NYC

Hey all,
Well... here I sit on my couch, on my own on a Saturday night. I think this is a first (since I moved up, anyway). But it's for the best, as we just got home from one crazy road trip to NYC and frankly a break from our vacation is probably in order. Here's the scoop...

Chris, Ang, Jess and I decided to leave a day early and depart on Wednesday once the kids got off work. We overnighted in Scranton, PA... unfortunately due to time constraints a trip down to the "Scranton Welcomes You" sign as seen on The Office just wasn't in the cards. Meh. This little stop over worked out well, as the next morning (Thursday) we were arriving in the city before noon. 'Arriving in the city' is the operative phrase here, as it turned out that Stamps had mistakenly programmed his new GPS to take us to our hotel in midtown Manhattan, and not our proper destination which was a train station in suburban Jersey. Fortunately we caught the mistake just before entering the Holland tunnel and were pretty happy to be pulling a u-turn and getting the fuck out of sketch-town, USA otherwise known as downtown Jersey City. We all had a good chuckle. NO BOOMBOXES ALLOWED!

We arrived at Penn Station around noon and then headed around the corner to the Chelsea Star Hotel (which, I might add, was fantastic) and dropped off our gear. Due to the fact that the other 4 (Steve, Ginny, Jay & Rip) would not be arriving until Friday, we elected not to do any major touristy stuff. Instead, we decided to just hit the streets. And hit we did. We walked the whole day; from midtown all the way down to Battery Park for a view of the Statue of Liberty. We stopped for lunch in Greenwich Village, visited ground zero and also went for a trek out to the middle of the Brooklyn Bridge. It was an amazing day and we got some great pics - I'll post some up. After our urban hike, we headed back to the hotel for a few beers. During my last minute research for NYC, I noted that there was a free live jazz club in the Village that came highly recommended. That night we decided to give this place a shot, and while there wasn't any jazz on the go, there was live acoustic by request which was just as good! We had a great time drinking stout and taking in the music. Capped off the evening with an NYC cab ride home.

The rest of the gang arrived around lunch time on Friday. We hit up one of the many neighborhood pubs in the area of 8th and W 30th for lunch. Then we took a trek North to Times Square to hit up the 48-hour hop-on hop-off NYC open-top bus tour. We spent the rest of that wind-chilly day riding around downtown observing the sights. Our tour guide was a miserable old bitty. Funny thing was, the more terrible she was the funnier it seemed. I think Rip was crying at one point. That night we decided to hit up an interesting establishment called 'Lips' that Ginny had read up on. It was literally a drag queen restaurant buried in the heart of the meat-packing district. After a bit of searching, we found the place. The service was pretty terrible, but I don't think anybody noticed. It was quite a show... they even had Stamps involved in their songs on a couple of occasions. By the end of a night I had a vagina made out of balloons on my head. All in all a pretty hilarious night.

On Saturday we decided to party ways, group-wise. Jess, Ang and Gin went on a girls shopping extravaganza, and the rest of us (the boys & Rip) decided to hit up the Brooklyn leg of the bus tour. We arrived downtown and had some time to kill, so we hit up Pier 17 for a beer. The sun was beaming that morning and for the first time in a long time it really felt like Spring was here. Cheers to beers on the piers. We then caught our bus and took the Manhattan bridge over the East river (which is really a tidal inlet, har har har). To be honest, Brooklyn was nothing like I expected, in that it was beautiful and very safe-feeling. Mind you, I'm sure the tour did it's best to keep us in the finest areas, but I think we were nonetheless very impressed with the parks, architecture and overall vibe of the area. On the recommendation of our guide, we hopped off at a place called Juniors for lunch. All I can say is: 8oz steakburgers and NYC's finest cheesecake were the orders of the day. Holy moly what food. After our feast, we headed back to the hotel for a bit. The ladies were still away, so the boys and I decided it would be cool to see Yankee Stadium. However, after a bit of a subway debacle we had to re-adjust our plans, and took a spin up to W 81st to check out the Seinfeld locale and a bit of Central Park instead. Very cool shit. We even found the actual H&H bagels where Kramer worked. While we're on topic, I'm pretty sure that between Chris, Jay and I we spouted off a Seinfeld quote about once every 12 minutes during the trip. "It's just Original, Jerry!"

Once we were all back together again that evening, we took a short walk North East from our hotel and hit up the Empire State. It was a clear night and as you can guess the view was incredible. Definitely a good call to hit this up during off-peak hours, as it still took a while to get up despite the lack of a significant lineup. That night we decided to hit up the tavern next door. While it wasn't exactly a swinging joint, it did have lots of fresh Guinness of tap which was good enough for me. No two ways about it, I got very drunk. It was pretty awesome. "This is why I don't say goodbye!"

Jay and Rip were heading out on Sunday, so we decided to make the most of the day. We got up early and with a few hours to spare, made the uptown/harlem loop of our bus tour, which was awesome. Harlem, like Brooklyn, was a lot nicer then I ever would have imagined. More than once over our time in the city we heard about how there have been some pretty major changes over the past 10 years. I believe it. Once our tour was over, we hopped off at the MET and headed into Central Park. The remainder of the morning was spent poking around and taking in Spring - fuckin' A. The 2 kids bailed off around noon, so the remaining 6 went for Easter brunch at a restaurant on the upper West side. It was pretty wicked. Then it was back into the park for more nature and exploring. We capped off the afternoon with a stroll down 5th Avenue to peruse the street vendors and their art. As is my tradition now, I picked up a city skyline of 'old' pre-9/11 Manhattan.

That night the 6 of us decided to get a little more fancy and dress up a little. On a bit of a whim, we hopped off the subway in the West Village in hopes of finding some live jazz. And did we luck out! We ate at a place called the 'Garage' and it was absolutely amazing. The music was incredible and the filet mignon was even better. Afterwards we headed across the street to a tacky little jazz bar that was equally cool. We had a few beers and took in the entertainment until the wee hours. Needless to say, it was an Easter Sunday for the books.

On Monday it was time to say goodbye to NYC, but not before one last colossal lunch. And what better place than the Carnegie Deli! I had a pastrami sandwich that was as big as your head, no joke. Didn't see Bowser from Sha-na-na though. Once our last gorging was over with it was time to say goodbye. We caught our trains over to Lyndhurst, NJ and we were on our way home... or so we thought. About 20mins into our voyage home, the Accord started to make some pretty crazy noises. Long story short, the rear bearings needed replacing. Steve & Ginny had to back-track an hour to get Jess and I, as we didn't know how long we'd be stranded. Turns out Chris and Ang were able to get the car fixed and back on the road and actually almost beat us back home. Kinda sucked for the drivers involved, but hey, it's all part of the adventure that is the road trip.

So yeah... New York was awesome and I'm totally glad I got to experience it with so many friends in tow. Wicked.

YO! I'M WALKIN' HERE!

what a crew