NY ROAD TRIP!!Day One:
On Friday, Katy got to my house around 4:20am and we drove over to get Eve. She's always ready and waiting on her doorstep so we were a little surprised when we pulled up to a dark house and no sign of Eve. Katy went up and stuck her head in the door and then walked back to the car laughing.
Eve had been all ready to go but when she walked out the door, she'd almost stepped on a tiny black kitten sleeping on their porch. It had been hanging around their place for a day or two but it wouldn't let her pick it up and her cat would hiss and growl at it. She's such a softy and was worried about it. She didn't want to leave it out there but Clifford wasn't about to get out of bed to wrangle it. We tried to convince her that it probably lived in the neighbourhood and would get found by it's owners so really, there was nothing else to do but get on the road!
Chrissy was sitting on her bag at the door of their building, then we got Rachel and drove to Alyson & Dray's. We stowed our gear and piled into the rented van, picked up Chanda and headed for the border! Well, after a stop at the Bronte Tim Hortons, that is.
It was so great to be on a road trip with this group of women again! We travelled together so much up until a couple of years ago so we immediately slipped into familiar patterns which meant a lot of laughing.
Alyson took the first shift and ended up driving most of the way. She's a great driver and enjoys it so it worked out well. Eve took the second shift and we hit Woodbury Commons, about 90 minutes outside of New York, around noon.
This place is the outlet mall to end all outlet malls. It's the Disneyland of shopping. No joke. Here's the satellite view (I don't think this gives a true indication of the scale but that large gray mass is it);
There are so many stores and I'd guess 3km of trails but when you factor in the backtracking and looping around, we probably walked closer to 6km. Our prime destination was the Lululemon outlet but oh my god, there is every store you can imagine! I didn't actually buy much except a bottle of water and a long T at Miss Sixty but that was probably due to sensory overload. If I had gone with a specific item in mind, I would have been able to break the bank!
We loaded up the van again, this time with Chanda driving, and made our way to the hotel in Queens. I have got to get me a GPS. Alyson had borrowed her partner's Garmin and I don't know how we would have found our digs for the weekend without it.
Originally we'd tried to get a 2 bedroom suite for the 6 of us but when I called, the hotel was mostly booked so the best I could do was one double room and a 1 bedroom suite with a king size bed and pull-out couch. I also booked a rollaway so the 4 of them would be fairly comfortable. Katy had decided to come at the last minute and they were able to find a spot for her.
Alyson and I got to our room and discovered we had an ENORMOUS rooftop terrace! We tried to organize a little cocktail party both nights we were there but everyone was so busy it never happened. We've decided to do another trip to NYC - just for shopping - and stay in the same place.
We met up with Nancy, Liz, Karen & Patti in the lobby and the 11 of us jumped on the number 7 straight to Times Square. After dinner in O'Lunney's Pub we joined the flow of humanity on Broadway. Alyson was looking for a particular store that sells a popular doll and accessories but we were unsuccessful.
On the subway ride back to Queens, we overheard a loud woman's voice talking about db and how important it is to "use the bicep". We figured they must be our New York competition. We were laughing and thinking maybe a round of subway olympics was in order but never followed through (seriously, we're not that arrogant it's just that the bus olympics were so much fun in Berlin, we'd use any excuse to have them in NYC).
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