PA + NYC

Continuing on my 2 week East Coast vacation story, I departed Columbus, OH on June 27th and headed to Pennsylvania to spend a week at my sister Orathay's house in Exton. I hadn't seen my family since Thanksgiving the previous year, so I was looking forward to seeing everyone. My mother recently had knee replacement surgery so I was anxious to see her and make sure she was doing okay. As always, her home cooking is hard to beat! As a bonus, my little sister Linda called the week before to let us all know her and my nephew Dyhlann were also going to be visiting. Hooray!

Deinn catches his first fish ever!

I acknowledged that I was coming in during a holiday week, not to mention the kids were on summer vacation as well -- so I anticipated a pretty busy visit. Orathay and Mike were able to take some time off so we could all take a family outing to a nearby lake called Marsh Creek State Park where we rented two boats and fished for an afternoon. A lot of video games were played by it seems everyone but me, but we also played Cranium (my favorite board game of all time). I also got to sit in on my little nephew Deinn's Muay Thai class, which was so adorable beyond words. We also went bowling one day and in their arcade I was finally able to play and win a round of Dance Dance Revolution, which is a pretty big deal to someone like me who is pretty terrible at modern video games. We also took my youngest nephew to see the new Cars 2, which surprisingly was pretty funny compared to the first one. 

Being my father works the 3rd shift and my mother was still hobbling around, the only time I could really spend with them was over lunch every day at their house. I can't imagine having any sort of "replacement" surgery! It's been about 3 months and my mother is still in pain and has trouble sleeping at night because of it. I worry about the amount of Rx painkillers she's taking in addition to the blood pressure medicine she takes. If there is a god out there, please help my mother heal quickly.

L to R: Dyhlann, Deinn, Orathay, Mike and Devynn.

Once the 4th of July rolled around, we went over to Terri's place in Coatsville, PA (my brother-in-law's older sister) to bbq and watch the local fireworks. I was actually really impressed by the display, while my little nephew was not. He doesn't like loud music or fireworks (which both were happening) so he had his hands over his ears for a good hour. On my last day, we drove into downtown Philly to eat lunch at the Reading Market which I found to be really cool (basically an indoor food market filled with tons of different vendors). Then it was off to NYC!

The Dethluxay + Spillman Family.

Again - I'm a big fan of using the Bolt, Megabus or Chinatown buses on the East Coast that service the NYC/Philly/DC area. It's so cheap compared to the train or taking a flight! Plus, it's only a little over a 2 hour drive and I got time to read and zone out to some music. I was a bit worried about the weather in NYC, as I don't find it as enjoyable visiting while sweating my brains out. Really hot weather makes me very lethargic, which isn't a good feeling when you're in hustle bustle NYC. 

The backyard garden terrace at NY Loft Hostel.

Very last minute, in an effort to save some money I decided to cancel my Manhattan hotel and opted for a hostel. Yep -- something I thought I'd never do. But I was won over by the NY Loft Hostel website and reviews, so I decided to save myself some money and stay there.  Although I didn't love the location (East Williamsburg), I didn't hate it either as it was only 2 blocks from a subway stop. It was located in a pretty industrial area, but there were dive bars nearby, a nice boutique liquor store, a delicious sushi shack and natural foods co-op store. Plus, the hostel had a cute backyard terrace where all the guests would gather at night and I met some really cool people - mainly Europeans. The management also bbq'd for the guests 3 nights out of the week! It was clean, cool and a pretty awesome experience overall. They even stored my stuff the day I checked out for a mere $3 charge since my flight didn't depart until 8pm that evening. 

The open kitchen space at NY Loft Hostel.

Since I was only going to be in NYC for a few days, I didn't really do too much the first day I got in. I was tired and stayed at the hotel reading and relaxing. Later on that evening, I met a girl named Esther from Amsterdam and we hung out the rest of the evening in the garden terrace drinking wine, smoking cigarettes and talking about films as she was enrolled for the summer at the NY Film Academy. The next day, I headed out to The Met to see what I specifically went to NYC to see: the Alexander McQueen exhibit. Let's just say it literally took my breath away. I kept trying to snap a few photos, but every time someone noticed and yelled at me! Oh well. I wanted to go to the Cloisters as well, but I didn't get to the Met until 2pm, so needless to say - the Cloisters was out of the question. 

Later that evening, I invited my good friend Eugene to come hang with us at our hostel and then me and a gang of folks from the hostel representing Portland, OR, London, Amsterdam, Belgium and Germany headed to the Wreck Room around the corner for some dancing and general shenanigans. Eugene and I were definitely the oldest ones there, as some were not even legally of age to drink here in the US. But there was something about their energy and staying at the hostel that made me feel like I was in my 20's again. We even got busted smoking pot on the balcony by the hostel mgmt - oops!

Some of the friends I met at the hostel: Esther, Sabine, Barak and Tim.

Anyhow, I wish that I would have had more time to see more friends and places -- but I have a feeling I'll return again soon. I ended my trip shopping in Soho (duh!) and arrived to JFK only to have my flight delayed by 3 hours due to rain? I got home at 2AM and was happy to have my bed welcome me home. Until next time East Coast!