We have been spending the week in NY. This is the first time we have traveled down together. We were originally coming here to attend her friends wedding in Barnegat, N.J., and decided to expand it to spend it in NYC.

We arrived at Newark Airport at 10:30 AM, Saturday Sept 2. I have never entered through Newark Airport, so wasn't exactly sure how to get to the city. Grant mentioned a free shuttle to the PATH train that would take us into the city. Unfortunately we couldn't find the free shuttle and it turned out we had to spend about $7 each to take NJ transit to the PATH train. Then from the PATH train we took it over to the WTC stop. This one cost us only $1.50 and took us much farther.

By the time we we arrived at the WTC stop, it was about 12 PM. We started looking for the 4, 5 or 6 train to get to Grants. It turned out they were all closed in the area for some type of construction. We went around in circles to find an alternate stop. I asked a cop but he sent us to another station that was also closed.

As we were walking in front of the WTC site for the second time, some girls across the street were holding open their umbrellas, as it was starting to rain lightly. The wind picked up and took one of their umbrellas into the air about 10 stories up. The umbrella flew across the street and landed on the WTC site. It was pretty funny. The cop I asked for instructions was laughing, as well as some other pedestrians.

We found the R train, after I asked a subway worker at one of the closed stops. I was more familiar with that line from when I used to live here. The R took us to Union station, where we switched to the 6 and headed to 86 ST, where Grant lives near. I had slightly sprained my right knee playing volleyball the Monday before and carrying the luggage up and down subway stairs was starting to aggravate it. By the time we got to Grants apartment, I was happy that he could carry it the 3 flights of stairs to his studio apartment.

When Grant came down to greet us and to meet her for the first time, I was a bit surprised to find that Grant had grown a full beard since I last saw him a year before. At first I thought it fake and he was going to pull it off at any moment. I was even tempted to call our mutual friend Rita to see if it was really real. After a few hours I was sure it was real, but I still expected him to pull it off at anytime.

After we dropped our belongings off, we all went for a bite of pizza. When we got back, we were so tired from our plane trip and waking up at 5 AM that morning, that her and I passed out and took a couple of hours nap.

That night we met Rita and Josh in Astoria for Egyptian food. The rain really started picking up, as Ernesto, which I think was a tropical depression at the time, was starting to drop a lot of rain on us. She and I weren't prepared and ended up getting wet. When we got to the restaurant on 28th ave and 33st, it turned out to be closed for renovation. Rita and Josh eventually met us there and we ended up eating at another restaurant on Steinway between 28th ave and Astoria Blvd. I was surprised to see that that whole block had turned into a little Egyptian neighborhood, with some other middle eastern influence scattered on it. Most of the food we ordered was similar to Greek food and other Arabic food I've had in the past. We had Mousaka, pita and humus, tabuli and shishkebab.

After dinner we headed to Rita and Josh's place a few blocks down Steinway near Ditmars blvd. Rita and Josh went ahead of us, as Rita was concerned some rain had blown into a window they left open. The rest of us bought some dessert to take there. Once there, we had a couple of glasses of wine, some of the middle eastern dessert Grant bought  and we all talked. It was around 12am when we left and took the N train from Ditmars back to the Grants.