Here's a link to my pics from the show (over 400!):
https://goo.gl/photos/8NTzNiSBCgiR6XBr7
They're pics from a phone with a notoriously shitty camera and about half of the pics were with a unwieldy external battery plugged into its ass end that I had to also balance.
Overall the show was a blast. I ended up staying from 2 to about 9. Leadfoot866 got a headstart of about a hour and left around 6. We met up for lunch at about 2:30 and then walked the remainder of what he hadn't seen, talking cars and taking photos. It was great and it was nice to meet another FG'er.
Honestly, having met (or at least talked to) at least 6 forum members IRL...I can safely say that we have one of...if not THE best forum communities on the internet. Period. The vibe I've gotten from everyone i've encountered has been just awesome, relaxed, and great.
The show was excellent. The local shows that the dealer associations and Motor Trend puts on can't hold a candle to this. The booths were massive, the cars abundant, and the displays unreal (many had multiple sections within the booth. BMW's had a upper level that seemed exclusive to BMW owners - they had a bouncer/rep checking for a ticket of some sort). It's absolutely a spectacle and I loved it.
I do wish that they'd have a day where it was just for adults though. - it was hard to really get into most of the cars there because just when you'd think a car would be empty....a kid would pop up and jump in the driver's seat. The teens would crowd into anything with 5+ seats, crank up the radio if it worked, then proceed to text for minutes at a time. Kinda irritating as I really wanted to check out the Pacifica's interior. I can say that it's drop dead gorgeous in real life. Expectations exceeded. FCA needs a home run and if they can deliver a perfectly executed launch with no major hiccups unlike Dart, Cherokee, and 200....they'll have a winner.
The rest of the trip was equally as great - Friday I met up with a Reddit r/nycgaymers group...the guy who invited me and I ended up splitting off from the main group to go to this dessert bar called
Chikalicious. It's absolutely divine...a very intimate shop in the heart of the East Village. He's very good friends with the owners ....you could tell that they have regulars and get to know them quite well. I had the "
Warm Chocolate Tart with Pink Peppercorn Ice Cream and Red Wine Sauce (Churchill Graham Reserve Port)" as my main course and it was absolutely divine. The Amuse and Petit Fours were great as well. After that, we went to a awesome ramen place called
Rai Rai Ken- seriously....this shit was amazing:
I joked that I couldn't go back to my "cup of noodles" shitty ramen after this but...yeah.. I'm kinda right. :/
We then went to this divey gay bar called Numbers to meet the rest of the group. Packed was a understatement, it was like sardines in there so we didn't stay tooo long. The redditor who invited me along was a perfect gentleman and friend, even taking the time to walk me to the correct PATH station entrance (which was non descript and actually built into the wall of a random building).
Sunday, I checked out a bit before noon and headed to a mall called
The Mills at Jersey Gardens to do a bit of wandering and light shopping. Overall it was ok (apparently it was initially all outlet stores but is now a mix of regular price and outlet stores) but fuck aggressive kiosk workers with a rusty spoon. Seriously it was that bad and kinda tacky for this to happen at least 4 times in a mall with stores like Coach and Armani Exchange.
Also, not being able to pump your own gas kinda blows. Just sayin.
It's official. I want to hit up every major show in the US, attending one at least every 2 years...if not once a year. The big shows are just everything one loves (and hates) about auto shows amplified and it's almost like one of those "must do if you're a car guy" things for me.
Next year - Detroit, at least for me.