Kevin is probably one of the biggest Volkswagen enthusiasts I've ever met...well a close 2nd to his cousin Tom, but Tom is the one that got him interested in German cars as a teenager to begin with. Many nights Kevin will be reading something online and when I peer over to see whats on the screen he's always reading something about VW's. So, when Kevin read on an online forum that his DREAM car (the Volkswagen Golf R), was coming to New York he immediately jumped on the Jacob Javits Convention Center's website and purchased tickets for the Auto Show. I found out afterwards that we were going! He knew I'd be up for an adventure- I'm always willing to take a road trip! The last time we were in New York City was 5 years ago and I'd always said that I wanted to go "one last time before we leave New England."
We luckily were able to fit the trip to New York into our schedule, as the weeks leading up to graduation and moving are closing in on us. We left around 8:00am on Friday morning and headed south to New York. We packed a ton of healthy snacks for the 6 hour drive and I served as his "co-pilot" telling him the directions (pun fully intended).
By the time we got to New York we were exhausted - isn't it funny how driving somehow drains your energy even though all you're doing is sitting? By the time we started nearing the city I asked Kevin if he'd like to eat lunch at the world famous "Katz's Deli" which was featured in the movie "When Harry Met Sally."I knew it was in the movie and I wanted so badly to do something over-the-top-touristy. The place was packed full of people on their lunch breaks so we had to pretend we were New Yorkers and elbow a few people to finally get our hot dog and philly cheesesteak sandwich. I'm sure no one bought it though...who wears a cross-body purse and a ginormous camera around with them if they aren't a tourist? The food was decent, but eating somewhere that was in a movie was the whole point of the experience...even if it did make us sick afterwards.
Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal at Katz's Deli
"When Harry Met Sally."
After we ate lunch we headed over to our hotel in Manhattan, but little did we know how complicated the roads can be. We ended up in a line of cars that was impossible to get out of...when all of a sudden we were in the Lincoln Tunnel driving towards New Jersey! At this point all we could think of was getting to our hotel in Mahattan, freshening up, and walking around the city. We spent 1 hour trying to get back to our hotel, but we made the best of it anyways. We had lots of drinks and food in the car...and plenty of crazy people to entertain us on the road. I can't even count how many times we got honked at that weekend. Apparently a Vermont license plate means you're an idiot.
When we checked into our hotel we were surprised how little $300 will buy you in New York. It wasn't the best looking hotel, but they had clean towels, fresh sheets, and a place to rest our heads at the end of a long day. We changed into some comfy walking shoes and braved the streets of Manhattan. We walked towards Times Square and grabbed a Starbucks for our journey. New York has so many interesting "characters"...which is always a kind way of saying they're nutty. I, personally, loved seeing the women's fashion like the ones you see in "Sex and the City." Some of the women in New York were like models straight off a runway with gorgeous clothes and shoes. I said to Kevin: "You came for the cars, I came for the fashion."
In Times Square we were approached by a man selling tickets to a comedy club called "Dangerfields," which was founded by the comedian Rodney Dangerfield. We bought the tickets for the 10:30pm show- we snapped a few photos in Times Square, checked out some watches at "Swatch," hailed a cab and went back to the hotel to iron our clothes and relax a little (we even caught a little recap of the Royal Wedding on TV in our room - we seemed to be the only people in the world that hadn't seen it).
The comedy show was hilarious...we even got picked on a little by the comedians. Four comedians preformed that night and because we were in the front row, we were fair game to them. One of the comedians shared a laugh with Kevin over being the "only 2 bald guys in the room," and the female comedian made fun of me for changing my last name from Biretta to Allen. She thought my name was literally the spelling of the Beretta handgun. She said:
"How gangster was your name before you changed it to your husbands? You had the same name as a GUN! And then what? You change it to ALLEN? ...Hi, my name is Mrs. Allen I bake cookies all day. I used to be a bad-ass Beretta but now I'm just a boring Allen."
We laughed our butts off because we understand its just comedy, we didn't take anything personal- it was so funny!
The next morning we went to the Auto Show. We walked from our hotel to the convention center and took advantage of our awesome camera to take photos of the beautiful flowers that are in bloom in the city. Kevin was happy as a clam looking at all the fantsy-shmantsy cars...one of them - the Bugatti Veyron 16.4- was valued at $1.7 million!! Kevin got to sit in and play with, the Volkswagen Golf R and decided from that point on: "There is no way I'm not getting this car, I have to have this." Some of the more interesting cars were created simply for the artistic spin - such as the mirrored and houndstooth Smart Cars.
After the Auto Show we took a drive down to Central Park and Madison Avenue. We got to look at all the stores that we will possibly never be able to afford, but it was so much fun to see how the "other" people live. We saw Monte Blanc, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Lalique, Bergdorff Goodman, etc. The one thing I was determined to see before we left New York was the "Big Piano" in F.A.O. Schwartz which was featured in the movie "Big," with Tom Hanks. We showed up to the piano, literally seconds before they were starting a show, in which two employees of the toy store played "Heart and Soul," "Chopsticks," "Für Elise," by Beethoven, and "Toccata & Fugue in D Minor," by Bach. Afterwards, we walked back to our car and found a sweet man selling Matryoshka dolls (Russian nesting dolls), that I've wanted for YEARS but refused to buy online. I think its pretty cool that I finally got one, and where did it come from? New York.
On the way home we had a few pit stops...the Audi was running low on oil and pretty much everywhere in Connecticut was closed for the day. We had to hop all over town finding someone that sold synthetic oil for our delicate little German car (Kevin would kill me for calling our sporty-car "delicate," but if you've ever owned a European car, you know what I mean). We stopped for gas and had a very strange man come over yelling at us, in which I say sternly to Kevin under my breath "get in the car, quickly, lock the door!" and a pair of women that suspiciously peered into our empty car inspecting the contents while we were away. I thought for sure New York would have been more dangerous than Connecticut, but I guess I was wrong!
We enjoyed ourselves SO much in New York and I'm glad we were able to see the city one last time before moving out of the Northeast. We accomplished so many things that we've been wanting to do and I can confidently say that New York has been checked off my list of places to see!
Enjoy the plethora of photos!
Inside Katz's
You are what you eat, right?
My beautiful hand painted Matryoshka doll.
If you've found yourself at the end of this blog, thank you for sticking with us through all of the text and photos! When you have a great weekend like we did, you have a lot evidence to prove it!
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