I missed my Dentler so I twisted her arm to find a weekend that Kevin and I could take advantage of these screamin’ airline deals and come to visit. We had such a great time!
We took a red-eye on Friday night, slept very little (when did Jet Blue get so uncomfortable?) and arrived in New York bright and early Saturday morning. Dent was up early anyway to train for her upcoming tri and Shawn was up studying. We ate a quick brunch (I had sweet potato pancakes – yum!) and headed to Queens for a Mets game.
Both the Yankee’s and the Mets got a new stadium this year. Having never been to Shea, I can only imagine that this new ball park is a huge improvement because it is bea-u-tiful. It felt very open and spacious. When walking around the inside corridor you could still see through the aisles into the ball park. There were also a lot of open spaces where people could meet up with friends in the outfield and watch the game – kind of like our beer garden at Safeco but more spread out and better. I think we explored more than we actually watched the game. We didn’t miss much – the Nationals were so bad! They got clobbered by the Mets. One guy almost got hit in the face with a routine fly ball! Maybe because it was a nice day out, maybe because the Nats sucked so bad or maybe just because it was a bunch of New Yorkers, the crowd was fun, super loud and way into the game. While it was nothing like the craziness that occurs at Yankee stadium, it was way more electric than our fair weather M’s fans. They even got the wave going and it went around SIX times before it died. SIX times. My only complaint – they didn’t have kettle corn.
After the game we headed to Brooklyn for World Famous Pizza at Grimaldi’s. Everyone else in New York seemed to be there too! We waited in line for at least an hour. We didn’t mind though because the sun was shining and it was a good way to visit with our friends. Dentler and Shawn had never been either and were glad they had “tourists” to take so they could finally have a little slice of heaven. The pizza was delicious. Kevin claims it’s the best he’s had. I’m a little skeptical that it’s only so good because by the time we actually got to eat, we were so starving that Domino’s would have tasted good…but whatever!
Dinner was followed by ice creams, also at the base of the Brooklyn bridge, also with a 30 minute line. It was worth it though. We got to watch the sun set behind the city and digest our pizza, leaving just enough room for ice creams.
Sunday, Dentler, Kevi and I went on the great cupcake hunt (see The Great NYC Cupcake Quest). We also hit Rockefeller Center, via bus, so we were above ground for a change and had a fabulous tour guide in Minda. Then we went to SoHo, did some shopping at Top Shop, the new Kate Moss store (basically a more expensive, UK version of H&M) and hit up Canal Street. Top Shop was fun to go to but a little too “hip” for me. The 80′s are back in a big way. Fluorescents? Really? Kevin and I rounded out the day doing more shopping on 34th street before we met back up with our hosts for a yummy dinner at a Cuban joint near their house. Good friends, good food, live music, and a Cojito (coconut mojito) was the perfect way to spend our last night in New York.
Our hosts had to work on Monday so Kevin and I were left to explore on our own. In the morning we hit up the breakfast cart in front of Dentler’s apartment and took the subway to Ground Zero. I have been here several times. Once pre 9/11 with D (We had monkey fizz’s at the Top of the World! It was our way of getting a great view while escaping the Observatory fee.) and a couple times post 9/11. They’ve always been in different stages of construction and/or clean up. Now, it seems construction is well under way. We happened to be down there the same day the Airforce One incident occurred, but it must have happened before we got there because everything seemed a-ok; just a few helicopters hovering above.
The rest of the day we had planned to go to the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum but the exhibition Kevin wanted to see wasn’t on display. Instead, we spent it exploring Central Park. All weekend long we had 80 degree weather, so our day in the park couldn’t have been more perfect! We pretty much walked the entire length of the park, had a yummy lunch at the Shake Shack (where they serve custard which is a combo of ice cream and soft serve), rode the carousel and ran into a very patriotic Bollywood production. It was exhausting.
It’s hard to put in words what a great time we had. We really had no expectations except to visit with our friends- and that probably helped our patience while standing in line for hours for the best pizza ever. I think it mostly had to do with the great company we had all weekend. It makes me miss my Dentler even more than before our visit.
