I am a huge fan of the dry rub ribs at Virgils. It had been 14 years since my last visit, so there was no way I was going to miss it!

Welcome back. You both have a nice ass grab waiting for ya next time I see you.

Sayyy, I had surly service at the Empire State Building, too.

At least they weren't as combative as the airport employees at JFK when we left. In the span of 20 minutes we witnessed 4 arguments. 2 between employees and customers, and 2 between airport employees themselves! And the place wasn't even busy, there were like 10 people checking bags and going through to security. I shudder to imagine it when they're under actual stress.

Forgot to relate the most bizarre occurrence of the entire trip. On Tuesday we went to the Met where we had lunch on the rooftop cafe/sculpture garden. There I spotted a dude who was a dead ringer for Ned "Kingsley Zissou" Plimpton. Bright orange beanie, light blue shirt, looked kinda like Owen Wilson (or at least enough so in that outfit).

But that's not the bizarre part. Flash forward to Friday, attempting to drive through Manhattan, somewhere near Canal and Centre street, I notice a six foot tall bicycle (not one of those old-timey ones with the one big wheel, just a modern bike modified to be really tall) pull into the oncoming left turn lane. I look up at the rider...and see a bright orange beanie and an Owen-Wilson-like face! :eek: w....t....f?!

On a side note, what the hell are you supposed to do on one of those crazy things if you have to stop?

To add to the story - GD and I were very stressed trying to drive around. There was this great moment where the tension clouds parted. Both of us just looked at the guy on the bicycle, looked at each other, and said, "It's him. The Zissou guy we saw earlier. Weird." If he hadn't been wearing the beanie again we would have never noticed.

what ever in the world impulsed you to attempt driving in Manhattan?



yes, you recognize the sheer madness now, but what could have possessed you?!?

It was not my first choice, but we altered our travel plans at the last minute to accommodate the Ghostland Observaotry show on Friday which left us checked out of our hotel all day with nowhere to put our bags and needing to have a rental car ready for late-night departure.

It honestly wouldn't have been so bad had I done the driving at the beginning of the week. But I could literally feel my thought processes being slowed considerably by having to retrain myself to look at traffic signals first. It very difficult to simultaneously concentrate on figuring out whether any given pedestrian was actually going to walk in front of me or if he was just going to get as close as possible to the lane so as to save that extra millisecond of walking time once I passed. Either type of pedestrian was always a possibility and they are completely indistinguishable in manner until the moment that they either stop or keep going.

For future reference, you can usually leave your bags at the hotel, even after you have checked out. Susan and I have done that on both of our excursions.

Actually, on our first trip (14 years ago), we actually were able to leave our luggage at a hotel in Manhattan for the day that we weren't even staying at!

I just make sure to tip the bellman well!

Also for future reference, you have to drive in Manhattan for years to learn the collective body language of NYC pedestrian intentions.

This wasn't a standard hotel, it's a converted brownstone. And we needed the car anyway, so it's all the same.