NYC Vacation

Times Square, originally uploaded by Aaron in Denver.

A bit of what seemed like a whirlwind trip to New York is now complete, so I can take a quick breath and enjoy a few days back at home over the holiday weekend before diving headfirst back into work.

The trip started out in usual fashion - plane delayed by an hour, and then circling New York for an hour and a half, before we almost ran out of fuel and had to make a semi-emergency landing at a National Guard landing strip somewhere in Upstate New York. Another hour on the tarmac, and then a short hop in to finally land almost 4 hours after we were meant to. Luckily enough, I had filled the iPod Touch with a good few episodes of Season 1 of Miami Vice, so I wasn't too stressed with the whole ordeal. Something about Ferrari's and pastel suits just makes me relax I guess.

So, all plans for the first night were blown out of the water, but it ended up working out fine - both Kathy and Nick were knackered for completely different reasons, so we got checked into the hotel around 10 and immediately ordered a big steak on room service.

Sunday was a pretty lazy day - first vacation lie in, followed by a quick trip over to Nick and Danni's to watch the footy. It was actually a decent game, which is relatively unusual for a final. And if you're ever lucky enough to go over to their place, make sure Danni does her special nut recipe thing. I can still taste them now - they were great. We then bailed shortly after the game (and the torrential rain had stopped) to go splashing in puddles around Central Park, then had a wander down 5th Avenue, stopping in the Apple store so I could sample the completely see through circular elavator, and take a couple of pics.

Monday was a huge day - we wandered around for about 7 hours (and I'm still feeling the pain from all that exercise now). Top of the Rock, Times Square, lots of shops, including bumping into one of the cast of CSI in FAO Shwartz. We even managed to buy a couple of things, then a quick blast back to the hotel for a shower, and out for dinner with Nick, Danni, Lindsay and Aaron. The place was called In Vino (I think) - a little Italian place down in Alphabet City - great food and wine. We ended up chatting for ages, taking our time with dinner, and eventually closed the place down. It wasn't too late a night, but we crashed big time when we got back to the hotel.

Tuesday we lazed around in the morning, and then just got in a cab and headed for what we thought was a little spanish tapas place. Of course, it had recently shut down, so wandered around for a bit until we found a mexican restaurant that had the best fajitas I've ever had in my life. An afternoon margarita (or 3) to ensure I was in the holiday mood worked a treat, then we jumped in a cab to the Upper West side to see where all the rich people lived. Lots of very nice houses and apartments up there, but I have no idea how normal people can afford to live in that area. Or Manhattan as a whole I guess. The only thing that was cheap all weekend were the cabs (and a couple of things we picked up in the sales).

Tuesday night was apparently my get drunk night, and I succeeded in my task. We jumped straight in the cab after our wanderings to head to Royale, home of the best burger in New York. As luck would have it, it was also just a regular bar, rather than some fancy restaurant, so we hung out in the bar for a while as we were a little early (the first time that happened all weekend). Nick and Danni came by, along with their friend Thomas, and we sampled the burgers and fries and onion rings before Nick's newly arrived Wii started calling his name, and our stamina disappeared with that last gin and tonic.

And then Wednesday we came home. Delayed, of course, but nothing too serious - I think we were both pretty exhausted, but excited to see Fynn again. From the frantic wag of her tail, and the fact that she's followed us around all day today, I think she missed us too. And to think I was worried she might not have wanted to come home after all the care and attention she gets at her own special vacation home known as the Falkenbergs.

The trip was great - nice to hang out with friends in their home town for a change, and New York has so much to see and do. We worked out pretty quickly we'd need about 3 weeks solid to actually do most of the things we wanted to do - it was never going to happen, so we just relaxed and enjoyed what we did do. If we go back, I'm definitely going on a walking training program beforehand though...