Tales from La La Land

If I can somehow piece together what I did 11 days ago, it will be a miracle.

A smart person probably would have done all of the New York blogs within two days of returning.

I am not that person.

And after a long weekend at the Manhattan Beach 6-Man (I do not think there is a more debaucherous event), I am quite fuzzy today.

Thankfully, I have lots of NYC pictures to remind myself of what we did.

New York City Day 4: Central Park, Rain and OTTO

This was the day that we finally made it Uptown to Central Park. I was looking forward to wandering around Park Ave. as well as the neighboring streets with all of the doormen and fabulous Upper East Side apartments.

When we left the hotel it was warm, but a little overcast. After carting a back pack around for three days, we finally felt brave enough to leave it in the hotel with all of our NYC books and maps.

And our umbrella.

The first half of the day went fine. We saw the MET, walked all around, and took some time to just lay in the grass for a while.

While enjoying our “nap” in the park (next to the guy doing some kind of yoga pose), I noticed the sky beginning to change its mood.

We decide to continue walking in hopes that we can weave our way home before any sort of torrential downpour.

After coming around a bend, we notice a little restaurant (The Boathouse) on the water and decide to have a drink. I remember that on Monday, my massage lady mentioned that we should have a drink at the restaurant in Central Park, but not to bother with the food. She said it isn’t that good, but that it is definitely a nice place for a drink.

I notice a lot of people eating cheese plates with grapes and crackers. To me, it looks fucking delicious, but I have already convinced Laef to stop and enjoy a $14 Boathouse Greyhound, so I figure I’ll let the cheese battle go.

We sat there for a long time watching the turtles swim and couples try to navigate their boats (you can rent canoes and float around the lake, but we quickly decided against it as we did not want to be that couple who was fighting in the middle of Central Park trying to figure out how to turn our boat 180 degrees).

This is a definite must-see. You won’t find it in the “Free and Dirt Cheap NYC Book”, but if you are able to get a table outside in the bar, it’s a beautiful view and the drinks are really yummy.

It wasn’t until after we returned from our trip that I found out that The Boathouse is where Carrie and Big fall into the water in the Season 3 finale.

That made me even more excited that we went.

However, had I known that then, I wouldn’t have googled “where did Carrie Bradshaw live on Sex in the City” and then made Laef walk all over Uptown trying to find a place that doesn’t even exist.

We spent far too much time wandering around the neighborhood that is supposedly where she lived on the show, and eventually it started to rain.

A lot.

It was 42 blocks back to our hotel and we decided to walk fast. I am not entirely sure why we didn’t get on the subway.

I guess we figured if we hurried we wouldn’t get too wet.

False.

We had just enough time to change clothes and dry up before heading to to meet my cousin Lindsay, her husband Chris and my other cousin Kristin for dinner at OTTO.

I won’t even try to put into words how delicious the food was. We started with a five-cheese spread, two bottles of wine and bread.

We then moved to a variety of pizzas and pastas. The pizzas are $10 and the pasta plates are $9. Very reasonable and worth every last penny.

For desert, we ordered a variety of gelato. If you ever make it to NYC, you must eat at OTTO and you must order the OLIVE OIL COPPETTA for desert. I know what you are thinking. Olive Oil gelato?

Listen to me. It’s straight butter in your mouth.

Everything was all fine and good until I tried to fall asleep that night. I was uncomfortably full because I couldn’t bring myself to leave one single clam or cheese slice on the table.

Best food we ate on the trip.