East Coast Trip Page 6
Thursday, June 7, 2007: We left Cape Cod in the beautiful sunshine on Thursday morning driving down some very picturesque scenery along the coast in Rhode Island and into Connecticut. David was at this place called Mystic Seaport when he was a kid with his family, and he had wanted to go back there on our way. We skipped Plymouth Plantation to do Mystic Seaport instead. It's another one of those historical re-enactment type of towns, although in this one there are no actors wanderign around in period costume and it's all based on the actual sea port and ship building community of Mystic, Connecticut in the 17-1800s. There are ships all over the place, and a little town. The ships are actually being restored in the still-working shipyard there today and you can wander around and actually go inside the workshop where we did get to see an 1800s whaling ship being totally gutted and restored. We actually spent all day there and it was interesting.
We left Mystic Seaport around 5:30pm when it was closing, and got as far as a couple hours from NYC in Connecticut where we slept overnight in a state park which was pretty nondescript as state parks go. Nugahasset or something like that... i can't remember... shower, throw up the tent and bed.
Friday, June 8, 2007: we drove into NYC metro area in the morning after an extremely frustrating stop off the freeway in Brdgeport, CT looking for an internet cafe or something- and found NOTHING. I had no directions to the hotel, and it's not like you can just "show up" in NYC and find the hotel. Like a needle in a haystack. I knew roughly where it was, but you really need directions. We finally found a McDonalds while trying to get back ON the freeway when I failed to find a cafe, and Daiv signed up for access, PAID them, and got about 60 seconds of access before it cut him off. He was livid and I was freaking out. I called my mom, my Dad, Lara and Amanda all looking for someone at a computer who could google this for me, but to no avail. Nobody was at their phones. I did it finally the old fashioned way and actually called the hotel, who had pre-programmed directions. We drove into NY which was only a hundred miles or so, but with traffic we ended up taking about 4 hours to get to the hotel. We parked and had checked in by 2:30pm and went out to go exploring and look for some dinner. We stayed at the Club Quarters, at hotel we had stayed at in SF once and loved- this was just as fabulous. Excellent service, great amenities, and just a fabulous hotel. Not inexpensive, but this *is* Manhattan. We walked around the financial district and Wall street (you can't go in anymore since 9/11) and saw the impressive Manhattan town hall, the courthouses and other legal type buildings in Tribecca and the business district. We found an Indian restaurant which we liked a lot in tribecca on the way back to the hotel for some good curry. Nighttime was nice as I got caught up on this web page, although I didn't get to upload the new pages onto the server for whatever reason. We bought a map of Manhattan and got a subway map as well. The hotel desk guy was so fabulous- he gave us two subway cards that previous guests turned in and still had money on it. It worked and we got totally free subway passes! Nice.
Saturday June 9, 2007: We did the whole Manhattan thing today. Woke up around 9am and got out pretty early. We took the subway to 33rd and walked all over: first to the Empire State Building, which we just looked at and didn't go up in. Then the Chrysler building, on to Times' Square and Rockafeller center. Finally, to Central Park where we went to the Bethesda fountain to lay out on the grassy lawn and munch on lunch and watch the street performers do their thing. It was really nice.
the great thing about NYC is that even though I've been there so many times,
you're constantly finding new things like these two extremely charming little
streets down inthe financial district. I especially loved the one on the left.
So charming!
We had a rest at the hotel in the evening and then went out into my favorite part of NY in the evening in search of Mojitos and dinner: The East Village. We found St. Mark's and a dozen restaurants which looked just *so* ambiant- we settled on a bar called Solis for a pre-dinner Mojito, which we had- before settling on a great dinner place of organix Tibetan food for something different. It was great! We split an appetizer of something like vegetable stuffed dumplings/spring rolls in hot chili sauce which were good. I had this noodle dish which was kind of like spicy spaghetti- really nice and comforting. David had the Bhutanese chicken which he also really liked. The place was super dark, we had to read the menu with the candle on the table- the place was so nice. It was a really enjoyable dinner. After, we wandered around the Village, and I found the *perfect* Shelby drinking hole: all gothic with great architecture and frescoes on the walls, gargoyles and perfect gothic touches but alas, it only had beer and wine and David wanted to drink mixed stuff, so we skipped St. Mark's Ale House, my other watering hole and went back to Solis where we got pretty tanked on martinis and met some very friendly British men in town visiting a fellow ex-pat living in Jersey now. We had a blast and got back to the hotel suprisingly okay! ha ha. Tanked, but okay. We slept in and went on a last ditch effort at the Statue of Liberty and Battery Park before driving to Brooklyn to meet Lara and Kevin for lunch.
We met Lara and Kevin in their Brooklyn apartment for lunch after checking out of the lovely Club Quarters. We had a fabulous time. I tried on bridesmaid dresses with Lara and looked at her wedding dress while Kevin and David got aquainted. We went out for lunch at the usual Jimmy Mack's in Brooklyn. The Living Room closed, unfortunately. We had a great time. I love that Kevin. They're so great together and it is *always* like I've never been apart from Lara. Crazy. We drove out and got as far as Elmira, where we slept in a hotel over night for a visit to both Watkins Glen and Letchworth tomorrow.