Jesse visits L.I.

As a Christmas present, I bought my brother a plane ticket from Tampa to Long Island. He was here last weekend, and we had a great time both in Port Jeff and NYC. My brother has never been to New York, except for a quick stay on the stateside half of Niagara Falls years ago. His first observation: the accent, more specifically, mine. Supposedly, I'm starting to adopt some of the pronunciations heard in the area. Yet, I still talk very much like a Michigander according to my NY friends and coworkers. This leaves me with a sort of hybrid accent, which while at a local bar on Thursday night with Jesse and a couple friends, was cause for teasing from both sides. "Call," "tired," "salad," you name it, I don't say it correctly in anyone's book. Luckily, we came across enough true Long Islanders to mostly deflect my brother's attention away from my own dialect.
Jesse got a taste of Port Jeff on Thursday and Friday -- pizza, small-town bars, and even the local puppy store. On Saturday, it was time for the big stuff. We got on the earliest train we could manage and headed into the city. I thought I walked a lot when my mom came to visit, but I'm pretty sure this recent sight-seeing loop blew that tour out of the water. We started in the financial district, stopping at Wall Street, Battery Park, and the World Trade Center site. Then, since Jesse could "see" the Empire State Building, he insisted on walking up to Midtown. I don't think he realized that you can pretty much see that building from anywhere in the metro area. Despite some really sore feet and legs, we were both glad we opted for the above-ground route over the subway because we got to walk through some great parts of the city. We were stereotypical tourists in Times Square, running to the median to get the best photos and then darting off to Rockefeller Center to take pictures of the ice skaters. We met Abbey and Adam for dinner at Carmine's. As usual, there was an hour and a half wait, but also as usual, the food was great. We all went to Blondies afterward to drink and watch the MSU basketball game.
When my parents found out brother was getting a ticket out here for Christmas, they bought us a related joint-gift -- a room in a hotel overlooking Central Park. It was so nice to just take the short subway ride back to our room on Saturday instead of the hour-ride back out east. Plus, it gave us more time to sight see on Sunday. We grabbed bagels for breakfast and took a long, winding walk around Central Park and then down Fifth Avenue. Neither of us had extra money to spend after a long weekend of eating out and drinking, but we still had fun looking in some of the theme-park-like stores. I dropped Jess off at the airport last night after our train ride back, and now I think we're both physically and financially exhausted.