Ever since we moved onto the boat, Matthew and I had been talking about how cool it would be for him to be able to visit New York with us. Then Covid and other life-busyness happened, but this year we managed to make it work. It was great exploring Long Island Sound with Matthew, but the original purpose of his visit was to be able to have a weekend together in NYC. I decided to take Friday off so that we could hang out together.

The past couple of times we’ve driven by NYC, I’ve been on work calls and essentially missed this cruise, which is one of my favourites! It’s always amazing to be cruising in your home down past all the familiar landmarks. It was particularly special to be able to share this with Matthew!

We had woken up early to make this cruise for two reasons – one being the tide at Hell’s Gate – a narrow passage near the north of the East River, and two to go a little past the Brooklyn marina in order to be able to get “the shot” of the statue of liberty with Matthew. David was working, so we needed to be able to do this before his first meeting started.

After snapping this photo, we turned around and headed straight to the marina where we were delayed a few minutes by another boat exiting, but managed to pull into our slip with about 1 minute before David’s first call began. Matthew and I got us settled into the marina with power etc. and then he and I set off to find us some lunch. We decided to walk from the marina over the Brooklyn Bridge – very touristy!

We grabbed some pizza after that and returned to the boat to feed David. For Dinner, Matthew wanted to experience NYC Sushi, so we were able to make reservations at Ondo Omikase. OpenTable said it was BYOB, which we thought was a little weird, but I packed a bottle of sake and a really nice rose (Mum and Dad – it was Azur) in my backpack and we headed out for the evening.

It turned out that they had been open for only a month and didn’t yet have their liquor license! Because we were there a little later in the evening, after David had finished his work calls, we essentially got our own private chef with whom we chatted while he made us AMAZING sushi.

On Saturday afternoon, we had booked an escape room. The room was really well done, and we escaped with only about 4 minutes left on hard mode. It turned out that our game master was relatively new and we were his first group to have escaped that room!

For dinner, we had reservations at Atera, a 2-michelin star restaurant that is one of David and my favourites. We were excited to share the experience with Matthew. The meal did not disappoint and we enjoyed a lovely evening together.

On Sunday, Matthew and I had tickets to go and see a matinee show. We had made reservations for lunch at Momofuku Noodle Bar for lunch before the show. David was going to come with us, but the weather was not great, and since he wasn’t joining us for the show afterwards he decided to stay on the boat (more time playing video games!).

Lunch was across the street from Central Park, so we decided to do a quick walk through the park before heading to the theatre.

The past couple of years I have been going through a mourning period after deciding to “break up with” Harry Potter due to JK Rowling’s views on the definition of “women”. Since the Harry Potter play was Matthew’s particular request for what show to see, I decided to make this one exception. David and I had gone to see it in London when it opened when it was a 2-night event. The play is now condensed into one night. Many of the amazing stage magical elements were still in the show, though the plot now moves incredibly quickly. I was incredibly conflicted during the experience, which is such a shame that something that used to bring me such joy and wonder has been tainted by something so harmful. However, I still enjoyed the time hanging out with my brother.

After the show, David joined us in Manhattan and we grabbed a casual bite for dinner after a weekend filled with excessive food experiences! After dinner, we wanted to have a cocktail, so we found a bar nearby, which turned out to be attached to a swanky movie theatre, and also had a live 5-piece jazz band. We then went back to the escape room place to do their other two rooms! Overall it was a fabulous weekend in the city with Matthew.

On Monday morning, we said goodbye to Matthew, who was headed into Manhattan to spend the morning at Accenture’s office before catching his flight home. David and I were headed to New Jersey, where we would be leaving the boat on a mooring in Sandy Hook as we flew to Seattle in the evening for a work trip for David.