Ladies' Weekend

Okay, so maybe it wasn't really a "weekend," merely a Wednesday afternoon until Thursday evening, but nonetheless we crammed enough fun stuff and food into that window of time that it felt like a weekend.  If there was a theme to our brief jaunt to Manhattan it would be something which involved estrogen, wine, shopping, Mario Batali and bourbon.  Sounds good, right?

The gods completely conspired to make catching the 3:00 train in the realm of possibility by scheduling the annual "Go Home Early" drill for Wednesday.  Couple that factor with an Amtrak weekly special fare ($27 bought me a one-way ticket to Penn) and I was on that train, on the river side, of course, by 2:50.  By 3:05, the first of the entertaining ladies had joined the party - the widow Clicquot, in a perfect train-sized portion.  I'm sorry, but there is nothing like relaxing on the train, while swigging champagne right out of the bottle, watching the scenery roll by.  This particular afternoon involved an epic sunset, which I ended up taking about a million pictures of as I juggled the Nikon and the champagne.  No worries - I didn't spill a drop.

Heading south

Love the blurriness - it wasn't just my eyes!

Pretty spectacular, huh?

The Amtrak dropped me at Penn Station where I rendezvoused with Lisa and we shot downtown on the subway to meet up with our number 3 - she was waiting at the bar.  Do my girls know how to have fun or what?!  We stayed in a new place - the Hilton Garden Inn on Avenue of the Americas (lower 6th) and I have to say, the location (TriBeCa) was perfect!  There's a subway stop for the ACE on the block, an adorable little park area, and the West Village is within easy reach.  The room was comfortable and, hopefully without bedbugs, we'll definitely stay here again.  

image from missbeliever. com

After cleaning up a bit, we headed out for dinner.  I hadn't made reservations anywhere so we dropped in on Lupa.   What can I say?  I'm always happy when I leave this place.  We sat in some familiar seats at the communal table and dug into a variety of tasty items, including the broccoli rabe with ricotta, a salad of local fall greens, and a hangar steak.  All delicious.  We even had a genuine NYC celebrity sighting (x2) when the Olsen twins joined us (not literally) for dinner.  I can't vouch that they ate anything, but, had they been interested in eating, they were certainly in a good place to indulge. 

Post-dinner was a controlled bourbon binge and a walk to keep us from melting into alcoholic puddles.  Just kidding!!  We had a couple of nightcaps and were back to the hotel before midnight, satisfied by a good meal, some quality beverages and the luxury of being with good friends away from home and family.  Sure seemed like a weekend to me.