Details Diary

After the wedding extravaganza, we woke up and drove back to the city.  I broke out in a sweat again once we came out of the tunnel.  Yikes!  Our TomTom lost its signal once we were in the city and left me stranded in a sea of honking and yellow cabs.  Luckily I had thrown my tourist book in my purse and it served its purpose and then some.  We made it back to AVIS and returned the car.  Yay!  Walking?  Yes please!

Russ and Linda branched off and took a trip out to Liberty and Ellis Island for the day.  Since Trev and I saw Lady Liberty last trip, we decided to stay and had lunch at Jean Georges.  I did not think it was possible to have better food than we had already had on this trip, but boy was I wrong.  Amazing.  Pure and simple.  We started off with crisps and goat cheese, cucumber soup with beet froth and a salmon/turnip/spicy thing that was delish.  I had the asparagus salad and beef tenderloin and I had to hold back the urge to lick my plate.  Trevor had a beet salad that I kept stealing bites from and then had the chicken and some type of tuna.  He devoured it too.  Once we were done, they brought out a cart with a huge marshmallow jar.  They pull out a long strip of marshmallow and cut off square of it for you.  Love.  Perfectly fluffy perfection. Oh and they left some chocolate too.  But the marshmallow took the cake.  Until they brought out lavender macaroons.  I had mine and Trevor’s.  Yep, I am a little piggy.

We left with round bellies so we decided a stroll through Central Park was in order.  It was fun to check out a different part of the park and it was packed!  We strolled up to the Guggenheim.  Very cool building and my favorite exhibit was by German artist Hans-Peter Feldmann.  $100,000 tacked all over the room.  You can see pics and read about the exhibit here.

Later that day we met up with Russ and Linda and the new Mr. & Mrs. Ragusa and enjoyed dinner at Gyu Kaku.  Sarah recommended it and it was very yummy food and a cool dining experience.  Our last stop of the trip was to the Top of the Rock.  Our views were incedible and the company even better.

Three cheers to another fun trip to NYC!

What a day! You can see the beautiful videos of the ceremony here.

Our dear friends were married at St. Raymond’s Church in East Rockaway, NY.  Both Bride and Groom looked fabulous and the air was full of love.  Trevor was the Best Man and looked very handsome all dressed up if I do say so myself.  Love him.

After the ceremony, we rode on the biggest party bus I have ever seen in my life out to the Vanderbilt Mansion at Dowling.  The reception venue was a beautifully restored old mansion on huge grounds.  Amazing. The night was filled with lots of dancing.  Watching Sarah dance with her Portuguese relatives was fun.  They have so many traditional dances, the footwork alone is impressive!  And the food.  Oh the food.  These people know how to throw a party.  We ate and drank and ate and drank and so on.  Good thing for all the dancing!  Both the Valente and Ragusa families were so welcoming to us.  It was wonderful meeting all of them and sharing such a special event with all of them.

Cheers to the new Mr. and Mrs. Ragusa, we love you!

This was a day full of firsts.  We woke up early and caught the LIRR (Long Island Railroad) from Lynbrook, LI into Manhattan.  I was a bit nervous at first hoping I didn’t get us on the wrong train, but it was super easy and only took us 4o minutes to get in the city.  Much easier than dealing with driving for sure!  The train dropped us off at Penn Station and from there we walked all over for about 2 hours soaking up the sights and sounds of the city.  From there we jumped on the Grey Line double decker bus and saw the entire city in about 3 hours.  It was nice to have a seat and see everything in a new way.  I also rode the Subway for the first time in my life and was able to figure out which line to get on.  Trev was happy I didn’t lead him wrong.

We hopped the train back to the hotel and called it an early night.  We were beat from our adventures in NYC and knew the next day was going to be fun filled and we wanted to be ready.

After falling into a food coma from our previous day, we awoke bright eyed and bushy tailed and decided to drive up to the Hamptons. I was very excited and kept envisioning the Sex and the City girls riding the Jitney up for the weekend.  We only drove to the first stop in the Hamptons, but it was wonderful.  We ate lunch and walked around the quaint little town.  Then drove up and down the coast road checking out the ridiculous mansions propped up on stilts along the shoreline.  It makes Billionaire Row in Malibu look like child’s play.  Crazy.

Since the town wasn’t bursting at the seams with tourists yet, we snuck onto the beach and stuck our toes in the Atlantic.  Brr!  It was fun though, the sun was shining, an ocean breeze and no one to be seen for miles.  That was until we were leaving and a group of men/women came onto the beach carrying a black box.  Linda and I stopped to see what it was and out came a huge bird.  They were releasing a water fowl back into the wild and all broke out in applause when the bird began to fly.  You could tell they were really emotional that the bird was going to be ok and it was touching to watch the little guy make it back to his world.  Very cool and random experience.

It was time to head back to town for the Bachelor Party and girls night out.  Linda and I met up with Sarah and her Mom and girlfriends for a great dinner at Il Villagio.  I ate the best pasta I have had in my life.  I think it was called Penne alla Vodka.  Oh boy, my pants were beginning to fit differently, but it was worth every bite.  I wish I could have it every day. Mmmm.  Another day down filled with food and fun!

We started off our week long trip to NYC in SoHo. This was only my second time to the city and my last visit didn’t include a stop in SoHo so I was very much looking forward to it. Talk about shopping variety! Huge brands would be next to small shops and there was everything under the sun to be seen. We had a lot of fun checking everything out.

Our first night we stopped in at Boqueria for dinner and LOVED it. I am a huge fan of tapas style dining and this place did not disappoint. Our server was amazing and recommended fab food from start to finish. My personal favorite was strawberries drizzled in citrus flavored honey with crushed black pepper. Who would have thought? Amazing and I will definitely be trying to recreate.

Thursday morning Trevor’s parents joined us and we had breakfast at Balthazar.  Yum, yum, yum.  Trevor of course feasted on eggs benedict, his ultimate breakfast food, and I devoured my french toast in 5 minutes.  And not because it was small, just that good.  We finished off the morning with a stroll through SoHo and did a little shopping ourselves.  We stopped in for lunch at The Dutch and Russ and I enjoyed a tasty Bloody Mary before we hit the road to head out to Long Island.  I felt a drink before we hit the NYC traffic in a rental car was very much needed.  And I was right.  While Trevor was a pro in the crazy traffic, I broke into sweat trying to navigate him through the crazed roads filled with ruthless cabbies.  We made it though in a short (long) 2 hours.

We rushed to drop our bags at the hotel and cruised over to the wedding rehearsal.  Gorgeous church and it was wonderful to see Phil and Sarah after nearly 1o months!  After rehearsal we drove to Westbury for dinner at The Westbury Manor.  Wow.  I think I said that word a lot on this trip.  The venue was beautiful and the 5 course meal we had was delicious.  I was full before our salads were even served.  That could have been the bartender’s fault.  He kept filling Linda and my glasses with French martinis before we could even get up and request a refill.  Love!  All in all our first 2 days were filled with lots of sights and even more food.  Hooray!