Weekend with Floridians

I'm tired today, but it's totally worth it. Had an incredible weekend with my friends Ali and Bobby who came in from Florida for "birthday weekend." You see Bobby's birthday is only four days (literally - same year and everything) from mine and so most years we try to get together - either me going to Florida or them coming to wherever I'm living at the moment. (San Diego, Boston, NY...)

This year, Ali decided to do it as a surprise - not telling Bobby until they were almost on their way to the airport! Pretty awesome birthday presents, huh? He was totally blindsided - but in a good way!

They arrived Thursday night and we picked them up at the Newark airport. (As we're Jersey people now!) Stayed up late talking and hanging out at home. Then the next day me, Ali and Bobby headed to a delicious pancake house near me for some breakfast. (Jacob had to wokr.)

After pancakes, we headed to the Liberty State Park to take the ferry over to the Statue of Liberty. Ali has ALWAYS wanted to see it and never got a chance so she was determind to check it out. Of course, when she'd bought the tickets online she hadn't realized you could actually see it from our apartment, lol. But we decided to go anyway. We got there at 11:50 - the ferry was supposed to leave at 12 noon - but it had left 10 minutes early for some reason and so we had to wait around. It wasn't too bad though cause we got to watch an interesting immigrant documentary. I wonder what my great grandfather would have thought, when he and my great-grandmother came over to Ellis Island - if he'd known that in a couple generations, he'd have me living in a high-rise just across the river. :) I kind of think he'd be pleased to know their sacrifice worked out pretty darn good for the kids.

Anyway, we finally got on the ferry and headed over. For time's sake, we decided to skip the Ellis Island part and just go to the statue. Unfortunately, once we got off the ferry, Ali realized she'd left the tickets on the boat. So we couldn't actually climb up the base of the statue. So we walked around it and hung out for an hour, waiting for the ferry to return. Oh well. I guess she's destined not to see it too closely.

Jacob was out of work by then so we met up with him at home and headed into the city. We checked out a museum for a few hours, then headed back to Jersey to change to go out to a goth club. Our favorite goth night - Necromantic - was moved to a club in the West Village. So we danced there until the wee hours of the morning and then headed home and slept.

The next morning we woke up and had a delicious brunch at the White Horse tavern in Jersey City. Highly recommend that place - it's even worth leaving Manhattan for! I had this french toast that was crusted with corn flakes - Mmmm! After that, we headed into the city to watch Watchmen. I have mixed feelings on the film but I can go into it another time.

After the movie, we headed to the East Village to do a little shopping on the way to Avenue A Sushi. There, we met up with Chris and the five of us had dinner. Avenue A Sushi is awesome - it's like a sushi disco. They have great rolls and a DJ who spins techno.

After a lengthy dinner we headed over to Club Love to dance the night away part two. (This time at a rave/techno club instead of goth.)

All in all it was a great weekend!! Though I'm ready to go to bed now and sleep for a week!! I miss Ali and Bobby so it's always wonderful to be able to hang out with them. I'll count the days til I can see them again! (Not too many, since RT is in Orlando!)

Marianne