New York City was, as it should be, a helluva good time.
My friend, Raj, called me at eight am, jarring me awake me and promptly dragging me away from my Jersey shore trailer park experience. I drove armed only with his Jersey City / Hoboken address - no map, no GPS and, really, once I got off the Turnpike, no clue as to where I was going - yet I somehow managed to make my way into the right part of the city with the Jamboree.
Raj and his concierge had saved a spot for the Jamboree in front of his building, and no sooner had we parked and said hello then we took the train into the centre of NYC. An afternoon of walking the Soho streets – which I found out stands for SOuth HOuston, the street Houston, not the city, for the city is a just wee bit further south than NYC – in the unseasonably warm 18c temperatures. Sunday afternoon, street performers and people out everywhere.
Lunch with Pinot Grigio, a late afternoon Mojito on a rooftop lounge directly under the gaze of the Empire State Building, photographing the Chrysler tower as the sky grew darker and the lights glowed brighter. I learned a little bit more about what light dispersal means to a photograph lens and our eyes.
Raj left me on that rooftop for another Jennifer, but luckily Petrina was just around the corner, and so she picked up the day and lead me to a Manhattan Indian dinner. We returned to the rooftop to meet up with Susan and her husband from Amsterdam, in town for only two days, like me, and so we six sipped wine well into the wee hours until I feel asleep under Raj's care on the delayed train back into Jersey.
For the second morning in a row Raj jarred me awake at 8am, this time to move the Jamboree before getting a parking ticket. While I didn't think my blood was yet clear enough to be driving anywhere, even if only to the shopping mall parking lot kiddy corner to Raj's apartment, I stumbled my way downstairs anyway, and found, to my dismay, that the Jamboree had received a parking ticket, anyway. A mere 5 minutes before I got there, of course.
Good thing I've been to NYC before. I didn't feel the need to see and do everything. I've already seen and done a lot of it. But I still made a yelp of glee upon driving behind that Lady of Liberty holding her torch high as I drove South on the Jersey Turnpike (dEUS Turnpike song on the iPod, uh huh).
My goal was Pine Street in Philadelphia to find Jelle, friend to my new Dutch friends. I had a toilet roll to deliver. This time I printed off directions from google maps to guide me through Philly, which is, I must say, a pretty cool looking city. I didn't get enough time there to even consider seeing or doing anything, but I can safely say that I've put it on my list of places I'd like to return to.
I found Jelle's place, but, alas, not Jelle. He was at work, his phone was not working, his wife was also out, and I was parked illegally in front of his house in the university area. So I added a note of my own to the one the boys had scribbled on the toilet roll and left it for Jelle on his doorstep. When he returned my call later that night he assured me that he got it.
My ride into Washington DC was peppered with legitimate campsites, which I've discovered, so far, are more expensive and not as nice as they are for comparable services in Canada. Me being a snobby Canadian? Perhaps.
A bus ride through rainy streets into the centre of the US capital, Petrina from NYC, now in DC, trying to figure out where the bus dropped me off to pick me up for dinner, a tapas place with delicious Rioja, with her and her father and her Austrailian friend. Driving past the capital building, all lit up impressively, oohing and aahing but not photographing through the dark and the rain. I’ll return to do that during what I hope will be a dry, at least, day next week.
And as this post goes up, the Jamboree sits alone in a parking lot near the Dulles airport, awaiting my return 6 days from now.
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| NYC 2009 |
some very wonderful NYC pics.
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