The Room

 

This is the room where we stayed. No two rooms here are exactly alike. We shared with our friends Sam and Yvonne since the rate was pretty high ($300/night).

Inn at Stonecliffe

 

The hotel (also where the wedding would be held) was called the Inn at Stonecliffe. It was built as a residence more than 100 years ago and has since been converted to an inn. There was no air conditioning, television or Internet. I was a bit dissapointed over this at first, but later came to appreciate how peaceful it was. My only regret was that I hadn't brought a book or Bible and it appeared the Gideons have yet to stock this place. Since Chris has allergies we never have the windows open at home. I'd forgotten how relaxing it is to have a nice breeze blowing through the room at night.

Taxi!!

 

There is no motorized transportation on the island--just horse drawn carriages and bicycles. When we got off the boat, all the carriages we saw were going to specific places, but none had signs saying they were for our hotel. We had no idea how to get one. Chris called our friends Greg and Deanna who were smart and had flown in. Their hotel was in town so they met us out on the street. We asked one of the carriage drivers to radio for a "taxi." We waited what seemed to be a long time. The ride from town to our hotel was 40 minutes.

Ferry

 

As we pulled off the exit for Mackinac Island it started to rain. By the time we found the ferry, it was REALLY raining, lots of lightening too. It didn't make for the best conditions for unloading our luggage and buying ferry tickets. The boats left every 30 minutes, so each one we missed, that would have been a lot of waiting. I was eager to get on that boat and to our hotel. Finally, the rain let up a little and we decided to brave it. By the time we were on the ferry and riding toward the island, the rain had stopped, however the water was pretty choppy. People who get seasick probably should think twice about this island.

More Driving

Friday

Thinking the more sleep I could get, the sooner I'd be rid of this cold, we slept in late as possible at the Ramada this morning. We missed the hotel's breakfast so we stopped at a Tim Horton's down the road. We don't have these in Kentucky but always eat there when we're up north. I would describe it as a low quality mix of Panera, Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts all in one restaurant. They have all the right things I like on the menu, but the quality just isn't up to par. I just got an OJ and blueberry muffin and decided I'd do a late lunch somewhere up the Interstate.

We had 3 hours left to drive and boy was it rough. I was still run down from the cold and tired from all that sleeping (it's true, sometimes you really can get too much sleep). About an hour from Mackinac I asked Chris to stop at Subway and he was less than pleased about my request. First, he hates Subway and second, he didn't want to stop. Whatever. The place was a gas station/Subway/tube rental store (I'm assuming there was a river nearby). There were lots of animal heads mounted on the wall. The people inside looked like lumbar jacks. The woman in line behind me at Subway ordered a footlong and it came with bacon and boy did this sandwich artist load up the bacon on it. I was kind of grossed out. I finally paid for my stuff and ran back to the car. As I got into my seat, I slid my hand down the Subway bag and it was warm. Trouble was, I had not gotten my sub toasted (That toasting machine at Subway is not normal...I mean, what is it? A toaster? A microwave? All I know is, it "toasts" the sandwich way too fast and it never tastes good, I've learned that lessson). Then, I remember the bacon lady behind me saying she wanted her sub toasted. Oh crap, they've given me the bacon toasted sub...Yuck! I run back inside, find the lady and explain that I think they confused the sandwiches. Thankfully, she hadn't bitten into mine yet, so we made a quick exchange and Chris and I were soon back on the road.

Are we there yet?

We are less than 3 hours from Mackinac Island. We went to Carrollton, Michigan tonight (accidentally). Let's just say, I hope we never get lost in that town again, yikes! As usual, booking a hotel for the night was drama. When we finally found the place, they didn't have our reservation. I have a feeling I'm going to be spending some quality time on the phone with a Ramada manager in a few days when they end up double charging our credit card since I had to make another reserveation. While I was at the front desk a local guy came in and proclaimed he just didn't feel like sleeping at home tonight. He then asked if people ever check out prior to mid-night because they're done with the room "if you know what I mean." Classy, this place. When Chris went to the car to get our bags, he disturbed a couple who truly should have booked themselves a room rather than do what they were doing in a parking lot. Nice! Glad it was him who walked into that rather than me!

Well, at least we have wireless and the room is fine actually. I'll have to go back out and tell that guy who didn't feel like going home that maybe it's worth the $79.

I still feel awful. I slept all the way to Michigan. Chris gets husband of the year points today for trying to make me feel better via outlet mall shopping. I bought a shirt for $5 at Gap, that was it. Chris, shockingly, actually tried on a pair of shorts and bought them. I think it's the first time I've ever seen him buy something outside of Wal-Mart, Lowes, Home Depot or Auto Zone.

We had dinner in a German town. It was really nice. Would have had some beer, but didn't think it would go well with the cold medicine. I've already forgotten the name of the town, but I'm too tired to look it up. There were cute little tourist stores, but the only one we went in was for dogs. Yes, we've become one of those couples who goes in trinket shops and oohs and ahhhs over figurines that look like our dog. Sometimes I wonder how I got so old so quickly.

Sick!

 

Well, it's been confirmed, this blog has one reader, so I'll keep blogging. (Thanks, Deniz!). We were supposed to leave today, but I'm not feeling too hot. I have to say, the best thing about being sick is plenty of time to lounge around with my puppy Molly. She was so sweet today. I think she knew mommy wasn't feeling well. The second best thing is watching TLC's What Not to Wear. The women made over today included a fashion school graduate and an interior designer. I figure if people with such skills don't know how to dress, there's no hope for the rest of us.

I finally get a few days off from work and am SICK. This is the typical Amanda luck. The nose is running, head hurts, etc... It wouldn't be so bad if I just had some ENERGY. I went downstairs to take care of some laundry this evening. After dropping off the dry stuff on the bed and heading back down to put the stuff from the washer into the dryer, Chris stopped me to tell me something. I had to keep walking and yell "Not right now, don't break my momentum." I seriously thought that if I stopped to talk, I would fall down and not be able to get back up.

I sure hope I'm better by tomorrow. I'm excited for Mackinac and to see the gang heading up to Brad and Deniz's wedding. Brad and Deniz are one cool couple--Can't wait to spend their wedding day with them!

Does anybody read this thing?

OK, gang, it's almost time for another adventure. We'll soon be heading up to Mackinac Island (near Michigan's upper penninsula, I believe). Don't know too much about the place. I'll check it out and let you all know what it's like. I wish this blog were as exciting as my brother's blog about his big shot life in Rhode Island. You can check his out, it's in my links.

My Favorite NY Food

If you go to NY, these are some must-do things when it comes to food:

1) Croissants (or any bread, really) from Bread Factory Cafe (I'm currently eating one of the six I brought home with me).
2) Bagels from H&H Bagels
3) A meal in Little Italy
4) Cupcakes from Magnolia Bakery (Had my first experience there on this most recent trip...reminded me of my grandmother's cupcakes, which is saying a lot.)
5) Giant margarita at Dallas BBQ

Thanks, Entertainment Tonight!!!

(THIS LINK DOES NOT WORK.)

Below is the working link to Entertainment Tonight's video from the event that you can copy and paste into a Web broser (I walk behind John at 56 seconds into the clip):

(Copy and paste this link into Web broswer):

http://www.etonline.com/news/2008/05/61953/index.html

The blog is in reverse sequential order. Enjoy!

Wow

Each trip I've taken to NYC has been special in its own unique way. This one was fun because I got to be with John, a great cousin and a great friend, as he lived out a dream. Back in 1984, two of my aunts (one of them being his mom) took him and his sister to see Romancing the Stone. But, John broke away from them and ran into the theater showing Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. He wanted to see that guy from Star Wars in it. Aunt Dinie didn't have the heart, I suppose, to drag him out of there, so she went in with him. She said he was running up the aisle afterwards saying "Wasn't that GREAT?!?" That was the beginning of, well, let's be honest here, ...an obsession. For as long as I can remember, John has been working on his Indiana Jones impersonation. It paid off for him when he won Entertainment Tonight's "Give Us Your Best Indy" contest. I've very proud of him and just want to say "thanks" to John for letting me ride on his coattails and enjoy the celebrity treatment he and videographer, Jason, received.

Chris

Chris couldn't go to NY this time, but I can't do a blog without him, so here's a file photo from 4 years ago :-)

More Pics

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Movie/TV Locations Tour

On our last day, John's friend Brennan booked us on a bus tour of movie locations around the city. My favorite part was seeing the steps used in the opening credits of The Cosby Show.

Brennan has lived in NY for a few years and was a great tour guide. We had lunch in Little Italy and went to Battery Park to do the only thing John hadn't done yet that he wanted to do...see the Statue of Liberty.

Leona Lewis

Here's the performance of Bleeding Love that John and I saw when we went to the Letterman taping. She was so good. John and I are new fans.

(copy and paste link)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQtRpziJINc

The After Party

Following the movie several people Jason and John know met up at their hotel to go out. We had a midnight dinner (only in NY would I go out for dinner at midnight!) and then went back to John's hotel to dance at the nightclub. John taught everyone how to goofy dance.

Some More Photos

NYC Day Two

I spent the morning and afternoon walking around by myself while John and Jason met up with their co-workers in their company's New York office. It was neat for them to put faces to the names of people they do business with. At 5 p.m. we met up at John's hotel to go to the Indiana Jones screening. John, and I hope he doesn't mind me saying this, was a nervous wreck. I figured someone was going to need an ambulance before the night was over and I wasn't sure if it would end up being John or Harrison Ford. A giant black SUV with tinted windows showed up at the hotel to pick us up. It was hilarious that we were being driven to the theater because we could have walked to it. But that's how big celebs like us roll, ha. When we pulled up to the theater, we sat in the car for a minute while John called his contact with Paramount. There were about 20 photographers lined up at the doorway and I think they were getting pretty anxious to see who was going to step out of the SUV (which is the same type of car the celebs were showing up in). Jason and I, a.k.a. "John's entourage" got out first. I was wearing a somewhat short dress and as the photographers snapped away, I tried my best not to pull a "Lindsay Lohan." When John got out in his costume the flashes really started firing....until they came to the realization that we were a bunch of nobodys. John looked at them and said "I really disspointed you guys, didn't I?" Yeah, they told him, he did.

A crew from Entertainment Tonight met up with John and stayed with him prior to the movie. They set us up so that we greeted the celebrities just before they walked into the theater where the movie was playing. My job was to photograph everything and I was sooo nervous that I was going to do something stupid and ruin John's photos. I was getting anxious about the lighting and saw a guy with fancy camera equipment and asked him if he would help me with the settings on my camera. He ended up being Paramount's photographer and he set me up perfectly, thank goodness!

The only celebrity who turned John down for a photo was Lauren Bacall. John got a kick out of the fact that he got shot down by Lauren Bacall.

Shia LaBeouf, Harrison Ford and Karen Allen were extremely nice and spent time interacting with John.

NYC--Day One

I recognized right away that I had packed entirely wrong for this trip. There was a chill in the air and it was raining off and on. I was pretty cold in my short sleeve shirt and light jacket, but then again, I was in NY, so what could I possibly have to gripe about, really? This was John's trip (and his first time in NYC), so he was calling all the shots, we were just along for the ride. We walked around Columbus Circle, Times Square, went to a comic book store, had lunch at Planet Hollywood and dessert at a diner where the wait staff sing. John and I are pretty big Letterman fans and we had tickets to that evening's taping. We got in line early and had tickets #1 and #2. We had SO much fun at the taping. Paul Schaffer and the band at the Late Show are so good in person and play before the show and during all the commercial breaks. On the show that night were Harrison Ford (John's first sighting!), Ali Lohan (Lindsay's little sister) and Leona Lewis (whose song "Bleeding Love" was incredible to hear in person). John and I had seats in the second row on the side of the stage where the band is positioned. After the taping, we were ready to drop with exhaustion. I went to John's hotel and grabbed my luggage and walked several blocks to check into my hotel. I was upgraded to a suite!! I fell asleep for a few hours. When I woke up, I went out to get some dinner, which ended up being a blueberry muffin, croissant and glass of orange juice.

NYC-Day One

John checking into the hotel

When we walked into luggage claim at La Guardia our driver was standing there to greet us with a sign that said "Welcome John Alexander." It was 8 a.m., so there was quite a bit of traffic going into the city. John and Jason's hotel, which we looked up online and costs about $450/night (with one room as high as $630), was very chic. Some of the people in the lobby looked like they were on their way to their modeling agency. John's friend from Somerset, Brennan, met us in the lobby. My mom and Brennan's mom taught school together back in the 1970s. I guess they never imagined at the time that their kids would one day be running around NYC together. The room wasn't ready, so we left our luggage there and went out to explore the city.