Hanna and I went to New York because we found cheap flights. We need very little incentive to do almost anything. I think the fact that our trip had so many issues and I still had the loveliest time speaks volumes to the quality of company I keep. But honestly, sometimes I have to question which way my karmic scale is tipping.
I recently realized that I've traveled to amazing places but that I haven't done enough exploring of my own city and even less of any other state. Short of Vegas and a trip to Disney World, I know nothing of this country and I wouldn't really consider either of those places to be accurate representations of their states. So last year I decided to go to Seattle and froze my ass off. This year I went to New York and got my ass mauled off.
We arrived on Saturday afternoon in time to eat, get a tour of Audrey's adorable neighborhood, and wander over to a beer garden. The next morning we explored a food market in DUMBO where I got a chocolate covered banana, a mango lemonade, and rode the carousel in front of the Brooklyn Bridge on the warmest day. Perfection, much? We talked a lot about how when you go to a new city you can't help but compare it to other places you've been. To me, Brooklyn felt a lot like London but with really great food. I think it's something about a comfort level more than any physical similarity, though I saw those as well. Manhattan felt like every place in existence on crack and I mean that in the best and worst ways possible. I'm super jealous of all of the impossibly large parks but could probably go my entire life without being surrounded by that many people ever again.
A couple weeks ago, it occurred to me that being in New York meant that I'd be on the same side of the country as Sarah so I shot her a message and within an hour she had booked a train ticket to meet me. I haven't seen her since her wedding and I missed her dearly so I was crazy excited. Unfortunately, Murphy's law decided that it would keep us apart a little longer and broke the train that she was on. It took her four hours longer than it was supposed to. Longer to get from Rhode Island to New York than it took us to get there from California. By the time she finally arrived, she only had two hours to spend before she had to get back on a train. All we had a chance to do was walk the High Line and chat about the bun in her oven. They already told her that she will receive a full refund so we are just gonna look on the bright side and call it a free trip to see Cindy.
After leaving Sarah back at the station, we began the third leg of our tour which consisted mostly of standard tourist stuff. I also had to drag Hanna to the Plaza solely because, as someone who has read over a dozen volumes of the Princess Diaries, I couldn't be in New York without seeing where Grandmère held Princess lessons. When we got back to Audrey's, I was mauled by her cat. It was traumatic for everyone involved. We decided that some day we would laugh about it.
The next day we laughed about it. It was hard not to be ridiculously cheerful while each of us was wearing a beautiful dress under the sweetest umbrellas in warm rain. We were practically skipping from joy when we stumbled upon Provini. Holy shit, best dinning experience of my life. Everything about it was DIVINE. The restaurant was beautiful and played a constant stream of music after my own heart while we ate the most delicious pasta I've ever had. We kept laughing at the sublime looks on all of our faces because there were just no words. On the flight home I had a Jack and Coke and rekindled my love affair with professional wrestling.
