Ah, Independence Day weekend...

...the unofficial start of summer.

What's that you say? Memorial Day is the unofficial start of summer? No, no. Only a novice would say such a thing.

And yet, a couple of novices we were these past two days. Allow me to explain.

Thursday morning, Paul and I decided to go to the beach. Why not? He's on summer break, I'm back to pseudo-retirement, and the skies were blue. Off we went.

It was 11:30am when we filled up our SUV with $77 worth of gas. Good times! By 12:15pm, we'd arrived at idyllic Long Beach, where we set out our beach chairs and towels, and slathered on SPF (Me: 30; Paul: 4). Check out Paul in his swim trunks.


Sadly, this day existed only in my head.

The real scenario took us on a tour of the five boroughs. Thanks to ridiculous traffic, a faulty set of directions (F you, once again, Mapquest), and one all-too-determined driver, we spent our Thursday on the BQE, the Grand Central Parkway, pulling a U-turn on the entrance ramp to the Verrazano, and several not-so-scenic back roads in The Rockaways. At one point, Paul nearly succumbed to nature by peeing in a water bottle. Thankfully, a Quikmart came into view, and he relieved himself like a human.

In short, Thursday day sucked royally. But it was salvaged by Thursday night, where we met up with a bunch of good friends for drinks and dinns downtown. First stop was the Rusty Knot, my new fave hangout. We sipped on Spiced Coladas and Dark & Stormies, then headed uptown to The Half King for Blue Moons and burgers. (Bee's was a veggie, natch.)


Good friends Jackie and Laurence sipping Spiced Coladas. Saucy!

I slept like a baby that night. A fat baby, but a baby, nonetheless.

And Friday? Friday was fantastic!

First, we took the dogs to Central Park for off-the-leash time, where Paco proceeded to rile up all the neighborhood dogs and shove his package in their faces.

Next up? South Street Seaport! What better way to celebrate your independence than on an overcrowded, tourist-ridden pier, laden with fried fish and cheap beer? Honestly, it was a blast. And we took pictures!

See...


and another...


and one more...


After two seafood dishes and a couple pints of Dos Equis, we strolled back across town, stopping along the way at a shit-for-blocks* on Water Street. The weather wasn't conducive to watching fireworks, so after a nice long nap and another walk with the dogs, we headed over to Bar Italia, our new favorite neighborhood restaurant that looks and tastes just like Capri. And as we ate our tagliolini with scampi and gnocchi, we watched the Macy's Fireworks Show on the flat screen TV above the bar...perfecto!

It was one of those amazing New York days that just makes me fall in love with this city even more. Never mind that it kicked off with a wretched tour of the outer boroughs. Somehow, in retrospect, even that was kinda fun.

With summer nearly halfway over, I want more of these days and nights. More adventures and laughs and excursions in the city. Hope you have a great weekend, too, my chickadees!

Your friend,
Bee

*Shit-for-blocks: A New York City street fair, marked by street meat, rows of vendors selling used CDs and stuff-that-fell-off-the-back-of-a-truck, and one or more Gyro carts.

Hot stallion snagged here.