New York, New York!

Boone and I first went to New York 5 years ago and we loved it so much that we decided we would return to celebrate our 10th anniversary on June 26. Flights were booked, TripAdvisor was consulted, emails to locals were exchanged, and we were off!

We left at the "BCOD" (a commonly used phrase at our house, but if you were wondering, it's "butt-crack-of-dawn" -- when have we ever claimed to be classy?) and arrived around lunch time in Manhattan. We ditched our bags at the hotel and headed out the door, pedometer securely attached, to find some good chow. This is not difficult in New York, no matter where you are. We walked about 2 blocks before we found a great little pizza and sandwich place with patio seating and no free refills (I had forgotten about that part of New York -- bummer). Afterwards, we wandered around until we stumbled upon Venieros and were forced to buy some fantastic cannolis and cake (let me pause here to say, "Yes, I do plan to tell you about everything we ate in New York -- it's half the reason we went, and we love food, okay?") and we scarfed those down on the sidewalk before heading back to the hotel to actually check in.

We got settled, washed up, and headed back out the door to see the Mets play the Mariners at Shea Stadium. We got there a little early so we headed over to take some dorky pictures at the globe thingy outside Arthur Ashe stadium (where the U.S. Tennis Open is played).


I would like to take a moment to point out that I coached Boone into much better position than he did for me, so his picture is better. Plus, he isn't making a bitter beer face like I am.


Anyhoo, this is not even close to the first time we have gone to a professional sporting event to root for the visiting team, but I was a little concerned about doing it in New York.

What I had forgotten was that the Mets and the Mariners are pretty much the two worst teams in baseball, so most of the Mets' fans were too deflated to give Boone a beer bath. We ate hot dogs and yelled our heads off for the stinky Mariners, who looked like All-Stars that night and won 11-0! We were about the only ones who had any fun and that was without bellies full of $8 beers!


The next day we decided to scope out Chinatown since we totally missed it the first time around. You come up out of the subway into total craziness and it takes a minute to convince yourself that you are still in North America.



We wandered up and down Canal St. for a bit and just took it all in, and then I decided I might like to get a knockoff bag after all. I had no idea what I was in for.

There are a billion places selling fake Dooney and Burke, Louis Vuitton, and Gucci bags all out in the open on the street, but I'm kind of a Coach girl myself, so Boone and I began asking, "Any Coach?" to all the vendors. We were a little miffed when the first several we asked told us "No!" so adamantly, but we soldiered on. Eventually we came across a vendor who responded to our question by nodding, looking both ways quickly, and then hurriedly shoving us towards the back of his minuscule store. We were a little confused, but it was nothing compared to watching him swing what looked like the back wall of bags open to reveal a TINY room with a TINY woman in it! The door slammed shut and we were handed a "menu" of Coach bags on some laminated sheet of paper and asked to choose what we wanted. So Boone goes, "Um, how come most of the bags are out in front and a few are back here?" And the woman replies very matter-of-factly, "Oh, because these are illegal." Turns out they are ALL illegal, but a few companies care more than others about the fakes and Coach is one of them. I can honestly say I had no idea going in that it was so black market, but once I found out I marched Boone and I straight out of the store and called the police.

Please tell me you didn't fall for that! Do you know me at all?!? The "against the law" thing only added to the fun and I got such a rush it's ridiculous!

So anyway, I look at the menu and pick a bag I'd like to see, and the girl uses her phone to call out to who knows where -- I thought she had them all right there, but whatever. About 5 minutes later the door cracks open, a black bag flies in, and it shuts again. We were dying laughing at this point! I looked at the bag and it was nice, but it had a little too much gold hardware for my taste, so although I was a little worried about having inconvenienced these people, we said we were going to keep looking. She radioed out to what I can only assume was the lookout person, and after getting the "all clear" we were allowed to quickly exit the back room.

We got out onto the street feeling like we knew this great secret (that I'm sure millions of people already knew about) and began with a new sense of purpose to look for a bag. We got about another 3 blocks down the road before we started passing these little old ladies on the sidewalk who would mumble, "Coach, Chanel" as you walked past them, and on about the third one we stopped and nodded, and she motioned for us to follow her. She walked us DEEP into Chinatown, where no tourist has any business being. Like all the shops stop writing anything in English and there are markets with whole eels and dried who-knows-what on the sidewalk. Once we were to wherever she wanted us to be, she pulls another "menu" out and we are allowed to pick one. Keep in mind that you are looking at a thumbnail picture of a bag and they are constantly nagging you to hurry up. So I pick one, and once again, a cell phone is used to radio my choice to someone else. This time we waited about 10 minutes (which feels like forever when you have jittery Chinese women looking around the corner the whole time) before some dude walked past us and casually dropped a telltale black plastic bag onto the sidewalk next to us. The lady opened the bag just enough so we could peek inside, and says, "Good quality, see?"

***Side note -- We learned quickly that they ALL say "good quality", even if the bag is crappy, and how are you supposed to know when they won't take it out of the bag for you to see?***

Anyway, we glanced at it and Boone said, "How much?"

"Fifty," she replied.

"Will you take $40?"

"NO! Fifty! Good quality!", and she shoved it into my hands. Boone shrugged and gave her fifty bucks and we were on our way. Once we found our way back out to the main tourist area, we started laughing about what had just happened and felt like total rebels. It was one of our favorite parts of the trip, and if you think less of us for it, well, we don't care.

After Chinatown, we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge and all around the Brooklyn Promenade. Don't let Boone's face fool you -- he was having a blast, he just hates pictures and swears he lacks the ability to "fake a smile". I'm starting to think he might be telling the truth.


(This picture is looking up at the underside of one of the arched bridge supports, in case you care.)

Because I know you are wondering, we ate some great Thai food over in Brooklyn and took a few pictures down by the waterfront before catching a train back to get ready for the evening activities -- a taping of The Daily Show followed by South Pacific! at Lincoln Center.


I had reserved tickets for The Daily Show months in advance, so you can imagine how ticked we were to arrive at the studio and be told they had overbooked and we weren't getting in. Awesome! Well, at least we only cut our day short and ran clear across town to stand in line and get nasty sweaty before they told us. The even better news was that I was wearing "cute" shoes because we planned to sit in the studio and then walk a block to the subway before sitting in a theater and watching a play. Had I known we would suddenly have 3 hours to kill I'd have planned better, but I marched around midtown until my feet were blistered in 7 places. And all I have to show for the whole evening is this stupid picture of the back of Assif Mondvi's head.

He's a correspondent on The Daily Show, and I walked right passed him in the crosswalk as we were leaving the studio, but I was too mad to get a better picture.

Well, I'm exhausted all over again just writing about our first two days, so I can't imagine how much fun you must be having reading about it. I am going to call it a day and do the rest in another post.

Sorry, I almost forgot! We ate Halal food from a street vendor for dinner:) Now you can sleep...