Holiday USA 2000

USA 2000

Friday June 23, 2000, day 1
Flew over to London from Rotterdam to arrive at Craig & Alison's at about 2pm. Met the Smiths and had dinner at Caffe Uno down in Barnes with the 5 of us and afterwards went to bed quite early, because Alison and her parents had to leave at 5.30am to catch the 7.30am flight to Paris.

Saturday June 24, 2000, day 2
After barely noticing the Smith party's departure I woke up at around 9am. The car service came at around noon and Craig and I departed for Gatwick Airport. We checked our bags and waited two hours before boarding flight NW47 to Detroit. Once we're in the plane we hear that we had to wait for 3 quarters of an hour before take off because we couldn't get assigned to an earlier timeslot to enter the Atlantic. The flight itself was uneventful. Watched two movies: Stuart Little and Man on the Moon. After landing at Detroit Metro Craig went thru customs like a warm knife thru butter, but I had to wait in line forever, but I got admitted anyway so we checked our bags again, took the shuttle bus to another terminal and waited for boarding our connecting flight to Newark, which took only a little more than an hour to get to. We claimed our bags, went on the monorail to Avis car rental and picked up our car, a Buick. Since Craig lost his driver's license I had to drive us to his mother's house in Holmdel, New Jersey. We arrived there at 12.30 at night. I met Craig's mother, Barbara, had a quick drink and went to bed after a long day of travel.

Sunday June 25, 2000, day 3
Slept in till after 10am, took a shower and ate a little breakfast. At noon we drove to Craig's father, Joe and his wife, who took us out to lunch at the Macaroni Grill. We went shopping for electronics afterwards and then we went back to Barbara's. There I met Niall, Craig's stepdad and not much later his sister Christie and her fiancée Ken joined us for a homemade dinner. In the formal dining room! After clearing the dishes I gave my present to Barbara and she seemed pleased to have received them. Watched the 2nd half of Heat on tv in the rec room and went to bed at 11pm.

Monday June 26, 2000, day 4
Craig and I got up at 9am, ate breakfast and then tried to get to the DMV to get his driver's license replaced. After mostly waiting in line for almost 3 hours he learnt that he couldn't get a NJ license without a letter from the GA DMV that he had a license there when he lost his. We went back to the house and picked up lunch on the way. After lunch and a couple of hundred phone calls to GA we went to Red Bank to wander around. Saw the church from Dogma and visited Hidden Stash (Jay & Silent Bob's store) and after that went to Newark International Airport to pick up Alison, whose flight was delayed for over 5 hours. She was not too thrilled when she came off so we had to find her a Diet Coke to calm down. At home we had a homemade dinner again and after that we all went to bed pretty fast. Tomorrow we'll go to NYC!

Tuesday June 27, 2000, day 5
Alison woke me up just after 8am and the 3 of us had breakfast in the kitchen after which we showered & shaved & stuff and went our way to the ... Mall in ... to get shorts for Alison. On the way back we also did some minor grocery shopping. At around 1pm we went on our way to the train station in Matawan, but on the way we took a break at Taco Bell. The train ride into Penn Station took a little more than an hour. But we finally were in Manhattan. First we went to the Empire State Building, where we went all the way up to the 86th floor. After that we rested at a McDonalds across from the ESB and then proceeded onto the Flatiron Building (Veronica's Closet). Then we followed Fifth Avenue downtown to 19th Street where we headed east and came across a place where Craig was looking for. We moved uptown again on Seventh Avenue and 29th Street where we were supposed to meet some people Craig & Barbara would go to the Bruce Springsteen show in Madison Square Garden with in the Mustang Harry's Bar. After only being there for less than half an hour they already showed up. Not long after that Alison & I left and took a cab down to Little Italy. We wandered around to find a nice place to eat and we found Ristorante Paesano. The dinner was wonderful and we decided to take dessert elsewhere, which came out to be Café Palermo. Two cappuccinos later we took a cab to MSG, where we arranged to meet to take the 11.30pm train home. Eventually all 4 of us were on the same train so we were back home just before 1am.

Wednesday June 28, 2000, day 6
Today was more or less a day of rest. We went to Joe & Beth's to meet Craig's grandma from Boston. We went shopping at yet another shopping mall in Freehold. This time I bought 2 Polo shirts, 3 Calvin Klein briefs & 3 pair of CK socks. After a detour past Matawan station we went back to meet at Joe & Beth's for drinks. From there we drove back to Freehold to eat at Federici, supposedly famous for their pizza, where Christie & Ken were invited for as well. After dinner we stopped by Joe & Beth's place again before retreating to our "home and beds".

Thursday June 29, 2000, day 7
Set the alarm for 8am, ate breakfast and took a shower and left with Alison and one of Craig's internet buddies. Unfortunately we didn't make it for the 9.29am train to which Pearce did make it, cause we dropped him off. We got on the 9.50am train and after arriving at Penn Station and doing some necessary shopping we took the 3 train to South Ferry. At Clinton Castle we bought two tickets to Liberty Island and immediately had the chance to get aboard on one of the ferries. We walked around the Statue of Liberty and then went back on the ferry to Manhattan. Before we did anything else we had lunch at Fridays. We then walked to Wall Street and after that zig-zagged our way to the World Trade Center. Almost without standing in line we bought tickets, got on the elevator and walked around the Observation Deck and the Top of the World. Down on the ground we walked through TriBeCa and around 5pm we took a cab to Hotel Pennsylvania to meet Craig for a drink. After the refreshments we took the 3 train again, but this time to 14th Street and walked around Greenwich Village, seeing Washington Square Park and at about 7.30pm we decided to eat at Dallas BBQ, which was quite good. Before heading back to Penn Station we walked on Broadway up to Union Square where we hung out and drank coffee at a Starbucks. Then we took a cab to the station and got on the 10.30pm train to Matawan. There we pumped gas, bought bagels and waited for Craig to come off the 11.30pm train out of NYC.

Friday June 30, 2000, day 8
Got up not too early to drop Craig & Alison off at Joe & Beth's in time for me to just not make the 10.25am train. The next one was at 11.11am which got me to Penn Station somewhat after noon. Across from the station I bought a 36 exp b&w film and then took a sub to 59th Street. I walked along Central Park West up till the Natural Museum of History and then made my way across Central Park to the Metropolitan Museum. From there I meandered via Park Avenue to the Guggenheim Museum. There I could change the color film to the b&w. After that I walked through the park again to get shots from downtown and coming out of Central Park I took a subway to 42nd Street, where I came out at Grand Central Terminal, which is also a good spot to shoot the Chrysler Building. I walked the blocks all the way to get to the ESB and I walked on to MSG to take the subway to South Ferry, where I could shoot the Statue of Liberty and some shots of uptown. I had an early dinner at Fridays and then proceeded to walk to the World Trade Center for some photo ops and then I took a sub to 4th Street to get to Washington Square Park to get the Twin Towers in the wannabe Arc de Triomphe. I walked up Broadway to get to the Flatiron Building and more further up to Times Square. After that I made my way back on Seventh Avenue to Penn Station to take the 9.31pm train back to Matawan to lay my feet (and the rest of my body) to rest. But not before I had a lekker Leffe beer to quench my thirst and some chips to go with it. This was a long, exhausting, but very productive and exciting day.

Saturday July 1, 2000, day 9
Slept in today to be awakened for a nice breakfast, created by Barbara. After breakfast we drove over to Joe & Beth's where we sat in the garden. At lunchtime Alison, Christie & Ken went to look at a reception place for Christie & Ken's wedding (somewhere in May 2001) and Craig. Joe, Beth, Grandma La and me went for lunch at ... next to the Macaroni Grill. We met at Barbara & Niall's at around 3pm to go into NYC again. Craig and Alison had tickets for the last Bruce Springsteen concert of the tour and they wanted me to come along, even though I would have like 4 or 5 hours of free time on my hands. First we had coffee in a Starbucks on Fifth Avenue and then had a makeshift dinner at Taco Bell, after which we went to the bar of the Hotel Pennsylvania for drinks. At a quarter to 8 our ways separated and I went to another Starbucks for a coffee and in the meantime found out that American Psycho was playing in Loews Theatre at 46th & Broadway. I went over, bought a ticket for the 9pm show and shopped around in the Virgin Megastore. At 9 I finally got to se the so much talked about movie in its habitat, Manhattan. It was all I could hope for, but still a bland adaptation of the novel by Bret Easton Ellis. After the movie I had to rush to get to Penn Station in time to catch the 11.37pm train to Matawan. I could see that Craig & Alison were not going to make it for that train, because I saw no movement in the stairway of MSG. In Matawan I knew for sure that I had to wait an hour for them to get in (as agreed) so I sat in the car and listened to the radio. A little late they came off the 12.37am train and we drove home for a short night.

Sunday July 2, 2000, day 10
We were supposed to get up at 8am, but at little after 9am I was the first to be awake, so I got out and took a shower. After cleaning myself of New York dirt I packed my suitcase and waited for Craig & Alison to be ready for breakfast. We had breakfast together with Joe, Beth, Christie & Ken in a real "American" diner. After breakfast we had to rush to Barbara & Niall's for lunch. Just having eaten 4 chocolate chip pancakes now I was in for 2 cheeseburgers and curly fries. We had to leave for Newark airport right after lunch and we managed to check in exactly 45 minutes prior to the flight's departure to De(s)troit. Of course we were delayed again, so we only had to wait 30 minutes before boarding the London flight. (All this time Alison was probably, or most likely, drinking champagne in the First Class Lounge of United Airlines, while we were hurdled in coach ...) The flight was fully booked, which meant that Craig and I did not even sat together, but it was an uneventful nightflight anyway.

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