A Series of Unfortunate Events... Turned Awesome

As our weeks in Italy flew by, we couldn't believe how quickly one of our most-looked-forward-to vacations was creeping up on us: the trip to Cancun for the glorious wedding of our very close and amazing friends.  Hurricane Rita was gaining strength, but we decided to put our trust in the people of American Airlines as they told us repeatedly that we had nothing to worry about.

Big mistake.  

Never do that.  

Ever.

Long story short, we flew from Italy to NYC, NYC to Miami, then found out a few hours before our last plane departed from Miami to Cancun that Rita was ruining everything: the situation in Mexico was looking dicey, our hotel was being boarded up, and the wedding was officially postponed.  After some negotiation (huuuuge euphemism), we were able to put ourselves on a flight back to New York City and instead spend the weekend with Chris and Erica, which was pretty cool.

(The full Mexico trip saga can be recounted upon request, but beware it is quite long and emotionally charged and thus can be told quite aggressively at times.)

It being Luke's first trip to The Big Apple, we were pretty excited to be able to hang out with Chris and Erica and see the sites.  Oh, and we were also extremely excited to be back in America for a weekend, drink regular coffee (and carry it with us!), eat food that wasn't Italian, and understand everything going on around us.  Nevermind the fact that our huge suitcase that we checked containing our "just in case" warm clothing made the trip to Cancun, even though we didn't.

We first visited New Museum, where we saw some interesting pieces including a mobile of caged birds, a three story slide (which, unfortunately, we were unable to ride since the line was hours long), a mirrored swing carousel (which we did ride, and was quite uneventful), and a number of other strange things.  Yes, I think "strange" and "interesting" most appropriately describe this place.  Did I mention the vials in which the artist captured and collected his own "scent" (read: un-deodorized sweat) for others to sniff?  

After that eventful night (which included some delicious burritos = Luke's trip was complete), Luke and I spent the next day exploring NYC on our own.  After getting bagels (mmmmm) and some Starbucks (despite having to wait for twenty minutes behind the 30 people in line in front of us... still soooo worth it), we decided to enjoy our treasures in Central Park.

It's hard to comprehend how huge the park actually is, and we had a blast exploring approximately one third of it in about 4 hours.

As we weren't seeing a lot of fall colors in Italy, I was so excited at the prospect of finding some changing leaves in the park.  Despite it being the last weekend in October, most of the trees were still holding on to their green.  We did find a branch or two here and there, which were beautiful.

Luke has picked up the habit of taking "surprise" pictures, of which I am NOT a fan.  He insisted that this one worked out perfectly, but then again, you're not seeing the other 50 that didn't.  We're working on cutting down on those.

More hints of fall!

After all of our trekking through the park, we were getting a little hungry and decided we should grab something small to eat - maybe split a sandwich or something.  Chris and Erica had mentioned that Matt and Amy like to go to Carnegie Deli whenever they're in town, so we figured we'd give it a try and ordered a ruben to share...

And out came a small mountain (and this is a metaphor being used after we've been living by the Alps - so if you're speaking in terms of say, the Rockies or the Appalachians, it was more of a mid-sized mountain).  We stuffed ourselves and made it through approximately one eighth of this sandwich.

Carnegie lead us through Times Square (where we were able to purchase some much needed supplies, such as socks and sweaters).

We popped into Grand Central Station (incredible), then headed to MOMA, which was amazing (as usual).  Luke's favorite was a Picasso:

 While I couldn't tear myself away from this Van Gogh:

I've developed a serious love for olive trees; Italy must be growing on us. 

And of course, who can walk by Monet's "Water Lilies" with just a glance?

Our Friday came to an end with some arepas for dinner (delicious, as always), and a nice, relaxing evening.

The next day was filled with watching the Spartans (if the burritos didn't make the perils of our trip worth it to Luke, this certainly did), and a dinner of amazing Italian food (yes, we went out for Italian) from a very special restaurant in Brooklyn, Frankies' Spuntino.  As Chris and Erica had given us the restaurant's cook book as a gift and we have been living off it's delicous recipes while in Italy, we just had to experience the place for ourselves!  Amazing.
Visiting The Commodore and a subsequent trip to Barcade, where Luke and Chris were able to dominate Mrs. PacMan and Rampage, equated to a pretty successful night in Brooklyn.

Our last morning, we were able to experience another huge perk of being in New York: Blue Bottle Coffee and Brad!  It was super awesome to be able to see Brad (who had just flown back that morning), drink some amazing Blue Bottle coffee, and enjoy brunch together like true hipsters do.

On our flight home while cruising above the clouds right before landing, we were able to watch this immaculate sunrise taking place.  It ended our crazy trip beautifully and reminded us that even when it seems like everything is going wrong (i.e. you're stranded in Miami at 11 p.m. after 22 hours of straight travel and they want you to fly into a hurricane or jump right back on a flight to Milan with no refund), blessings have a way of always working their way through.