Marni Out, Jasper In

Two months ago Marni decided to go to Minneapolis on June 29 to start a 9 day vacation at home with her family. Two days ago, my best friend Jasper decided to start a 3 day vacation to NYC. Interestingly enough, Marni's travels and Jasper's travels ended up sharing more than just their day of departure. Upon waiting in the airport for her flight to Minneapolis, who steps off the plane coming from Minneapolis but Jasper! They hug. They chat. They don't take a picture...so I have nothing to post.

So unfortunately Marni's travels home means she was to miss out on the fun that would ensue due to Jasper's travel to NYC. And here is how it went...

Jasper arrived Friday around 7 and took a cab to my office on 22nd street. There I give him a tour of my office and we await Mac to join us. As fast we can thereafter...we find a Chipotle for dinner! We then head to the West Village, drop off our bags, and grab a pitcher of Sangria.

We'd figured we might not hit midtown later in the weekend, so after the Sangria we went straight to Times Square, so Jasper could see it in its nighttime glory.

We then head over to Mac's office on 57th Street, and while on the way, we figure we'll stop at the Apple Store (it's about 1am at this point, and the Apple Store is 24hrs) to check out the newly released iPhone. It was a little heavy, and a little grimy.

The next morning we planned a little walking tour. We hit up the World Trade Center, Statue of Liberty...

...Canal Street (to buy some "designer" purses as gifts)...

...a bit of Soho, and back to the West Village to relax before our evening plans.

After picking up Mac's girlfriend Crystal at Penn Station, and a brief bit of unfinished work at my office, we headed to dinner at Freeman's Alley on the lower east side. We ate late...and closed the place down.

But the night did not end. We hung out in the East Village for a couple more hours, and then headed home via cab. Mac and I have sort of made a ritual out of our late night hunger. After our nights events we typically retire to his neighborhood where we promptly grab a slice of pizza at one of the many late night pizza joints. Here we are at The Pizzeria.

I was smart and I packed clothes for the weekend and brought them with me to work on Friday anticipating that I might stay at Mac's (rather than going back to Brooklyn each night). It worked great on Friday, but with Crystal's arrival on Saturday, it left us with very little space in Mac's NYU Law School dorm.

Yes, you are seeing that correctly. There is a mattress on top of a desk where Crystal is sleeping.

Sunday we got up bright and early. Yep, started the day at 1pm. After a little Thai food for breakfast, we headed to City Hall where we started our trek across the Brooklyn Bridge.

The walk was nice, and not too busy.

We then toured my neighborhood and showed Jasper the small little apartment where Marni and I live.

The night wrapped up with a little more gift shopping for the family back home (Jasper's wife Kim and son Jack), some baseball on TV, and of course one last slice of pizza (this time at Pizza Box).

Though short, we made the most of a weekend for sure. It was great to have Jasper come visit, and spend his first time in NYC with Mac and I. We look forward to our next adventure, wherever that may be...

PS-My camera is starting to act weird. Turning everything pink and green. I had to treat some of these photos to make them presentable. It looks a little artsy, but not half bad. I think I am now in the market for a new digital camera.