Monday 1 January – My father, brother, Steve and I went to Chaiken’s all-day party. Basically its an entire day of eating and then a worst-gift exchange (where everyone brings their worst gift and there is a grab-bag of sorts. I received a tree-bark covered styrafoam owl, which I think was a Christmas ornament.
Tuesday 2 Jan – Another full day in NYC. Steve and I went to the TKTS line to try to get tickets to a show. Caroline came (I knew she was coming, but it was still fantastic to see her). Then we split up, Caroline and her friend from Bates went uptown, while Steve and I headed downtown. First we went to Chelsea to go gallery hopping. From there we walked down the West Side Highway to the Meat Packing District, where we walked by Pastis (site of Carrie’s brunch with Oliver, the Aussie shoe guy – Stanford being “green with envy”). From there we kept going downtown to Grenwich Village and stumbled upon Magnolia bakery (Miranda and Carrie have cupcakes here while Carrie ponders her crush on Aiden). We had to wait about 20 minutes for the cupcakes and we/I dropped ½ of mine while we were tasting it. We figured out that Carrie’s apartment stoop was around the corner from the bakery, so we had to go and take a picture of Steve there. Then, we went to Christopher Street and walked around a bit and then went to meet Caroline in Chinatown for dinner. Then the four of us took the subway uptown to see the Drowsy Chaperon on Broadway. The show was a musical in a comedy…it a young guy narrating the performance of his favorite old musical. It was really funny.
Wednesday 3 Jan – Yet another day in the city; this time my dad drove Steve and I into to Penn Station where Steve left and we picked up Caroline. Then we went uptown and had lunch at this adorable café called Louie’s. We realized that the café was one of the locations in the movie, You’ve Got Mail, which happened to be one of Caroline’s favorites. Then we went to a natural dog food store, which was weird. We walked through central park, stopping at the Belvadere Castle to see the view, and continuing on to the Met. We wandered around doing a kind of met-highlights tour because Caroline had never been there. We took the subway to the Lower East Side so Caroline could go to a Vegan shoe store. Next we went to Magnolia bakery and Carrie’s stoop so Caroline could see them. Finally we walked back to the Port Authority, which was more than 35 blocks, but extremely necessary for burning some of those cupcake calories.
Thursday 4 Jan – Caroline and I returned to the Upper west side to do a You’ve Got Mail tour. We walked to the storefront used as Shop Around the Corner. If there wasn’t a huge movie poster, we would not have even recognized it. Then we went to the 72nd St subway station area. We sat in the park that Meg Ryan sits in after going to a street fair and saw the Grey’s Papaya they have lunch at. Then we walked uptown to Zabars and H&H bagels. Zabars is insane; its full of specialty cheeses and really interesting foods. We had lunch at an Indian restaurant, which was yummy because I hadn’t had Indian food in a while. Then we walked some more to the 91st street garden in Riverside Park, which is the location of the final scene of the movie. Because it was January, the garden wasn’t really nice. We also went to Lalo’s, a café where Meg Ryan goes on the blind date. Then we walked back to port authority where I bumped into Ben from COPA. That was beyond weird because I wasn’t expecting it at all. I never really thought I’d see anyone from COPA for a while.
Friday 5 Jan – I drove Caroline to port authority so she could catch her bus to DC, then went home and packed for Detroit.
Saturday 6 Jan – Dad and I woke up super early to drive to Detroit. On the way we stopped in Ohio and Rachel called me to say good-bye. She was boarding her plane back to London for the rest of her time abroad. I think we talked for more than an hour and even though I didn’t get to see her this break, I will miss her. When we got to Detroit, my dad and I went to a black-tie award show, which was fun (the event was OK, but I got to dress up, which was the best part). Then my dad took me to dinner in Greektown, which is this two block region full of restaurants and nightlife.
Sunday 7 Jan – I dropped my dad off at COBO (where the auto show was). I went to the Detroit Institute of Art to see the Diego Rivera murals. I got there before it opened, but was puzzled to see a lot of people walking up to the museum. So I went to investigate and found that people were arriving for the Annie Leibowitz exhibition of photos of musicians. It was interesting, not the best photos I’ve seen, but I really liked some of them. The Diego Rivera murals were amazing to see in person. The series is really huge and impressive. The rest of the museum was strange. There was a Marc Rothko right next to a crucifixion scene and various juxtapositions like that. I later found out that this was because most of their collection was in storage due to renovations. From the museum, I went to try to find Mexicantown to have lunch, but didn’t want up eating there. Instead I went to a BBQ place for pulled pork. Then I went to the Edsel and Elenor Ford house in Grosse Point. The house was really nice, but the grounds were even better. Then I drove around a little bit on 8-mile road, but I don’t think it was near where Eminen lived. That night for dinner my dad and I ate at a Middle Eastern restaurant that may or may not support Hezbollah. (according to a PR friend of my dad’s the restaurant owner fled to Lebanon and his wife was jailed in the US for aiding a terrorist organization).
Monday 8 Jan – I went to the Henry Ford museum for the day. It’s a huge museum full of American history. There was a round home from the 40s, a bunch of cars including the presidential limos (and the one Kennedy was riding in when he was shot), trains, the Oscar Myer weinermobile, and the chair Lincoln was sitting in when he was shot. I really enjoyed the museum. There were auto show press people walking around in their badges, including a European with a professional camera and scores of Japanese taking pictures of everything. When I left the museum, there was a stretch limo waiting outside (probably for the Japanese press people). Then I went to the hotel and finally mended my jeans from South America (they got rather destroyed after backpacking Patagonia in them). Then I met my dad at the Chrysler Firehouse, which is like a bar/club for the press to go to after their day at the auto show. It was fun because I got to see people I hadn’t seen in years like some who had worked for my dad when I was little. I also got to meet some more of my dad’s friends.
Tuesday 9 Jan – After dropping my dad at COBO, I went to Belle Isle and drove around and did the USAToday crossword. Then I tried to find this eastern market which wound up being rather sketchy and mostly closed. Also, I think most of the market was produce and meat, which I wasn’t going to buy anyway. From there I tried to find the Polish community, which has an art center. It was closed. So, I headed downtown to Greektown and parked the car. I took the people mover to the Renaissance Center (even though it was only 5 or so blocks away). The people mover was really cute/fun. You get to see a lot of the city from above (it’s an L) and all of the stations have mosaic tiling. I also went to the Guardian building which had a really interesting painted arched ceiling and metal gates resembling those usually found in gothic churches. Then I had lunch in Greektown so I could have a gyro. Finally I went back to the RenCen and took the tour. We went to the top, the 72nd floor, which is the highest point in Detroit. This gave us a great view of Windsor, Canada, all of Detroit and Belle Isle. After sitting in Starbucks to read, I went to Farmington Hills to meet my dad. Finally, we at dinner at this place called Culvers (burgers and ice cream) because they’re hiring my dad to do PR for a race car they’re sponsoring.
Wednesday 10 Jan – It was another museum day in Michigan. I dropped my dad off at Chrysler and went to The Walter P. Chrysler Museum in Auburn Hills. The museum was a history of the Chrysler including race cars and a sampling of cars and how the technology has changed over the years. There was a press event going on while I was there and I recognized some of the people. After asking the docents, they said the event was some international PR people (this is why I recognized them). Then I had lunch at Cosi, which was terrible because the honey mustard sauce caused a burning sensation in my nose. It was so spicy. Next I went to Meadowbrook Hall, the 88,000 square foot home of one of the Dodge brother’s widow. It was enormous and really opulent. The door knobs were all custom-made to fit with a theme in the room. For example: the game room had pool tables and chess boards, with pool sticks for hinges, while the son’s bedroom had airplanes for hinges and a car door knob. The grounds were also nice, but nothing compared to the Ford house. Then I went to the Cranbrook Academy Art Museum, which was small, but interesting. I picked up my dad and we drove to Pennsylvania.
Thursday 11 Jan – We woke up early and drove home.
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