Goodbye New York!

After a long but very busy and fun weekend, our little vacation had ended and on Monday we were headed back to the airport. We did have until around 3 pm before we had to head to LaGuardia though so Jen and I took the opportunity to head over to her uncle's office to visit with him and get a chance to see a different part of the city. We had all of our bags with us and he was so nice to let us stash our stuff in his office while we walked around and had lunch.

And! He works right next to the AIGA Headquarters. Unfortunately they were re-doing the gallery space so we didn't get a chance to check out the inside but it was cool getting to be there.

AIGA: The best organization around.

And if AIGA weren't enough, we also passed Pentagram! Jen spotted it out of the corner of her eye and we had to go up and peer inside. Oh hey Michael Beruit! Paula Scher! Ah to be in the presence of design heroes.

Pentagram building, 5th Ave.

After exploring a bit, we had a great lunch, crab cake sandwich and Strawberry Daiquiris for Jen and I. Then Brian took us to Lomography ! This store was awesome and I have been craving a Diana camera, now that I know how awesome they really are (and inexpensive!) I am definitely needing to get one soon. Jen already has a Holga which she used on our trip so she was able to get some fun little accessories for it while we were there.

Soon it was time to say our goodbyes. He sent us off in a cab and we headed back to the airport. It was such a wonderful couple of days and I know we were both feeling nostalgic as we drove away from the city. It was just so wonderful to spend so much time with Mike after not seeing him for so long and even after a few hours we missed him already. With hundreds of photos taken, blisters on our feet, and a lot of new memories made we left feeling inspired but happy to get back to our (quite tiny in comparison) little Grand Rapids.

Can you believe this was the only cab we took?

You were a doll New York! Hopefully we'll be back soon!

PS. Our trip back to Michigan did not go nearly as smooth as our trip to New York. Our flight was actually so delayed we missed our connecting flight and spent the night in Wisconsin. A huge thank you to my wonderful Mother who put us up in a hotel for the night. We at least got a chance to get some sleep and eat some truly awesome pizza before heading back to the airport the next morning.
Ah, what an adventure it was.