Kykuit

My thoughtful friend Lisa invited me up to take a tour at Kykuit: The Rockefeller Estate this past weekend. It was absolutely amazing! It's no wonder they called it the Kykuit or "lookout." The property over looks the most spectacular views of the Hudson River. At first glance the house appears to have only 3 floors. However, we discovered that the house is actually 6 floors; 2 floors are under ground. How crazy! One of the sub-floors is the kitchen and the other is a delivery room with an underground tunnel attached. The craziest things about the property is 1- the view 2- they had an intercom in the early 1900's- there were numerous amounts of service and valet buttons around the house. They had the buttons on the door panels! I just kept imaging Mr. Rockefeller walking through the hall and thinking "hmm I'm in the mood for a cookie" pressing the service button and Voila! a cookie. haha 3- they had a central vacuum system 4- the kids had their own play house... no no I don't mean like a tree house; nope- I mean a full house with indoor and outdoor tennis courts, indoor and outdoor pools, etc, etc. Let's not forget about the amount of sculptures and pieces of artwork they had around the house. Oh and did you know the MoMA was founded by the Rockerfellers? News to me too.
I could have stayed in that house for hours just to explore all the hidden treasures.

Spotted: Kim Kardashian

Yesterday, I arrived to my writing class a bit earlier than expected, about 45 mins early. I decided to take a stroll down S. Park Avenue and see what stores are around the area. As I was approaching the Gansevoort Hotel, a slew of people spilled out of the entrance. I saw flashing lights, men running with backpacks and right away I thought, it must be the Amazing Race! I've haven't seen one episode of that show. Not one! Why in the world would I think that? Everyone stopped at the corner and as I approached, I noticed a woman dressed in all white. I thought This woman is insane to wear white after Labor Day in a city that lives in all black. Then I noticed Kourtney Kardashian! I was stunned. The woman in all white was KIM! They seemed to not be bothered by the crowd of people with camera's in their face. They looked glamorous and very LA. They are rather petite, which I didn't expect, but who would with those heels. I then panicked because guess what this girl didn't have... her CAMERA!!!! Out of all days! So, I relied on my trusty Blackberry to capture something. As I was taking a photo from the edge of the sidewalk, away from the crazy people that were surrounding them, some gentlemen behind me exclaimed, "Jennifer Lopez!" I thought of turning around and asking if he knew anything about pop culture, but you know what, she kind of did look like JLo. It was definitely an outfit that she would wear. I thought about running up to her and telling her how we were meant to be long time friends. HAHA No... I would never do that... Maybe.
I seemed to be walking in the same direction as them until they slipped into FIKA Espresso Bar. A crowd formed around the cafe so I took a quick photo through the bodyguards and walked on to my class. It was an eventful Thursday to say the least.