there's a way to convey this to people with reasonable weights.

Today marks the day that I'm starting again. Pam came for a few days and has been doing vegan dieting since last spring. She started at about the same time as me, but just didn't stop. She has mastered a LOT of it!

When she was here, she talked to Alyssa about helping out. She's still in school full time, and not a real adventurer with regards to food. But she sat with Pam and they created a list of foods she would eat, what she didn't like, and how she and Josh could help. While I was gone to Fredericksburg these past couple of days, they COMPLETELY cleaned out the refrigerator! Every expiration label was checked. Every fridge compartment was wiped down. They moved all meat and sugary foods to the garage refrigerator. Out of sight, out of mind? Maybe. I haven't even gone out there to look. And now there's room to put in all my low-fat plant-based foods.

Here is my plan. I am going to make a serious effort to do this with the goal being food replacing medications. The promise is that plant-based diets can turn around some of the most advanced disease processes. While I have had hypertension for some time, the pre-diabetes and High Cholesterol are new.I think I'll be able to shed these diagnoses within a year.

Yes, I'm going to add some walking and working out, so I'm going to try to eliminate some weight as well.  No connection to food is so important that having that one piece of fried chicken or chocolate ice cream is going to be a priority over my health. 

So, we'll be using a few "tools." Recipes from a variety of places

Forks Over Knives
Vegetarian Times
Dr. McDougall

Pepperplate.com

If you have great low-fat. non-dairy vegetarian recipes, please send them to me or share them with me on Pepper Plate! (Suepatterson50@gmail.com)

Thanksgiving: The Patterson Plan

I could post about so many other things! 
Like the reprehensible actions of the Davis police department on pepper-spraying college kids peacefully demonstrating. 
Or I could post about how my friend's blog was arbitrarily deleted in the middle of NaBloPoMo. (Now it's back but still it makes everyone a little nervous). 
Or I could post about how the homeschooling community often gets derailed with other issues like political candidates or abortion, or feminism. (I mean, really? Do we want to go back to PRE-feminist days??)  
Or I could post about what's it's like to be in "the sandwich" generation - caring for kids AND an elderly parent. 

But I said I'd only talk about Thanksgiving this week. So! That's what I'm going to do!

Respect the Bird!! lol

Here's our plan:

We'll be up early to start the food, per usual. Alyssa will be the only one around to help, so hopefully, she'll be eager to learn (as opposed to eager to sleep-in!)

Katie's flight comes in at 3 p.m., so Alyssa will go to get her. She and Josh will have already eaten at his family's for Round 1 of Thanksgiving. Scott and Pam will have Round 1 in Georgetown with her family.

Michael's new Nicaraguan host family has WiFi at their house! So I'm thinking he might join us for dinner over Skype. :)

This is what Round 2 looks like.  We'll be serving around 4 p.m. - as soon as Katie gets here! :))
(Well, for us, it's still Round 1, but whatever.)

On the Menu:

Appetizers:
  Brie En Croute

  Deviled Eggs

  Olives, pickles, celery with CheezWiz :-D

  Cranberry Fizz Coctail

  Hot Toddies
  Sparkling Apple Cider

The Feast!

  Turkey...cooked "in the bag"

  Spiral Ham...from HEB

  Dressing...Pepperidge Farm, not sure what I'll add to it this year.

  Dressing...Cornbread, small amount, since this is what Scott likes

  Mashed Potatoes

  Gravy

  Sweet Potatoes with marshmallows

  Cranberries

  Green Bean Casserole

  Quinoa with fruit and nuts

  Ambrosia with coconut and colored marshmallows

The Dessert

  Pumpkin Pie

  Pecan Pie

  Chocolate Pie

  Mincemeat Pie

The Great Pumpkin Cake

Yum!

New York City (Day 1)

This is our 4-day trip to NYC. Our primary goal was to see where Katie wants to go to school and get it all set up. Additionally, I wanted to take another trip with Michael before he leaves for the Peace Corps, and since the last NYC trip was primarily theatre-focused, to let him find more fun in New York. And, since Alyssa didn't make the first trip with us, I wanted her to have the experience as well.  But because my memory is terrible blogging seems to be the way to go.

Up at 4 a.m. Two cars to get us to the airport. With our boarding passes already printed, we got through with no problems. Actually, Alyssa found that she had gotten through with a tiny pocket knife in her purse! And they did want to check Michael and Josh's carry-on bags - they're such suspicious-looking characters!  But mainly, we slept on the airplanes. American airlines, connecting flight at O'Hare then on to LaGuardia.

Carmel Car Service - great service. With 5 people, it was cheaper and faster than the Super Shuttle (@$16/person). We had a minivan for $50, plus the $6 toll and the tip. We made it from LaGuardia to Times Square in under 30 minutes each way.

Marriott Marquis
2nd time at this hotel on Times Square. Didn't splurge on the Times Square view. Still, the 42nd floor let's you see pretty far - glimpses of the Hudson River, John's Pizzeria, Jersey Boys, American Idiot, and the Golden Hand at Madame Tussard's! Lovely room. Really convenient for tourist stuff.


Hell's Kitchen Flea Market
Not very big, so not too great. Josh found some great boots, but they were too small. Still it was a fabulous place for some NY people-watching. Many were all decked out in their VERY extravagant Easter "bonnets."





Junior's.
 It started raining and we ran across the street to Junior's for sandwiches. We were running late so we got them to go. Not that great for the money. Probably because we had to carry them a little ways before we ate.  Waiter comments from Bubba Gumps were that we should only get our cheesecake from Junior's and get our Pastrami Sandwiches from Katz.

Squeezed all 5 of us into a regular sized cab (after a little begging on my part), $5 to get us to The World Comedy Club on 53rd. Good news, we had a coupon for $10 each tickets. We knew we had to have a 2 drink minimum, but we were a little surprised when the bill came - $82!  Bottle water - $10, Beer $16-18, Soda $20. They let us bring in our sandwiches from Junior's, and the 90 minute show was funny. Good first night entertainment!

Found The Food Emporium on 49th & 8th on our walk home from the Comedy Club. Picked up fruit for next day breakfast....even though we ate most if it that night! The rain had stopped while we walked, storm rolled in again afterward.

Walking back toward hotel

A rainy night in Times Square

Still busy there, even if it rains!

Just back from the Comedy Club!

NYC Day 2

Foggy Monday Morning....

CitySights NY bus - a hop-on hop-off bus tour. We bought the discounted price for 3 days through Priceline when we did the airfare. This was a good way to get off in different parts of town. Good for first timers, ESPECIALLY good if you get a good tour guide. Josh and Alyssa jumped on it one day and had a great older Bronx New Yorker who told them the good and the bad of everything he passed! One time we had a younger guy who told us only stuff about TV shoots, movie locations and celebrities. CitySights only has an upper deck, sometimes covered in plexiglass or partial plexiglass. The red busline has all open air top, which looked breezier. Also, ours stopped running at 6 p.m, and the red one seemed to keep running.

Paesano's on Mulberry Street in Little Italy  was delicious and not outrageously priced for lunch.  Outdoor dining was full, but indoors was quaint and old world feeling.

New York Film Academy (SoHo Campus); we walked there and met Barron, Katie's new counselor. Did a tour, sat in on an acting on stage class. Chaotic, but fun. It's going to be pricey, but Katie liked it.


The 1760. We hopped in a cab because we were trying to make the 3:30 tour of the dorm where the NYFA students have 2 floors. We had to get from SoHo to 97th street. We made it with 5 minutes to spare, and $20 cab fare. Really nice safe neighborhood. Typical dorm room, but it does come with TV, microwave, fridge. There's a doorman, weight room, study rooms, library, laundromat, mail room, community kitchen with convection oven and stove.

  Rockefeller Center Walked over from the Marriott.  Lots of people there for Easter.

 We had Top of the Rock tickets, but the line was really long on Sunday. So we decided we'd do it Monday or Tuesday night. That never happened because THICK fog rolled in on Monday night, then Tuesday night, we were just worn out! The idea of waiting in any lines for a great view of the tops of buildings didn't really appeal to us at that point. Another time. ;)

John's Pizza for dinner. Chris Romano's recommendation. They have 4 restaurants now, and Chris's fav was on Greenwich/Bleeker, we ate at the convenient one near Times Sqare. Viewable from our room. Really great pizza! Service was not so great, probably better in the original location. Still, we'd do that again. 

Hershey Store. Went over thinking there was a tour of some kind. But there wasn't. Just a lot of chocolate for sale, shirts with M & M, mugs, Reese's lunch boxes, etc. Not great.

NYC Day 3

Finally a morning with no fog! Our plans were a little up in the air, hinging on the weather. So we were off and running!

Harbor Cruise.
A 90 minute guided tour down the Hudson River, lots of explanations about the viewable buildings, history, skyline, bridges, and then up the East River. Up close to the Statue of Liberty. GREAT tour!! Booked it through Priceline with the Airline tickets. This might have been our favorite tourist attraction.

These two pictures are blurry because I haven't figured out the scanner yet. They were taken by the Harbor Cruise photographer as we boarded the boat.  Not to worry, we took a lot of pictures from the boat - pictures of each other, shots of the skyline and the bridges.  So I just created a slideshow for it. Seems a little dramatic, but I'm just learning how to do this.

If you click a picture, the video will open at the beginning in another tab/page. Otherwise, it starts rolling the minute you enter the blog. If you place the cursor over a photo, without clicking, it will show whatever comments we have about that particular photo. We're not really sure about the buildings and the bridges, sorry, we just took them when we were on the Harbor Cruise. The captain was wonderful, explaining everything...if only I could remember what he said!!

City Bus
The Harbor Cruise offers free shuttle back and forth to Times Square. But we wanted to go to SoHo to see the NY Fire Museum. We considered walking, but Michael and Josh spoke to the Cruise Captain who showed us where to just hop on the city bus for free and go to Bleeker Street. We stood at first, then rode a little past Bleeker. We did see Cydney's recommendation of Two Boots Pizzeria , but we got off and walked on to Spring Street.


NYC Fire Museum
Great museum. Operates on donation, so bring cash. Lots of photos, old equipment, engines, gear you can try on. Clearly a "school trip" kind of place, but we liked it a lot. Very moving videos about 9/11 taken by the firefighters there.
Michael took a bunch of pictures in there, so we'll probably add another slide show! lol

Union Square
My foot was hurting, so Alyssa, Josh and I took a cab to Union Square. When we got there, we found a great Chocolate Restaurant, Max Brenner's http://www.maxbrenner.com/home.aspx although we had a rather rude Russian waitress. Still, the restaurant smelled FABULOUS, and the desserts were totally decadent! Michael and Katie wanted to do some more exploring, so they took the subway to Union Square. They got on going the wrong direction, hopped off, then got back on going the other way. They ended up at TGIF, because it was familiar and we didn't know what street we had turned off the square to get to our restaurant. So when we finished, we met them at TGIF.

NYFA Union Square campus
We walked over to the campus where the behind-the-scenes classes are held, as well as the counselor's area and where Katie will have to go when she first "checks in" in September. We met Barron there and also met the Housing coordinator for The 1760. They let us sit in on an acting course. Katie felt like she'd be just fine in those kind of classes.

Subway
Since Michael and Katie had already ventured into the Subway, we decided we'd take it back to the hotel. We tried to use the credit card to purchase single pass metro tickets, but it wouldn't take it. So we put cash in one at a time, which took a little while, and I'm sure made it clear to one and all that we were tourists. Josh and Alyssa watched a drug deal, while local kids were clearly letting friends in and out the emergency exit. The alarms were being ignored and live music was being played around the corner. So everyone got there cards and we started through the turnstiles. I mistakenly pushed mine forward because I didn't want to have to squeeze into the smaller area. But unfortunately, I was then trapped in between, unable to go either way. So Alyssa ran her metro card and I went on through. That left her on the opposite side of all of us, unable to get through! So initially I handed her my credit card and told her to get in line for another card. Josh noticed that drug dealer was still watching us and this did not sit well with him. So he reached over and opened the Emergency exit we had seen people use, pulled Alyssa through, alarms sounding, and we were off to our train!  We were still a little unsure which train we needed, but we made our best guess and we were right.  Upon arriving in the midtown area, Michael found musicians to photograph. Then we headed up to the hotel. Quite an adventure!

Wonderland
Katie bought her own ticket to see this show. She played Alice when she was 13, so she feels she should see all things Alice in Wonderland -related! She liked the show and it was right in our hotel, so that was great! Her seats were in the 6th row!

Pompeii
Michael got tickets to the Discovery Museum which was also right off Times Square.  Great exhibit!!



Shopping on Times Square
Josh and Alyssa went shopping for a purse and phone cover from the street vendors. Success! The purse was huge, the phone cover was pink - all was right in the world. The streets were packed because all the shows were running on Tuesday night. (None on Monday, and only a few on Sunday night)

Bubba Gump Restaurant 

We decided to splurge on seafood in Times Square. Drinks, dessert - the works! Alyssa even got a glass that lights up!  Service there was great. Food was delicious. Desserts were HUGE!  Yes, it was fun. Yes, it was waaaay overpriced. But...New York...

NYC Day 4 (Last Day)

WEDNESDAY
Preprinted the boarding passes in the Business Center at the Marriott. This is such a great time saver - plus you can change your seats around a little bit if you need to.
Starbucks in the hotel for coffee and croissants.
Carmel Car service back to pick us up. Got us to the airport in about 20 minutes.

LaGuardia Airport - hardly any lines. No extra security checks like there were on the way to NYC. I even forgot to pull out my liquids in my little quart bags, they just went on through. (Alyssa got through the Austin airport with a pocket knife in her purse, but both Josh and Michael had to let someone go through both their bags on the way TO New York.)  Funny flight attendant chatted with us all the way to Dallas. We were right near the galley. Then on the flight from DFW to Austin, there wasn't enough room for all the overhead baggage. Josh took his backpack out and let someone put their suitcase in his spot. He was wearing an Aggie hat, so everyone just attributed his kindness to that. ;) Then another man was pacing the aisles, getting angrier about not finding a place for his bag. He told the flight attendants to "shut up and do your job," along with a few more insulting comments. We were thinking he was about to pull down someone else's bag when he turned to the flight attendant and pounded his fist into his hand, as if to indicate he was about to punch her. Moments later, he was being escorted off the plane. Someone came back and got his wife and his other bags, and that was that. Very exciting though! lol

Parking
Last little surprise. We didn't pay attention to the prices for the parking garage. We were sleepy and Michael was parking the car after we were all dropped off on our way out of Austin. I realized he had parked in the covered parking and expected it to be expensive, like $40. Nope. Try $80! Probably won't do that one again.

Then Ron came to take Michael back to Texas State where he had to finish up a paper and start a take-home test. Katie had to be dropped off at Ballet Austin for dress rehearsal for her shows the next weekend. Alyssa, Josh and I came back to the house, unloaded and went out for some good ole Tex-Mex!

All in all a great trip!!!

Friends on facebook suggested a variety of things we never got around to. But we will in the future. Thanks! Here were the suggestions:
Art Student's League on 57th street; Mood fabrics, united nations tour, toysRus times square, life cafe (from Rent), NBC store, FAO Schwatrz, Union Square Cafe, Spirit for $10 flights, and
http://ask.metafilter.com/184245/How-to-Spend-My-MidSpring-Staycation