Here is, finally, our trip New York/Boston:
(my favorite thing: clouds below you)
Wake up way before daybreak to catch a plane to Newark - yay for direct flights and first class upgrades! Cab ride into Manhattan isn't too bad - some are so scary. Check into our hotel - Hilton in mid-town.
(view from Hilton window)
Walk to the diamond district to do some shopping - replace my wedding band (I loved my delicate silver band we picked up downstairs for like $10 a few hours before wedding, but it turned embarrassingly black from swimming all day on the fourth of July), find a couple of sellers that have black diamonds, and one who had a perfect little band of them. I love the story behind these, even if it's still hypothetical.
(tiny row of black diamonds. iphone macro shots suck.)
At night, we take the subway - which I still find so exciting - to the East Village. For hubby's birthday, he picks Cafe Mogador restaurant...
an Afghan place on St. Mark's Street with the best food (order the tangines) and drinks (mango martinis for me and blueberry mojitos for him). a perfect afternoon to sit outside: the weather was gorgeous.
I always thought the East Village was a little bit shady, but this time it seemed completely different; I would totally live there: cool shops, good cafes and restaurants, and really good people-watching.
Day 2:
Wake up late, walk to cutest cafe for breakfast...
(I feel like a New Yorker!)
window shop down Fifth Avenue - crazy sales!, husband tries on a white Armani suit and actually buys it (doesn't get the concept of window shopping), they give you tiny expressos on a tray while you're waiting, long bath in the hotel, walk to pick up my new ring, get a falafel sandwich from the street vendor downstairs because you are starving and it is maybe the best you've ever had, get dressed for business dinner: Italian food at Nanni's, which was very good (although the lobster ravioli here is way, way better) and very quaint, walk home, few drinks in the hotel lobby, bed. I love that you can walk all over, and even though you eat so much you still feel healthy from the walking.
Day 3:
Wake up super super early to check out of your hotel and take a taxi to Penn Station, which is not at all what you thought, it just looks like nowhere, and you were imagining the giant bus station in Amsterdam.
Get your train tickets - easy - then wait for a few hours until the sign tells you where to go, get in line first so you can sit together, the train is not like a train train, it's more like a subway train with comfy chairs and it's own little coffee shop where you get bagels and coffee.
(she got the ocean side)
Read magazines, watch out of the window as you go up the coast past all the little states. Look in the tiny backyards in Brooklyn, and it is not what you thought it would be either, definitely you will stop teasing your husband that you want to live there, picked up on the other side, relax for a while, drink some beer, have a dinner birthday party, learn a new recipe, with presents and ice cream cake, drink some more beer.
(presents for him - and me)
Day 4:
Watch marathon of Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, and he is funny and amazing, now you just want to travel to crazy places and eat your way through them, Blue Ginger for early dinner of seafood pasta something...
and grapefruit martinis, maybe? then more beer and talking and music in the backyard until everyone calls it a night. perfect. we so often are just husband and i, it's nice to spend time around people that you like.
Day 5:
Train up (down?) to Penn Station, taxi to Meatpacking District, where you've never been but it is adorable, really - cobblestone streets and concrete parks in the median, and old buildings, and really cute designer shops on every corner.
Check into Hotel Gansevoort, try to take a bath with your new stuff, but the tub is yucky and the water has flecks of crud in it no matter how long you run it, not what you would expect from a nice hotel like this, but they do bring you a little coffee maker when you ask for it.
Take a shower instead, then go over to midtown to pick up the tailored suit, stopping on the way at a mediterranean restaurant, but you wish you had picked the street vender because it was so much better, for the subway home you get off a few blocks early to do some shopping: dunkin donuts coffee and a notebook. Dinner and drinks at the hotel restaurant, which has plenty of atmosphere, but the worse tuna tartar ever, sitting outside in the perfect night weather looking at the little lights and listening to people talk drinking a sapporo.
Day 6:
Husband off to his big meeting, you sleep extra, extra late, drink coffee, read a book, look out of the window for hours pretending this hotel room is your studio apartment...
take a shower, get dressed and it is 4 pm, husband is home, walk to The Diner for the best tuna sandwich ever and a pitcher of raspberry margaritas to celebrate the meeting...
then back to the hotel for a nap, meet with some friends for drinks on the roof - you can see forever from up here, everyone looks so cool and fashionable, leave and go bar-hopping around the neighborhood stopping here for a beer and lamb pizza (yum) and there for a beer or cocktail, so many quaint neighborhood bars, and then unfortunately Hogs and Heifers, which was a really lame coyote-ugly wanna-be bar where men had to take off there ties to get in and everyone stood in a clump by the door watching a 19 year old in a gold bikini make a fool of herself, i had to help, right?
(sad, but true, fact: I'm not even a little bit drunk in these pictures)
Day 7:
Pack up, check out, walk around town a little, another beautiful day, have lunch, sit in the lobby people watching for a few hours because you are tired and they are interesting looking...
Go out for coffee, back to collect your bags, then in a taxi to Newark because you are going home (first class, of course)...
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