This is supposed to be a travel blog, so I'm going to post about actually traveling for once. I just got back yesterday from New York City, so here's my account of my adventures (written for the peeps at my favourite online forum, the Perfect World).

The NYC Trip Story.

Ian's dad is a huge fan of the Allman Brothers Band, and he goes to see their show in NYC every year. This year, he had a couple of extra tickets, so Ian, his brother Ben, and I were all invited to go. I had to miss a day of work and Ian had to miss a couple of classes, but there was no way in hell we were turning down a free trip to NYC (all we had to pay for was food and whatever souvenirs we wanted). Ian wanted to go music shopping, I wanted to go fashion and beauty shopping, and Ben didn't care much as long as he got to see CBGB (he is as punk as one can be who was only born in 1981).

Ian's dad came down Wednesday night and slept on our couch, after partaking in St. Patrick's Day festivities with us. Thursday morning, we got up at 7 (which is sleeping in for me, since I usually deliver the papers starting at 6 on Thursdays). We headed out of town by 8, after picking up Ben. The drive to NYC was uneventful, fortunately... I navigated, Ian and Ben slept in the backseat, and we arrived in Manhattan by 5 PM. Ian's dad (hereafter known as Bill) is the only one of us who'd ever been to NYC before, so he knew where he was going and I was free to gawk at the scenery with Ian and Ben. We came into the city via the George Washington Bridge and headed to our hotel on Riverside Drive, so we drove right past Grant's Tomb and the Riverside Church. I love looking at architecture, so the beautiful buildings along Riverside Drive were amazing to me. We reached our hotel (the Beacon at Broadway and W. 74th), parked the car in the Beacon's garage, and went to check in.

The Beacon is a beautiful little hotel, despite the current renovation project going on in the lobby, and we had a lovely view of the surrounding streets from our 18th-floor room. After settling in, Bill and Ben headed off to take a walk down to Times Square and other touristy haunts. I made a beeline for the Sephora across the street (yes, I'm shallow), to which Ian accompanied me for all of five minutes before leaving me to browse and striking out on his own. I got a makeup application from the friendly salesfluffy at the NARS counter, and then I wandered the immediate area for a bit before heading back to the hotel. On the way, I stopped at a little market to smell and admire the flowers, and helped a young cop pick out a bouquet for his lady friend.

Once Ian arrived back at the hotel, we ordered room service. Yes, I know we should have gone exploring for a cool NYC restaurant, but he's a simple country boy and I'm a simple suburban girl and we'd never stayed in a hotel with room service before. It was expensive, of course, but the novelty made that unimportant, and we got loads of food to save for the next day as well. Eventually, Bill and Ben arrived home, having walked almost the whole way to the Village. They went up the Empire State Building only to find the observation deck closed, and visited Times Square and other assorted places before returning. We called it an early night, with the intention of arriving at the Guggenheim for its opening at 10 the next morning.

Before I continue, I want to note that I'd always had this conception of NYC as the ultimate urban jungle, dirty and full of ugly buildings and homeless people. I found it to be none of these things. It didn't seem any dirtier than any other big city (i.e., Toronto), and I didn't see a single homeless person or panhandler the entire time I was there. Sure, there were a couple of ugly buildings, but most of the ones I saw were just beautiful, and the whole city had an airiness and light to it that I hadn't expected at all.

NYC, Day 2.

Despite our best intentions, we woke up somewhere around 10, so there was a bit of a delay in getting over to the Guggenheim. We eventually got it together enough to head out in search of breakfast, which we found at a tiny diner. I had a cheese omelet the size of my head, and it was fantastic... we passed the time during breakfast by reading the New York Post, which featured Courtney Love the morning after attacking a fan at her show. Very snarkworthy. After breakfast, we went to find a drugstore so Ben could buy gauze and wrappings (he had a fresh tattoo that was bugging him) and earplugs for Bill and Ben (apparently someone was snoring all night. I plead the Fifth). There was a pet store a couple of shops down, so I bought a couple of cat toys for Maddy. Everyone deserves a souvenir!

Finally, we headed to the Guggenheim by way of Central Park. We passed right by the Dakota, where John Lennon was shot, and the "Imagine" memorial to him in the park. I had to forcibly restrain myself from laughing as a woman hustled her little dog away from the memorial seconds before he took a shit on it. There were people walking dogs everywhere! Big dogs, little dogs, dogs in coats (lots of dogs in coats- the pet shop I went to had a whole selection of doggy clothes). There was one woman throwing a tennis ball through puddles, and her dog, muddy and wet, was joyfully chasing it.

Central Park is just amazingly beautiful. I had no idea that it was so wild and rocky in places... I'd pictured it as a big, mostly open lawn with some ponds, but it's not like that at all (not the bit I walked through, anyway). There were trees budding and plants popping up everywhere, and I wish I could see it in about a month or so. I bet it's gorgeous in the springtime. I couldn't believe how quiet it is in the park, too. I would have thought you'd still be able to hear traffic noises from the surrounding streets, but you really can't. Frederick Law Olmsted knew what he was doing.

So did Frank Lloyd Wright, for that matter. The Guggenheim was amazing. They're having an exhibition right now called Singular Forms (Sometimes Repeated), featuring minimalist art from 1951 to the present. Some of it was beautiful, some of it was silly, and some was a bit confusing, but it was all interesting, and I loved the way that some of the art interacted so well with the design of the museum that it was sometimes difficult to tell what was art and what was the building.



This work, The White Figure by James Lee Byars, was a bit spoiled by a large blackish dust bunny sitting next to the block of marble. I wanted to pick it out, but I think the security guard would have yelled at me.

After we finished touring the museum (and browsing the gift store, at which I bought a poster from the current exhibition and a shirt with a Roy Liechtenstein print on it), we each went our separate ways. Ian went to meet his editor from Stylus Magazine for a drink, Ben went wandering, Bill went to the pre-concert party run by the "Hospitality Sweeties," and I went shopping. Bergdorf's, Bendel's, and Barneys, oh my! The details of my shopping trip aren't of general interest, so suffice it to say I bought several lovely perfumes and had a fabulous time. It should also be noted for posterity that I took three different cab rides, and none of the drivers lived up to the NYC cabbie stereotypes at all. When I got back to the hotel, I had about an hour and a half before the concert began, so I fell on last night's leftovers like I hadn't eaten since that morning's omelet (which actually, I hadn't, since I'd been too busy shopping to eat).

So, the concert. It was held at the Beacon Theatre right next to the hotel, so it was nice and convenient for us. Lots of aging hippies in tie-dyed T-shirts. Lots of beer. Lots of weed (I got a lovely contact buzz off the girl next to me, and the guy in front of me, and the guy behind me...). The fans were rowdy, cheering and clapping well before the Allman Brothers even came on stage. The band played from 8:15 or so until almost 11:30, with an intermission, and it was a great, great show. The energy in the theatre was almost as palpable as the smoke, and lots of people were dancing in their seats or the aisles. Groovy. I'm a classic rock fan to begin with, but this was quite possibly the best concert I've ever seen. Ben and Ian enjoyed it almost as much as I did, despite not being classic rock people, and Bill's groove was lubricated by copious amounts of beer and the Hospitality Sweeties' jello shots. I have never seen a happier man.

After the concert, Ian and Ben and I collapsed into bed, but Bill went back to the HS party, claiming to be planning to arise at 7 AM. We laughed, and set the alarm for 9. Good thing, too, since Bill didn't get back to our room until 2 AM.

NYC, Day 3.

We woke up at 9. Ha! Victory for the younguns! We actually managed to be ready to go just before 10, but before we left town, we had to go to Henri Bendel to exchange something I'd bought the previous day (not my fault, they'd given me the completely wrong colour and I didn't notice until after the store was closed). We also had to go to CBGB so that Ben and Ian could worship at the shrine of punk. So between 10 and noon, we had a nice little driving tour of Manhattan.

CBGB looked interesting, but since it was 11 AM, all there really was to do was buy t-shirts. So we bought t-shirts. Ben took photos of the outside, and of the street sign on E. 2nd that proclaimed it to be "Joey Ramone Place." Somewhere in the Village, we also passed Ben's Pizzeria, the best pizza in the world, so of course Ben had to take pictures of that too. We finally headed up the West Side Highway back to the George Washington Bridge and home.

I slept from Scranton to Syracuse, so there's not much to say about the drive home. We did stop at an outlet mall just inside Pennsylvania to have something to eat and poke around in the shops, but unfortunately I'd spent all my spending money in Manhattan so I didn't have any for the outlet mall. I'm sure the people at the Coach outlet were sad. We arrived home around 9:30 that evening, and promptly took ourselves and our duty-free vodka to a party given by friends of ours. Ah, the resilience of youth.

My trip to NYC was a little atypical in the sense that I didn't go to any of the tourist hotspots (I never went to the Empire State Building, or Yankee Stadium, or the World Trade Center site, or Times Square, etc., etc.), and if I'd had more time in the city I would have liked to at least see some of the other museums. I also regret not being able to partake in the fine cuisine offered by the many restaurants in Manhattan, but again, if I'd had more time, I certainly would have. In every respect, though, it was a fantastic trip.

I love New York.