Jumping the Sark

After hiking back across Central Park (I actually elected one of the car thoroughfares to avoid getting lost, which made for a somewhat boring and exhaust-filled hike), I met up with the groom at his apartment. He had everything all organized into a bag for both the wedding and reception - I walked out carrying two wedding bands, cash payments for the DJ and photographer, and all of the documentation required by the state for the ceremony. Needless to say, I held onto that bag for dear life the entire subway ride down to the bachelor party. My favorite part of the trip was a large group comprised of two religiously observant moms and perhaps seven kids who piled onto the subway, at which point one of the mothers loudly barked out orders for who was to sit where, with excellent names like Mirele and Moishe coming up. The moms then proceeded to speak Yiddish the entire subway ride; it was great to hear the language being used.

B had very few requirements for his bachelor party - a few close friends, a request for sushi, poker, and a request for 'Cutty Shark' alcohol. I'd never heard of it, but looked it up, found a drink called 'Cutty Sark' (I presumed related to the Clipper ship/tourist destination we'd found to be under construction when we tried to visit on our last London trip), figured B had just spelled it wrong, and passed the request on to some of the attendees to grab some

When folks showed up, we had a hilarious series of stories of trying to get this whisky -- a few liquor store owners hadn't even heard about it, others had reported that it was really bottom shelf stuff, another said "that's what my dad drinks", and so on. B revealed that 'Cutty Shark' had been our Zadie's (grandfather's) favorite drink, and I realized at that point why the label looked familiar. At this point I called him on the Shark/Sark discrepancy, and he was totally dumbfounded - it became a running joke of the evening.

We added in a classic childhood video game favorite of B and his friends, and an excellent round of the party game "Celebrity". Everyone had a great time (pictures here - don't worry, nothing too risque).

Meanwhile (who am I kidding, everyone just wants to know more about Zachary!), back in Manhattan, Meh and Zachary had an earlyish evening back at the hotel. He figured out the zipper on Meh's backpack, opened it up, grabbed her wallet, and opened that up. Meh caught this video: