a road trip! Part 5

The final leg of our journey took us NYC.  We'd both been there before so we skipped the majority of the touristy attractions. We tried our luck for show tickets the night we got into town and spent the evening singing along with Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.  (Actually, we spent the majority of the time laughing at the woman next to us who thought she was at a concert. She stood up and clapped and sang along -out loud- several times in the middle of the performance. It was quite the bonus show.)

We also spent some time wandering around Central Park, eating, people watching, eating and soaking up the energy of the crazy, non-stop town.

Several friends had suggested we visit The Cloisters and we were game.  However, we were staying in Queens and didn't want to drive into the city if possible so we got information at the concierge's desk and he gave us some (slightly faulty) directions to northern Manhattan via subway which would have been fine if we'd had the right stop to begin with. Instead we spent a good hour and a half wandering the tip of the island before we finally found it. It was worth the effort though, a beautiful museum built specifically to house and highlight the art and architecture of medieval Europe. They have some amazing gardens as well.

For our final evening on the road we took in the men's quarterfinals of the US Open.  I'm not a huge tennis fan (I enjoy it but by no means follow) but my sister is and she was in seventh heaven. There was an exhibition before the actual match pitting John McEnroe and Adam Sandler against Jim Courier and Kevin James which was quite entertaining.  And then we watched Novak Djokovic beat Juan Martin del Potro in just three sets.  There were enough crazy moments to keep me interested and enough pauses between plays to allow for some fabulous people watching.  Even at a relatively high brow event like this there was still plenty of fodder for head shaking and 'oh my gosh did you see that' conversations on the subway ride home!

And then it was back to our super sketchy hotel (that's what you get when you stay in Queens!) for one last morning of sleeping in before getting in the car and making the trek back home and back to real life.

It's only been one week but I'm already ready for another vacation. I keep thinking the craziness and busy-ness will abate but I think I just need to suck it up and admit that life is just crazy busy and always will be.  *sigh*  I guess that just makes me appreciate these little trips and breaks all the more.  Now, time to start planning another one.  Where should I go next?!