Coffee Prince and Late Autumn Roadtrip

In June 2011, I took a road trip from South Carolina to New York City via Palisades Park, NJ.  I had learned through my constant internet searching that there was a Coffee Prince coffee shop in Palisades Park.  The shop was set up similar to the way things were in the drama and the waiters, all cute Korean guys, wore the same uniform outfits that were worn in Coffee Prince!  Add to that the fact that Hyun Bin's movie "Late Autumn" was being shown in select US theaters at that same time, in the same area!  It was written in the stars that I purchased my 2006 Mini Cooper S convertible that looks exactly like the one Choi Han Gyul drove in Coffee Prince in March of 2011 and that my latest heart throb, Hyun Bin's movie was playing where I could actually sit in a theater and watch it, not on a computer screen.  The word ROADTRIP screamed in my brain....I had to go!!!

I needed a traveling companion.  As it turned out, my granddaughter Nicole was 8 months pregnant and the fraternal grandparents lived in Staten Island, NY.  What better person was there to ask if she wanted to come along for the ride.  Now, the fact that the baby arrived a bit early on July 24 had nothing to do with the trip, I'm sure???  Just to ease your mind, baby Aslynn Skye arrived in an underwater birth and is absolutely beautiful, healthy and perfect as my great grandchild #4!  I digress....

Nicole and Ji Cheol

Off I go, riding with the top down.  Stopped in Virginia to visit daughter Amy and my 3 granddaughters, Jessyka, Samantha and Rebecka.  Then on to Maryland to meet up with Nicole and to see my daughter and son-in-law, Cathy and Mike.

Thank goodness Nicole had a smartphone with GPS navigation.  We arrived in Ridgefield Park, NJ, corporate home of Samsung in the US.  After checking into the hotel we made the short drive to Palisades Park.  As soon as I was on the street where Coffee Prince was I knew where it was.  I had gone on Google Earth and I had actually "driven" on the street and parked in the parking lot in front of the coffee shop.  No surprises, it was amazing!  We entered the coffee shop.  On the wall was the mural I use as my Avatar, the sunbursts very similar to the ones drawn by Han Joo Yoo.

Mural at Coffee Prince

We each ordered a coffee after doing our best to decipher the menu. It was apparent our waiter spoke very little English, if any.  While waiting we looked around the shop.  Please forgive the poor quality of my pictures.  I was nervous and the room was dim.

I asked the waiter if he would pose for a picture but he declined with a grin on his face.  We finished our coffee and it was time to go.  This is me outside the coffee shop.

I had researched restaurants in the area.  There were many to choose from.  This was definitely Koreatown!  I chose a BBQ restaurant and we headed inside.  It was packed!!  Luckily we did get a table with the BBQ grill.  The food was very good.  I had wanted to order a bottle of Soju but the waitress wanted me to know that it was the equivalent to vodka.  Since I had to drive as Nicole was in no condition to do so, I regretfully declined.  Here is me and the food....

End of Perfect Day #1 of Roadtrip!

The next day we went to see "Late Autumn".  We went to a matinee as Nicole had been in touch with the grandparents and we were to meet them in New York's Little Italy that evening for dinner.  An unexpected but exciting side trip.  Here I am after the movie.

The movie was good.  Most of it was in English but there was also Chinese that was subtitled in Korean and then Korean being spoken.  You could tell they only expected Koreans to come to see the movie.  The theater was right next door to the Samsung offices.

Now, our side trip to Little Italy.  I was a bit nervous and I know Nicole was as well.  We had never met the grandparents before but we both held our breath.  We had originally planned to take the bus into the City as info I had read recommended doing that rather than driving in but it was raining and I couldn't see us being wet and miserable as we would have to do quite a bit of walking.  So I decided we would take Ji Choel and drive in.  It was only New York City, right?  Luckily it was a Sunday so there was no rush hour traffic to worry about.  We programmed the GPS and off we went.  Had no trouble at all.  Piece of cake!  The grandparents were very outgoing.  We had a wonderful Italian meal, walked around the streets that had been turned into pedestrian only for the Italian festival that we didn't know was going on until we arrived.  We ended up at a wonderful Italian dessert restaurant.  Sure gained some weight that night.

The lovely evening ended.  Nicole and I headed back to NJ.  Got a little lost but nothing scary.  The next day we headed back to Maryland and then I headed back to South Carolina.  This was truly a memorable trip that I will think back on and be so glad I took a chance on something and some place new.

On a sad note, since then the Coffee Prince coffee house closed in March, 2012.  I had hoped to go back there again.  I may still go back to Palisades Park as there were many other interesting places there I would like to check out.  Wonder if Nicole and Aslynn would want to go......