New York City bunnies!

For those of you who have been by the shop lately, you might have noticed that Katie and I were out of the shop for what felt like forever (seriously, a day away from the shop feels like a week for us), so we don't leave town for any old thang. For one, Katie can't poo when she's away from home, and two, well we miss our life in Ottawa when we're gone. But NYC's siren call proves irresistible even to us home-bodies every few months. And when Katie found out about a flea market with 350 vendors in Red Hook, just a few hours from New York, we thought that would make a perfect road trip. A mix of small town-ey antiquing & flea marketing & diner eating, followed by rock'n'rolling all night in NYC. The proverbial "rock'n'roll tea party" road trip if you will!

We left Friday after lunch and got into Red Hook just in time for dinner. Of course Katie had previously looked up the best place to get BBQ, and we were not disapointed by Max's Famous BBQ. I even orderd some cheesy grits TO GO, for a potential late-night snack attack. I later grossed everybody out in our creepy motel room when I attempted to eat my cheesy grits sans fork. :(

We walked around the next morning marvelling at all the old houses, and old cemetery (that was like, almost directly across from our motel) that in the daytime we thought were soooooo cool and amazing, but in the nighttime kinda scared the bejeezus out of us. The gravestone Katie is standing next to looked all home-made and was from like 1750!


The boys found a mausoleum, and with hardly any prying at all, the door opened. Chad looked inside and actually saw human bones!! He wanted to take a picture, but Katie and I forbade him. Now see, I AM a gambling woman, but not when it comes to messing with the risk of being HAUNTED!

This house was so beautiful and all Grey Gardens, with stuff piled up to the ceiling in practically every room. Imagine how wicked your wardrobe would look in the top of that tower. Talk about inspiring your style!

This was one of the many roadside garage sale/antique dealers that would cause Katie and I to frantically urge the boys to turn the car around and pull over for us to riffle through. I don't think you wanna see Katie and I when we get all "omg omg omg please please please stop the car please please!!"

Before leaving Red Hook, we ate at the one of the oldest diners in the US! Aw cute!!! And old-timey. Our fave. (At this point, the boys started making fun of Katie and I for our over-use of the words "old-timey" and "cute", especially together. Ie. "omg, at the flea market we got all these cute old-timey pictures, and charms, and dresses!").

Now at this point in my blog, you'll kinda just have to take me at my word that these pictures are from NYC. We did a bunch of cool things, but truthfully, I suck as Victoire's official travel-blographer. We went to the Tenement Museum (again! It's our fave and we couldn't recommend it more!), almost went to a speak-easy (by the way, next time you're in ask Katie how to pronounce that word), went to the Brooklyn Flea Market, saw Telly from Kids DJ at a bar, had an amazing pow-wow with Shana, the amazing owner of In God We Trust, ate tacos every day, got to hang with Erica Weiner in her beautiful studio, too-briefly saw Erica from Species by 1000, went to some tradeshows, and a bunch of other stuff, but of course I have pictures of none of that.

But I DO have pictures of the fact that we stayed in the world's smallest double occupancy hotel rooms at the Jane. Very cool hotel, amazing location, great price, but no joke, 2 people had to share this bed:

Like Katie said, this is only the kind of room you could stay in on a loverly vacation with your mate. And even then it's a stretch. So next time Katie and I are travelling to NYC just us gals, we will be skipping the Jane.

I love how much yummy food is sold out of trucks there! This was a cutesy ice cream truck in Williamsburg.

This was one of my favourite parts of the trip. We did tequila shots at a great piano bar while everyone around us sang along to the most obsure Broadway musical songs! We were so moved by all this that we actually made a pact to come back to NYC to see Spiderman: The Musical, with music by Bono & The Edge. Funny what seems totally awesome in a tequila haze, eh? We WILL be back in NYC shortly, but sadly it will not be for Spiderman: The Musical. Somehow I don't think anyone present will try and hold us to that pact.

And lastly, on our way home we stopped for dinner at Friendly's, which I remembered soooo fondly from my childhood. And it's no wonder why - I had a grilled cheese sandwich and kraft dinner (though they called it macaroni & cheese there). I hate to say it, but it was gooooood!

This wraps another trip to NYC. When we go back in a few months we solemnly swear to take more pictures! Cross our hearts!!