Jerry Timms

I’m back from a Labor Day weekend trip to New York and thought I’d share some pictures and stories. Initially I wasn’t going to go since I have a cruise coming up very soon in October, but I’m glad I did because I had a really good time. This was my second time ever to New York, and this trip was a lot more fun than the last visit!

I took the red eye flight with Philip from L.A. on Thursday night, getting into town Friday morning at around 6:30am. Rich and Justin flew direct from Phoenix and met us there. Our hotel room in Chelsea wasn’t ready for check in yet, so we had some breakfast and walked around the city a bit. I almost sort of felt hung over from the previous night of very little sleep on the plane…I maybe got about an hour. And drinking several cups of coffee didn’t really help as much as I thought it would! So once we were able to check in most of us decided to take a nap for a few hours.

Friday night we had a nice dinner at Elmo’s, and just as we were finishing up a drag queen astrologer came to our table and offered to read our palms. Still a little weak from no rest, and conjuring up our best adventurous spirit, we all agreed and held our palms out one by one. But after everyone got their brief consultation by our palm reader, who we would later fondly refer to as Miss Cleo, you could tell by our stunned silence that she was startingly accurate…at one point even arguing with Philip because he refused to admit to her that he was seeing someone. When she read mine I thought she might have been channeling my friend Jerry when she said that I am too picky about potential dates, need to break out of my comfort zone – and in true Jerry fashion, dared me to flirt with at least 2 guys over the course of the weekend. I slipped her a generous tip and we went on our way to finish up the night at Splash Bar.

Saturday we decided to do some walking around the city and check out the Staten Island Ferry. I brought my camera and took some pictures.

New York has some of the most awe inspiring views from street level.

I enjoyed admiring all of the architectural details. This is something you just don’t see very much of in Phoenix!

Philip and his snacks!

Justin and Rich (Yeah, I think they planned their coordinating shirts).

Entrance to Staten Island Ferry.

Rich, Philip and Justin on the deck of the ferry.

I have never been to New York before 9/11, but thought for a moment about what this would have looked like with the WTC.

The Statue of Liberty. It looks really small in person! The weather was gorgeous with hundreds of perfect little fluffy clouds.

Me on the deck of the ferry. It was kind of hectic on the deck with everyone frantically taking hundreds of pictures!

In the evening we met Philip’s friend Darlene at a great Tapas restaurant called The Stanton Social, where we all tried about a dozen different dishes.

Saturday evening we went to see Peter Rauhofer spin and Maya perform at an all-weekend event called “Work” at Stereo Nightclub. It was an interesting medium-sized industrial-themed club, and had a decent sized crowd. I met some really nice guys from Toronto (I took Miss Cleo’s challenge head on!) and enjoyed the dancing and music. Philip and I left at about 6am, letting Rich and Justin close out the night. Luckily Philip and I are usually on the same page when it comes to leaving, as I just don’t enjoy staying all the way until the very end when a club or event closes.

Sunday we all slept in until about noon, when we got up and started what consistently became a 3 hour process for us all to get ready. But it wasn’t really a big deal, because none of us were in a hurry to do anything. So once everyone was ready to go, we headed out for lunch and some shopping.

Sunday afternoon we walked around the Village where sights like this were pretty common. Actually I was pretty surprised to see gay people everywhere we went in NYC, as I didn’t remember it being like this when I was last here.

Sunday night, we were back at Stereo to see Offer Nissim and Suzanne Palmer. This night the club was completely packed. The energy was good, although I noticed that the crowd didn’t seem as friendly as at some of the circuit events I’ve been to. Nevertheless, I still met some nice people and enjoyed the night dancing and socializing with friends.

A view from the second floor balcony at the event on Sunday night.

Oh, and I’m totally going to have to visit Toronto soon!