Friday

After a late night on Thursday, we decided to have a bit of a lie in. We got up, packed our bags so we’d be ready to leave that afternoon and then at about midday we headed uptown for the first time to visit a diner that’s special to both of us but for different reasons. For Laura it’s the place where Suzanne Vega wrote “Tom’s Diner” and for me it’s the building used for the exterior shots of “Monks” diner in Seinfeld.

The diner from Seinfeld, and also where Suzanne Vega wrote Tom's Diner.

The diner has been owned by the same family for 60 years and felt very traditional and authentic. They only take cash, so after checking my pocket to count how many dollars we had left we ordered (an omelette for Laura, strawberry pancakes for me and a strawberry “famous giant shake”). Everything was tasty.

We then walked off our food by walking back to our apartment via Central Park. Tom’s Restaurant is on 112^th Street and our apartment is on 74^th, so we walked a fair distance. The park is beautiful and it was amazing how quickly you lose the sounds of the city once you’re in it. We saw plenty of people out enjoying the park, playing softball, baseball, football.

At this time of year all the trees are just greening out and the blossoms are still in full bloom, so the view over the reservoir back towards the city was lovely.

Back at the aparment we gathered our stuff together, checked for mislaid socks, finished writing the blog and then said our goodbyes to the apartment we called home for 6 days and 5 nights. We got on the subway to Penn station and then waited for our train. It wasn’t a long wait though and the station had wi-fi so we were easily entertained.

The train was busy, but we got seats and settled in for the 80 minute journey back to Philadelphia.

In Philadelphia we got a really slooooowwwwww train to the airport and then proceeded to walk around a really complicated tour of odd corridors before finding where to check in and drop our bags for the flight. Terminal 5 this wasn’t.

Once through security we found a bar called Chickie & Pete’s and ordered a Philly cheesesteak, some wings and crab fries to share. Oh, and a couple of drinks. On the TV, the Mets game was on, and as we’re now fans of the Mets ;) we kept an eye on the score. We chilled here until it was time to go to our gate and board the plane.

The flight home wasn’t as exciting as the one 2 weeks ago, and we kept reminding each other that “this time last week we were….” or “last night we were in New York doing…”

We watched the silent film The Artist and then caught a few hours sleep before being woken up with tea and a muffin for breakfast.

At Terminal 5 we were allowed back into the UK (hurrah!), got the car back from the hotel and began the 2 hour drive home with the holiday blues kicking in!

At home, the cats were waiting for us and Liz had bought us some milk to we had tea and snuggles.

And that was the Awesome American Adventure – 2012.

THE END