The Wilson's take Manhattan!

This past weekend Eric and I flew out to NYC to see our good friends Paul and Sue. We had a lot of fun. Thursday we flew into LaGuardia airport separately since Eric was in Ft. Walton Beach, FL for work. The flight into LaGuardia is very cool. You circle the city over the Hudson so you see the whole city and you get to wave at lady liberty. It was about 3 in the afternoon when I flew in so I could see the city really well. After that we drove through Queens and the Bronx to get near where our friends live. On the way to their apt we stopped at what was the greatest mall ever! Inside there was every restaurant you could think of, TGIFridays, Cheeburger, Cheeburger, Qdoba, etc, a blockbuster, Home Depot, 3 level Bed bath and beyond, etc., then all of the clothing stores like GAP, and Limited etc, plus an ice rink and Ferris wheel. It was huge and awesome. Usually you have to drive to 10 separate stores for all of this stuff but there you could just walk to the stores inside. Then we went back to their place in Peekskill and played some Super munchkin and drank a lot of wine.

Friday we tried to go see Paul Van Dyk, the kick ass DJ. Paul and Sue bought tickets early and we thought we were set. We parked in Chelsea Piers in lower West Manhattan about 12:30 pm since he was going to spin from 1-6 am. It was about a 5 minute walk to the club. We stood in line and we were about to get in at 1:15 am when the fire Marshall arrived and stopped letting people in. DAMN IT! Then we stood in line for another hour thinking we would get in once the Fire Marshall left but no, then the cops arrive and tell the club that they cannot let anyone else in even though they were not at capacity. Damn NYPD! This was there official statement. They even made Van Dyk stop spinning while they did their inspection. So at about 2:45, frozen and shivering, we went back to our car and drove back to Peekskill to their apt. Eric and I have a Van Dyk curse. This is the third time we have tried to see him with bad luck. The first time emergency surgery for Van Dyk, he rescheduled on a day Eric had to go out of town for work and then this. We need to stop. At least we got our money backt his time:)

Saturday after lunch we got on the commuter train to head to NYC (Grand Central station) to try to get tickets to a Broadway show. Usually you can go the day of and get cheap tix from tkts in Times Square or at the box office. We got there and were disappointed. Most of the good shows have a 6-9 month waiting list. So we walked around Times Square for a while. By the Avenue Q box office we saw a guy that stole a cab stopped by the police. The guy in the cab got out and ran down the street and the cops chased him. Fun. I guess Eric saw some guy get roughed up outside Grand Central station after he tried to pick two Italian guys pockets. You gotta love NYC!

So Saturday after we lucked out of tickets we got on the subway, which is huge and so useful, and we headed down to Greenwich village to find a place to eat and to find a cool bar to hang out in. We walked around trying to find the square and while we were doing so we passed a fire station with a wall of memory with pictures of the guys they lost and Golden fire boots set up in a shrine that said "We will always remember". It made me stop and think for a moment and it was very real for once, not something I saw on tv.

We found a cool Italian cafe, Cafe' Riggs, there that was small and had a great ambiance. They had a sign that said it was in Zaggat's food guide. It was a coffee bar but they had great paninni's and great Milkshakes! Mmmm. Then we walked around some cool shops. We found a bar and restaurant called the Red Lion with live music so we went in to check it out. It was fun. The first guy that played was Morgan Clamp. He was cool. He had an acoustic guitar with a pick up and he had a pedal device that allowed him to record bars of music that he would set up. He would strum a little, the record himself hitting the acoustic like a drum and then once he had his back up he would play the guitar with it. He sounded like a whole band. He played a lot of covers. He played quite a bit of Radiohead (I love Radiohead!) "Fake plastic trees" from "the Bends" and "Creep" from "Pable Honey" two of the best songs! He also played some U2 and some older songs. I cannot remember all that he played since I got drunk ;) He also played some of his songs which were cool and so we bought his album. He made me happy. Plus he was pretty nice to look at... The next band was a rock band which I cannot remember since by the time they came on I was really, really drunk. They played rock songs and they rocked hard. They had a chick bass player that was hot. They also played Radiohead and other fun songs. I love NYC! It is really expensive to get drunk there. $3.00 for a beer special (Miller lite's) and $6.00 for liquor special drinks. They had a drink called a hot apple cider that had hot apple cider and Captain Morgan's in it. So good! I love cider and Captain's!!! About 1:00 am we walked drunkenly out of the bar to find a cab. We hailed a cab and took it to Grand Central. Cab rides are fun drunk... When we got outside of Grand Central Eric and Paul bought a pretzel from a vendor and it was one of the best fucking pretzels I have ever had!!! Sue and I had to wait in line for the women's rest room so we bonded with some city girl's. It was fun. Then we rode the train back to the Peekskill area and went back to their apt and crashed.

Sunday we slept late, played a long game of Munchkin blender with Munchkin bites and Super Munchkin combined which was lots of fun until we had to go to the airport for our 7 pm flight.

We had a great weekend in the end even with the mishaps :) I love NYC! I wouldn't mind living near the city one day. I just have to convince Eric...