Faberge Big Egg Hunt

While walking to our subway stop during the first week of April, we noticed three giant Easter eggs sitting on platforms underneath the tracks. I snapped a few photos and we went on our way. Later, I found out online that they were part of a city wide egg hunt sponsored by Faberge. 

By downloading an app onto your phone, you could scan the QR code on each egg's pedestal and be entered, up to five times per day, to win one of three prizes: each a Faberge handcrafted gemstone pendant worth thousands of dollars. I never could get the app to download onto my phone. Although it would be very cool to win one of the necklaces, I wasn't too disappointed that I couldn't get it to work. I just enjoy seeing the eggs around the city. 

On April 18th, all of the eggs were moved to Rockefeller Center, where they will stay until April 25th. Since last Saturday was the day before Easter, and all the eggs were in a single location, I wanted to go see them. I drug Brian along with me. It wasn't really his cup of tea, but I promised him we could get a hot dog if he came. When I asked him how much of his motivation to come along stemmed from love and a desire to spend time with me, and how much was because of the hot dog, his reply was, "We don't need to put a number on it." Hahaha!

We took the subway to 42nd Street and 5th Avenue, then wandered up 5th to Rockefeller Center. I loved the giant topiary bunny balancing a flowery egg on his nose.

The first egg we saw was this western fellow. He was hilariously cute!

The back view was great as well.

It was almost as crowded as when we visited the Christmas Tree here last December! Due to the eggs, spring tourists, and the ice skating, the crowd was thick and noisy.

During our visit, Brian even found an egg or two that he liked. His favorite was this egg with koi fish painted over a gold background.

This egg's design was made up of tiny dots. I had too many favorites to choose just one. 

Some of the eggs were enclosed in glass cases, while others were left uncovered for us to touch. 

It was really interesting to see the results of a project like this. All of the eggs were roughly the same dimension, 2 1/2 feet tall, but that was the only thing they had in common. Each egg had its own artist, and it was fascinating to see their vastly differing interpretations of the same task. We didn't like all of the designs, in fact there were quite a few that were just weird (we agreed that the paper mache egg covered in photos of dead elephants and elephant skeletons was the weirdest we saw), but many were gorgeous and inspiring. The construction and decorative materials used in the designs included tiles, beads, fabric, wood, porcelain, paper, leather, paint, buttons, candy, legos, and clay.

All 283 eggs are up for sale in an online auction that will close four days from now. The proceeds will go to Studio in the School, a charity that provides visual art programs to children in NYC, and Elephant Family, a charity that works towards saving the African elephant. If you want to read more about the egg hunt or see all the eggs click here.

We had fun looking at the eggs (even Brian seemed to have a good time). We walked back down 5th Ave where we stopped at one of the carts to buy the promised hot dogs. I have now tasted sauerkraut for the third time in my life. The first time was on our honeymoon when we stopped in Leavenworth, Washington (a cute little Bavarian-esque town). We ordered polish sausages with sauerkraut at one of the local eateries. I tried it and hated it! I didn't try it again until two weeks ago when we bought hot dogs from a street cart in Washington DC. Brian ordered his with sauerkraut and I got mine without. I tried some of his sauerkraut and decided that it was delicious. I kept sneaking it off of his hot dog onto mine. After that experience, I was excited to try it again, but was disappointed with the watery cabbage I received on my NY hot dog. It didn't have any flavor at all. I was telling Brian how bad this sauerkraut was and describing how good sauerkraut should taste when he started laughing. He thought it was funny that I was talking like I was a sauerkraut connoisseur when it was only my third time tasting it.

Despite the wimpy sauerkraut, we had a fun afternoon together. I love that there is always something new to see or do in this city.