First weekend down, and the bar has been set! We stayed with Benjamin’s great friend Dave in his d’lux apartment in the sky, about 2 blocks from Central Park. The location cannot be beat and the company followed suit. After a Saturday night out that included some serious fried chicken and the midnight set at a classic New York jazz club, we set up shop in Central Park for a Memorial Day picnic on Sunday. It turned out to be the best day I’ve ever had in New York, complete with great food, lots of wine and booze, frisbee, and flying Ben’s 12-foot wide kite in the middle of central park. The kite flying attracted the kids, and like tweens at a Bieber show, they swarmed Ben and the kite. I’d say it was a mighty fine way to start off my adventure, a weekend in the upper west side before I begin roughing it with nature. And because I had to, we ended the night at Gray’s Papaya for my first official hot dog of the trip.
After a lot of 
Hot Dogs and Cold Showers 