Dave and Cat Reopen NYC!

Catherine and I went to the city for a couple of nights to celebrate 21 years of marriage-- we didn't do much for our 20th Anniversary because of the pandemic-- but (thanks to the vaccine) NYC is open for business and now is a great time to visit:

1) hotels are cheap, we stayed at the Arlo Soho-- great location and a hip rooftop bar;

2) we hiked the entire lower Hudson River Westside Pier and park system down to the Battery and Stone Street . . . this is NOT the NYC of my youth-- they are gentrifying and constructing one pier after another, shade and courts and fields and chairs and trees and a little island! . . . you could walk the High Line across to the water and then make your way down along the river for a great day;

3) NYC is the right amount of crowded right now . . . not too many tourists, but lots of rich and beautiful people running and walking and hanging out . . . people that just did not look like normal people, no wrinkles, very skinny, very good looking, fashionable dressed . . . everyone looks sort of famous in this section of the city;

4) we went to two Greenwich Village comedy shows-- the upstairs of the very famous Comedy Cellar and the Comedy Store . . . both were fairly intimate because they're not packing people in and both shows were great, five or six comics getting up and doing ten to fifteen minutes each . . . superfun;

5) we ate outside and inside and drank at bars both outside and inside . . .

6) hiked around the perimeter and then cut through the city to get back to SoHo;

7) we ate a cronut . . . it was kind of gross;

8) and ate some vegetarian buffalo wings made of cauliflower at The Underdog, which-- surprisingly-- were not gross;

9) and lucked out with the weather . . .

10) the kids didn't destroy the house while we were gone, so that was a win;

11) we saw an actor we knew but we couldn't identify him, nor can we remember what show he is from . . . so we'll never know who he is . . . I thought he was Steve from Coupling;

12) the only odd moment of our trip was when a dude was grifting on the train headed back to Jersey and the door's closed before he could get off and he had a meltdown next to us . . . I was about to tell him to just go see the conductor but decided he wasn't really rational when he started yelling "MOTHERFUCKER!" and punching the seat, so I just continued to read my book and he got up and I think he got off in Seacaucus.