Bagels, Cupcakes, Booze, and a Big Boat

Friday, June 19, 2009

I woke up this morning to find out that Justin and Russ left their jackets in a bar last night. They don’t remember which one it was! Did I mention my little bro is 18?? I love NY! hahaha

We left our hotel this morning at 9 am on a very serious bagel hunt. There was a shop we all remembered from previous trips – Russ had once showed it to us. Sadly, a bike rider told us it wasn’t there anymore so instead we walked through central park and the zoo located within it. Outside the zoo, we saw a mom raccoon teaching a baby raccoon how to climb a tree. Yes, I realize that it was broad daylight. It was super cute! Yes, I also realize that raccoons are usually pains in the butt.

We finally found a good bagel shop and I engulfed a chive cream cheese covered deliciousness. We then went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met) where Justin ditched us for paintings (just kidding Jay). Mom, Dad, and I wandered around the re-done American Wing and the fashion exhibit. The American Wing consisted of parlor setups from different time periods. My favorite was the Frank Lloyd Wright room. The best exhibit in the entire museum, in my opinion, was a newspaper exhibit where the artist had gathered 25ish newspapers from different countries, all from the same day on which a major event occurred, and whited out all the words, leaving only the photos on the front page and allowing the viewer to compare the importance of the international event in different countries. Eventually Greg showed up and we all left on second important mission of the day: Cupcakes.

Convinced he knew the best cupcake bakery EVER (including places in Napa), Greg somehow convinced us Stein’s that we should go on a cup-cake adventure. Actually, it was an easy convincing. Now that I think about it, he may not have even really had to convince us – we all LOVE deserts! The cupcake shop was off Bleaker Street, near the NYU district, so following Greg’s lead, we took the subway to the Bleaker Street stop. The closest address when we exited the subway was 57 Bleaker. We had to go to 400 something Bleaker. And no, each block is not 100; it is about 20 numbers per block. Awesome. Oh well, at least I burned off some cupcake calories!

Sometime during the walk, I started to get hungry so we stopped at a Five Guys. Five Guys is the east coast’s equivalent to In –n-Out…kind of. Basically you pay a flat rate for a burger and then can put whatever you want on it. The best part, though, was the fries. Cajon fries are SO good!

We eventually made it to the cupcake shop and they were worth every minute of the walk – seriously!

That evening we went to the Kings Point (Russ’s school) senior booze cruise. It was what it said it was: a cruise around Manhattan with an open bar. Several Long Island Iced Teas later, I was a happy camper and thoroughly enjoying being on a boat.

When the boat docked back in Manhattan, most of the KP seniors headed to a downtown bar titled ‘The Patriot’, quite appropriate for military school soon-to-be graduates. At the bar, I met a really nice guy from Columbia who was out with his friends. They bought me a PBR and I chatted with them for a little. Later that night I hung out with Russ, Peter and Justin. Eventually, I headed home on the subway with Kale (one of Russ’s schoolmates) and his dad.

Side note: I abandoned Justin at the bar. Haha!