After getting home from work at 9 pm on Wednesday night, I was up at 2:45 a.m. I drove to the Avistar facility to park my car, which I didn't really want to do, but when I can save $20, I can usually handle lackluster service. The flight to LaGuardia was a breeze, I actually had a whole row to myself.
After landing, I took the M60 bus to north Manhattan. Although I didn't know ahead of time that they had just moved the bus terminal upstairs so I had to race to catch it! I took my subway on the 6 with no air conditioning on a 90 degree day. I knew immediately that the blue and orange polo shirt I was wearing was done for the weekend.
After unpacking, changing clothes, and setting up the fold out bed, I went from Pelham into lower Manhattan. I got my pizza fix at N.Y. pizza suprema, right near Penn station and Madison Square Garden. Most of the best pizza places don't offer slices now, they require the customer to order an entire pie. If it's 12 inches, that's usually fine, but 14 is really pushing it. This place does about twenty types of slices. I went with slices of chicken parmesan and suprema, which was pepperoni, sausage, mushrooms, peppers, and onions. The crust was crispy all the way through, which way too many places do not get right. That soggy crust bottom is an unacceptable crime against pizza. The tomato sauce was bright and flavorful, and the toppings were well proportioned. Definitely a place I'll be returning to.
From there, I walked four blocks west to Foley's, a baseball themed pub in midtown. It looks like a collage, there is so much memorabilia crammed in the space. Balls, jerseys, and bobble heads adorn the walls. I watched just another Mets disaster for five innings while sipping on some Blue Point beer.
I then took the Long Island railroad to Ronkonkoma in Suffolk county to meet up with a friend. 14 bucks each way, and that's during the off peak hours. Anyway, she's a dog walker, so we had to drive 90 minutes east to North Fork, which is right near the eastern tip of the Island, north of the Hamptons. We drove to this house, which was more like a zoo. They had horses, cats, hosts, and dogs around. Looks like they had a few dollars in their wallet. We picked up Daisy and Curley and took them to the dog park. Driving through the eastern part of Long Island, I was surprised how much it resembled New England. A lot of winding roads, seafood restaurants, stores with matching fonts. We had the park to ourselves and we threw balls around for them and let them do their business.
After dropping them off, she took me to Riverhead, where we checked out the Alive at Five festival. It's basically a weekly dinner festival with food vendors and local bands. The restaurant she wanted to take me to was full and there wasn't a host to be found. So we found a nice place that served a lot of bison. I ordered a bison T-bone, which was really good with mashed potatoes and vegetables. She got salmon and penne. It was so sweet of her to treat me to an early birthday present.
She took me back to Ronkonkoma and we talked about everything from divorce to organic food to rock and roll. It took me 2.5 hours to get back to the Bronx between the LIRR, a five block sprint through the train on 33rd Street, and the 6 train. I got in around 1:30 in the morning.
After so much travel on Thursday, I was happy to not have to get on a bunch of trains and buses in Friday. I spent the morning in the house, which meant the web were watching gay real estate shows on Bravo. I think I rather would have been in Bed-Stuy, the crime-ridden section. Eventually G and I flipped through Netflix and watched a couple of episodes of Worst Cooks in America. I was really entertained, I now want to watch every season.
G, bless her, eats one of the strictest diets I've ever seen. We tried like hell to figure out a lunch spot since she didn't want to drive far or go into the city or into Brooklyn. She mentioned the Yard House, which is one of my favorite places, but she said she gets sick every time she goes no matter what she orders. So we finally settled on Red Robin. I mean, it's freaking Red Robin, it's not that good and I can get it at home. They indeed made her food wrong and it took twenty mins to get the bill sorted since she had a discount. It was just a headache. I like her, but I don't know how I can cook for her!
She also drove me by City Island, a nice seaside area, before dropping me off at the house.
I left for Bryant Park for some people watching. I felt a little rushed, knowing I had to head to Queens. Then it was onto Citi Field for my Mike Piazza replica jersey. As for the game, they lost again. I left after the seventh inning.
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