Those of us who have watched Dirty Dancing upteen times know Kellerman’s Anthem. The iconic song that winds down the summer at the upitty resort. The lyrical phrase of importance here being: “old friends are the best”. Don’t get me wrong, I love the friends I’ve had the pleasure of gaining in recent years, but there really is something something special about old friends.

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I spent the last few days catching up with one of my two long-time BFFs. I put work and running to the side to catch up and have some fun with Jill – the “trouble girls” were back together! We acquired this nickname in our early 20’s… How did we get this name? Pure, innocent trouble we called having fun!

Circa 2001

So Jill came to this glorious place I now call home last Wednesday eve. This was not her first visit so it was nice that we didn’t have to do all the touristy stuff. We spent our time doing the usual things women do; and also laughing at our young stupidity, drinking some wine, some coffee, some beer, taking a road trip and exploring our now mature friendship in a way we hadn’t been able to for a few years. Although our lives are very different now, we are still the same when we are together.

Eve 1: A little wine at home and a night of chit chat.

Day 2: Brunch at Ze Cafe, a nice little French bistro. Shopping. Manis and pedis. Cheese tasting with Monica at the 92nd Street Y. That’s right, a cheese talk and tasting with the Cowboy Creamery ladies of Petaluma California. Wowza, loved this! (Next step in this cheese process – cheese making class!) Finished off the night with appys and sangria (best sangria ever) at Vero Wine Bar, and of course eavesdropping on a young dating couple. Oooops, did I say that out loud?

Day 3: I had to work so Jill did her own exploring and shopping. After work though we went to Bryant Park to visit the Winter Village holiday shoppes and have some appys at Celsius Lounge. Next made our way to Brooklyn for the Brooklyn Night Bazaar (bizarre hahaha!). Jill was a little “uneasy” about this event since the neighborhood was graffiti-ridden, warehouse-y and baron. Once inside – hello hipster Brooklyn! Enjoyed the mini ice cream cones, chatting with locals about their products, and laughed at our glowing teeth in the mini golf area, where of course I had my picture taken with a cardboard Fabio and Jill became a cardboard hot dog! Tina and her friend joined us then we all made our way to a lovely biergarten in the neighborhood for a bier (more plaid everywhere!).

Bryant Park

Day 4: Up and out the door to Penn Station to catch the LIRR to Ronkonkama. From there, car rental and road trip to the Hamptons! Beautiful fall foliage, deer prancing around, gorgeous summer homes on the beach. First stop in Westhampton for lunch. Second stop in Southhampton at the beach, deer again prancing between massive homes, deciding whose place housed the best foliage I suppose. Third stop in Montauk for the night. Stayed at the Montauk Marina & Yacht Club. Gorgeous sunset. Wanted to crash the wedding but it would have been too noticeable so we went for dinner and ended the night early with the TV… dang just couldn’t stay up to make it to the newlywed’s bonfire hahaha!

Southhampton Beach

Montauk Marina and Yacht Club sunset

Day 5: Up early for room service and a beautiful sunrise! Checked out and off to the Montauk Lighthouse we went! Boulder walking, shell picking and carcass inspection… still not sure what that creature was… Next headed into East Hampton for a coffee and a stop at BookHampton, couldn’t resist our love for book shopping. Back on the road – lots of roadkill! Poor Bambi and family! Finally, off to Riverhead Tanger outlets to meet Lana for shopping and lunch. After all that, headed back to the city on the LIRR where we hung out for the eve before Jill had to retire early for her very early airport pick-up.

Montauk Lighthouse

Public Beach at Montauk

I wrapped up our days in a whirlwind, yes. Unfortuntely the short amount of detail in my paragraphs doesn’t give our time together justice at all but the point is, it was a great time of reconnection and new memory-making for us. Memories that we both will look back on very fondly, like many from the past.

P.S. Some of these memories will end up cycling back as jibberyjab posts too 🙂

P.S.S. And bucket list checking too.