Tom and Diana: East Coast Life

wow. its been a long time, right? Tom and I have been busy all day every day while Jean has been visiting from Sea-town.
I took a couple days off and Jean and I hit up the must see spots in NYC--non-tourist and tourist spots alike.

We spent 2 days in the city and walked a total of 12.5 miles. We were uptown, we were downtown. We found that underground railroad again in the Brotherhood Synagogue in Gramercy Park (for you faithful readers, I blogged about this in early June), we hit Times Square in the morning and night; spent some time in Greenwich at the Mews (see below), listened to some music in Washington Square Park and acted like locals at the Jekyl and Hyde Bar, and Caliente; climbed to the top of the Rock (afeller Center) and witnessed the best city in the world that I never get tired of looking at from this view; went to a taping of the Colbert Report (Comedy Central) and Stephen Colbert pretty much visited with us as if no one else was in the studio :-) and after finding out we were from Seattle he wondered if we had heard of a slittle coffee shop popular in NY: Starbucks.
We met Matt Lauer from the Today Show (his cardboard twin actually and to tell the truth, we settled for him as our Brian Williams, from the NBC Nightly News, stalking turned out fruitless), saw Keith Oberman tape his show; watched Tim Meadows walk right past us as well as "Meadow" from the Sopranos; bargained for VERY good knockoff purses in Chinatown before stumbling onto a street festival (totally by accident) in Little Italy which had all the nearby streets closed except for someone the cops let through that was driving a bright green Lamborghini and we swear was named "Paulie"; and, met up with Mark, a friend of ours from high school that lives in the Upper East Side, for dinner.

Tom missed out on all this fun as he was at work. :-)
He headed to the boat on Friday night and Jean and I met him Saturday AM. We headed out on a boat trip and anchored out about an hour or so away and just laid in the sun and enjoyed life. We had a downpour (which seems normal for here in the summer) but as soon as it passed, we were back to laying out. We all got some much welcomed sun (especially Jean as she came from the land of the pasty white people). Jean christened the boat being our first overnight guest! We also visited a nearby surf shop and contemplated an 8 am surf clinic on Sunday-- but decided against it when we weighed our other option: sleep.

Today we all (Tom, Jean and I--dogs napped at the boat-- and John and Lisa) hopped in John and Lisa's small boat and headed to F Cove to cool off. It was 90 degrees and SO HUMID. We got there quick in the speed boat and then spent a few hours swimming around (Jean getting stung by some Jelly fish) before heading to the airport.

We had so much fun and I was so happy Tom got to meet and spend time with one of my oldest and closest friends. He enjoyed hearing the memories we shared with him and he understood the silliness that comes natural to two friends who have known each for more years in their lives than not.

attached is a short history on the Mews and also a few pics from our weekend (including a cool one of a reflection of the empire state building, the mews and jean and I with Matt, at the Colbert Report and at the top of the rock). More to come...

The Mews in Greenwich:
Most of these small "houses" are converted stables, built in the 1830s for the brownstone owners on Washington Square and 8th Street. The street retains its original cobblestone paving and is fenced off to pedestrians except for a short time span each day. As Greeenwich Village became popular as a bohemian mecca, artists started to occupy these buildings as studios, but today, as with most buildings around Wash Square Park, these buildings are primarily used as residences by NYU faculty.