New York City

In May of 2015-right before all of the family care taking hit the fan- Drknitnightjustine and I went by train to New York City.  We stayed at the Pennsylvania Hotel.  We started out with a walk on the High Line.  Knitted fences told us we were where we should be.

After that stopped for a flight of whiskey at a random whiskey bar televising the Pittsburgh Penguins finals. The next night, just before seeing The Book of Mormon we enjoyed a beverage (I remember clearly the tequila margarita that wasn't made from a mixer) at this gorgeous establishment.

We spent an afternoon and evening starting in Chinatown (designer bags, you want a designer bag?) with vegetarian kosher dumplings and finishing with multiple desserts in Little Italy.

We made the obligatory trip to PurlSoho in (wait for it) Soho.

Our afternoon in Central Park took us to the far edge- "the other side" as I think of it- where there was a book store on the street and a candy store called Dylan's (owned by Ralph Lauren's daughter and where Unbreakable Kimmy Schmitt had her first job in the series.)

I was absolutely enchanted by the candy store and it was the source of my souvenir for the trip.  A bag full of candy with a hat tip to David Sedaris' brother's Fuckit Bucket.  (it should be noted that at this point in the history of care taking, Aunt was safely secured in a rehab and we were scheduled to move her to Morgantown the following month, but I had spent January to May driving back and forth to her Ville of Steuben every time she fell and was sent to the hospital-hence the fuckitbucket)

And to this day this bobble from the bag remains my keychain and fond memory of an amazing trip.

The thing about drknitnightjustine is that we travel well together. We went with a very loose agenda.  The dumplings and the musical were really the only must do things on the list.   When we got to the city, our quirky sense of what is interesting matched perfectly.  "Let's try this" from either of us was always met with a "yeah! That sounds great" from the other.  Even more so after the train ride washed any cares and stresses away.

And while I love greathusbandbob and all of the adventures we have travelled together, this trip was the most carefree and relaxed I can ever remember being.  It felt like I was vacationing alone (I could do all the things I wanted to) except I wasn't.

(and as I write this, I realize how crazy life must have been that I never even blogged about it when it happened.  I couldn't even remember what pictures I had from it!)

On Friday, the good doctor and I will be making the same trip.  There are fireworks on Coney Island on Friday night that we may go to.  

We will spend Saturday in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.  There are three things on the agenda for that day.  A visit to the City Reliquary,

A vist to the Museum of Food and Drink which has an interactive-(read food to eat) exhibit on Chinese American food (Hello dumplings),

  and tickets to an interactive art show called WonderworldNYC, which has an Alice in Wonderland Exhibit with plenty of photo ops. If the pictures online are any indication, this has a decidedly Asian sensibility to it as well.

On Sunday night we will attend what's billed as a freakily immersive theater experience at The McKittrick Hotel called Sleep no More. And while they say that the experience is based on Shakespeare's Macbeth, I have absolutely no idea what that will be like.

And if we have the time and the stamina- the theaters are a 15 minute cab ride apart- we will attend an evening performance of Drunk Shakespeare.  I have to believe these two might be polar opposites.  So there's a little more planning for this trip but the only tickets actually purchased are for wonderworldnyc and sleep no more.  Everything else is up for grabs and easily changed should something else pique our interests.

Can you say-