A Real Hot Mess: New Some Place

A few months ago my sister had the brilliant idea to pack her bags and move north, this my friends was a great excuse for me to run away for the weekend. It was a very early flight for Mom and I not to mention a slight car key issue which Russ had to solve for us by driving to the airport twice, but we made it to JFK with an upgrade to First Class, thank you Delta. Kari arrived a little while later to pick us up, she first had to drive around NY a few times which trying to get there, but it did eventually happen.

View from our plane.

First stop of the trip was for brunch at Swing the Teapot in Floral Park, NY. You forget how quaint some towns are that are right outside of the city.

Second stop was Belmont Park for a little horse racing which isn't something that I would want to do every weekend, but it was fun for one afternoon. Considering I haven't been a spectator for this sport since high school, I assume it may be another 15 years before it happens again. We really did have a good laugh while placing our $2 bets here are there and then eventually befriending the man who did the bugle call. He took us upstairs to the room where they have the monitors and make the final call as to the placing of the horses. We weren't big winners, but it was an interesting girls day out. Oh and I should mention the other part that made it interesting, it was Taste NY which meant every time we turned around some distillery or vineyard was placing a free sample in our hands, it would have been rude to say no.

After horse racing and trying to get Kari over her fear of driving anywhere near NYC we had to do a little Real Housewives of NJ stalking. I should disown Kari for this little fun fact, she lived a town over from Franklin Lakes and had no idea why it was important!!! So, we found a few of the RHNJ houses and shops and yes, I made her watch a new episode with me later in the week.

Day two and what is there to do? How about a stroll around the neighborhood which I couldn't believe she lived in. The irony in Kari living in a little town similar to those that she hated pretty much all of her life was truly ironic. I should make the disclaimer that since this blog post is behind and a few months have flown by since the trip she has moved again.

Can't spend all day hanging out at home, there is wine to be drank and apples to be eaten about an hour away in Warwick, NY. I wasn't a huge fan of the wine, but the atmosphere was great assuming you forgot about how cold it was. There were people everywhere, but we were able to grab a table for lunch and open up a bottle before jumping back in the car to pick some apples.

In case we got thirsty on the way home.

The sight of short people trying to pick apples out of a tree truly was entertaining for anyone. After taste testing a few, filling a bag to take home and a stop for some hot chocolate we were ready to call it an afternoon. Only a few hours until we needed to find a sports bar to argue to with hockey fans over the fact that yes we were women and YES you had better leave that football game on or heads will roll.

Last day in the News (Jersey and York) for our long weekend. We had the pleasure of riding with Kari on her normal public transit commute to work in the city. One walk down the hill, one bus ride and one walk through the city with our luggage and we were in Kari's soon to be ex-office to store our bags until our flight later that evening.

We strolled through Chelsea and on the High Line before venturing off to the Chelsea Market where I had some of the best Mexican food ever and I've been to Mexico a lot. Also did a little browsing which turned into shopping both in Chelsea and around town.