I think this will be our last full length NYC trip for the near future. We have Canada, Europe and Portland/Seattle to explore next. Our next visit will probably entail a long weekend with some road tested fashion sneakers. Here’s a summary of our trip and the lessons I learned:
- YOU WILL NEVER MAKE IT IN TIME FOR YOUR 6:OOAM FLIGHT. IT’S A PIPE DREAM CHUCK.
- Stay at a hotel with a subway stop on the corner. Every block away adds up fast.
- Stop taking the Subway and just grab a cab. You are on vacation gawd dammit.
- Buy the $335 pair of shoes you liked at Saks. Just do it.
- Central Park is huge and pretty this time of year.
- Take the time during your cab ride to soak in some of the architectural detail that's all around.
- Find a corner bar near home base (hotel) to hang out at during interim periods and make sure it has an internet jukebox. It saved us from having to listen to Patti Fucking Labelle and (insert cheezy gay diva here) all night.
- Tip your hang out bartender well because the music you load the internet jukebox with will run off ½ the customers in the bar who’ve never heard the Yeah Yeah Yeahs before.
- Buy your fashion sneakers and road test them prior to departure.
- Stop and go into that store you just passed that looked interesting. You are not going to pass by it again.
- Be sure to tell the person you are walking with that you are stopping to go inside a store that looks interesting.
- Go see a play. I regret not doing it each time.
- If you can’t and shouldn’t eat an 18 oz sirloin in Florida, you can’t and shouldn’t in NYC. Even if it is at the Old Homestead Steakhouse.
- Go eat at the Old Homestead Steakhouse. Yum-yummery goes on there. Get the 18 oz sirloin (you don’t have to eat it all).
- Nooch rules.
- If you have the choice of Chelsea/The Village or Upper West Side/Times Square. Don’t expend the energy to decide: It’s Chelsea/The Village if you want fun and interesting. West Side/Times Square if you want to catch a cab or ride the subway to Chelsea/The Village.
- Keep looking until you find a bar you like- Posh and Art Bar were among our very favorites- they got the music right. (Memo to NYC bars: Cheezy gay disco musik doesn’t cut it anymore)
- Just because you are from a medium size city doesn’t mean the (small) bars in NYC are automatically better. I can think of some places here that trump anything we saw in NYC. That’s right. (At least so far. We’re not finished drinking our way through NYC).
- Just stop what you are doing and take the photo. You won’t be back again tomorrow to do it. Especially if today is Halloween and you are in the middle of the Village.
- The Paramount Hotel is fantastic. Our room was small but it didn’t bother us. However, only stay there if you can get a large bathroom. I had to sit sideways on the toilet (which meant I was in the shower) and I had to move in slow measured quarter turns to turn around in the shower. The sink was primo however, I could stand in front of it with no problems.
- Yes Linda, the sheets were like a little hug from Jeezus.
- If you have a balance on your Metro Card or unused tickets to something or another; pass them on to another visitor before you leave. We scored from the kindness of a stranger and it was a nice treat.
- Flava Flav is about 5’6” and weighs a buck forty.
- You shouldn’t point and laugh at Flava Flav.
- We eavesdropped on a dinner conversation that confirmed Kenny Chezney(sp?) is gay. And we didn’t care.
- We eavesdropped on a phone conversation that confirmed Heidi Klum will not attend your shit party.
- We were in NYC for a full week but we’re going to end up driving to Decatur Georgia to see Amy Sedaris. WTF?
- “Winging” your trip just means you will end up walking 50 blocks in one day “exploring” the city because you didn’t have anything planned to do. We missed Courtney Love slurring her way through a book signing, most of the good CMJ bands and Amy Sedaris perform Friday evening. Had we known about CMJ and Amy we would have rebooked our trip through the weekend. (The moral is: Have a researched itinerary and blow off the things you change your mind about.)
- If you’ve seen a taping of Letterman once, don’t bother with doing it again. It’s the same and it eats up a lot of your day.
- You can't swing a cat without hitting a great restaurant in NYC.
- Don't be afraid to make the cabbie repeat himself over and over and over again until you finally come to a mutual understanding as to what the hell he is asking you.
- The little old ladies that scream obscenities at the cabbies will steal your heart.
- Taking 6 more photos than you took last time (4) is not progress.
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