NYC Birthday Trip (Part III -- DUMBO, Brooklyn)

We left Manhattan and headed back to Brooklyn, this time to the DUMBO neighborhood since that's where our "festivities" for the evening would be. Can I just say, I loooooooooved this neighborhood! Wish we could have spent a week just in this one area because there is so much. Right off the bat we saw these murals.

And what does one do when one sees a giant mural under a bridge?

Strike a 90's-College/Alt-Rock Group Pose, what else?

Photo courtesy of Medway Photos

Photo courtesy of Medway Photos

Then we headed down Jay St. And of course, I had to get photos. I mean it's JAY Street for goodness sake! And you better believe I showed Jay every single shot and expected him to appreciate it, dang it! What?

JAY ST.

As we walked closer to St. Ann's I got some very cool shots of the Manhattan Bridge and that neighborhood. Again, being the strange creature I am, just looking at the architecture and watching people around me was like Heaven. 

MANHATTAN BRIDGE

(Empire State Building underneath)

 GIRLS IN PROM DRESSES :)

Then we traveled closer and finally came to this cool little spot.

ARCHWAY UNDER MANHATTAN BRIDGE

There was some kind of festival going on under the bridge but we just walked through because we were trying to get to the river. When we got the other side of the bridge, though, Sara (I think) saw someone with a Streetcar poster and we all freaked because how often do you run into Gillian fans on the street???? They were such an awesome group of girls that we asked them to hang out with us. And they did (more on that later).

As we continued on towards St. Ann's I saw this...

AND THINGS SUDDENLY GOT VERY REAL

We also needed to meet up with our very good friend, Jessica, and her husband, Mike, (who were both going with us the next night also to see the play) to have dinner and drinks and play some CAH (The X-Files version!!!!).

OMG WE ARE REALLY HERE

Sara Being Sara :)

Jessica Being Adorable

Me Being...Tall

That's Us!

Then it started to rain a little bit.

Of Course I Got a Pic :)

Oh yeah, hi, that's just the Brooklyn Bridge and Manhattan skyline. No bigs.

We decided to move the party indoors and found a bar and grill a couple blocks over called The Bridges. And we ended up staying for a few hours, playing our game which was ridiculously fun and got to know our "Baby Philes" better!

Photo Courtesy of Sara Strong (NOT PICTURED!!! UGH!!!)

I don't know if you guys have ever played Cards Against Humanity but Lindsay and our group came up with an XF version and printed it out. We were laughing so hard that at times I couldn't breathe.

We had a waiter who we found out was also an elementary school teacher. He had this adorable story about one of his students creating a book based on the nickname she had for him about Pickles. One of the cutest things I have ever heard, and Kaitlyn proceeded to read the entire thing to our table which made it even more adorable. There's a video of it but I cannot find it :(

I forgot to mention that my phone was still really dead at this point, but Jessica's generous husband had a wireless charger thingy that he let me use to recharge it!!!!! I was so happy because it meant I got to call my family finally and let them know how amazing the trip was so far (more on that later).

After the rain stopped and we finished our game, it was time to head back to St. Ann's because the Baby Philes wanted to see if they could give their gift to Gillian after her second show of the day finished. (They had been at the matinee show earlier and unable to see her afterwards.)

STILL IN TOTAL DISBELIEF OVER WHERE I AM

THE CREW!!!

Baby Philes and All!!!

#OurFandomIsTheBest

Photo By Mike Who Took This So We Could All Be In It (Thanks Mike!) lol

Someone very special would be coming out of this door just an hour later.

View from St. Ann's

ONE OF MY FAVORITE PHOTOS OF THE WEEKEND

(for so many reasons)

Photo Courtesy of Sara Strong

MIST HAIR, DON'T CARE :p

(also, no makeup all day-lol)

One of the coolest moments of the weekend was FaceTiming with Braden and showing him the Brooklyn Bridge. I mean...wow. He was so excited for me to go on this trip and had a countdown of the days until I left that he would remind me of every morning on the way to school. He looked up places in NYC on his iPad that he thought were neat and wanted me to try to visit (more on that later). So, to be able to show him a landmark like this was so amazing. We are already planning a family vacation a few years from now up to NY/East Coast so he can see them for himself :)

TRYING TO STAY WARMER AND DRIER

(Spoiler Alert: It didn't work and I looked like a crazy person sitting on a stone toilet)

Photo Courtesy of Medway Photos

Since I looked all alone, Kerry and Becks kept me company. Becks had actually just been to see David on his Hell or Highwater tour and told me the most OUTRAGEOUSLY AWESOME story! She was next to the girl who threw her "undergarments" on stage which he PICKED UP and handed to Nate (a member of the band) and said the now infamous "He's the single guy in the group." She said you could almost hear a pin drop after he said that because of the Gillovny implications (if you don't know what Gillovny means, then you can skip ahead......do NOT Google it. Just...don't. You've been warned.). She proceeded to tell me that his whole demeanor changed from being suave and smooth on stage to stuttering over his words and having awkward pauses to where it was obvious he knew he slipped up. I think I made her tell every second of his reaction as it happened to recreate the entire moment for me. And she was happy to do so :) Can you tell I was in fangirl HEA-VEN?!

I walked over to Sara and Jess after awhile because my corner was clearly not warm enough and thought maybe getting the blood flowing with walking would help. We went out to the alley, still trying to avoid being seen by Gillian two nights in a row and looking stalkerish, beneath the Bridge. Sara figured that the SUV sitting in the corner was for Gillian and thirty minutes later, we learned she was right! Seriously, though it was so nice to just talk and goof around and laugh with these two girls who I talked to nearly every day for the last several months, now IN PERSON. I wish I had gotten more photos of us together :(

While we waited, more and more "fans" (who were actually very crazy, very sketchy paparazzi) came out to wait for her.

Finally, Gillian emerged through the door, looked shocked/awed by how many were waiting (because our group of 12 had turned into about 30) told the Baby Philes that she would look for their gift (it's on a video somewhere), and then she walked by us on her way to the car that was waiting for her. The gross, rude paps literally stuck their cameras into her car while she was trying to shut the door, but she continued being gracious and kind even though she had just worked a ridiculously hard day.

And, that's why we love her <3

Oh, and this post was just part 3 of 7.

#necessary