I was woken up at five am, not by my alarm, but by two Chinese women who were packing their bags and showering. The strange thing was that they hadn’t even been in the room when I had gone to sleep, meaning they must have checked in and checked out within a four hour period. By the time they had fannied around, making a considerable amount of noise, it was actually time for me to get up and catch the subway to meet Lucy, then again to JFK. Luke was going to come with me to steal our metro cards once we had paid for a final journey (you pay two Dollars twenty five cents before every journey), thankfully he didn’t – as when we got off the subway on to the Airport train it cost us another five Dollars each to get to our terminal, cheeky twats.
We flew from New York to Minneapolis, then Minneapolis to Los Angeles with Sun Country Airlines. We were slightly worried because we and no one we knew had ever heard of Sun Country Airlines, but they were really good. I normally moan about passengers with huge carryon luggage, but proving myself the eternal hypocrite I jumped at the chance to save fifty buck and not check my bag. (Luke had stolen some of my warm clothing and offered to take other stuff back for me, which made my bag quite small and light.) Another nice touch was the complimentary beverages that the crew served throughout the flight; two free cokes and I’m happy – easily pleased I know.
We arrived in LAX a little late but a shuttle bus was still waiting for us; before we knew it we were in the strangely familiar L.A, once again staying with Luke and Sarah. We hit up Carl’s Jr then spent the evening catching up. As they had now sold nearly all their belonging in preparation for their own trip we had a mattress on the floor, rather than a sofa – it suited me fine.
I did not feel well this morning, it took me nearly two hours to get ready and only after: a nap between showering and dressing; a McDonalds; two litres of water; and three cold and flu capules did I feel like I could play tour guide to Luke and James today.
Lucy had a day planned lunch with her cousin (Yvonne) and dinner with the Bavers (for Hanukah), and although we were all meant to be going back out tonight it came as no surprise to anyone that no one wanted to.
We three on the other hand walk from Twenty Seventh Street to One Hundred and Tenth, a distance of about five miles if you walk as the bird flies – and it’s bloody hard to do that through Central Park. Along that walk we briefly took in Times Square and Rockefeller Plaza, which were rammed for the weekend (we didn’t spend too much time because Lucy wanted to come back the next day) and Central Park. I took Luke and James to Strawberry Fields where we encountered a sort of vigil to John Lennon, which included a few middle aged men with guitars, a John look-a-like, plenty of fans singing along and a crazy black lady dancing – standard really. It was something to behold, but not really Luke and James’s thing so we kept moving, swiftly moving past the Belvedere Castle and around the Jackie O Reservoir. The morning’s rain meant that some of the pavements were now engulfed by puddles, we, along with every other park visitors skirted around the edge of these mini reservoir that surrounded the big one; all that is a part from one jogger, who ran straight through the middle of them all, soaking everybody. What a cunt.
That evening Luke, James and I were going to treat ourselves to a TGI’s, but when we realised that this particular branch was double the price of other branches we added another chain to my list – White Castle, and in this case cheaper was not more cheerful. They serve slingers (mini burgers) that taste like the Rustlers microwave burgers (not good), the chips and chicken rings (yes chicken, not onion) were O.K but the highlight was the refillable coke – that was delicious. The crap meal freshened our hangovers and meant we didn’t feel like doing much else of anything tonight. Like I said we were meant to be going to Williamsburg to meet Mike and Lucy, but they had bailed on us, and I don’t think we could have been happier about it.
I think we must have made a positive impression on Steve because he had offered to take us out for lunch and then drive us to the train station. He took us to Hillsborough Star Diner, this was as traditional as it gets; huge portions of average food at a cheap price, and a nice way to finish our time in suburbia. Our habit of arriving ridiculously early for things chillingly backfired when Bridgewater turned out to be an outside station; we were glad when the train finally arrived, and warmed up by the time we arrived at Newark Penn Station an hour later. Jaina’s school is literally just down the road from the station and she was giving us a lift back Staten Island, once Lucy and I found where she had parked she would be anyway. Although Jaina drives this route all the time the one way street around the station got her completely muddled and before we knew it we were heading to the airport, but she got us there safe in the end. We stopped at KFC on the way, after much ‘No, you decide’, ‘No, you decide”.
After Mike had humiliated me in Johannesburg I was determined to have a rematch, and tonight was the night I was going to regain my bowling crown. Well there must be something wrong with the lanes, or the balls in Staten Island – or both; because I didn’t win either game. Thankfully I performed well enough not to be ashamed, but mark my words; I’ll beat that yank one day! We finished the night off with a nostalgic game of MO, which Jaina and Mike claimed not to remember but picked it up pretty fast; Lucy took my MO championship crown as well…obviously not my night.
We walked up the boardwalk in the day light to get a view of the city, but not too far, we were tired and hung over after all. The biggest mistake of the morning was stopping in at Nathan’s for a ‘famous’ hotdog, the terrible service was only matched by the dreadful food, luckily for them I was starving, so ate the lot. Poor Steve had to drive home whilst Lucy and I ‘rested our eyes’. We monged out for the rest of the day, and as if Lucy had magical powers, her ‘jones’ for a pizza turned into an order of Dominoes for tea.
Su’s final plan to ensure that we were entertained during our stay was to get her son, Steve, to take us to Atlantic City for the night. Atlantic City is essentially Vegas on the east coast, but a bit smaller. We stayed in the Tropicana which is where we spent most of our evening, we did walk up the boardwalk and had a drink a Bally’s - the wild west themed casino. Back in the Tropicana Lucy and I got lucky on some electronic roulette which gave us enough money to risk it on high stakes blackjack (fifteen buck a hand). You would think two broke travellers who were two hundred bucks up would take the money and run, you would think. The dealer eventually recouped her loses and the little that we did walk away with was lost instantly with the spin of a wheel –shucks. We had enough for a couple more drinks in the Irish pub that was just outside the casino before calling it a night.
I actually managed to write some blog today, and then I took the dogs for a walk. Mugsy wasn’t allowed to come because he is a beast of a dog, and although he is a softy inside the house apparently he is a terror outside. The other dog’s vet bill cost seven hundred buck last time. I didn’t actually know where I was walking and just trusted the dogs to lead the way, and they got us home eventually (although I had my doubts). Lancealot was being a bugger and refusing to jump over the trees that super storm Sandy had left blocking our path, and he was too heavy to carry.
We had a buffet breakfast again then drove back to New Jersey, the rest of the day was spend resting. We had had a busy weekend you know.
Like I said, I think Su was worried that we were going to get bored during our stay; and as her and Ken had to go to Maryland for a wedding they kindly invited us to join them. We picked Ken up from the airport and then drove to Annapolis and almost immediately hit the bar. Luckily Ken and Su like a good drink so we were in for a good night; we ate at the hotel restaurant (I had the seafood platter which was delicious) and drank plenty more. Su made Ken go to bed around ten – for him to come strolling back in with a huge grin on his face (he was allowed one more), when Su finally got Ken to bed she told us to stay at the bar and charge it to the room, some hundred bucks later the bar closed and we giggled our way back to the room.
Like I said, I think Su was worried that we were going to get bored during our stay; and as her and Ken had to go to Maryland for a wedding they kindly invited us to join them. We picked Ken up from the airport and then drove to Annapolis and almost immediately hit the bar. Luckily Ken and Su like a good drink so we were in for a good night; we ate at the hotel restaurant (I had the seafood platter which was delicious) and drank plenty more. Su made Ken go to bed around ten – for him to come strolling back in with a huge grin on his face (he was allowed one more), when Su finally got Ken to bed she told us to stay at the bar and charge it to the room, some hundred bucks later the bar closed and we giggled our way back to the room.
I think Su was worried that we were bored or something (she obviously didn’t realise our love of being slobs) and almost insisted we borrow Ken’s car (he was away with work) and go to the cinema, so we did. We added the burger chain Five Guys to our list and then caught Life of Pi. Five Guys make a really good burger, you can tell the patties are freshly made and the chips still have their skins on, definitely one of the best burgers I had eaten in the states. For tea we went to PF Changs, again we ate far too much, Su forcing us to have too much wine and a dessert.