it's a hell of a town

Our trip to New York was a lot of fun.

Looking back on it now, it's hard to remember all of the details. I'm sure I'm going to leave out a bunch of important facts. I'll tell you what comes to mind now as I type, and let the pictures embellish the story. There are a lot of pictures, so you'll have to check out the picasa page (click here) to see all of the pics, good and bad. Ally is also working on a blog of her own so that you can get her side of the story too.

Day 1:

Our red-eye flight made us zombies as we arrived at JFK around 8:30 in the morning. We found our way to the subway and tried to stay awake on the ride in to the city. We finally arrived at our friend Camille and her boyfriend Kendall's place in Nolita (North of Little Italy). Ally and I took a nap, from which I awoke first and took a short walk around the neighborhood in search of coffee. After I returned to the apartment, Ally woke up, and Camille returned we all headed out to McSorely's where we enjoyed the beer, the history, the 150+ years of beer soaked wood and dust on the chandeliers. After that, we had an amazing pizza and headed to a few bars. Eventually Ryan Liebe and Camille's boyfriend Kendall met up with us. After beer and skeeball, we called it an early night (sort of), but not until after we picked up some Pommes Frites and devoured them as if they were our last meal.

Day 2:

Our second day we were greeted by the sun. The weather in the city was at the start of a week of temperatures hovering between 70-85 degrees. Ally and I roamed the city checking out a bunch of shops and heading into Brooklyn to see Liebe's apartment and his dog, Leroy. We eventually met up with our friend Becca at a bar that had skeeball and a free personal pizza with every $6 beer (which is cheap for NYC even without the pizza). After a few beers, Ally and I headed back to the apartment to take a nap. After the nap, we called Becca and learned that she had fallen on her face and skinned it pretty badly. So we were only able to meet up with Liebe. The three of us went to a few bars, but being a Friday night in NYC, it was difficult to find a bar that didn't have a line or was completely packed. Ally wasn't feeling great, so we parted ways sort of early and went back to the apartment.

Day 3:

Saturday was Ally's birthday. Our friend Kristy came down from Connecticut. The three of us had lunch and walked down to Canal street in China Town in search of blackmarket goods. We were brought into a locked room in a building that seemed abandoned where we found a fake Coach bag that Ally got as a gift for a friend. We had reservations at Les Halles for 6, but with Becca's face getting worse she and her boyfriend Kit had to back out. We found our group of 6 cut down to 3, so we headed to Park Avenue, changed the reservation, and had a few drinks at a bar up the street. Dinner at Les Halles was excellent. The portions were surprisingly big, the food was delicious, and the ambiance was great. My pan seared scallops with caviar was delicious. After dinner, we met up with a bunch of people at a bar called Hop Devil where we celebrated Ally's birthday. After we left there, the group sort of broke apart and the few of us remaining walked around the East Village looking for a place to drink. The last bar we went to sucked and it sort of ruined the atmosphere of the night so we all went home for the night. Back at Camille's apartment, Ally and I were woken up around 3:30 by Camille and her friend Greta. They were wasted, and Greta had just fallen and hit her head in the elevator. I was afraid we were going to have to take her to the hospital.

Day 4:

We were woken up in the morning by Camille and Greta who were both amazingly chipper. They wanted brunch, and so did Ally and I. We walked for about 15 minutes to a place that had an awesome southern style brunch. For $10.95 I had coffee, a beer, cornbread, potatoes, 2 buttermilk biscuits, 2 sausage patties, 2 fried eggs, collard greens, and cheesy grits. It was all really great. After brunch we headed to Central Park where we sat by the lake at the Boat House and had Mai Tais, Screwdrivers, and a delicious cheese plate. I think the previous night finally caught up with Camille and Greta so they parted ways with us and Ally and I went to the Natural History Museum. We found ourselves extremely worn out so we returned to the apartment. Camille ordered cheesesteaks and onion rings which were delivered in. After we ate, Ally and I headed back to Brooklyn to meet up with Tyrel's friend Dan Hart. After spending every night in the city, it was refreshing to head out to bars that reminded us of home. Dan took us to bars that were dark, had cheap cans of beer, blasted loud indie and punk rock, had games like a man-made minigolf course (complete with a PBR windmill and a robot), a photo booth, and a shot of whiskey with a chaser of spicy pickle juice. When 4:45am finally rolled around and the announcement in the subway stop told us it would be 18 minutes before the next train showed up, we decided to take a private car into the city. It was expensive, but it was worth being back at the apartment that much quicker.

Day 5:

We woke up the next morning, okay maybe it was the afternoon, pretty hung over. We forced ourselves to wake up, since we had planned to head out to Coney Island since we wanted to see the amusement park before the company that recently bought it demolished it and built condos in its place. We ate a delicious lunch of pasta with Vodka sauce, which we probably under appreciated due to our hangovers. Once out at Coney Island, we played some games like skeeball, rode the rollercoater, walked on the beach, and ate world famous Nathan's hotdogs right at the source. We headed back to the city and treated Camille and Kendall to dinner at a Korean BBQ restaurant as thanks for giving us a place to stay for the week. After dinner, we headed back to Brooklyn to meet up with Liebe, his fiance Corrine, Dan Hart, and Tyrel (who had flown in froma business trip in Germany). We ended up at the same bars as the previous night which proved to still feel like home, but unable to live up to the fun of the night before.

Day 6:

We woke up on our last morning in town and packed up our stuff. We headed out towards China Town again in search of gifts for our close friends. After we had picked up our gifts, we headed towards Becca's work in midtown so that we could have lunch with her now that her face was feeling a bit better. On the way there, we walked past Michael Stipe (unfortunately our only celebrity sighting). Liebe met up with us and the four of us had dinner at a Thai restaurant in Hell's Kitchen. After lunch Liebe took us through Time's Square and shared a last beer with us. We parted ways with Liebe, went back to the apartment to grab our bags, hailed a cab to Penn Station, rode the Long Island RR to to the airport, and headed back home. We had had a lot of fun,but we were ready to get back to our own bed, our own shower, and most importantly, our pets.