Two Out Of Three

Well, in Thursday's "Looking Forward" post, I outlined three major plans we had for this weekend: "Top Gun" on the Intrepid, the U.S. Open (for the boys), and the Rays v. Mets game. We were able to do two of the three, so that ain't bad.

Before I get to the weekend recap, I just want to share this article that was in the NY Post today, to prove that I'm not just overreacting and being crazy about the weather these days:

BIG APPLE IS KEEPING ITS COOL THIS MONTH
By JOE MOLLICA, June 22, 2009

We're on track to bring in the second-coldest June on record.

So far, the average temperature for the month is 65.1 degrees.

If that keeps up, it will make this June the coolest since June 1903, which had an average temperature of 64.2 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.

We've also gotten plenty of rain this month -- 7.90 inches. That's 5.37 inches above the average of 2.53 inches. Last year, we got 3.39 inches in all of June.

Yesterday, the first official day of summer, was mostly cloudy and rainy, with just a few hours of sun. Don't expect the sun again until Wednesday, when temperatures are expected to warm up to 80 degrees.

The gloom is keeping the crowds away from Coney Island.

Mike Finley, 54, who has worked there for four decades, says his business is down 50 percent.

"How's business? What business? It's been terrible. The worst I've seen in 44 years," Finley said. "I've never seen the rain bother people like this."

You see? I'm not crazy! This is near-record lousy weather! I feel so vindicated.

Anyway, let's talk fun stuff, shall we? Because despite some rain, we really had a fun little weekend. As I mentioned on Thursday, our good friend Jeff came up from D.C. for the weekend. His bus got stuck in traffic, of course, so he ended up getting into town a little later than we expected. However, the timing ended up working out perfectly.

Eric got home from work around 6:30p.m., and we left around 7:00 to pick up dinner and head to the Intrepid. We got there right at 7:30, which is when they opened it up for people to come on in and set up shop. We got a great spot to the right of the screen, then did some wandering around to check out the planes on the deck. The timing was also perfect to catch the sunset over New Jersey (and the sun was even out, do you believe it?!).

Doesn't Eric look handsome? And check it out - what is that crazy light to the left? Why, it's the sun! How weird!

Me in our spot, with the screen behind me

Planes on the deck

Sunset

Jeff met us there not long after we got settled in. We chowed down on our Daisy May's BBQ, which tasted particularly good for some reason. Then we spent a little more time enjoying the scenery before the movie began. We really had a great view of the NYC skyline, all lit up at dusk - my favorite time of day!

Jeff and me

The boys and the mason jars of sweet tea

Eric and me with NYC at our backs

Lighting at dusk

The movie was very cool. Of course we've seen "Top Gun" a bunch of times, but it was so awesome to be watching it on the deck of an aircraft carrier, surrounded by all these fighter planes and such. Plus, before the movie started, they showed a short film about the history of the Intrepid. It was really neat, and the whole experience was lots of fun.

The screen

Crowds ready for the movie

We definitely want to do this again! They're showing two more movies this summer: "Jaws" in July (but we'll be in Europe then), and "Apollo 13" in August. It was just really cool, and thank heavens the weather cooperated!

On Saturday, the boys got to participate in Plan #2: the U.S. Open! This was the reason Jeff came to visit this weekend. Unfortunately, the weather was not as cooperative on Saturday as it was for the movie on Friday night, but the boys would not be deterred. They got up at 4:30 a.m. and left the house at 5:00. Yes, 5:00! I got up to see them off and take a picture to preserve the moment. Unfortunately, I could not go back to sleep. Boo.

Two very tired boys and their U.S. Open tickets. You can't see it, but the clock on the cable box says "5:03." Yes, as in A.M.

I guess the rain was not too unbearable for them, although things were very muddy. They came home with their feet just covered in mud! They had a great time though. They got to see all the golf greats, including Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els, Vijay Singh, and of course, Tiger Woods. They said Tiger is very serious. Some of the other golfers would smile or joke around with their caddy, but Tiger had his game face on the whole time. Unfortunately, cameras and/or cell phones were not allowed in to the course, so even though the boys got to see so many cool people, they could not take any pictures! The only pic they got was this one of them, courtesy of the Lexus tent:

Don't be fooled. It was not actually sunny like this.

The boys got back home around 3:30p.m. We hung out and watched more of the golf for a while, then went out for pizza at Casabianca (our favorite place) and a movie. We saw "The Hangover" in Times Square, and it was very funny! We had a good time. And on our way back, we saw a movie being filmed, which I later learned was "Date Night" starring Tina Fey and Steve Carell. Unfortunately we didn't catch sight of the stars, so we can't add them to our Celebrity Sighting List. (Have you noticed that we have a list of our celeb sightings on the right hand side of this blog? Check it out!)

On Sunday we had hoped to go see the Rays play the Mets, but the weather wasn't looking so hot so we decided to skip it. (As it turns out, the weather held out just fine until the 7th inning, and then they had an hour rain delay. At that point the Rays were up a few runs, so we probably could have left then had we been there, and we would've been fine. Oh, well). Instead, Jeff treated us to brunch, which was very nice. I particularly enjoyed the (few too many) mimosas. Mmm, brunch.

From there, we sent Jeff on his way back home, and Eric and I did some shopping for books to take on the plane to EUROPE IN TWO WEEKS! Then it was sushi for dinner, and catching up on our DVRed TV shows, as the rain kept pouring down off and on all night.

So, it really was a pretty nice weekend. Hope you all enjoyed your weekends as well, especially you dads out there!