A Piddy Weekend

It's a dazzling fall Sunday afternoon here in Manhattan and I just got to spend the past 24 hours with Michael & Karen Pidduck!

Karen's company flew them to Manhattan for a vacation weekend and I got to spend most of yesterday and today with them as they stayed at my place last night. It was a long shot from the Four Seasons their first two nights, but we had a ball (and Mike got a free haircut out of it!)!

They arrived in Manhattan Thursday night and had a hanful of adventures before I got to see them, including stops at Radio City Music Hall, the David Letterman studio, and a horse carriage ride through Central Park with George.

We started Saturday with a trek to the Financial District so they could get vantages of the Brooklyn Bridge, visit the World Trade Center site, the NYSE on Wall Street, and the Charging Bull statue, and to SHOP SHOP SHOP at Century 21! I'll just say that C21 did not disappoint.

More shopping in SoHo was also on the agenda and we were able to hit up the Replay Sample Sale to score slashed-price goods from one of the hot NYC boutiques. Following an awesome dinner at Boom Cafe, we hit a few more shops before calling it quits, exhausted. We finished the night with dessert near my apartment at Andre's Cafe -- a little Hungarian bakery with incredible mousses, pies, cheesecakes, etc. Mike and I also enjoyed hot chocolate spiked with a Hungarian coffee liqueur. I'll have to find out what that was exactly!

This morning, we got up late and enjoyed a slow morning, but one that included brunch at The New Amity Cafe (fan favorite!) and an afternoon in Central Park. We hit Conservatory Water and held a photo shoot at the Hans Christian Andersen statue where Karen posed, posed, posed, posed, posed, posed, posed, posed, posed under my art direction. It was hot. Hans was a happy man.

We hit more highlights of the park, including the Loeb Boathouse and the Bethesda Fountain before taking in Sheep Meadow and Strawberry Fields. Our day ended with more Fifth Avenue shopping, packing at my place, and ROMA Pizza for lunch before their car arrived and shuttled them to Newark. While they're prepping for their flight back to Seattle, I'm prepping for a quick Sunday afternoon nap!

Autumn has arrived here in Manhattan; scarves are making their way out of closets and around necks of New Yorkers. I'm excited to know the HOT summer is behind and I'll get to celebrate fall in this beautiful city.