The Best of What's Around

So, a few months ago (October) Jeff and I and our friends Tracy and Chris went to New York for Thanksgiving. We had a fabulous time, aside from a few errors in judgment. You may have also read Jeff's version of the trip which is his more condensed version of the trip.

Luckily for us, New York is only a six hour drive from Montreal. Awesome. We drive out Friday morning and we get to our apartment in...Harlem. Yes, we stayed in Harlem. Apparently in the last few years it has be rejuvenated and is not the same place that movies and tv of the 80s and 90s have told us to fear.
Our first day saw us walking around and taking in some of the sights and shopping at Macy's. I am not someone who typically loves a big city but everything they say about New York is true. It has this amazing energy and you can't help but fall in love with it.

Jeff took this awesome panoramic photo. I think he did an awesome job with it.

We sorted out how to use their subway system. Montreal has 4 lines - New York has 26. So it was a bit more complex than I am used to. And there were rats. Actual rats in the subway. Disgusting.

That night, we had 11 pm reservations at a nice Italian place. 11 pm reservations. I basically had to eat supper to tide me over until supper. The food was good and Jeff ate black spaghetti.

Day two had us going to Central Park. We only got to stay there for a couple of hours and I wish we had more time to spend there - it was gorgeous. If I lived in New York, I think I would be at the park quite frequently.
After the park, we headed to Time Square and enjoyed ate a vendor hot dog. It was not as good as I expected. Considering the amount of times I've seen people order them on TV, I expected them to be awesome. They were menh.

After the hot dogs, we went to "Rent" the musical. It was quite good - I really enjoyed it. I am not too sure how many of you know much about the story, I didn't when I went, but it involves themes such as poverty, AIDS and homosexuality. There was this older couple who sat in front of us and I think it would be an understatement to say that they did NOT enjoy the show. I think that made me love it more.

That evening, we had hoped to clubbing but I am cheap and there was really no way I was going to pay 300$ for bottle service (minimum 2 bottles) with only four of us. Instead we went to a nice little lounge-y place and drank martinis for a few hours.

The next day, we did a two hour harbour cruise around the island of Manhattan. It was alright but ate up a huge part of our day. It was nice to see the statue of liberty and some of the other sights without having to actually go to them.

We also did some "shopping" on 5th Ave. Tracy and I pretended that we could afford Tiffany's jewelry and Jeff was in his element in the Apple Store. We also hit up one of the world's largest toy stores - FAO Schwartz.

I caught the golden snitch!Jeff being sorted into Slytherin.
On our last day there, Jeff and I went to the Empire State Building. It was foggy, which was awesome for us because that meant no line ups. When we got up there, you could actually see around 2 miles around, which, for us was totally worth not having to wait in line.
After the view, we went to the Met - the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was a huge museum and required more time than we could give it. Well, at least I did. Jeff's goal was to get through the whole thing in an hour and a half and although he may not have sat and contemplated any of the displays, he saw everything.
My favourite statue in the museum:
We also went to the Natural History Museum. I enjoyed this one more than the others and would have liked to spend more time here. Unfortunately we didn't have much time to spend as Jeff and I had a night bus to catch (Tracy and Chris were going on a tour of the wineries of the region...not fair).


So, overall, we had a great time. Tracy and Chris were great travel companions and New York is an amazing city. I hope to get back there once more before I leave Montreal next May.

And with this post, I believe that I have no more posts from 2007 left to do! It's about time I entered the year 2008.


" Could I have been a parking lot attendant? Could I have been a millionaire up there on fifth Avenue? Oh could I have been lost late at night somewhere in Central Park? Could I have been a mistake? Well could I have been anyone other than me?" - DMB

Labels: 2007, jeff, NYC, rachel, roadtrip, tracy and chris

I will be writing a long blog post soon about my whole trip to New York City with our friends Tracy and Chris, but I feel as if I should just put this story out there.

I am a loser.

Let me set the scene: I am in the New York Natural History Museum. It is pretty cool and I am enjoying myself. We are in an exhibit for mythical creatures. Jeff wanders away to look at something while I am reading an information board about unicorns. I believe that Jeff walks back to me. Without looking at who is standing next to me, I go to put my arms around the guy.

It is not Jeff.

Tracy watched the whole thing go down and she was wondering what the hell I was doing. Imagine how the poor guy felt. A random girl tries to molest him while he is enjoying an exhibit about mermaids and dragons. Jeff comes up and asks what I am doing. They aren’t even wearing similar clothes. They didn’t look alike. They both make fun of me though, and deservedly.

Do you think I will learn from this? Doubtful. Sadly, this is not the first time I have hugged a random stranger by mistake. I am a distinct memory of hugging a stranger, again, while on vacation, thinking that she was my mother. Ten years down the line I may accidentally hug some random child thinking that they are my own. I don’t think I will learn from this mistake.

“Oh stay right here, so I can catch your smile, it's good. Stranger in a crowded room, what did you say? Oh baby”-DMB

Labels: 2007, NYC, tracy and chris