Birthday Surprise!

It's July 26 so its around 4 days past my 30th birthday. On this day I decided to head to CT for a little bit just to take in some of the sites that I haven't seen in a good long time because I was feeling a bit of nostalgia. There were two things on my agenda, Fairfield Prep where I went to High School many years ago and to go to Stew Leonards which is the most awesome grocery store in the entire world.

I started the day like always, breakfast at the Waldorf and then a train ride up to Greenwich. Claire and I took a nice walk on Greenwich Ave which I haven't done in ages. There were quite a few new stores that I haven't been to lately and so we took the opportunity to do a little window shopping. We didn't buy anything because we can't afford Greenwich at this point in the trip. We had spent the better part of the week in the city and my budget was running low (I lie of course I had no budget :)).

First stop on my tour was of course Stew Leonards. This place is simply awesome and even though I was only there for a day, Claire and I actually bought stuff to eat just because we could and it was Stewies after all!! They still have all the great animatronic stuff all over the store, there are a few departments that are new (how the cram all that stuff into the same floor space they had in 1988 I have no idea but its being done!), and of course I had to head on over to the little petting zoo that the keep around for the kids. Lots of pics there which I would post but right now I'm too lazy to try and put it into my blog post (blogger doesn't have the best editor on the planet for this task).

The next stop that I made was to my old high school of Fairfield Prep. I haven't seen my old High School in a very long time. Since then they have built a new section of the school for a bigger library and to eliminate the need to walk out doors in the snow or the rain. Claire took pics of me here as well. The old buildings were there but there was a new alumni hall across the street which was kind of weird to me. I don't think I like the new design. The old design of the school made it more open by having the separation of the two buildings. Claire took a bunch of pictures of me here which was nice because I don't have that many pics from my Prep days in highschool. I wish I had some older pics so I could show the differences between then and now but oh well.

After visiting the ole FP, I headed back down to Greenwich to await pickup from my friend Tiny aka Johnson for dinner. I thought that it was only going to be dinner with Claire, myself, and Tiny. As it turns out Claire planned a surprise party for me at one of our favorite Japanese restaurants called Kujaku. There were a whole slew of people that I haven't seen in a couple of years and they came from all over the North East from as far away as Philadelphia PA and Amherst MA. There are pics of course but its easier to see them on my Picasa Web Albums. Needless to say it was a very good evening so far with all my friends around wishing me a happy 30th while eating kick ass Japanese food. There were so many people that we took up two Hibachi tables, now thats very impressive in my eyes. Afterwards a bunch of us headed out to a bar, some of my friends that lived a bit further away had to head home because of the very long drive but thats alright, it was just great to see them after so long. We didn't stay at the bar too long and it was a new bar that I had never heard of. I think they took over the restaurant that used to be at the corner or something. Anyway, we had a few shots just because we could and it was a night to celebrate not only my birthday but also Claire's since she had the party on her birthday. I'll make it up to her for her 30th. After that another smaller set of us decided to head over to 9 Ball to play pool. This is something that I haven't done since I lived in CT and it cemented the fact that I can not play pool to save my life. We stayed and played for a while, at least an hour or two but it was a lot of fun. Luu was nice enough to drive us back into the city since he has to head that way anyway. The next day would be our last day on vacation but thats for the next blog post!

For pics of my party click the link! Jason's 30th Birthday Party