I sit here on a Monday night completely exhausted after a fantastic weekend in the world’s greatest city … New York! There is no place on earth like it. I say this every time I go there. It is incredible!
Joep and I had planned on going to New York next weekend to meet up with the Sgrizzi’s however a slight mix up with weekends meant that the Sgrizzi’s were in town THIS weekend instead of next weekend. No worries! We have drifted from our Dutch ways and stopped planning every weekend months in advance. I know, its unheard of. They might revoke Joep’s citizenship. We have learned to leave weekends open and flexible! Incredible. It is so liberating!!
So, thanks to our new found freedom, we were able to change our plans and head down to NYC on Friday! Joepinator picked me up from work and we hit the road. The drive there was uneventful apart from a couple of wild goose chases to find McD’s. The signs on the side of the road that tell you there is a McD’s nearby are not always accurate in the USA.
But we eventually found nourishment and made it to NYC just before midnight. Finding the hotel was relatively easy … actually I must correct myself. Joep printed out directions to the hotel. I was sure the hotel was on 48th street, the directions lead us to 46th street. Joep was adamant that this was correct. Needless to say, it wasn’t. So when we pulled up outside the computer shop at 201 48th street Joep was a bit sheepish. And frazzled because driving in New York City is an experience all by itself!! Thankfully the hotel was on 48th street like I thought so we didn’t have to spend too much time driving!
We checked in and made sure we got a good night of sleep in preparation for Saturday. Saturday morning saw us up and out the door in reasonable time. We hit the streets to wander around and soak up the atmosphere. The city is just gearing up for Christmas so all the window displays are getting set up and it is serious business in NYC. They sure know how to do Christmas!
After wandering around a bit we headed to Macy’s to do a spot of shopping. I, of course, had no patience to look for myself (mother ship I am sure you are not surprised by this), but we did manage to shop up a storm in the men's department!! Joepinator was very pleased. Right down to insisting on wearing his brand new jumper IN the store rather than waiting till we got home to change. Delany girls its just like when we were little and got new shoes and would put our old shoes in the box in the store so we could wear the new ones right away hahaha classic Joepinator.
Shopping complete we headed out to meet up with Joep’s colleague from the LA office who was coincidentally in town at the same time as us. It was after midday so we were justified in finding a nice bar to settled down in and people watch for a while. LA Matt hung around for a few and then had to hit the road but Joep and I were set for the afternoon.
We sat at the bar in Carmines enjoying beers and people watching. After seeing numerous people ordering delicious looking meals we decided to get in on the action and ordered a pasta dish. It. Was. So. Good. We were more than satisfied.
A few hours and a few too many beers later we decided to head back to the hotel to plan our evening. On the way back to the hotel the evening ended up planning itself! We had just enough time for a quick nanna nap before heading out to see the Sgrizzi’s! REUNION! Thais and I have not had a chance to cluck at each other for a very long time so we were long overdue. Thankfully emailing has allowed us to keep up-to-date on most things so the clucking was left to idle gossip and chit chat … yes. What we are best at.
After a couple of cocktails at the Hudson (virgin for Thais naturally!) the four of us hopped on the subway to Soho to meet up with Michiel for a few more drinks. The subway in NYC was once again an experience. Last time Joep and I were in NYC we were in the subway late one night completely lost and chatting with friendly bums. This time we passed the time people watching and rat watching. Yes. Rat watching. I saw the biggest rat EVER down there. This thing walked up the stairs like it was the easiest thing ever. Scary!!
Once on the train there was some delay and confusion. Thankfully we were entertained by a friendly local who was daring people to try to hold themselves horizontal on the train poles. He was offering $5 to anyone who would do it. This story would be so cool if Matt had heard the challenge and taken him on. It is one of Matt’s greatest talents so Joep and I were both pretty surprised he didn’t jump at the chance. Alas, Matt wasn’t paying attention to the gentleman offering the wager so the opportunity was lost. Noone was more upset about this than Matt.
To make up for the disappointment we headed to Balthazar’s for drinks with Michiel! We spent the next few hours enjoying the atmosphere and chin wagging before heading to a late night pizza place for a snack. At this point the Sgrizzi’s left us for the evening while those less responsible members of the group headed out for a few more drinks. Hours later we found ourselves standing at the entrance of a club that Michiel is very fond of. Whilst waiting to go inside we witnessed a very charming young lady get escorted from the building whilst trying to hit the bouncers with her shoe. Oh lord. It was time to go home. The night was deemed a huge success and Joep and I went back to the hotel content.
Sunday morning was less pleasant. We were up in time to meet up with the Sgrizzi’s for a greasy breakfast. Exactly what the doctor ordered. After breakfast we took advantage of the amazing weather and walked up to Central Park. Oh New York! The weather put on a real show for us and we basked in the sunshine for a long time. The boys left Thais and I to cluck in peace for a while which we very much appreciated and it was with a heavy heart that we walked back through the park to go our separate ways. Sadness. But hopefully not separated for too much longer … Right Thais? Yes? Right? Good.
After saying our goodbyes we headed back for a last bit of shopping before preparing for the drive back home. Now, the drive to NYC is just under 7 hours which is a decent drive but Joep and I love road trips so its perfect for us.
The drive back from NYC was much longer than the drive to NYC. There are 2 reasons for this. Both of them involve us getting lost.
We left the city and all was going well until we missed a turn off and ended up half way to Philadelphia (look on a map, this is the opposite direction to where we needed to be). This one was manageable and we had a good chuckle about it. Once back on track we shared driving and at the border in Canada we swapped for the last time. I fell fast asleep next to Joep for what was supposed to be the last hour of driving before we were home.
I awoke a couple of hours later to feel the car doing an abrupt u-turn while hearing Joep cursing next to me. Why? We were lost. And not just a little bit lost. Poor Joepinator had pulled off the freeway to get fuel but, as happened many times on the way to NYC, the sign saying there was fuel nearby was lying. There was no fuel. And Joep couldn’t figure out how to get back on the freeway. Uh oh.
We drove around in circles for a bit while I spoke in a soothing voice that apparently was not very soothing. Eventually we spotted a road that said it headed towards Ottawa. GREAT! Not really. We took this road and soon found out that it was not a highway. It was a very dark, very scary back road that showed no sign of ending. There were also no fuel stations. It was stressful! We found a fuel station at one stage and pulled in to fuel up. It was a self service spot that allows you to use your credit card to pay outside. Noone was around. Seriously it was like the beginning of a very bad horror film. So Joep was trying to fuel up but the machine wasn’t working. Whilst waiting for him in the car I let my imagination get the better of me and, convinced that a serial killer was waiting in the shadows to jump out, I completely freaked out and demanded we hit the road. Hysterical. My imagination is far too active. Thankfully Joep has the patience of a saint and let me be a cry baby. Phew!
Not so thankfully, we still had no fuel. And no sign of getting fuel. It was stressful but, as seems to be the case very often in our life together, luck was on our side! We were just about out of fuel when we re-joined the freeway and there was a fuel station! Thank goodness!! The last hour of driving home was less stressful and we were able to laugh about the situation.
We laughed even more today. Joep called me at work in hysterics laughing and asked me to look on google maps to see where we had been last night. Turns out the highway he had accidentally turned off was the wrong highway anyway! We were headed to Montreal, Quebec. If he hadn’t gotten off that highway we would’ve driven straight through Ontario and ended up on the wrong side of the state entirely. The highway we found was a total fluke. We both feel rather like Dumb & Dumber but silver lining of all of this is that we got lost. If we didn’t get lost we would still be driving back across the country right now!
We’re buying a navigation system this week. Lesson learned.
And despite the getting lost the weekend was fantastic! The Sgrizzi’s remain a favourite and their return to this continent is a must! New York will be visited again asap … just try to keep us away!
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