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.