Friday in the city

On our last full day in NYC, we woke up to rain.  At last we had reason to use the convenient gratis umbrella in the closet.


We huddled together for several blocks, trying to avoid puddles, until we got to a diner called the Flame Restaurant.  Jason got a mimosa and I got a smoothie with my belgian waffle and eggs.


After that we set off walking in the direction of Times Square to find a tacky souvenir shop where I could get an I Heart NY t-shirt.  We found one on the same block as some super-special restaurant our tour guide had pointed out where people wait in a ridiculously long line to buy a $30 pastrami sandwich.  There they were, in the rain, lined up all down the block to get in.


Weird.


After we loaded up on NYC kitsch, we wanted to look for something a little classier for my parents at the Metropolitan Museum of Art gift shop.


We walked about a mile and a half, still huddled under the umbrella, but caring less and less about avoiding puddles, as our gratis hotel umbrella wasn't quite big enough to generously cover both of us.  By the time we got to the museum we were a little drowned-rattish.  It was still a lovely walk, with the reflective shine, colored leaves, and droplets clinging to wrought-iron railings.  I would've loved to take pictures, actually, if that hadn't put my camera at risk of shorting out and also made Jason wetter than he already was.


After loading up again with classy souvenirs, Jason had other ideas than walking for getting back to the hotel.  Since we didn't really know how to hail one of the zillions of identical NY taxis, he arranged an Uber ride--a first for us.


I was quite happy to peel off my wet socks and wrap my feet in a fluffy towel until dinnertime.


We eventually dressed up and went to an Indian restaurant for dinner, which was amazing and delicious and wonderful.


Since the rain had let up, we walked about to find someplace for dessert, but by this time, we were so weary of crowds, after peering in a couple of packed places, we opted for our hotel rooftop.


There we split a lovely bottle of wine and brownie sundae.  We gazed at the view and enjoyed the fireplace until we were ready to retire to our room and laugh at late show clips.


What a week.

Thursday

After a marathon day of touring on Wednesday, we slept/lounged til noon on Thursday.


Ahhh, vacation.


We sought out a place that serves afternoon brunch on a Thursday and ended up at Sarabeth's for lemon ricotta pancakes.  Yum.


The weather was still lovely so we ate outside at the sidewalk tables.  After this many days in the city, I commented how loud it always is.  The sound of traffic is ubiquitous and it was starting to make my country ears tired.  I wondered if city dwellers have worse hearing than the rural.


Still, we thoroughly enjoyed our afternoon brunch, and afterwards walked to the American Museum of Natural History (setting of at least one of the Night in the Museum movies, as my kids would be thrilled to know) to see the dinosaurs.

Fine set of teeth on T-Rex

This guy is obviously suffering from plagiocephaly.  I know where he can get a snappy helmet.

A fossil of Mater Monstera:  "Monster Mommy," preserved forever in the very moment of responding to her children who had been bickering ALL DAY LONG.  Mater Monstera has HAD IT.

After we had our fill of dinosaurs, we stepped over to Central Park and had a sit-down for a while, while we contemplated our next move.  

The number of things one can do in NYC is overwhelming. 

Not every day does one get a week-long offer of babysitting coinciding with the ability to take time off work and the financial means to stay in the city.  The pressure was on to have the Most Awesome Vacation Ever and not to squander this opportunity, which is not guaranteed to arise again.

We didn't know if the kids were metaphorically eating Nana alive at that very moment.  We must seize this day.

NYC, in my opinion, is super fun, energizing, and exciting.  It is also a difficult place in which to relax.  There are always other things you could be doing, and a couple million people doing them, causing constant FOMO and restlessness.

After vacillating and debating for some time, we came up with a plan:  we would do a crawl, visiting All the Places (in reality, we made a list of 6 neighborhoods to visit--Brooklyn, Little Italy, Chinatown, Koreatown, Soho, and Greenwich Village).  We would get something to eat or drink in each place, and we laid down the rule that we could only use our phones to get ourselves to the neighborhood, not to search for restaurants or reviews.  We would choose our establishments solely by what looked appealing from the street.

Filled with fresh resolve and purpose, we hopped a subway to the center of Brooklyn.  

Emerging onto Jay Street, we started off in search of drink.  Jason was starting to despair of finding anyplace, so when I spotted a neon sign advertising Rocco's Tacos and Tequila, I persuaded him that it would be an adventure and we went inside.  

Like the garden at the end of The Last Battle, Rocco's Tacos and Tequila is bigger on the inside than on the outside--and much cooler than expected.  So much so that Jason's mood improved before he even got his margarita.

And he was kind enough to trade drinks with me when my bright pink prickly pear marg did not taste as girly as it looked.  

We rode our momentum and the subway back to Manhattan and landed in Chinatown.  We had an appetizer of steamed dumplings and Tsingtao.

Next up was Little Italy, right next door.  Though the first restaurant we passed had a pretty persuasive barker on the sidewalk who showed me a menu and said, "We got da accent and everything!", we peeled ourselves away to a place across the street that looked even better.  The barker there smugly and solicitously showed us to a table on the sidewalk.

After bread dipped in their famous olive oil, a bottle of vino, and a plate of canneloni, we headed to Soho for our next stop.

We walked only a few blocks to get there, and then walked block after block searching for someplace to eat or drink.  

Maybe we were full of food and wine, maybe we were tired, probably we were on the wrong streets, but we never found anywhere.  So we decided that walking through the neighborhood counted as much as eating or drinking there, and we walked on through to the Village.

There we found a diner where we got a milkshake and a massive slice of banana cream pie.

After that we were so full that we decided we never really wanted to go to Koreatown anyway, and we declared our mission accomplished.  

Caleb, age 4, learning how to trick-or-treat

Camo ninja, Elsa, zombie, minion

Caleb, approaching the candy giver:  "I'm a minion!"

*Receives candy, walks away, then turns back.*

Caleb:  "Treat or treat, thank you!"

Nailed it.

Wednesday in New York

Wednesday was another beautiful sunny day in New York.


We went to a bagel place for breakfast.


(Real New York pizza?  Check.  New York cheesecake?  Check.  New York bagel?  Check.  New York hot dog?  ...Can live without.)


We ate outside at the little sidewalk cafe, enjoying the pleasant morning air, the busy bustle going by, the humongous construction crane working across the way... and the jackhammer 12 feet behind us.


Conversation was at a minimum, and with ringing ears, we found a subway stop to take us to Brooklyn.  One of the things at the top of my wish list in New York was to walk over the Brooklyn Bridge.


Unfortunately, but the time we got there, I was in dire need of a ladies' room.  Google told me that yes, there are public restrooms "near" the Brooklyn Bridge, but in NYC, "near" is a relative term.  Everything is oversized.


So after we walked under the bridge to the conveniently located public restrooms, we walked three quarters of a mile back to find the actual end of the bridge where we could get on.


The bridge itself is a little over a mile long.  I'm pretty sure there were a little over a million people on it with us, too.  But it was beautiful and so worth the walk.

One World Trade Center toward the left

Eeny Statue of Liberty

It has a nifty dedicated pedestrian/bike path too, completely separated from car traffic.

It being 84 degrees with bright sunshine, we were sweating well enough, and my New York bagel was all the way down to my toes by the time we got back across to Manhattan.


Enter the cleverly opportunistic sellers of freshly sliced mango at the end of the bridge.  Ah!  How did they know?


(I was impressed all week with the informal city vendors' opportunism.  Long line for a bus on a hot sidewalk?  Ice-cold bottled water suddenly for sale!  Thirsty after a scenic bridge walk, right before lunch?  Mangoes!  Change in weather brings rain?  Umbrellas for sale on every corner.)


Knowing we would be foot-weary after the bridge, we had planned on a little tour/cruise of New York Harbor afterwards.  We zig-zagged our way through the streets to Pier 15 and boarded a tour boat.


Note that by this time we had walked upwards of 2 1/2 miles in the hot sun on naught but a bagel and mangoes, rubbing shoulders with every tourist in Brooklyn.

Every other passenger on the boat crowded on the top deck for the best views.  We found the lowest level thankfully deserted.  We were very pleased indeed to enjoy the subpar views all alone on the lower deck.

Also Jason cheered up significantly when I bought him a gin and tonic.

The tour itself was lovely.  

We enjoyed views of the skyline.

This perspective gives a better sense of the relative size of One World Trade Center.

We saw Ellis Island.

And, of course, the Statue of Liberty--which is not on Ellis Island.

So very handsome!

We also had fine views of Jersey City, Brooklyn, Governors Island, and the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges.

And Jason: my favorite view of them all.

By now my bagel and my mangoes were down to my toes, and I was seriously exhausted.  Jason took charge and steered me through the streets to a subway station.  It was midafternoon as we walked through lower Manhattan, and through the haze of fatigue I did marvel at the children we passed (what are children doing in the New York Financial District?)...and how relaxed their grown-ups were about keeping them close.  Street after street of parents letting their kids skip along beyond their arm's reach says a lot about a city.

When the subway deposited us near our hotel, we first visited the same bakery we had enjoyed the day before, for a poppyseed danish, and then collapsed in our room for a little while.  

After some recovery time we got dressed up and went around the corner to a Mexican restaurant.  We had their world-famous guacamole and pomegranate margaritas and enchiladas.  

Over dinner we discussed how--despite the frequent honking--Manhattan feels like a perfectly safe place to walk after dark, which is rather surprising for a big city.  

We took advantage of this after dinner and strolled down Broadway to Columbus Circle, which is where mileage to and from New York City is calculated.  There's a lovely fountain inside the roundabout and a hoity-toity mall there.  

We wandered inside and immediately came upon a pair of striking and very nude twelve-foot-tall statues.  The woman ("Eve"), whom we saw first, shocked us with her cartoonish nudity, but when we found "Adam," her counterpart, we pretty much dissolved into giggles.  

Not only are his genitals improbably tiny and distinct, and eye-level,....but they alone are shiny, from the countless touches of those who just couldn't resist.  We spent more time than I'll admit here on the second-level balcony above the statue, watching people walk by, to see who would do a double-take or a photo op.  Kids were the best.  Boys, especially, of a certain age, have no inhibitions and would run straight over and point and yell. 

 One article I found says that the statue, "seems to bring out the snickering puerility in everyone."  Well put.  And the whole article is worth reading.  Plus it has a picture there, which I was too embarrassed to take myself.

After at least partially recovering from our immature hilarity, we marveled for a while at the glitz of the Shops before we walked back to the Lincoln Center to sit mesmerized at the fountain there.

By now we were ready for dessert, so we changed back into sneakers and set out again into the night, for a shop that advertised donut ice cream sandwiches.  As in, slice a donut like a bagel, and put 4 scoops of ice cream in between.  

I went for a hot fudge sundae.  

Finally we trekked back to our hotel and put our feet up to watch the presidential debate, just to finish a long, fun day with one more dose of absurdity.