Last weekend I was in New York to see the

VS.

game.

But first, I flew to Philadelphia and headed straight to my friend B’s bar

to meet some friends from my old SuperSecret job for some outstanding Belgian beer before we headed to

for tapas and martini’s.  On the way back to B’s apartment (a whole two blocks away), we stopped by

for some mint chocolate chip. 

Two hours and about $30 in tolls later, we arrived at B’s parents house in Long Island.  When I woke up in the morning, I went outside and found the coolest thing.

All of the houses on B’s parents block backed up to canals that led to the bay.  Mom, Dad, can I move to Long Island? 

After meeting B’s lovely parents, we caught the train into the city for the game.  Last time we went to a Yankees game, we started out at this New York institution:

This time, we met up with B’s friends at a tailgate for chicken and eggplant parm and BEER.  (was too busy drinking BEER to get permission from everyone to plaster their faces on the internet, so no pic for you here)

Once we were nice and liquored up, we stumbled to our seats to watch the game.

 And what amazing seats they were!

Thankfully, I drank enough BEER to survive this score

If the score had been reversed, I might have had to fight the ultimate Yankees fan.

I figured that if I can take 14 five year olds, I could handle him.  But I’m not sure that wasn’t the BEER talking.

 After the game, we met up with B’s friend Cat for dinner.

The restaurant was called Lotus.  And it was empty because we had the first reservation of the night at 7pm. 

I’m sure that the place was very Zen, but I kept getting distracted by the BIG SHINY THING hanging from the ceiling.  Cuz you know, disco balls are a decidedly Asian influence. 

After dinner, we stopped by a cool little bar for a(nother) drink.

 After McKenna’s, we were going to catch a comedy show, but between the fact that we might miss the drunk train back to Long Island by the time the show was over and the sad fact that I HAD A HANGOVER AT 11pm, we decided to head back to B’s parents house.

Because in the morning, it was time to go here

to pick out dinner! 

Since B’s an expert at lobster-wrangling, she did the honors

 She totally needed a LOBSTERTRICIAN tshirt like the guys that worked there were wearing.

Speaking of the LOBSTERTRICIANs, they cooked up our dinner for us,

and split and cracked them for us to take home

By that time, we were seriously hungry, but it was too early for dinner.  So B’s amazing parents took us to lunch in the nearby town of Freeport, home of the Nautical Mile.

After lunch on the deck with an unexpected free performance by the Blue Angels, we strolled down the block to play some

Here I learned two interesting facts; waterfalls in Long Island look like either blue cotton candy or blue toilet water AND B’s mother uses creative counting methods to win at miniature golf.

The rest of the evening was spent hanging out with B’s parents and learning the proper way to eat lobster.  Not a bad Sunday night!

The next morning it was time to head home.  But first, I had to experience one last New York specialty

We took our yummy breakfast bagel sandwiches to the beach. 

While we were walking the boardwalk, I looked toward the Atlantic Ocean and saw this

Speedos in May.  This confirms that New Yorker’s are insane.  And have interesting fashion sense.

After the beach it was time to head back to Philly to catch my plane home.  As we drove, I threw a huge thanks to New York and the Statue of Liberty for a great time.  And go figure, NYC had the last word:

**A huge thanks to B and her parents for being such great hosts.  I had a wonderful time and can’t wait for B to come out to Seattle in September!

Holy God what a weekend!  I took exactly 612 photos while I was busy burning myself to a crisp and am furiously digging through them to give you a first-hand look.  Hopefully I’ll have my shit together by tomorrow.  I managed to make my “glimpse” come 100% true and then some, so check back in with me on Wednesday, okay you two three?

This weekend I’ll be in 

to see the

VS.

game on Saturday.

But first, I’ll fly in to Philadelphia so I can go to my friend B’s bar

and have dinner at

and probably several of these:

with some of my friends from my old SuperSecretJob before we head to

to stay with B’s parents.

In

most tourists would check out

and

but I’ll probably be trying to avoid being made to eat a

from one of these:

and spending LOTS of time in places like this:

trying not to get into arguments with these:

since I’ll most likely have no idea what I’m talking about.

I hope we make it back to 

because I hear we’re going to feast on

(heh, not THAT one)

that we get to pick out of a tank and maybe relax on the

while we nurse our inevitible

Sound like fun?

Now I realize that I’ve been home for almost a freaking month, but I can’t even begin to describe what an insane month it’s been. So here you go…photos from my trip last month. Next up? Belated Mythbusters results. I didn’t forget!!

A view of Orleans from across the Loire river.  Not much more to say about this one than “Wow”.  I’m hoping that I can get some shots of the shops and streets tonight when we go to dinner.  It’s totally reminds me of a Hollywood set.  There’s nothing even remotely like it in the US.

We were driving home one night this week and stopped to admire the view and take a few pictures of the absolutely stunning Sainte Croix cathedral in Orléans from across the Loire river.  Interesting that most ALL of these pictures have been taken at night?  Not so much, since we worked 12 hour days, followed by a 3 hour dinner followed by a few hours of sleep.  Wash.Rinse.Repeat X 12.  But who am I to complain?  I’m IN FRANCE.

On Sunday, it was time to head to the airport and pick up a car to take to Orléans.  This was taken at the bus stop while waiting with my other co-workers for the next part of our trip.  Buh-bye Paris!

We went for dinner last Saturday night in the Montmartre neighborhood below the Sacré-Cœur, so we decided to go take a look.  After hoofing it up 14 flights of stairs (literally), we encountered a large croud sitting on the steps leading up to the basilica listening to music and reading poems.  Too bad I couldn’t enjoy it since I was dying of an asthma attack

 ”Do you always make up your own rules?”

“Of course, this is France!”

____________________________________________________________________________________

“You’re the one getting all the play”

“What kind of play would you like to get, L?”

____________________________________________________________________________________

“You don’t like my door?  You insult my door?”

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“I think when this place was built they installed the pipes pointing in a ‘V’.  The shit just keeps piling up and up until it waves “Hi!” at you”

“And then the motion detectors finally turn on the lights?”

____________________________________________________________________________________

“Did you see that security guard out there?  He’s hot! What’s his name?”

“Axel”

“No really.”

“Seriously.  Axel.  I’m incapable of making this stuff up”

“Axel?  How about something French?  Like Jacque?  Or Guillermo?”

“Guillermo?  That’s Mexican!”

“I’m reaching”

____________________________________________________________________________________

“Would you like something to drink?”

“Everyone ordered wine, but I don’t drink.  Do you have juice?”

“Oui, we have orange juice, apple juice, grapefruit juice”

“Grape juice?”

“No”

“We are in wine country aren’t we?”

Walked from our hotel to the Eiffel Tower tonight.  Took a bunch of pics from the 2nd observation deck, but most of them were crap since I apparently need Xanax to control the shakes wile taking pictures at night.  Since it was so foggy I didn’t figure anything would turn out, but you never knows what you’re gonna get, or so my aunt Sylvania (like the lightbulb) likes to say.  Kept thinking (courtesy of my good friend B), “Whatever you do, don’t cut off the top of the Eiffel Tower”.   Must be bad juju or something.  Loving the new camera, by the way.