Whirlwind Trip

This is my not-so-in-depth summary of our recent whirlwind trip to NYC, Boston, Montreal, and Ottawa. For pictures, see my Facebook page. If you don't have Facebook, then too bad.

Tuesday, June 24
Last minute decision to go to NYC, etc...

Wednesday
AK's mom confirmed that we can stay at UJ/AJ's place in the morning. HAHAA! ... went out to get the rental car around 1ish, made our way to AK's place to pick up his stuff, and then we were on the way by 3PM.... 'cept we hit Toronto rushhour traffic - grrrr!
but border crossing took no time at all, so it was fine.
Got to SI around 1AM, waited for Popo to come home, then slept. ... but not before calling my China friend, PD.

Thursday
AJ made waffles for us in the morning! She's so awesome!! Sooooo well organized, charismatic, funny, and basically i didn't feel like i was talking to wall. She's also caring and generous and just overall awesome. *sigh* ... if only....
anyway, she drove us to the SI ferry docks, and we made our way over to Manhattan, and met up with PD, who, of course, runs on China time. arrrgh...
We walked over to a Turkish restaurant that PD suggested... Since AK and I have never had Turkish food before, we happily complied. .... it was crap. Turkish food sucks ass. and is uber fucking expensive. at least the place near Times Square was. well, it was edible, but definitely NOT worth what we paid for it.
Then it was off to walking around and around and around Manhattan. we stopped by at some nasty but oh-so-expensive cafe on Madison Ave, and then at Starbucks. Starbucks was the best "food" we had in Manhattan that day. seriously. Manhattan restaurants, so NOT what they're cracked up to be. Unless i guess u've got tons of cash burning a hole in ur pockets, which we obviously didn't. ... or i guess u just hafta know where to go. but even with suggestions, it still doesn't compare... i'll get to that later.
After our afternoon with PD, we made our way over to Brooklyn to join AK's family for dinner at a restaurant. It was yum. then we went over to SH's in Brooklyn, and stayed the night. Their condo is NICE! ... we were beat.

Friday
Went to the bakery AJ's suggested near the subway stn. $2 for huuuuge tub of "pi dan xian rou zhou", and so very very yummy. also not expensive and fresh buns! that was a GRREAT bakery. ghetto, and a bit hole-in-the-wall-ish, but oh so yummy.
Then AK and i made our way to Manhattan again... 'cept smt was wrong with the subway, and we had to make our way to Coney Island first, before going the other direction.
We went to Chinatown for two things: 1) to buy EW her two boxes of sponge cakes, and 2) to try out the Shanghainese restaurant SH suggested. Since she's a true new yorker, we definitely wanted to try it out.... Their xiaolongbao was just ok - less greasy than DTF, but the skin wasn't as good. and the ultimate test: "Tsi vai gao" (chi fan gao??)... this place made CRAPPY 'tsivaigao'. not only that, but they didn't even HAVE any salty soy milk!! what kinda Shanghainese restaurant doesn't offer salty soy milk!?!?!? that's fucked up man!!! anyway, i give this place a thumbs down.
Then we just roamed around NYC again.
the NYC Public Library was very cool. I am a nerd, yes, but seriously, it was VERY cool. The original toys that inspired Winnie the Pooh are in there. and Eeyore's tail is pinned on his butt. hehehee... just like the cartoon!!! rather, the other way around.
Around 5PM, we kept on trying to call SH and hubby, but they didn't pick up their phones... so we were 30min late for the restaurant (cuz we didn't know where it was, what it was called). Worked out fine in the end.
Restaurant: the food was good. the wine was good. THe wine was relatively cheap - $90!!! that's cheap at this restaurant. We saw wines priced over $2000!!! Dom Perignon (sp??), which i thought was oh-so-expensive, was "only" slightly over $600!!! HAHAHA!! oh, AND they had a sommelier!!! anywho, we just barely made it to Avenue Q. Avenue Q was funny. ... then we went back to Brooklyn... then SH+hubby drove us back to SI and we slept around 2AM.

Saturday
Woke up 5AM cuz i thought MJ was coming at 5AM... nope. ... ended up picking her up around 7:30AM. then drove the 4hrs to Boston to meet up with Elly. MJ's phone was giving her the white screen of death while i was too cheap to txt EW(40cents/msg!) with our ETA... so we surprised EW. heheheee....
SH went to Wellesley and worked in Boston for awhile, and thus knew Boston very well. So they drew us a map and told of us this 'scenic' route that we should walk... from the bridge to Harvard Square. It wasn't so scenic... but man, it was long!!!
We went to Legal Seafood first - their crabcake was tiny, but their clam chowder was good. The onion strings were good too, but very greasy.
Lots of walking later, my feet were giving out.... we eventually went out for sushi that night. MJ and EW eat very little. I need to bring them to the sushi buffets here!!!! but the scallop sushi was amazingly good at the boston place.
Then it was a night of Wii-fun, and then sleep time.

Sunday
MJ woke up super duper early cuz she's crazy. the rest of us woke up around 9:15 or smt. ... and then we went to CHEESECAKE FACTORY!! their peach smoothie is to die for!!!! ... i had the Chicken madeira which was really good. i left behind a bunch of mashed potatoes and was sad ... but i couldn't fit it any more into my tummy. ....
next, we saw MJ off at the bus stn... and then we walked along a fancy street in Boston (i forgot what it was called... but it has a Best Buy at one end!). There was an ice cream "LP Licks" (???i forget) - i had a coconut almond chip ice cream - it was YUM!! and then we waundered around the Urban Outfitters, which is a pretty cool store. ... what else did we do? we saw the turtle and the hare, but not the duck and ducklings. We went on the swan boat and saw real swans, ducks, ducklings, and turtles. at the end of the fancy street, we walked like half a block towards Berkelee (a school leehom attended)... i saw the bldg - it's not fancy. so then we turned around and went into the T station. I came, i saw, i didn't even bother with conquering, nor going in... nor taking pictures of the place even. ... then we walked around Fanueil Hall, Quincy Market, saw street performers, got drenched in the rain, walked around in the rain looking for the 25cents/wing place... found it, got 20 wings for $5, and a Cosmo for $8!!!! holy shit my Cosmo was expensive. .... and then we went to the North End ("little italy")... was gonna buy some Italian pastries, but the line was waaaay too long. Then we walked around lots more before finally going for dinner (Pho) and then home. ... we then watched EW wash her hair, and got the grand tour of her giant house including the former bean sprout factory!!! very cool! EW's house should be a tourist attraction. hehehee...

Monday
Left EW's around 7AM for montreal.... got Schwartz smoked meat... didn't visit aunt cuz didn't think she was home.
Then to Ottawa. Played Mariokart for a little while, then went out for shwarma. not as good as i remembered... but not bad anyway. then played mariokart more, i think. can't remember.

Tuesday, Canada Day
woke up at 10. realized we missed the parade. oh well. Walked along Sparks street - watched a performance, got my chest burned by the sun. then walked to Major's Hill - soooooooo many ppl!! andrew bought 5 chicken burgers and 1 salad (for me). he ended up eating 2.5 chicken burgers. $3.75 for a chicken burger is not bad!!!! ... and then we lined up for free stuff from President's Choice. I grabbed one apple thing, drank two lychee things in line, grabbed another lychee thing, then grabbed a cookie. heheheee.... Then we got more freebies - FLAGS!!! so now i have a crapload of Cdn flags. yeepeee!!! . ... then we walked along some where, hit up starbucks (honey doesn't melt in cold drinks, fyi), and then went to dan's place, picked up stuff, and drove away at 2PM.
Would've been home by 5:40 if i didn't hafta drop andrew home.... 3hrs and 40min!!! yeepeee! the GPS originally said the trip would take 5hrs and 15min. HAAHAHAH!! ... i drove on average ~130, but there was lotsa stop/go cuz people need to learn how to fucking DRIVE. God i hate those retards!!! Either learn to drive, or get off the fucking highway!!! ... anyway. i had my GPS set so that it would "moo" me when i went over 125.... well, i leanred to ignore it in the end. oops! :P ....
then went to uncle's, and then home...

and that was my trip and my very boring rendention of it. :D lalalaa...