NYC + ECO!!

After the lawsuit from my car accident FINALLY ended, we decided we wanted to take a little time to celebrate the end of a long, hard chapter. I found out that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was going to be in NYC speaking after the performance of a play about the late, great Justice Antonin Scalia. SOLD! Jackson agreed to accompany me to NYC so we could see history!

The trip got off to a great start when we got to the airport and they told us that the flight was oversold. We signed up for a bump at a price of $500 each. When we got to our gate I headed for the restroom and Jackson got called up to the desk. They'd selected us for the bump to AN EARLIER FLIGHT TO ANOTHER NYC AIRPORT. You guys, Delta paid us $1,000 (our flights were $200 total for this leg of the trip) just to fly into a different airport. We got upgraded seats and left immediately instead of waiting at the gate. It was AMAZING. The $1,000 came in the form of gift cards and you had 10 options to chose from so we picked Target cards. We won't be paying for household supplies for a long time. Thanks, Delta!

We got into JFK, grabbed an Uber and headed for the City. Since it was still early our room wasn't ready so we left our bags and headed out to find lunch. We decided to walk through Central Park to the other side of town (3+ miles one way) so hit both Shake Shack (our favorite) and Levain Bakery.

SHAKE SHACK!!!

Levain: home of the world's most excellent cookie

It was a beautiful day so we walked home, too, hoping to burn off some of the calories we'd just ingested. Our room was finally ready so we checked in, cleaned up and then headed next door to Grand Central Station to grab our train heading out of town for the evening.

I've been following a little schnauzer on Instagram for about a year. His name is Eco and he reminds me of the late, great Madison. His family lives on a boat in New Rochelle, a suburb of NYC. We have chatted with his owner, Annabelle, who loves boating and traveling and decided to meet up with them while we were in town. I took one final photo of us so Mom could submit it to the police if it turned out that these people were serial killers.

Police photo.

They were not serial killers. What a relief! We got to the boat just before it was time to take off for a dinner cruise. Annabelle's neighbors run a business called "Dine and Sail" so we all hopped on that boat to be entertained for the evening. It worked out really well.

Greetings!

ECO!

Begging.

Dine and Sail's chef Luc is a French-Canadian who used to cook for the highest government officials. He'd even prepared meals for Queen Elizabeth when she visited the country. I was a little nervous as I don't love fancy food, but he made pretty and delicious food so all was well!

Fancy salad

Dinner was amazing! 

Dessert
*not my favorite texture, but Jackson loved it

Once you finish with dinner you get to really get out and sail. It was a perfect night for a sail so off we went.

Jackson & Annabelle

A gorgeous night for a sail

Happy boy!

You cannot fake that happiness!

Look at him!!!

This home was on the market for about $40M!

Eco even has a lifejacket! 

After about 3 hours we ended the dine and sail and went to Eco's boat to hang out more. Annabelle lives on the boat with her boyfriend, Gordie, who we really liked. We hung out until it was time to head to the train station to get back into Manhattan for the evening.

Saying goodbye

Jackson was over-served

To say that Jackson had too much to drink that evening would be an understatement. Luckily we got a ride to the train station from some of Annabelle's friends, but we were surprised to see the crowd at the station so late on a Saturday evening. With Jackson not in the best place, I sat us close to the security counter until our train arrived. We boarded the PACKED train and about 45 minutes later made our way back to the hotel from Grand Central.

Apart from Jackson's overconsumption (it had been a long time since that had happened!), it was a wonderful night. We loved Eco and his family. Thank goodness they weren't serial killers!