After the previous night’s festivities, a morning of sleeping in was in order. Oh that was nice. But we were still up at a reasonable hour (10ish I think) and had a lazy morning with the usual, breakfast from the downstairs cafe. I’ll take this post to rave about Cafe Inatesso’s blueberry muffins, egg and cheese english muffins, and fresh orange juice.

Jennifer and I thought it’d be nice to take the kids off my sister’s hands for a day and just go out on fun-filled day. It was part “gift” to my sister and her husband for thanking them for their hospitality, part hang-with-my-neice-and-newphew-for-the-fun-of-it gesture. We asked what they’d like to do and the answer was….Coney Island. I liked that — it’s a place I’ve read about and always wanted to visit. Winter isn’t exactly the ideal time to visit that beach-boardwalk place, but hey, maybe a few attractions would be open. We already knew the aquarium would be open, so there was at least that going for us.

After the 45 or so minutes on the subway getting over there, we arrive to a cold, windy, mostly closed Coney Island. Oh well. We walked along the strand a bit and visited the aquarium. It was a nice, but the kids, being the 9 year olds they are, sort of rushed through it, even if they enjoyed the sea life. We stopped at a candy store afterward (they were more focused there) and then returned home.I have to say…it’s tough keeping track of two energetic, demanding kids! I certainly didn’t mind being a “parent” for a day, but I also liked giving  the kids back and the end of the day. One day I’ll be a full-time parent, but not today!

We then hung out at the house for a bit, played Wii with the kids, chatted with my sister and bro-in-law, and just enjoyed relaxing at the house. We found a nice looking place for dinner on Yelp, so we headed out later that evening for some grub at Cafe Orlin. The food was great, the service…well I’ll just say it resulted in an already low tip lowered further after one last bit of rudeness.  Enjoy your >10% tip, stupid waitress girl. After that, it was late and we were tired, so we just headed back in for the night. Another fun day in New York City.

In my last blogging adventure, I left off on the morning of December 29 (I had to just check to confirm that). It’s now the morning of January 2, 2012. Sidenote: that’s the first time I’ve written out the new year date.

So on that Thursday, the 29th, we had a bit of a slow morning but were out the door a little after noon to meet my former-coworker Ronnie and his friends in the Lower East Side at Katz deli. They were travling from the Bronx and weren’t quite on time.  But that’s alright, that gave Jennifer and me additional time to explore the area and discover a great little cafe, The Cake Shop. We killed some time and beat the cold in there with delicious hot cocoas.  Soon after that, Ronnie, his girlfriend Cheryl, and a couple of their friends met us for some giant sandwiches at Katz. Good times.

After Katz, we checked out the clothing shops Brooklyn Industiries and Uniqlo. I had visited this Uniqlo store in SoHo last time after learning about it form my friend Aldis.  The hot item this trip was a new sort of heat-generating  type of underwear, as in thermals and long-johns. It’s cold here, I go in cold areas, so I picked up a long-sleeve shirt for 20 bucks. Uniqlo is really pushing this new HeatTech product too; I see ads for it all over the city. After a bit of shopping, Christina led us to a TriBeCa cafe she knew liked, Kaffe 1668. Great call. It’s a little coffee shop with a nice, dark feel to it. I had a bit of pumpkin break, but also indulged in a couple glasses of some fancy wine. We hung out there for a good couple hours before deciding to call it a night.

December 30

What’d I do this day? Oh yeah, checking my FourSquare history sure helps jog the memory. For as silly as FourSquare is in the grand scheme of things, I love it for keeping a record of the places I visit. This was the Philadelphia day. Jennifer and I noticed a little band we like, Thursday, happened to be playing their final (American) show this night in nearby Philly, so why not check it out? After looking at train and bus options, we decided to just rent a car to make the 100-mile trek south. A couple pro-tips here: 1) It’s much less expensive to rent a car in Brooklyn than Manhattan, and 2) This part of the east coast loves their toll bridges. Each way of the NYC-Philly trip cost us close to $20 in tolls.  California, I love your freeways and have a new found appreciation for the “free” in those.

The drive down to PA wasn’t so bad, just…different. I don’t remember seeing many of those signs that show you the next three upcoming exits like in California (“Cali” to the locals out here), and the exits off the “expressway” were far  between. There are service center stops, which are similar to those along the 5 between LA and SF.

After a couple minor wrong turns and delays, we got to Philadephia close to 4pm, just in time to hit John’s Roast Pork. Here’s the deal with cheesesteaks: we knew we had to get one, that’s just the thing for non-Philadephia residents to do there. And the two big places for those things are Pat’s and Geno’s. But no, I don’t want to go to the big touristy places, I want to a place the locals like. I asked some of my Philly friends and got a few recommendations: John’s Pork Roast,  Jim’s, and Tony Luke’s. Due to proximity, we went with John’s, in a somewhat outskirt-y part of the city. It just so happened we got there mere minutes before closing. We got a couple of their signature sandwiches, the Roast Pork sandwich. And the verdict? Ehhh. You know what, I think I’m just not one for giant meaty sandwiches, particularly pork I guess.  It wasn’t bad; I ate it, it’s just not something I’ll rush back to get again. But I’m glad I had the experience.

After that, it was time to get touristy. We drove over to the Liberty Bell/Independence Hall area and parked in an underground garage. The area certainly had a good number of tourists around, but it was nice walking around outside and seeing the historical sites and exhibits. We arrived at Independence Hall just before 5pm and made it just in time to enter a restricted area.  Nice! Well…we walked in and it was just…the backside of Independence Hall, and that courtyard area was pretty much open to the street behind it. So, we’re not really sure what we made it in time to see, but still, it was something. We unfortunately didn’t make it in time to see inside the hall; that’ll have to wait until next time.  We then walked the block over to the Liberty Bell center. It’s an indoor space dedicated to the bell itself and its history. We made it just in time for that too, but this was certainly more special. Due to the impending closure of the area, we rushed past the informative displays to the bell and snapped a few pictures with it before heading out. Everyone takes pictures of it from the front side (the view of the crack and Independence Hall behind it may factor in here), but a few people step behind it to get shot of the backside.

At this point, around 5:30pm it was time to head over toward the show venue and grab dinner. We took the scenic route down Broad Street, past the impressive City Hall, to South Street. The stretch of South Street from about 10th Street to the Delaware River’s edge a pretty cool, eclectic mix of shops and restaurants that reminds me a bit of LA’s Melrose or SF’s Haight streets. We Yelped and found a nice little place to eat, Alyan’s — a Middle Eastern food restaurant. After a nice meal, we walked around a bit more and checked out a comic book shop before heading back to the Theatre of Living Arts for the final US show of the band Thursday. More on that in my next post. After the show, we drove back.  Sadly, we couldn’t avoid the highway robbery tolls, but after a couple hours or so, and the Batter Tunnel, we were back in Battery Park. But one more obstacle stood before us and some much-needed sleep: parking. Yeah, parking around this neighborhood is not easy, and the confusing signs don’t help. But after 20 minutes or so I found a spot across West street that was good at least for a few hours until 8am.

December 31

I woke up early on this Saturday to move the car in time for the street cleaner. I got to it at 8:03am, or in other words, three minutes after the deadline and about 30 seconds before the parking officer standing nearby would have given me a ticket. Instead of hunting for another parking space and dealing with returning the rental later, I just headed over to Brooklyn to the Enterprise shop. Nothing against my wonderful girlfriend, but it was kinda fun tackling the big city all on my own on this mission. I navigated my way to the Brooklyn Bridge, crossed it, and made it over to my destination. Goodbye “sweet ass Kia”, you were a good little rental car. With that completed, I walked a couple blocks over to the Metro Station to hop on the 4 and make the short trip back to Bowling Green station. However, before I boarded the  Metro, a sidewalk vendor caught my eye….that’s right, those corny 2012 NYE glasses. I sure did pick up a pair of those. I don’t return home to my significant other empty-handed, no siree.

After making it back “home” and a quick breakfast from the downstairs cafe, I needed a bit more sleep than the 3-4 hours I was running on. So after that it was time for a real meal in the form of lunch. I had a Blackboard Eats coupon for Ponty Bistro, so we took advantage of that. I may be alone on this, but that was my favorite meal of the trip. The restaurant was unusually empty, but the service was nice and the food was just excellent. Everything from the white wine sangria to the salad to the lobster ravioli and the side of asparagus was delicious. Good call, me. We the went over to the best cookie bakery on the planet, aka Levain Bakery, and picked up a gift box of cookies for our gracious hosts, my sister and family, who were returning later that day from their trip to LA. Talk about a sweet gift, those four cookies were a hit. For good measure, we picked up a couple treats for ourselves. With that gift in hand and flowers to boot, we made it back in time for their arrival. It was nice visiting with them for a bit before we headed out for our big night.

Well, maybe not “big” big, but a fun  night was planned. I’m not one for some some crazy, stupid NYE bash,  but I also wasn’t about to stay inside all night.  We got to one of our favorites, Corner Bistro, at 10pm and saw it was surprisingly un-packed. It wasn’t empty at all, but not very crowed and that was okay with me. We had their signature offering — the fantastic Bistro Burger — and a few McSorely beers to wash it down. With that nice start to the evening and midnight approaching, we returned to Battery Park City to go to the aptly named Battery Park. From there, we could overlook the water, the Statue of Liberty, and the fireworks to ring in 2012. There was a nice crowd of fellow revelers there to make the experience a bit more social and lively. We grabbed hot cocoas real quick from the Staten Island ferry building and had a nice, romantic start to 2012. After that, with the night still young, we headed uptown to a bar called The Room, had a beer, met merry revelers along the way, and that was that.

Another year, another trip category for my blog. I’ve been busy this 2011 with grad school, so my big trip this year is fairly tame — that is, it’s not international, and “only” a little over a week long. But it’s still much anticipated and it’ll be grand. I’m wasn’t quite sure what to call this trip as we’ll be visiting San Francisco, New York City, and Philadelphia, but the “SF/NYC 2011″ seems to capture the two big parts and the bi-coastalness of the adventure.

I’m actually already a few days into this one at the time of writing — things have been so busy I haven’t gotten a chance to post about it until now. I guess I could go back to Christmas day to really mark the beginning of my travel.

I visited my sister Marla and family in Orange County on Christmas. Sure it’s only an hour or so south of my house in Santa Clarita, but still, it’s something. That was fun and then just a few hours later, the next morning, I hit the road for San Jose.  If I want to be more specific, I’d say it was actually my girlfriend’s  house in Santa Clara, just north of SJ. We attended her high school reunion that evening at a bar in Cupertino. Some of her familiar friends were there and I enjoyed meeting a few I had only heard about until then.The next day, the travel north continued.

This brings us to December 27 and San Francisco. We didn’t even get into town until the late afternoon, but was was plenty of time to join my sister and brother at one of favorite Mexican food joints in the city, Papalote. After a delicious pescado burrito, we visited one of SF’s Christmas traditions — Tom and Jerry’s house. It’s one of the most extravagantly decorated house’s I’ve ever seen and it’d been growing in popularity (and decoration) for years now. They even sell a sort of behind-the-scenes/story-of DVD about the house. We impulsively picked that up and later watched it to inadvertent laughs from the content and direction of that wacky documentary.

The next morning, December 28, Jennifer and I had a 7am flight to New York City. It wasn’t fun getting up that early, but hey, it was for a good cause, right? We metro’d over to my sister’s in Battery Park, Manhattan to unload our bags and make plans for the evening. We knew we’d end the evening with a screening of Home Alone and a “lovely cheese pizza just for” us. So, on that note of italian(ish) food, we decided to visit Little Italy for a salad and appetizer. Yelp led us to Caesano’s on Mulberry Street. It was a bit busy, but it’s a charming (if touristy) little place and we had a salad, some wine, and split a dish of lobster ravioli. In an unrelated, but timely, note…it was really cold last night with the wind. Mid 30s. We braved the cold to make it back here, and called it a night with Kevin McAllister making a mess of the Wet Bandits.

This morning, Thursday, we’re taking it was and have a lunch this afternoon with a former-coworker of mine who happens to be in town. But now, time for breakfast.

Our Friday morning in Washington DC began with an early rise to make a 9:45 tour appointment at the National Archives. We arrived on time and the tour started promptly.  This group was a bit smaller than the previous tour — only about 10 people in this bunch led by  a friendly, older lady.

That tour starts with the goods…the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and Bill of Rights.  The exhibit wasn’t quite as I’d imagined. I guess I thought those documents would be in a hall, or a room, but no, they were featured in a rotunda with other related artifacts and artwork on the walls.  It was an impressive display, it just took me a bit by surprise.  From the very start of the tour, the No Photography rule was stressed and especially at this point.  I asked a guard if he’d ever seen anyone snap a photo.  He said yes, and that it meant prison time.  Harsh. I wonder if that’s entirely accurate, but not enough to test it out.  The DoI is quite faded, but still barely readable.  The Constitution is in better shape.  We learned quite a bit of he backstory and history of the documents here thanks to the tour guide.  I felt satisfied I knew a good portion of it already, but was also happy to learn new details.

The rest of the National Archives tour was much more interesting that expected.  There are famous letters to presidents, historical photographs of American cities, declassified military documents, and many other bits of American history.  The tour whizzed us through the place and left us wanting to take a deeper look. The problem was we were both hungry and it was lunch called.

We had a fantastic lunch at Founding Farmers (best cornbread I’ve ever had, btw) and decided it’d be best to grab a quick nap.  Yes, we were both running on very little sleep and we just need to rest up. After the nap, we made it back to the Archives shorly after 4:30, a time we figured would allow us entry before the 4:45pm cutoff for the 5:30pm closing.  Yes, the nap ran long.  Well that didn’t quite work out, we were denied entry.  But you know what? That may have been a little blessing. As a result of some sudden free time and our location, we went exploring.

We walked to the Mall and found crews preparing for the big rally the next day.  Barriers were erected, the stage was up and first-aids/bathrooms were all in place. None of this was particularly surprising, but it was nice getting a preview of the scene and a chance to see it without thousands of people crowding in. After a few photos there, we walked over to the capitol.  The sun was about to set, but there were still many people out and about around there and we got our share of photos in like the rest of them. Two interesting things happened on the lawn at the back of the capitol (the side facing the Mall): 1) a couple played frisbee on that lawn, and that’s something I’d like to do next time, just cause….and 2) We saw a wild fox scamper across the lawn.  Just out of nowhere, a fox runs into view, runs around  a bit, then runs off.

We then walked along the National Mall, past the adjacent museums, to the Washington  Monument. For some reason, I wanted to not only see the Washington Monument, but also touch it.  Maybe I’d heard something about the stone of which it’s constructed. Anyway, yep…it’s stone.  And not soft. And very tall.  And appears to have robot eyes at the top of it at night. After the requisite photos (and wacky photo), we continued our way west to the WW2 monument, the Reflecting Pool, and the Lincoln Monument. There’s more to the Lincoln  Monument than I expected, including the inscribed speech on the wall, the gift shop, and the fancy ceiling. There were many other tourists there at the time, but thankfully not an uncomfortable amount.  Protip: check out these monuments at night to  beat the crowds. Jennifer and i sat on a ledge on the north side of the Lincoln Monumen for a few minutes and that was nice to just take a breather and enjoy the scenery. The historic scenery we’d known for all our lives only through pictures and video.  After a while, we caught a cab back the house.

We  hung out around Dupont Circle that night and ate dinner at a recommended restaurant, Luna Diner and Grill. It was okay. We met up with the Redditors in town at their Rally pre-party at a nearby bar. Our host Sean was there, as well as other guests staying at his place, and we met some other friendly people.  So many redditors, so much internet, so much nerdery in one place. We hung out till about 11pm.  Sure we could have stayed out later, but we had plans to rise early the next day to  make it out to the Rally before the big crowds.  But on the way back we stopped by CVS to pick up sign-making materials. We weren’t the only ones doing so.  We got back, made a sign, and were out by around 1am.

Our train arrived to Washington DC’s Union Station right on time at 9:45am and we had to get right over to the White House.  The rules are strict for entering the President’s estate you’re barred from carrying just about everything short of the clothes on your back and a cell phone. We didn’t have time to drop off our travel backpacks at the place we were staying, so we had to stow them at Union Station’s bag storage.

We could have taken the metro over to the meeting spot for the tour, but in an effort to save time on our rushed itinerary, we took a taxi.  We arrived with a few minutes to spare.  Once there, we were sorted into lines based on our scheduled appointment time and ushered through security.  The appointment times don’t seem to be too strict, but rather a means of controlling the flow of tourists.  I suppose I was expecting a guided tour as I was a bit surprised it’s a self-guided tour. There were a good number of other people there for the same reason, but not to the point of discomfort.  The tour path is very clearly delineated by roped off rooms and secret service personnel at every corner. They also can provide a background and further information to any aspect of the tour. Who is depicted in that painting over there in that room? The secret service agent can answer that.

I was slightly disappointed at the limited scope of the tour, even if that wasn’t surprising.  And maybe I was slightly bummed President Obama didn’t peek around a corner and silently motion for Jennifer and I to take a secret tour of the west wing. At first I thought the tour was just so…sterile and detached from the real White House.  It felt like these were rooms that may be in the White House, but are never used.  Nope.  I was happy to learn that after tours end for the day in the early afternoon, the tour ropes and signage is quickly removed and the rooms are open for full and frequent use.  The tour lasted the better part of an hour, and afterward you’re free to take photos on the outside

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We were both hungry and it was lunch time.  A couple friends recommended a place nearby, Old Ebbit Grill. Nearby as in a block away from the White House. I’ve been told it’s a pretty popular spot, and one might even catch a senator/representative in there.  I sure didn’t, but the food was great.  Also, while waiting at the bar for a table, I think I was served the coldest beer I’ve ever had.

After lunch, we had some time to kill before our tour of the Capitol.  We walked over toward that next tour location, taking our time to just enjoy the scenery.  Oh, let me tell you about the squirrels.  DC squirrels are fearless.  Usually, this is how it works: human approaches squirrel, squirrel runs away.  The squirrel may let you get within 10 feet, but anything close to 5 feet is really pushing it.  That’s not how things work in DC.  You can pretty much get within arms length and those critters will stay put.  Strange! I dared not get any closer. Who knows what could happen.  “How did Charles lose his face? A squirrel mauled him.” No sireee, I won’t be chancing that.  I’m mostly joking.

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Anyway, after walking around a  bit, it was time to tour the United States Capitol. I felt like the scheduled time was the same deal as with the White House; it’s just a way of sorting people into manageable groups rather than a strict deadline.  Who knows, maybe I’m wrong on that. But we were there on time, and were soon standing in the tour line, being issued headphones.  The Capitol is a busy, loud place so those complimentary headphones are simply so you can hear your tour guide’s voice clearly.  Unfortunately, Congress was not in session while we were there, and we didn’t even get to check out either chamber.  But other than that, it seems like a fairly decent tour and the tour guide sure did know his Capitol.  The tour group of a bout 20 that he led made it through at a good pace, stopping every few minutes for a further explanation of the immediate area. Toward the end of the tour, we got distracted checking out some of the impressive art there (you’ll recognize some of that art from our currency) and we lost the tour group.  Oh well, it was nearly the end of the tour anyway.

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After that, we were both exhausted and were ready relax for a bit.  We walked back to Union Station, picked up our bags, subway’d over to Dupont Circle, and made the 10-minute walk to Sean’s.  Sean is the buddy Jennifer found who was so gracious to host us for three nights of couchsurfing.  We didn’t even find him on couchsurfing.org, but instead on Reddit.  Oh, that close-knit community of nerds, I love it. Sean is a nice guy and had a nice condo with a  great location.  We lucked out there.

After a good hour-long nap, we were ready to grab some dinner.  Sean took us to the Dupont Circle area and we ate at a pretty busy place, Bistro Du Coin.  The place is known for the mussels, and the food was a-okay too.  After a nice dinner, we went to Russia.  Well, I should clarify that.  We went across the street to Russia House, a bar that just might have had authentic Russian mobsters in it. Or at the very least, a whole lotta Vodka/strong drinks. Had one that was enough for me.  Yeah yeah, I guess Vodka isn’t my thing so much.  We finished up there, headed back to his place and soon called it a night.  Of course, we had a big day of being tourists ahead of us.

When I found out about the Rally to Restore Sanity being held on October 30, I immediately thought of extending my trip.  It was only a couple days after my scheduled return home, and just down the street coast.

So how card could it be to just get a few hours down from NYC to DC? Well, not very hard.  There are many bus and train options, even flights.  Buses are cheap at around $25 one-way, and we found a decent train fare at around $75.

But the tough part of it is making a 6am departure after going out the night before!

So we had the third and final Bad Religion show of the trip on Wednesday night and got home a little before midnight.  Had to clean up after being a sweatball from the show, then packed and finally fell asleep around 2am.  Only to hear the alarm at 4:30am.  Aye.

We were out the door by 5 and taxi’d over to Penn Station.  Once there things are pretty straight-forward, and I was even fairly alert despite running on a lack of sleep from the past few days.  We hopped on board and that began the 3 hour 45 minute journey (with stops) to our nation’s capital.

Bad Religion

This was show 3 of 3 in the special era-themed shows.  The 2000s were covered this night, focusing on albums The New America through the new The Dissent of Man.

I might have been looking forward to this show most.  Of course I liked the previous two shows, but maybe I just wanted to hear the newer stuff the most this time around.  The setlist did not fail to deliver the newer goods. I especially liked the opening segment: Supersonic, Prove It, Can’t Stop It.  Those three songs in a row, as they are an The Process of Belief album, are always a fast, punk rock good time.

As Jennifer and I had a 6am train to Washington DC to catch the next day, we left at the encore intermission.  Bad Religion reliably closes with the same few songs, so one less performance of Along The Way/Sorrow/Fuck Armageddon won’t kill me.

I’m glad we caught the shows.  I can’t say we traveled to New York exclusively for the concerts, but they were a factor in the trip’s timing and location and they were completely worth it.  Thanks Bad Religion.

This was our last full day in NYC. We’d pushed back grabbing a nice breakfast, so this was the day to do it. We managed to get up early (out the door by 8:30!) and went to a favorite of mine, Bubby’s in Tribeca. Last time I ate there, Mike Myers was seated a couple tables over. And word is a bunch of celebrities live around the area. No famous folks this time, but that’s okay — the “food alone is worth the trip”. On that note. the steel-cut oatmeal with bananas and apples….love it. Fun fact: they also sell pumpkin cookies.

We then subway’d back over to the AMNH to complete our visit that began the previous day. 20 minutes with the space exhibit is simply not enough. We checked that out to our heart’s content, and a couple other interesting areas, and then that was that for the museum. A while back we had researched where the best chocolate chip in NYC is located…and how about that, just a few blocks from the museum. How could I NOT go check that out? We walked over to Levian bakery. No, let me rephrase that: we walked over to the place that dishes out cookie bliss. It was one honkin’ baked confection of deliciousness. Small place, friendly service. I sound like I’m writing the eventual Yelp review.

I wanted to get a photo-op near the side entrance of the AMNH as that’s the image I first associated and have long connected with since my first visit there so long ago. So we walked back and got that, but not before we came across a place that had be recommended to us: Shake Shack. That’s a burger joint. I had eaten breakfast recently, a large cookie just minutes prior, but…well, here was another only-in-New-York institution. So we tried it! Now I can say Shake Shack makes one of my top 5 fast-food burgers. It’s not a place like McDonalds; it more resembles a Corner Bakery in relative urbanity and ambiance. And I like their marketing’s graphic design.

Okay, after the museum, cookie, burger, and the museum photo, there was one last thing to check out in the area. Central Park. More specifically, the rocks at the north end of The Lake at Central Park. It’s just a great spot to sit and relax quietly, as well as take in the scenic vista. After a bit of that and playing around the park, we had a couple more places to visit before leaving New York.

A friend recommended Highline Park, and that was next on the to-do list. Highline Park is bulit upon an old elevated railway platform stretching several blocks in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood. It’s not the top tourist attraction in the city, but it is a nice, modern stretch of park in an usual setting. We saw several people running along it’s concrete pathways or lounging on the reclining benches.

After that, we headed back to the house. I had promised John we’d play baseball on Wednesday afternoon and that’s what we did. The building’s playroom worked well until management kicked us out for creating a potentially unsafe situation. Who know some kids playing around with a soft plushy baseball in an empty room could be so perilous. Anyway, it was fun hanging out with him and Madison a bit longer before we had to leave town. We savored one more pizza from the restaurant downstairs and just hung out at the house before taking off the our third, and final, Bad Religion show of the trip.

We said our thank yous and goodbyes to my sister and her family.  They were great hosts and really helped make this a great trip.  After the show, we were up late packing and cleaning up after ourselves.  We left flowers and a card as a little thank you to our gracious hosts.

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This was the 2nd of 3 BR shows for our trip in NYC.  The theme of this nights show was the 90s…that means focusing on material from albums Against The Grain through No Substance.  It was also the night for the VIP ticketholders to get a little something special.

That little something special began with lining up at the venue at 5:45.  As VIPs, we get a special poster plus the album.  And a group photo with the band.  So we stood in the only line there at the time once we arrived, it was already a few dozen people deep and quickly grew longer.  I had wondered just how many “VIP” people there were, looks like maybe a hundred or so.  After about a half hour in line, we made it to the front, picked up our swag, and then stood in another line for the group photo.

I had imagined it’d be sort of like a factory line; the band would be posted and each person would move in, the photographer would take the shot, and then call for the next VIP in line. Nope.  It really was a group photo.  We went to the stage floor, the band sat up on stage, and the entire VIP group was moved in as we all faced the rear of the venue toward a photographer.  Well, I could gripe about that, but eh…not a big deal.  But it is cool that after that photo was taken, the band members (except the singer) hung out to meet and greet the fans.  Most of the VIPs left, but the few that remained had a chance to schmooze and get in photos with the legendary punk rockers.

Jennifer and I chatted with Jay, and got in a photo. I’ve met him a few times before, he’s always cool.  Greg Hetson, a notorous LA Kings fan, totally called out Jennifer for her Sharks shirt.  Me: “Can you believe it, I’m dating a Sharks fan.” Hetson: “Yeah, but at least she’s into hockey.” We took a photo with him and joked around with more friendly jab at the San Jose team.  He immediately offered another “nice” photo and even found us later and made sure we weren’t upset about the middle finger photo, haha.  Then Hetson scurried off onto the New  York streets with a backpack and alacrity.

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So then we had a few hours to kill, because we sure didn’t want to hang out until BR went on.  Sorry opening bands, it’s nothing personal, we just want to go experience the city.  And we had plans to meet Jennifer’s friend Pavla.  We spent a little while in the amazing bookstore Strand while waiting for her friend to meet us after work and once she arrived began the discussion with the local on where to eat around there.  She named a couple options and the organic place about a 10 minute walk away east on 14th sounded good.  If I were to give it a name, it’d be Northern Spy.  That restaurant easily made it to my top 5 of the trip, the food was great!  I had pumpkin ravioli, veggie couscous and the apple pie….loved it. Even the Oktoberfest beer was pretty good.

After dinner, it was time to get back to Irving Plaza for BR’s set at 10pm.  As always, they rocked out a fun show.  The setlist was enjoyable, and even included some rare gems like Sowing the Seeds of Utopia and Hear It.  Jennifer and I both had a great time.  I even recognized a couple people from thebrpage.net at the show,  but unfortunately didn’t get a chance to meet them.

New York’s Metro Mix posted some shots from the show: http://newyork.metromix.com/music/essay_photo_gallery/bad-religion-irving-plaza/2268039/content

The plan for Tuesday was to hit the Museum of Natural History for the first part of the day, then Brooklyn for some real New York pizza.  Well we didn’t really have a destination in Brooklyn for the “best” pizza, and other than checking out Williamsburg, that trip might have just been too much wandering. So we scrapped Brooklyn (gotta save something for next time, right?) and focused on the museum.

I like the American Museum of Natural History.  I’ll go ahead and say I really like it.  Tuesday marked my third or fourth visit and I could have easily spend the entire day there just learning about the exhibits.  Jennifer and I agreed we both wanted to first cheek out the Dinosaurs.  There are three main areas I definitely wanted to see on this visit: Dinosaurs, Humans, and Space.  If there were an exhibit on humans riding dinosaurs in space, well that’d just blow my mind. But we scored tickets to the IMAX presentation on the Hubble Telescope at Noon, so that took priority.  That was actually pretty interesting, and who knew the Hubble was born in Sunnyvale, California.

Next up was the section on human evolution, thanks to its proximity to the IMAX theatre exit.  That stuff is fascinating! The theory of evolution makes sense to me, but seeing the evidence, and details, just makes the picture that much more complete.  The displays are really interesting and will likely raise questions you never had before about human evolution and development.  When one video mentioned the relationship of evolution and spirituality, I couldn’t help but think of Greg Graffin’s recently published book Anaarchy Evolution.  Oh and how about that, I was seeing his band later that night.

Next up was were the dinosaurs.  I was excited to see my favorite dinosaur, Stegosaurus.  Of course, they were all interesting.  Oh and while I was in there a saw Neil deGrasse Tyson pass by.  Yeah, that’s right, the famous astophysisist you’ve probably seen on the Today show or the Daily show, or even on a Youtube clip. Yeah, I geeked out over that one and took a photo with him.  I find his lectures and stories fascinating, and it was nice to meet the nice guy in person.

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We briefly passed through sections about minerals and gems, the planet Earth, the Hall of Biodiversity, ocean life, and a couple others before reaching the material about space.  But as time flies when you’re having fun, we had less than half an hour to check it out before needing to leave for the house and get ready for the concert.  So we agreed to return the next day.

The second Bad Religion concert of our trip happened that night and I’ll write about that in another post.