Adventures of David and Paul: Weekend friend visit in NYC

Earlier in October we took a weekend trip up to New York City to visit our friends Thomas and Alexis. Thomas recently moved back to the US from London, so we were excited to visit him in his new home. We flew up after work on a Thursday, and took a Lyft to Thomas's apartment at 8 Spruce Street, a skyscraper designed by Frank Gehry.

On Friday Thomas and Alexis both had to work, so we set out with Thomas's partner Petros and dog Pepper. We started with coffee at Voyager Espresso then took the subway to the High Line. We had a nice walk on a sunny, chilly morning, and travelled the length of the High Line up to Hudson Yards. We saw a lot of people in costumes because Comic Con was happening at the nearby convention center. We stopped for lunch at Gotham West food hall.

Sunrise from the apartment.

Cool architecture in Thomas's neighborhood.

Coffee in an Erlenmeyer flask down in the subway? Why not!

Pepper just hanging out.

An art installation near hell's kitchen.

The High Line trees have really filled out since the last time we visited!

Lots of interesting buildings around the High Line.

David and Petros walking on the High Line.

Approaching Hudson Yards.

The view up through "The Vessel."

Building reflection.

Pozole and pizza for lunch.

After lunch, we walked east, passing near Times Square and through Bryant Park. Our destination was the Morgan Library Museum, housed mainly in a 1906 building that is a national historic landmark. It's a small but impressive space, with a few small exhibits and the breathtaking library that holds J.P. Morgan Chase's collection (yes, the banking family).

Bryant Park was busy on a gorgeous fall Friday.

Ceiling of a hallway in the museum.

A really old book that was part of a botanicals exhibit.

Pierpont Morgan's office.

The main library room.

Some old sheet music that was on display.

Extremely old carved stamps that were used to make repeated patterns.

After finishing up at the library museum, we walked through Grand Central Station on the way to meet up with Thomas after work. We had a chilly but nice sunset stroll checking out New York's architecture and ending with views from Central Park, before taking the subway back to Thomas's apartment.

Grand Central Station.

Old and new architecture in Midtown.

NYC has such cool buildings.

Reflection of a synagogue dome.

Peering into the Apple Store.

We sat for a while in Central Park.

The supertall skyscrapers lining the south end of Central Park.

Thomas's building from City Hall Park.

After relaxing for a bit, we met up with Alexis and all of us went for cocktails at Paper Planes. New York has a lot of good cocktail bars, and this was just the first one we'd visit over the weekend. We had planned on having dinner at a place nearby but it turned out it was permanently closed. Without reservations on a Friday night we were in trouble - after wandering around and having no luck at a few packed places, we eventually found room at Horus Cafe on A. It was an Egyptian restaurant and hookah bar, but luckily they had a small completely separate dining room with no hookah. The food was hit or miss - the cold appetizers were great, but the koshari was actively bad. We still had a good time and enjoyed the company and the Lebanese beer. We went back and hung out at Thomas's place to close out the night.

Brooklyn skyline at sunset.

Creative cocktails at Paper Planes.

Round two!

The wild over-the-top theming in Horus Cafe.

The appetizers were great!

The forecast on Saturday called for rain, and it was indeed rainy pretty much all day. We didn't let that stop our touristy plans! After getting caffeinated at Variety Coffee the five of us walked to the Skyscraper Museum. It's a small but interesting museum, mostly focusing on NYC's skyscraper history. We had brunch at Broadstone, then went to the nearby National Museum of the American Indian. The museum is a Smithsonian museum, and has some excellent exhibits as well as being in a really cool building. Highly recommended.

Iced coffee and chai to get us going. Oh boy, which is which?!

The skyscraper museum.

The weather was a bit miserable.

Brunch time!

The grand central hall of the Museum of the American Indian.

One of the displays.

A cool contemporary piece.

The museum is in the impressive Alexander Hamilton US Custom House.

After the museum, we took the subway to Alexis's neighborhood, SoHo, grabbing some coffee at Drip Drop Cafe on the way. We hung out and had some wine at Alexis's new apartment before heading to dinner at Old Tbilisi Garden, which is a Georgian restaurant. We particularly enjoyed the dumplings and some of the spreads. After dinner we had some excellent cocktails at Donna.

A nice stop on a rainy day.

The delicious appetizer platter at Old Tbilisi.

Georgian dumplings.

A big-ass cheesy bread bowl.

Donna had creative and delicious cocktails.

Shot from New Year's Eve 2010.

Faithfully recreated 13 years later!

Also we were there 😉

On Sunday morning David had arranged a meet-up with a couple of his Final Fantasy XIV friends (Shaina and Mike) that live in the area for brunch at an Instagram-worthy spot called Haven Rooftop. David has known and played games with Shaina for 20 years but this is the first time they met in person! 😁 Super exciting!

After brunch we strolled over to Bibble and Sip with Mike and Shaina for some super cute desserts to take to go. After saying goodbyes, we headed back to lower Manhattan to hang out with Thomas, Alexis and Petros for about an hour before jetting off to the airport. Overall, this was a great weekend in NYC! It was great to see old friends again, or for the first time in person. Looking forward to more catch-up trips in the future.