Apartment full of women!

Post winter term exams, it was finally possible to get a time where Sara, Monika, Becky, Rachel, and I could all take a weekend to drive down to New York to visit Mike. This had been in the works for a few months so I was excited this got to happen.

Unfortunately, I couldn't help drive on this trip because my standard driving hasn't been practiced in many years (and it wasn't great to start with). Leaving right after work, there was a massive hail storm on our way out of Kitchener, nothing interesting elsewhere, until we met a rather lively border guard at Fort Erie that was probably really bored (apparently I look like trouble?). Getting in at 4 am to Brooklyn there wasn't an ounce of traffic in Manhattan, I'm not sure what everyone gets so flustered about. Mike was ready to greet us with a living room full of air mattresses, and from then on the weekend's theme was that Mike had an apartment full of women (reference to binder full of women).

The next day a bunch of the girls slept in (naturally), while a few of us went for breakfast at the cafe of Mike's recommendation and walked along the Manhattan Bridge since it is nearly at the base of Mike's place.

When he returned from a token 1/2 day at work, we went to explore (go to the Savoy sign in Harlem was something I wanted to do), see Times Square, and try for a ticket raffle for Wicked.

Truckin' at the Savoy

Though we didn't get the tickets that day, we tried for Saturday afternoon and got enough for all except Mike and Sara to go. Since Sara had never been to NYC, he took her to some of the iconic places. We walked through Central Park, where everything was in bloom, and there tons of runners and cyclists everywhere. It made me anxious to go running even moreso because I brought my gear with me.

Band cover art, anyone?

That night we had dinner at the Mexican place near the Metropolitan Opera, which had an awesome fountain. I wonder if fountain engineer is a thing?

Myself, Becky, Monika, and Sara at the Met

Some of the group a bit tired at this point, so after passing by Times Square again, we headed to Brooklyn, gathered our things and went to a club that Mike heard of that was on a rooftop and gave you bathrobes while outside. Needless to say, being right by the Empire State building and Chrysler building is a good backdrop.

Saturday morning! Well, mornings took a long time with five women in a bachelor apartment, it was rather comical. Oh yes, and Rachel arrived into the bus terminal that morning so Mike and Becky met her. I believe by the time we gathered everyone, it was time to head to the theatre to try for those rush tickets to Wicked. More wandering happened between getting the tickets and the show, which included a walk to the west side with a box of $1 pizza slices!

Wicked was great, even though Monika's seen it before, she was super excited to see it again. We were in the front row so I waved at the musicians in the pit before and after the performance, some responded, and I think some of them pretended I wasn't there (it was fun regardless).

We had dinner at the Chelsea Market (an indoor market kinda like the St. Lawrence Market in Toronto), and afterwards met Mike's girlfriend Karen at the Highliner walk on the east side of Manhattan. She was a really interesting, being into the math-biology field, likes running and biking. The crew then went swing dancing at Swing 46. I'm glad people had fun because I'd feel pretty responsible for 6 people not having fun on my account. The evening ended with getting cupcakes and then Mike and I catching up while eating cupcakes in the gym of his apartment building (people were sleeping in his apartment and every other room was locked late at night). I think that was my favourite part of the trip because for me, having been to New York, was seeing Mike and doing non-touristy things.

...yup...

Sunday morning was right before we were going to leave. Mike and I went for a run which took us across the Brooklyn Bridge, past the Freedom tower, around the Hudson river, and through Battery Park. On our way back over the Brooklyn Bridge, we ran into an MS walk crowd, where we dodged the crowd and got high fives from the organizers of the walk.

After a bit of well-earned brunch with Mike, Karen, Sara, Becky, Monika, and Rachel, we headed out for our drive back. A great weekend!