New York. Again? Absolutely!

Well, this time it was for break and man what a time. Oddly enough, no travel debacles for stories this time!

I arrived Saturday and spent the day tooling around in the city. I stayed the night in a perfect hostel (actually... yes... perfect!) near to times square. It was comfortable and the guy, Avi, that runs it was super super nice. It's called the New York City Hostel on 38th... just in case anyone wants to make not of it!

Saturday night was beautiful. Great tunes at O'Neill's and I met a few really nice people, Paul and Mark, from Ballyshannon, Co. Donegal. We had a great time at the bar with Jimmy and it was certainly a fun night.

Sunday I relaxed a bit and tooled around. Headed out to Queens to check out a pub that Paul and Mark were at it was absolutely a riot... loud, drunken, Irishmen... just like Ireland! Surely fun... headed back in to Catch the session at O'Neill's... beautiful tunes... then over to 11th street... more beautiful tunes.

Monday, I took a field trip to Staten Island to Mandolin Brothers and played instruments for 2 hours. Uh what fun! The ferry was enjoyable too. At night I went to a Jazz group recommended to me and they were so awesome we didn't leave for most of the night! I was pretty tired from the two nights previous also. Got to Mona's for a couple really amazing sets and then I headed back home... oh, by now I was staying with my brother, Ben... thanks Ben!!!!

Tuesday was the best. Johnny released, with Dan, his CD at 11th street. They did a performance and it was just wonderful. Allison sang some as well... they are all such amazing musicians and it was such a privilege to listen to them play so much! We sat around for a LONG while afterwards, having fun, enjoying some music... followed by some serious laughs... followed by some seriously amazing pizza... followed by crashing up in the Bronx... again... for some reason. We're not quite sure, but it is always fun.

I was supposed to leave Wednesday, but that just didn't quite happen. In met everyone later in Central Park and we played Frisbee... then headed to a gig, listened to some beautiful tunes and headed back to Ben's. I did end up leaving in the POURING rain the next morning. I rode the train home and, although it was long, it was still restful.

In any case... thanks to EVERYONE for a wonderful, relaxing, fun time. Can't wait to see ya again!

smiles


(Oh and here are a couple pictures from Caitlin! They are fun!)
http://columbia.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2134077&l=7b0e8&id=912690

There are 3 pages of Pictures! Enjoy!

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