Trip of a Lifetime

Everyone: NEW YORK IS AMAZING! You should all go. Immediately. For real. I am going to try to give you a snap-shot of what we did and how amazing it was, but really, there are no words. And plus, some of the best parts don't come through in type because I don't know how exactly to represent the full impact of a guy stepping onto the subway while loudly proclaiming 'Make some room, make some room. I gotta seizuh diso-duh, I haven't had any medication in fouh days; I'll have a seizuh on youh head, I don cahe'.

Andrea and I met up in Chicago, picked up Heather in Newark and made our way to the big city where Hiu Yee had planned the most fantastic trip I have ever been on. It was 5 days of friendship, talking, laughing, looking, experiencing and EATING! Oh my word, the eating. We ate at some of the best restaurants in the city, and not just the little hole-in-the-wall kind - the REAL kind. My taste-buds are still not the same.

I don't really know how else to do this, so I'm just going to give you a bit of a visual list: trust me, this is but a snapshot of 5 of the best days of my life.

THE WEATHER: 

DAFFODILS! and BLOOMING TREES! and ABOVE ZERO TEMPERATURES! The amazing spring-ness of New York might have had a tiny bit to do with my feelings towards this great city. H and A are from Vancouver - the only place in Canada that had a winter that was less harsh than normal: they are accustomed to living foliage. Me, not so much. I spent a lot of time looking up and sticking my face into blooming things, much to the amusement of my not-so-wintered friends.

FOOD:
Anyone who knows me knows I love food; Jake kept teasing me that all the research I was doing was about food and nothing else. Well, Hiu Yee went the extra mile, making reservations for most of our meals at places that you have to plan for a month in advance. We ate some of the best food in New York, not a word of a lie. We ate at Maialino's (homemade pasta to die for!), Marea (Halibut! Sea Scallops! Pasta with Octopus! Proseco!), ABC Kitchen (where I asked for the eggs and potatoes without the eggs like a boss. But then I decided on the bacon and asparagus pizza which was DEVINE and an excellent choice), The Heath, which was part of 'Sleep No More' (the food was perfectly comforting; the atmosphere and mood was INCREDIBLE. More about that later), The Little Owl (as adorable as it sounds and delicious to boot. Also, just below the 'Friends' building, incidentally), and the piece de resistance (put the accents in yourselves): Jean-Geroges at One Central Park Ave (best food of my life: asparagus salad with hollandaise, black cod crusted in nuts and delicious 'jus' beneath it, and dessert OVERLOAD. Plus pink bubbly! YUM! I convinced Hiu Yee to lick her plate there, because I am an excellent friend.).

Of course, besides the fancy-pants places, there was plenty more to eat:

We went to EATALY, which is Deluca's times a million for you Winnipeggers. In true form,  we found the cheese counter where we got multiple samples of meat and cheese to stock the fridge at our place for snacks.

 

 Heather wanted to go to the Big Gay Ice Cream shop where they have a unicorn on the wall and excellent ice cream creations. Was extra fun because Emma Watson was there with us, standing in line like the regular people for a good half hour! Right behind us! Heather didn't even notice; but to be fair, I didn't think it was really her and almost told her she looked a lot like Emma Watson.

 

I, obviously, needed to eat some street meat. It was really good.

 Plus more things obviously. Like ball-park hotdogs with sauerkraut. YUM! I am drooling just thinking of all that amazing food.


SIGHTS:
None of us were particularly concerned with hitting all the touristy spots, but we did see a few:

Union Square:

 

Times Square (it is REALLY crowded there; after the obligatory visit, we avoided it at all costs)

 

The Brooklyn Bridge from Brooklyn to Manhattan. It's never this crowded in the movies. But it was sunny, so I was happy.

  

The Empire State building from the rooftop patio of the apartment we stayed at (Hiu Yee convinced her brother to move out for the weekend so we could move in. BEST!)

 

 CitiField for a Mets game. This was the same day that we at at Jean-Georges, and I for one loved the juxtaposition of eating ball-park hotdogs for supper after the fanciest lunch of my life. Also: baseball is fun! You sit outside, eat hotdogs and drink beer! What's not to like?

 

Rockefeller Center. I kept hoping to run into Liz Lemon or Jack Donaghy, but no such luck. Also, the skating rink in the plaza is TEENY TINY. Like, smaller than the rinks people put in their yards. I don't see how that would be fun, but there were people skating, so there must be some appeal.

 

View from the Top of The Rock: Central Park direction.

 

Empire State Building Direction, except it's behind my head.

 The Flatiron building

 Central Park, laying on a rock in the sun, wearing my new boots that fit both my size 7 feet and my size-Menno (ie, HUGE) calves AND were on sale, with friends. Doesn't get better than that, internet.

 

Sleep No More and The Heath: The most amazing experience. There is no real way to describe it, except to say that it is an adventure that should not be missed, and for which I am eternally grateful to friends who know about these things and say we should do them. If you had told me to go to an interactive play that moves among 5 stories of an abandoned warehouse and involves interactions with the actors, I would have laughed and said 'no thanks'. However, it turns out that kind of thing is AWESOME and interesting. So if you're in New York, you should go. And get dinner. And always say 'YES' if someone asks you a question. Trust me, it's all part of the fun.

The Subway: really, this should be its own post. The system is astounding: complex, multiple layers all under a city that is so densely packed with humans and buildings it takes a lot of blind faith to trust that the roof isn't going to come down on your head, especially when you are going to the 7 train, which is 3 stories underground. The tile work in the stations rivals some of the best mosaics I've ever seen, and you can see all kinds of great things in the stations, like a guy playing a full-sized harp, who I did not take a picture of, much to my regret.

The crush of the rush-hour 6 train was quite an adventure.

So was navigating some of the more massive stations - you could get yourself turned around in there pretty easily, so Andrea and I were pumped when we sent Heather and Hiu Yee home early but then ended up beating them home because we owned the subway system like a boss. Even though that meant we were locked out ;)

 FRIENDS:

We kept repeating this to each other over the 5 days we were together: it is amazing to us that we are still friends. And not just friends, but friends who fly across the country to be together. I have to say that much of the credit for that goes to Heather, who has kept in touch with all 3 of the rest of us consistently as we have scattered ourselves across the globe. I can't believe how lucky I am to have these women in my life: they teach me so much about kindness, generosity, humor and joy of life every time we are together.  Thank you, my dear friends.

Hiu Yee, thank you for always listening with an open heart. You are an astoundingly easy person to talk to, about all manner of things.

Andrea, thank you for your unfailing good humor and your grounded stance on the important things (friends! food! love!) in life.

Heather, I know without a doubt that you are always in my corner. Thank you for holding me to a higher moral standard than I hold myself.

Can't wait for our next adventure, girls! Next up, New Orleans!