Rewind to NYC

For my own personal journaling, and to stop Lauren from bugging me, I'm going to rewind through history for a bit and act as if I just got back from New York City...

Thursday, July 13th, 2006
I flew to LaGuardia, and forgot my suit on the plane. After freaking out for 10 minutes and running around like a lunatic, I went to the lost luggage counter and found it waiting for me. I hopped on the Avis shuttle bus, and the stars were aligned just so because waiting for the bus at the next terminal was Lauren, her brother, and his girlfriend. We got hooked up with a Ford Escape. I was pleasantly surprised. Drove to Sea Cliff, Long Island to stay with Uncle Rob.

Friday, July 14th
Went to the rehearsal dinner and had some excellent Italian food. God bless those Italians.

Saturday, July 15th
It was an early wedding, starting at 11am. The reception commenced at 1pm at The Riverview in Oakdale, Long Island. Those New Yorkers know how to party. There was constant dancing the entire reception. Kudos to the great DJ.

Sunday, July 16th
Got the nickel tour of Sea Cliff. What a charming little town, situated right on Hempstead Harbor. We went down to the pier for a ride in Uncle Rob's new boat. It was great - hot air, blue sky, and blue water. I decided to strip down and dive in. From there Lauren and I headed into Manhattan, where we stayed in the Upper East Side. Met up with Sedgwick and his brother for dinner.

Monday, July 17th
Checked out Central Park. We rowed a boat around one of the lakes, rode the carousel, walked the park, and then had lunch at the boathouse restaurant. Next we headed to the Guggenheim and saw an exhibit by Zaha Hadid. Not our style, but still kind of cool. Had dinner at Sushi Yasuda (excellent) and dessert at Serendipity 3 (frozen hot chocolate).

Tuesday, July 18th
Got up early (but would turn out to not be early enough) in hopes of getting Conan O'Brien tickets. On the way to the line we saw Martha Stewart and Matt Lauer on the Today Show. Ended up we were #40 and 41 in line (Lauren happened to mention "I bet we're like 40th" during our wait). Went over to the Empire State Building and bought tickets that we would never end up using. Then swung by to check out the Flatiron Building. MOMA was closed so we went to St. Patrick's Cathedral, H&M, the NY Public Library, and Bryant Park. Yahoo! Sports was having some promo in the park, and saw Eli Manning and others. Got some rainbow-flavored Italian Ice. Went to Macy's and rode up and down all the wooden escalators. We met up with Lauren's cousin, brother, and his girlfriend for lunch at Cafe Duke in Times Square. Went to Trump Tower, Tiffany's, The Apple Store, and FAO Schwartz (we danced on the giant piano). Took a much needed nap. Went to Serafina for dinner, at which point a huge storm landed upon the city. We left the restaurant running from overhang to eave to overhang. A random New Yorker offered us his umbrella after asking if we were honest people.

Wednesday, July 19th
We went to The Metropolitan Museum of Art and had to rush through it. Would love to go back. Stopped by La Maison du Chocolat for some great chocolate truffles. We then headed down to Times Square and bought tickets from the TKTS booth for The Producers. Had some NY Pizza. Walked around and ran into the Naked Cowboy. Went to Chinatown and Little Italy. No Prado or Louie Vittan purses were purchased. We enjoyed The Producers (Springtime for Hitler was a classic) and ended back in Times square with all the other tourists to see it all lit up. We ended the night by taking a horse-drawn carriage ride through Central Park.

Thursday, July 20th
Got up and headed back to Chinatown to eat dim sum at The Oriental Grill. We had no idea what we were doing, ended up ordering (and when I say ordering, I mean pointing at) way more food than two people should consume in one sitting, and enjoyed every minute of it. We walked north through Soho and Greenwich Village. Went back to Central Park for a much-needed jumping photo, and then hailed a cab to the airport. Our cabbie had to transfer us to his brother's cab. We were on the highway when he slammed on the brakes and we got rear-ended. A little shocked and anxious, we climbed into another cab occupied by a guy from Hungary. His phone was dying and borrowed mine to call his friend. He spoke Hungarian. We finally made it to the airport where our cab driver tried to scam us out of more money than he deserved.

I heart NY.