NYC

I spent the weekend in New York City to see my sister as well as Dan and Amy who were concluding an East Coast tour there. John and I drove up on Saturday, arriving in the early afternoon. After lunch with Caitlin, we headed into the city and walked around some because it takes me a bit to figure out my norths and souths at first. But we found our way to the Shake Shack in Madison Square so we could give it a try. Owned by Danny Meyer, whose Union Square Hospitality Group also employs Caitlin, it's rumored to have some of the best burgers in the city. Because it was a beautiful Saturday afternoon, the line was quite long but the "B-line" came in handy because we were able to get some drinks (it seemed quite odd that you could buy beers or an entire bottle of wine if you wanted) and hang out in line. The burgers are good, quite good. I decided that if the line wasn't long it would easily be the first place I'd go to get a burger. We didn't try any shakes or custard because we weren't that hungry but I'll assume everything there is good.

From there we proceeded to walk around some more, eventually ending up at a bar where we couldn't watch the Phillies but were forced to watch the Yankees and Mets instead. We stayed for quite a long time because the conversation was good and very revealing. It kind of felt like a first date because I learned so much about John. Finally we left that bar and stopped by a friend of John's. After a couple drinks with them, it was 11 PM so we decided to stop by and see Caitlin at her night job. She bakes overnight at Amy's Breads in Chelsea Market. Quite a floury spectacle there but it seemed like a fun place to work, certainly with some characters. Then we went home and fell asleep, exhausted, though John had to eat some cookies first.
The next morning we slept late and loitered around with Caitlin, enjoying coffee and cinnamon challah rolls she brought from work. Finally we got ourselves together and went back into the city.

We meandered in Times Square, a place I don't like very much. We stopped in the M&M store, the Hershey store, and promptly had to leave them because there were too many people. We went up to Columbus Circle and the Time Warner Building so John could see per se and of course, we had to go into the Samsung store. They have amazing TVs. A brief foray into Central Park and then we headed back downtown to meet Amy and Dan for dinner. It was so good to see them, though dinner was mediocre. John had to leave then but the rest of us wandered down into Chelsea and Greenwich Village. There we happened upon some sort of Irish pub and went in for drinks and to see the Cubs lose. It was a great place and the bartender (who was supremely bored) gave us a few rounds of shots to liven up the night. Then I went back to Jersey City while Dan and Amy went uptown.
Monday morning, I met them in line to try to get rush tickets to Next to Normal. No luck there but that left us with time to go back to downtown and to Strand's Bookstore. An amazing place that I wish I lived near. But it's good that I don't because I would fill my home with books unnecessarily. By this time it was midday and we were all very hungry. Fortunately the night before on our way to the bar we walked by a fish and chips place that was on Bobby Flay's Throwdown. So we went there and it was perfect. Delicious. A Salt and Battery, it's called. The British guy working there was also perfect. Unfortunately, I had to depart soon after so I could be back in Philly to take Nolan to the airport. So I rode the MegaBus back which was very convenient though very cold.
All in all, it was a pretty nice weekend. And it's always a treat to see some Iowans. Almost a relief too, an assurance that I actually did go to school and meet these people and become friends with them and that we still are friends. I'm going to try to go back to Iowa in the fall but that's very tentative. Anyway, it was nice but now I have to get back to figuring out how to move to Vancouver.