Whiskey in New York

So I finally have some time to blog about the weekend. Man, what a weekend! I don't think I was in one place long enough to leave a footprint.

Friday:
Whiskey was in town from Boston (doing some work there) and there was much to do as he had not been in New York before. Naturally such engagements require celebratory drinks... so without wasting any time, we headed off to the Rock Center Cafe for drinks and to meet up with some other troublesome straglers. This was when I realised that my well planned evening of pub crawling might run into a few hitches. They were closed for the evening already! Fear not! One of the party (a local with many years proven knowledge of the watering holes) suggested Times Square. We headed off and found ourselves at an upmarket trendy hot spot called the Blue Fin.

Whiskey (left) and Myself (Right) with Times Square in the background

Like the views, the Vodka was good, and I got to expand the list of Vodka's that I have had in New York. After a couple of drinks in some good company, we decided to find another watering hole.
With some recommendation by one of the party members, we headed off to Bleeker Street and found ourselves in a pub where the only things cheaper than the local draught were the girls. After dodging darts to get to the bathroom we headed off in search of another watering hole.

Now a few weeks ago, my father told me that he had been to a very good pub when he was in New York a long time ago. As he was a sailor at the time, I trusted his judgement in all things pub related. It was with this in mind that we headed off to find the Heartland Brewery. A famous institution that apparently serves over 100 types of beer. I say apparently because just like our famous pub in Cape Town (Forries), they close rather early. Alas, we had arrived a few minutes after final round.

Much to my dismay what remained of the party split up and Whiskey and I headed off home to the only pub we knew would be open at that time of the morning. So with some frozen lasagnes and a six pack of Millers we ended the night in style in the flat chatting about all things wise in the world.

When do we stop djinking? .... NEVER!!!

Saturday:
After waking up a little late with a bit of a headache and thirst for orange juice on Saturday, we proceeded with the notion that the weekend was not to be wasted. The weather was fantastic, requiring only a thin jersey. After an oily breakfast at a local diner we caught a train to Battery Park.

Breakfast in the diner

Now we intended on going to the Statue of Liberty, but the lines were waaaaay too long. It appeared that everyone had seen the good weather. With our hopes dampened, but not crushed, we jumped on the Staten Island Ferry, which travels past the Statue in any case. An hour later we had completed the round trip and were back in Manhattan. The rest of the afternoon and evening consisted of good conversation, excellent sushi and an earlyish night (compared to the previous night) with beers and cupcakes.

The view of Manhattan from the ferry

Sunday:
Sunday was much like the rest of the weekend... busy.
With a short hop through Central Park we found a place for breakfast near Rock Center and caught a train to Battery Park. Yes, this was to be our second attempt to see the Statue of Liberty in as many days. We had a plan this time though, we went early! After a short (30 min) wait in a queue and an all but strip search later we were on the boat and off to the island.

Proof... I stood in front of the Statue of Liberty. At this moment it snowed very lightly, don't think u'll see it in the picture tho. Man was it freezing here (Glad I remembered a thick jacket:P)

The statue looks quite impressive, but the organisation around getting people on and off the island is a bit of a shambles. When we arrived, we were informed that you needed to buy a seperate ticket 48 hrs before in order to go up the statue! Talk about lack of communication!

Anyway, after the statue we headed back to Manhattan, walked around the shops and headed off home for a beer and to get Whiskey back to the station in time.

This is my new car... I'm just keeping it on the show room floor so it doesn't get dusty.

Needless to say Monday required lots of coffee!!

--Vodka

I weigh 0.206 pounds!

On Halley's Comet that is:P

Last Sunday I went to the American Museum of Natural History. I have wanted to do this since I watched "Night at the Museum" with Ben Stiller. Now it was a little disappointing to see that the there was no T-Rex like in the movie.

I decided to go all out and buy a ticket that covers everything (including an IMAX show on the Mars rovers, a planetarium show called Cosmic Collisions, a trip through the butterfly exhibit and access to the gold exhibit). If you go there, I recommend this as the rest of the museum reminds me of those dusty old 1960's science magazines you found in a bookshelf as a kid... the kind I used to cut pictures out of for school projects before Grolier and Encarta encyclopedias made it onto CD.

After buying my ticket, I had about 5 minutes to make it to the IMAX show... which was quite a good show. I learned things about the rover missions that I had no clue about (stuff that moonflake would laugh at me for not knowing:P), like the fact that they sent two rovers three weeks apart, and that the rovers are still working now!

The Planetarium was the highlight for sure. Not just the show, but the whole room around the sphere. Below the sphere, the room winds down a spiral ramp to some interesting exhibits.

The butterfly exhibit was ok. It was basically a big room with a lot of plants butterflies. They pack the people in like sardines though:/

As for the gold exhibit, I know a few people (girlfriend included) that would go ballistic with that amount of gold around.

Well, without further ado... here are the pics:P

So here's what I weigh:P

This will give you an idea of the size of the planetarium sphere.

This was pretty kewl, realtime earthquake info.

Here's a full size model of the Mars rovers

OMW - I have GOT to get one of these for hte next office casual day!

--Vodka

Addicted to Mocha

Seriously, you should see how big these mocha's can get! If you're ever in New York, find a Starbucks and order a Venti Mocha... man they are god's gift to office workers.

On a side note, New York is getting rather warm... it's 12 celsius (53 F) outside today, and instead of snow we now have wet, sopping rain!

On the bright side a buddy from South Africa is visiting this weekend. I'm going to have to introduce him to alchohol in New York so he can blog about it (if you haven't seen it yet, he's one of the tavern's crew (whiskeywineandsoda.blogspot.com).
Read just a few of their posts, it'll all make perfect sense.

This weekend promises to be an eventful one. There are many plans afoot, including countless beverages (alcoholic in nature of course:P), sushi and yes even the weekly outing to somewhere scenic in New York (which reminds me that I still need to post on the American Natural History Museum).

Depending on the levels of behavior, I might exclude some details of the weekends events. I know whatever happens, Whiskey is likely to mention it:P

--Vodka