The weekend with Diane was so much fun. It's so great to have visitors because it gives you a chance to be a tourist again. It's nice to mix it up sometimes.

So let's see here. Diane landed at LaGuardia airport on Friday afternoon, and I had her take a taxi to the nearest subway line in Astoria, where I met up with her and we took the subway home. We had car service pick her up and take her back at the end of the weekend, and it was only a little bit more money to take it the whole way, so I definitely think that's the best idea. After dropping her bags off at the apartment, I took her to Times Square to check out the sights. We wandered by Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum and took pictures with the wax people in the lobby.

Next, we headed up to Central Park and wandered around for a bit. We saw perhaps the largest goldfish ever (ok, so it was actually a koi, but it looked like a mutant goldfish and that's more exciting). We went back to the apartment to get ready to go out with some friends from the building. This turned out to be the most ridiculous night ever. We started out with Diane and I, my friend Laura and her cousin from Australia, and another girl from the building and her friend. Unfortunately, the two unnamed people were underage, and the rest of us quickly got tired of passing up the good bars for the dives that don't I.D. lol So after a little rearranging of plans, we said farewell to the kiddies and the four of us headed over to a bar in my book (Free and Dirt Cheap NYC--absolutely fabulous guidebook) called "Cheap Shots (and Beer)." The bar is very small and super crowded and it is soooo much fun. They definitely live up to their name, but there is a lot of other fun things that go on. On certain nights, you do rock, paper, scissors with the bartender to see whether or not you can get your drink for half off. lol On the Friday that we went, the bartender was racing the customers in Jagerbombs. If anyone could beat him, they would win five free drinks. Laura's cousin, Josh, felt up to the challenge and he definitely came very close. It was so close that after some persuasive arguing, Josh rematched the bartender. This spawned a long night of arguing about who really won, but it was all in good fun. We stepped out with the bartender for a smoke when the bar closed down, and he ended up inviting the four of us back in after hours to hang out and drink for free ... which we preceded to do until nearly 6am. The highlight--or perhaps lowlight--of the night was when I slipped on the subway stairs and bruised my hind quarters rather nicely. Diane, of course, thought this was hilarious, and I for one agree with her. lol

On Saturday, I took Diane down to the World Trade Center so she could see Ground Zero. I've already posted pictures of this in a previous album. After that, we hauled up in a Burger King for a while, hoping the rain would let up. When it didn't, we decided just to make a break for it and walked over to the South Street Seaport. We got soaked, but at least it wasn't too far to walk. We were both wearing flip flops and were sliding all over the place. lol We went in a few shops and I ended up buying a pair of pants for $6.95. How fantastic is that?? haha From the Seaport, we took a New York Water Taxi for the Sunset Cruise and got a very animated tour of the Manhattan coastline. It went under the Brooklyn Bridge and a few other bridges and stopped at a little beach bar thing that was pretty cute. It stopped in front of the Statue of Liberty and we got to take our pictures with it. After the cruise, Diane and I decided to be impulsive and get tattoos on the pier ... okay, okay, so they were airbrushed tattoos, but we thought they were cool. lol Diane got a butterfly in her ankle and I got a phoenix near my hip.

Afterward, we went on an endlessly interrupted adventure to try to get food and meet up with Laura and Josh in Williamsburg. My roommate finally moved in, so we spent a little time talking to her, which delayed us. With a little help from a nice guy named Axl in the subway, though, we were able to make it to Gray's Papaya for the best corn dogs and hot dogs in the world. They were amazing. The guy who worked there was pretty entertaining. He was dancing around to mix and making fun of Diane a little. lol We eventually got to Brooklyn, but of course Laura and Josh were already smashed by then. haha So we had a drink and then headed home. I thought the taxi driver was going to kick us out because Josh kept talking to him and getting him more and more annoyed. But we made it home without being booted, and got to bed at a relatively decent time.

On Sunday, we went down to Coney Island to hang out at the beach for a while and catch a freak show. lol The latter was absolutely disgusting and for the most part very entertaining. Some of the acts weren't great, but it was cheap, so you get what you pay for. We went back to Manhattan after that and met up with Chris. We all went to Ha! Comedy Club, which is near Times Square, so it's very touristy. Most of the acts were really funny, but there was this guy sitting behind us that kept interrupting the show with the same idiotic comment. The comedian made fun of him and tried to keep the show going, but the guy wouldn't stop and had to be kicked out. It was pretty pathetic. We met up with the comedian after the show and he said it happens all the time at the more touristy venues. Oh well. Still pretty funny.

On Monday, we did a little last minute souvenir shopping for Diane's family and then she headed back to the airport to return to Michigan. We had a lot of fun while she was here and I'm so glad I got to hang out with her and see some more of what New York has to offer. :-)