The weather this spring has been a little touch-and-go. We had two days a few weeks ago that were about 90 degrees, but then again, March 2010 was the rainiest month in like 50 years in the New York City area. April has been a little less rainy, but it's been yo-yo-ing between highs in the 50s and the 70s all month. Case in point, yesterday was about 70 degrees and sunny and today's high is 52 and it's raining.
Anyway, since yesterday was a beautiful day, Taylor and I took full advantage. It also happened to be Taylor and I's 6-month anniversary of being married (crazy!). So, we celebrated with a jam-packed and very New York City day :) I figured some of you might find it interesting, so here goes :)
Our day started with a 7-mile run in central park. It was an absolutely beautiful morning for a run. Cool and sunny, it seemed like everyone was running in the park. We even took a little detour to the Conservatory Gardens, where we got married 6 months ago. This picture is from Google, but it's a pretty accurate depiction of the weather and flowers in the garden. Quite an improvement from the weather on our wedding day!
Unfortunately, Taylor's IT band is really messed up and his knee has been hurting really bad, so our run was a little painful for him and he was limping pretty much all day.
After our run, we headed out to Citi Field to catch a Mets game with a few friends. The Mets were playing the Braves and some of our friends from Vanderbilt who are also from Atlanta wanted to go cheer on the braves so we tagged along. It was a lot of fun, the weather was great (albeit a little cold) and the Mets won, which made Taylor happy (I didn't really care).
We headed home, but not for long because we had plans for the evening to celebrate our anniversary!
We started out by going to dinner at a really interesting place called Burger Joint. It is inside the Parker Meridien hotel, which is a fancy hotel in Midtown. Here's a photo of the lobby:
That curtain is the divider between the stuffy fancy hotel lobby and the VERY different character of Burger Joint. Those people are lined up waiting to walk into another world. Inside, Burger Joint looks like a run-down, hole-in-the wall burger place that you might find in a decrepit downtown area of a side street in Detroit. All of the signs (including the menu and a sign advertising their wine as "straight out of the box") are hand-written with magic markers, the food is greasy, and the service is purposely impatient, bordering on mean. Here's a photo of the interior:
This must have been taken when the place was empty because when we were there it was much messier and crowded, but it was still fun. The only thing about the place that reminded you that you were in New York City was the guy sitting in the corner using his iPad.After dinner, Taylor took me to the Plaza Hotel to have a a drink at the legendary Oak Bar. Some of you may know that I have a rather aggressive love for fancy hotels in spite of my unwillingness to ever actually stay at them :) I just love going in, looking around, buying an overpriced drink, and occasionally taking illicit advantage of pool, sauna or workout facilities :).
When we got to the bar, the sign told us that we must wait to be seated and that "proper attire is required." Luckily, our outfits passed the bouncer's sniff test and we were escorted to a very comfortable corner table and presented with the menu for $19 cocktails. After consulting our waiter, I settled on the "Grumpy Garcia" (am I the only one that feels uncomfortable with drinks that contain the word "Garcia"?), which is their "twisted take on the margarita" and contained pineapple and jalapeno infused vodka with pomegranate. They weren't kidding when they said it was spicy, but it was good. I have to say, though, the most surprising moment of that cocktail came when I decided it would be a good idea to eat the entire chunk of pineapple contained therein in one bite. You know how the fruit in sangria is always the most alcoholic part. Well, this chunk of pineapple tasted like it had been soaking in jalapeno infused vodka for about a week, so it was basically like taking a shot! Whew!
Taylor took our waiter's recommendation and ordered a cucumber-basil drink that made us both wonder if the waiter was questioning Taylor's sexuality...But he said it was good :)
After drinks, we headed downtown for what was supposed to be our second covert location of the evening (the first being Burger Joint, the Oak Bar is by no means covert, and that is by design). The place we were going is called "PDT" which stands for "Please Don't Tell." It's supposedly a very intriguing speakeasy and the door to this place is through a telephone booth inside of an unassuming hot dog shop. Here's the entrance to the shop:
And here's the tiny door to the phone booth which, on the other side, houses PDT.
Well, evidently some folks DT (DID TELL) because this place is impossible to get in to. We were running a little late for our reservation and they gave our table away! Not to mention as Taylor and I were standing outside waiting for our friends to arrive, EVERYONE who walked by was telling their friends about PDT. Clearly, this is no longer a "best kept secret."
Even so, we ended up going to another bar and having a great time playing darts and having a few drinks. All and all, a great day and night in New York City :)
