I’ve thought about you for a long, long time. I’ve been in New York City for the last six days and I’ve put up some short and pitiful posts here. The first day was well documented, but it took me over four hours to do and I decided that couldn’t keep happening.
I have a little bit of an obssesive compulsion problem and one thing that manifests itself in this whole thing is blogging. I feel horrible when something on here comes off as half-baked and that’s what’s happened the last week of days. But in my defense I was on vacation, I needed some time off.
Below are some photos of what I did with my six day vacation. I had fun, but was at odds with myself that the blog has suffered due to a lack of time to concentrate on it and a horrible-ass wi-fi setup at the hotel.
Anyway, without any rhyme or reason, here’s some photos of my trip to New York City. I’ll be back with local posts tomorrow...
Friday—Frank Scott's Garage
Friday started out at Penn Station where I took a train to Secaucus...
And was picked up by my friend and former co-worker, James Mollo. A bunch of people I used to work with had planned on getting together, but as usual everyone cancelled out except James and...
Frank Scott! Here we are at Frank's house. It was just about a year ago that we tried to go out with everyone and everybody cancelled out except Frank, James and I. We decided to do the same thing we did a year ago and hang out in...
Frank's garage. This place is a real piece of art, filled with cool things from Frank's past.
The first stop was Frank's mini fridge.
Wow, is that well-stocked or what? Time to let the drinking begin!
Frank pours the first beer and the festivities have begun!
Frank has just put in a black light at the front of the garage, it caused a '70's flashback for me.
Frank has lots of photos of cars he's owned through the years, it's fun to hear him tell the stories about them.
Here he is pointing something out on the wall.
In addition to photos from the past, the place is loaded with toys, cameras and all kinds of knick-knacks and paddy whacks. Give your dog a bone!
Here's a shot of Frank and James at one end of the garage...
And here they are at the other end. Thanks for hanging out with me Frank and James, great to see you as always. I hope we can do this next year at the same time.
Saturday—Coney Island
I thought I'd stop in and have a beer at the International Bar before I took the train ride to Coney Island.
I think I spy a familiar face inside of the bar...
It's MBIP pal and sometime commenter, Uncle Waltie! Sip ahoy!
Okay, we'll take the train from the Union Square station.
Through the magic of the internet, you're spared a 45 minute ride to Coney Island.
And here we are, check out the Nathan's on the corner over there. We'll take a shot of that after the sun goes down.
Shadows loom large on the boardwalk, next stop...
Ruby's Bar and Grill, great to see this place again. It's the oldest bar on the boardwalk.
I see a familiar face behind the bar...
It's Stephanie, the cutest bartender in the world! It was great to see her and catch up on things.
Mike, the owner of Ruby's asked me where the hell I've been. I told him I moved back to Peoria and he didn't miss a beat before asking: "Why the hell would you do that?"
Stephanie's back!
Here's part of the original sign hanging on the back wall.
I love looking at all the old photos on the wall in here.
You've gotta love this trio on the boardwalk!
I love this photo, what a classic shot of Ruby's with the old sign hanging out front.
Speaking of signs, this one reminds me that it's Saturday Night Cheeseburger time.
And as if by magic, a cheeseburger is served up by this gentleman behind the food counter at Ruby's.
And it's a delicious cheeseburger, I'll give it two and a half Wimpy's.
The sun's gone down and it's officially night time here inside of Ruby's.
I love the boardwalk out here at night time.
This couple had just gotten married on the boardwalk, so I had to take a shot of them. Congratulations!
Here's the Cyclone which is the oldest ride on Coney Island and just may be the oldest roller coaster in America.
I rode this once and will never ride it again!
This is Karen and Nick a nice couple I met from Belgium. Nick's a photographer and you can check out his work here. Karen owns a bar and here's the facecrack page for that, click and like it!
Here's that shot of Famous Nathan's at night I promised earlier on. Classic Coney Island!
And it's back to the Subway and time to call it a night. See you in a year, Coney Island!
Sunday—Cookout At Sam Wong's On Long Island Featuring The Fifth Tenderloin Sandwich Out of Twenty
Here we are at Penn Station once again. I'm meeting my friends, John and Luna to go to a cookout at my friend, Sam Wong's house. I forgot to take pictures of the trip.
And so we fast forward to a photo of Sam and his wife Hilda at their home on Long Island.
Here's their daughter, Fiona, who's a great kid!
And here's the aforementioned, John and Luna. Okay, the cookout can officially begin.
Here's Sam with a grill filled with ribs. Sam cooks the tastiest ribs in the world. Rumor has it that one of these days he's going to open his own restaurant. When that happens, I'm definitely flying in for the opening day!
I told Sam I was having trouble finding a breaded pork tenderloin sandwich in New York, so he volunteered to make some from scratch in his kitchen. Here's the buns he's toasted up for the sandwiches.
The breaded pork tenderloins are sizzling away on the stove. They look and smell fabulous!
Sam made a special sauce to top the sandwiches off and here he is plating them up.
The Sam Wong version of a breaded pork tenderloin sandwich.
Here's Fiona chowing down on the sandwich. We all agreed that Sam did a great job on them. I'll give it a rating of three and a half Porky Pigs!
In addition to the ribs, Sam was also cooking up fresh lobsters!
Here's Sam cutting up the ribs...
Sam's ribs are always great, but these were the best batch ever. And the lobster was out of this world good. Thanks to Sam, Hilda and Fiona for having us out! I look forward to doing this again next year.
Monday—My Apartment, Old Town Bar And Dinner With Friends At The Hat Restaurant
Here I am on 16th Street, headed towards my old apartment building.
Wow, a flood of memories come back to me standing in front of the building I called home for over 16 years.
They're in the process of renovating the building, so it was weird to walk around in here with walls being torn down!
Here's a shot from the top of the stairs. I hope they keep the Cheap Trick flooring down there, I've always loved that. I had a great visit with Sheryl, my former landlord and my New York stepmom. I realized later I should've taken a photo of her, oh well, I'll get one next year. Hi Wendy! And a shoutout to Ben, good luck with your next chapter in life!
I had to stop in at Old Town Bar since I was in the neighborhood.
Nice to see some things never change in a city that's ever-changing.
Speaking of changing, I had read reports where one of my favorite Lower East Side restaurants was closing, so I had to stop at El Sombrero for one last meal.
The official name of the place is El Sombrero, but it's also known as the Hat and that's what I prefer to call it.
This couple saw me taking pictures and invited me over to their table and bought me a margarita. They didn't want their names published, I think they're wanted by the law, but we'll keep that to ourselves.
Here's Gina, who was bartending here when I did a post on my 365 Bars! She remembered me and it was great to see her again! Check out that post in the "Related Post" section below.
And here's our dinner party for the evening, from the left: Yours Fooly, The Duncester, John and Chris. It was a great dinner with great friends and I thank them and everyone else who I was able to hang out with on this trip, which also includes, Goggla, Special Ed and Kate who I didn't get photos of. We'll see you all in another year and we'll see all of you tomorrow with a Peoria post!
