NYC or Bust!

We left Honesdale on Monday after lunch and headed into New Jersey to visit with Donna, a close family friend who lives in New Brunswick.  We also got to meet up with her son Kevin on Tuesday who served as our trusty Princeton tour guide (thanks again!).  He drove us all around the city to show us the sights and then walked us across campus, pointing out the best statues, touring the free art museum, and generally checking out the sights.  

The boys climbing on the "rhombus"

A really lovely church (but i don't remember which)

Kitties

Curtis and Kevin in one of the sculptures

Donna was nice enough to let us leave the truck in her driveway since (a) the 10' bike loaded truck can't fit in parking garages and (b) there was no way we were leaving our 4 bikes on the roof on any street in NYC.  So thanks to Donna, our truck and bikes were safe in New Jersey while we hit the city.

We took the train in Wednesday morning to Penn Station and popped out on the streets of New York with no idea where we were.  It just took a moment to get our bearings and we were soon in Central Park, grabbing lunch along the way, and had a nice little picnic on the rocks in the south end of the park.   

Soaking up the sun in Central Park

We found our way to Dave and Angie's apartment in time to hang out for a bit and then hop on the train to visit Dave's school.  They were having PTA meetings so we got to meet a bunch of teachers, and students were hanging out with their families in the playground where parents had made a ton of food and one of the teachers even had a sweet music setup too.  Dave had to stay late so Curtis, Angie, and I planned to meet up with a friend ours from UMaine.  We stopped at a really cool bookstore along the way and then met Eric and his girlfriend, Sasha, for drinks at a great bar/brewery.  

Angie, Curtis, and Dave at his school

Thursday started out with yoga at Angie's gym.  Curtis was a great sport and came along too.  I wish I could say I have photographic proof of it, but sadly, I do not.  After we were done, I called up Letterman's Late Show to check on stand by tickets and we managed to get on the list pretty early.  We wandered over after lunch and stood in line, getting in with no problem.  They gave us our little pep rally and then we filed in to the Ed Sullivan theater, way up in the balcony but still with a good view.  The theater was beautiful, the bands super loud, and the show was great.  Caroline Kennedy was the guest and we got to check out the diving dogs outside afterward.  Not too bad for free tickets that we called for that morning.

Friday we took the bike path along the river downtown to Central Park.  It's a really nice paved trail set aside from the road with directional bike lanes and a separate lane for pedestrians.  We crossed over to the park and then battled the crazy amount of people in the park to do the outer loop to the North end of the park.  

We also went to the Museum of Natural History which has been my favorite museum yet.  The mammal displays were beautiful!  And lots of dinos too--it's Terrible Claw!

For Guy, Karen, and Colden

We met Dave and Angie at Union Square to check out the great farmer's market.  We chomped on cookies and muffins and hot apple cider, all fresh made from local farmers.  

Saturday we got to spend the day with Dave and Zeke.  We checked out the new EMS store and ended up bouldering in Central Park for the afternoon.  

Kale and mushroom pizza for dinner, then we hit the town at one of Dave's favorite spots.  Angie and I walked over so I could play around with some night shots.  Here are a few:

Shake shack 

Empire State Building

Flatiron

George Washington Bridge

Riverside park

Look familiar?

Our last night out in NYC ended later than usual and with the biggest pizza slice I have ever seen:

Huge.

We left the city this morning and headed to Chatham to see our friends Nick and Toni and Nick's family, and continued over to our next multi-day destination: Morrisville, PA at the Vollizari household.  We haven't seen Jesse, Jessa, and Eily for a while so we're looking forward to spending a few days with them and checking out more of the area.  And, we even had an amazing surprise:  missy, tom, mom & dad packed up a wonderful care package of Maine goodies for us (along with our health insurance and AAA cards).  What a great surprise!!!