New York

We flew into town behind the remnants of a hurricane which left awesome weather for the entire time we were in NY - the only time we complained was on the morning of our arrival when after the red-eye from Seattle we couldn't get into our room for about five hours after our arrival. But all good, we didn't waste a second. We were staying at the "W" on Lex and 50th so while we were waiting for the room we did some exploring around mid town and Kelly even managed a bit of shopping.

The first night we ate at P.J.Clarke's - more of a local place and they do a great burger. A few beers some great pub food - a blast.

Beyond any allowance for time difference we were just happy to sleep in while we were in NY and my mate Matt Malloy caught us on the second morning still in bed at 10am - the funny thing is he called at 11:00 the next day and we were just sitting down for breakfast and he wasn't shy in giving us a hard time.

After our less than early wake up on Sat morning we headed down to Soho and had breakfast at Balthazar. Kelly loves this place, it is a really cool NY bistro in a French style, it is massive. We ate at the bar, which I always enjoy - the food lived up to the hype. The rest of the day we went our separate ways, Kelly to do some intensive shopping while I went to a few galleries and flee markets but I also couldn't resist the shops.

Sunday morning was fun, we headed uptown to Central Park East, great breakfast at this small bistri Viand, a real NY experience. Further north, we were headed to the Whitney and some other shop that Kelly really wanted to go to (I think I have a mental block on the name because it was a bit too much for me). Anyway "the" shop was not open when we got there so we went and listened to the buskers in Central Park for a bit and did some people watching, given the beautiful weather I stayed there while Kelly did some shopping. We then went to the Whitney for a Lee Friedlander photography exhibition - very cool.

My friend Matt had his driver come pick us up and we headed out to his place in New Jersey for the afternoon. Matt and Lacey are awesome, lots of good times with them, so it was a real pleasure to see them. It was Labor Day and we went to a BBQ at some of their friends place. Their friends were really nice and very hospitable, I got a little hammered as did the host and so sometime after the sun had disappeared he took Matt and I on a quad bike ride through the woods that back onto their property. Anyway, at some point we came out of the woods and onto a public road, so you have three drunk guys without helmets and insurance coming face to face with a police car. Long story short - we get a ride back to the party in the police car and lucky the hostess of the party is a local public defender who specialises in representing police - a slap on the wrist and off we went, very lucky. Back to Manhattan that night - but a fun time, although too short, with the Malloys.

Our last day! No wasting time, back downtown on the subway and another beautiful day. We walked across the Brooklyn Bridge with a hoarde of other people. Brought some lunch in a deli in Dumbo and ate by the East River in a cool park. Something a little different and great fun.

By the end of the day we were both looking forward to getting back to see Luca and Scout. We had spoken to them and knew we were hardly missed, Luca getting to sleep in a fort (aka cardboard white goods box) in the lounge room the entire time we were away. Don't know if we can top that one.