Wow, can't believe I've been home for over a week. It's always strange and a little sad how fast vacation recedes into the past once you're home, knowwhatimean?
I wanted to close up this summer's blog with just a few random things that never made it in the other posts, so here we go:
*Friendliness of New Yorkers:
At various times as we traipsed through the streets/subways/taxis/buses, we were pleasantly surprised to find how friendly and downright kind various people were to us. I guess I'd just bought into the rude New Yorker hype, so I didn't expect it. Right on the first night, as we struggled with our suitcases and our map, trying to figure out how to get to the hotel from the subway stop, two guys stopped and asked if we needed help. They even offered to carry our luggage. One guy was sort of beefy with a tight black t-shirt that said "Personal Trainer". We said a sheepish "no, thanks", but now as I write this, I'm wondering why we did that. :)
Other friendly encounters included a few different folks who asked if we needed help when they saw us with our map out, and our pal Raul, who we met on the subway one night. He asked us which direction the train was going as he hopped on - luckily, I knew - and then went on to say that he worked at the MAC counter at Macy's and if we came by to see him, he'd make us look "fierce". (You gotta imagine him saying that with a soft voice and the complete NY accent, no r sound at all.) We declined, but I do wonder what we may have ended up looking like after paying him a visit.
*But, on the other hand:
One night we came back to the Pod quite hungry but not up for a dinner out, plus it was pretty late. Gretchen headed to the corner near us where there was a grocery store - I offered to go with but we decided it was perfectly safe. She went, she came back - with some delicious snacks and a story about a few 10 year old boys who were hanging out in front of the store. As she was walking out, one of them grabbed her butt (!) and then ran away. So young and yet so cheeky!
*Colorful subway characters:
We saw so many...a preacher who handed out lists of prophecy to all who would take them, a man who came into the car and started in on a diatribe against the city's plans to eradicate some low-income housing, a happy group of teenagers, one of whom was singing loudly, American-Idol style, and promised us all that we'd see her on the big screen someday. On a more serious note, we saw several very young families whose parenting attempts were painful to watch. We heard one frustrated subway rider yell to those pushing to get on at the station "Everybody back the f___ up so we can get the f___ off!" While I wouldn't say it that way, I identified with the sentiment.
*Overheard conversations:
In the Library Hotel elevator, two executive types headed up to a meeting in the penthouse suite were talking about Elmo, or rather the gentleman who plays him. Apparently he had done an appearance with their firm recently, and "spent the whole time in the corner talking on the phone to his agent!". Tsk tsk, Elmo, you have appearances to keep up...
On the train to D.C., I was jammed in with three other women in a set of four seats that faced each other...two of them were coming from a series of meetings, clearly they were Madison Ave. types, maybe brand managers or something similar. They proceeded to debrief their whole day, but in code, never mentioning the actual clients or the products very clearly. "Those were so adorable!" one would say, and the other would say "you mean the small ones for the big client or the other ones?", and it was all I could do to ask what was so adorable and when would they be at a store near me??? (The consumerism of NYC had rubbed off on me, clearly).
*Cab/Train friends:
When both of the advertising ladies got off the train, the other passenger in our foursome and I had a far-ranging and very enjoyable conversation about many things - books, her job at Yahoo working to create new revenue streams for newspapers, how she used to live in S.F., public education, and where to eat in Washington D.C. (The Tabard Inn brunch, which we LOVED, was her recommendation). But what's funny is that our conversation started with "Were you eavesdropping on those other two ladies too?" And of course we both were.
Then, G and I shared a cab with a young woman who was visiting her boyfriend for the weekend...we did chit chat and turns out she works for the National Book Foundation, doing outreach with the National Book Award nominees and winners. I mentioned that a college friend of mine had been nominated for his graphic novel a few years back but hadn't won...and she said, "Oh, Gene, I love Gene! I wanted him to win so badly!" I agreed, and marveled that sometimes it really does seem like a small small world.
Thanks for reading, blog faithful! Til next time!
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Goodbye to G...
Yesterday we said our goodbyes to Gretchen, who headed home one day before us. But never fear, we got the animal print robe picture in before she left...and, bonus, we posed on the treadmill!
Also, the night before G left, we headed out with the rest of America, it seems, to watch The Dark Knight - somewhere at a mall in Virginia, for us. We got small drinks,
and actually all thought the movie was very good. Even, I will say, thought-provoking. As one Slate reviewer wrote, the screenwriter "does more nuanced thinking about the war on terror than we've seen from the Bush administration in seven years."
Yesterday after G left, Lo and I dragged ourselves out on the town for a few more sights. I've tried to keep the weather complaints to a minimum on the blog, because after all, I'm on vacation, how bad can it be? Let's just say, though...walking around = getting very sticky very quickly.
Nevertheless, we did a pretty complete Mall tour - a few more works of art at the National Gallery first. (I got really into trying to see Wayne Thiebaud's cake painting, but sadly it is not currently on display.) Then we headed down the mall for a quick break at the fountain in the sculpture garden,
and on to the National Museum of Natural History. Right next to the room with the Hope Diamond, Lo found a crystal ball and pretended to be Madame Trelawney, complete with the dire warnings to HP. The weird thing is actually what the flash did when I took the picture - it's really just a plain quartz orb, but look, magic...
Then I pretended to be a bug on the wall, and we heard a kid say to his parents that "this is the scariest museum I've ever been to!"
We eventually headed towards all the monuments and meandered through them all, WWII, Korean, Lincoln, and Vietnam.
view down the reflecting pool (above) from the spot where MLK spoke (below)
Reflection on the Vietnam memorial, dusk
Pretending to look cheery and non-sweaty in front of Mr. Lincoln (you can see his feet)
Also, the night before G left, we headed out with the rest of America, it seems, to watch The Dark Knight - somewhere at a mall in Virginia, for us. We got small drinks,
and actually all thought the movie was very good. Even, I will say, thought-provoking. As one Slate reviewer wrote, the screenwriter "does more nuanced thinking about the war on terror than we've seen from the Bush administration in seven years."Yesterday after G left, Lo and I dragged ourselves out on the town for a few more sights. I've tried to keep the weather complaints to a minimum on the blog, because after all, I'm on vacation, how bad can it be? Let's just say, though...walking around = getting very sticky very quickly.
Nevertheless, we did a pretty complete Mall tour - a few more works of art at the National Gallery first. (I got really into trying to see Wayne Thiebaud's cake painting, but sadly it is not currently on display.) Then we headed down the mall for a quick break at the fountain in the sculpture garden,
and on to the National Museum of Natural History. Right next to the room with the Hope Diamond, Lo found a crystal ball and pretended to be Madame Trelawney, complete with the dire warnings to HP. The weird thing is actually what the flash did when I took the picture - it's really just a plain quartz orb, but look, magic...
Then I pretended to be a bug on the wall, and we heard a kid say to his parents that "this is the scariest museum I've ever been to!"
We eventually headed towards all the monuments and meandered through them all, WWII, Korean, Lincoln, and Vietnam.
view down the reflecting pool (above) from the spot where MLK spoke (below)
Reflection on the Vietnam memorial, dusk
Pretending to look cheery and non-sweaty in front of Mr. Lincoln (you can see his feet)
We had two great meals yesterday - brunch at The Tabard Inn, which was well worth the long wait. Best brunch I've had in a long time, right next door to our hotel (!), and recommended to me by a very nice woman I met on the train in from NYC. Excellent! Then, on the other end of the spectrum, Lo and I had dinner at a place called Moby Dick's House of Kabob. Sort of a hole in the wall, despite it's various locations and website, very authentic, and super delicious. We walked slowly home down M St., in the still-hot night, along the old brick sidewalks with dry lightning flashing in the dark skies above us. Last nights of vacation are always bittersweet.
The Last Few Days
We were happily joined by Loretta two days ago, and headed out to see some D.C. sights. Right off the subway at the Mall, we saw a farmers' market, but not just any farmers' market:
We looked at the sparse offerings wilting in the midday heat and headed on to the National Gallery of Art. After some of the recent museums we've seen, it was a little bit underwhelming, but there were certainly some highlights. A few things by this guy:
A lovely woman smelling a rose in a courtyard:
and a few other things I really liked seeing, especially and surprisingly a few Vermeers. Have I ever mentioned that I heart Vermeer? Anyway, I do, and I was glad to see this:
We traipsed around a bit more, (as much as one can traipse in weather that feels more like wading through pea soup than walking), and finished our day with pizza, cold beer, and a few games of pool at a local dive-y bar. (We were going to catch an evening of jazz back at the Mall or a classical concert in Rock Creek Park, but we couldn't get it together to make it to either in time, whereas pool at the bar had no set start time, you see how it is...)
Yesterday the big and only thing on the agenda was the United States Holocaust Museum, basically the whole reason I wanted to come to Washington D.C. on this trip. I've been thinking about what I want to say about it since we left. It is simply the most well thought-out museum/memorial experience I have ever, ever seen. Rather than explain more about it, here are a few things that have stuck in my mind.
* The shoes. We've all seen pictures of the piles of shoes left by gas chamber victims. But seeing even a smallish pile of those old, dusty leather shoes was moving even when I knew it was coming.
* The Tower of Faces. You start at the museum's 4th floor and descend slowly back to the ground. Up on one of the higher floors, you go through a walkway that has hundreds of photos from a shtetl, a Jewish settlement in Lithuania, taken by amateur photographers that lived there. Serious wedding day portraits are intermingled with laughing groups of friends on holiday - one photograph of a young family shows mom with baby, dad holding a teddy bear, and you can even see grandma's hand in the frame shaking a toy at the little one to get him to smile. The first time you go through the photos you just learn about the settlement and look at as many as you can see. Two floors down you walk through again, and learn that a mobile SS death sqaud shot and killed all of them in the course of two days. 900 years of continuous Jewish settlement in that town, and in two days in September, 1941, all dead. No Jews now live in that town.
*The voices. One of the things that the museum does best is constantly move from macro to micro. Just when you're on information overload and you start to wonder how anyone might actually have lived through this or that particular horror, you come upon an exhibit of survivor's voices, or a theater where you can see people telling small stories of their experience. I will close with one small story...an older woman begins, talking about the first few minutes at camp. The shouting, the bewilderment...and one SS woman guard in particular, barking at them like a bulldog, she'd never heard a human voice that could sound like that. Then, the survivor pauses, and starts talking about how decent, kind, and good that SS woman was, that over the next months at camp she became her savior. It's an astonishing thing to listen to, the complete change in her voice as she talks. She describes one day when a higher-up SS man came to inspect their camp, and she was sick in her bunk with two other girls. This SS woman came, forced her to get up, tied their shoes and set them at their workstations, telling them to "get themselves together - today, it's a matter of life or death." The survivor closes her story by saying that this woman's example "pins a lie to the lips of anyone else who says that they had no choice".
We looked at the sparse offerings wilting in the midday heat and headed on to the National Gallery of Art. After some of the recent museums we've seen, it was a little bit underwhelming, but there were certainly some highlights. A few things by this guy:
A lovely woman smelling a rose in a courtyard:
and a few other things I really liked seeing, especially and surprisingly a few Vermeers. Have I ever mentioned that I heart Vermeer? Anyway, I do, and I was glad to see this:
We traipsed around a bit more, (as much as one can traipse in weather that feels more like wading through pea soup than walking), and finished our day with pizza, cold beer, and a few games of pool at a local dive-y bar. (We were going to catch an evening of jazz back at the Mall or a classical concert in Rock Creek Park, but we couldn't get it together to make it to either in time, whereas pool at the bar had no set start time, you see how it is...)
Yesterday the big and only thing on the agenda was the United States Holocaust Museum, basically the whole reason I wanted to come to Washington D.C. on this trip. I've been thinking about what I want to say about it since we left. It is simply the most well thought-out museum/memorial experience I have ever, ever seen. Rather than explain more about it, here are a few things that have stuck in my mind.
* The shoes. We've all seen pictures of the piles of shoes left by gas chamber victims. But seeing even a smallish pile of those old, dusty leather shoes was moving even when I knew it was coming.
* The Tower of Faces. You start at the museum's 4th floor and descend slowly back to the ground. Up on one of the higher floors, you go through a walkway that has hundreds of photos from a shtetl, a Jewish settlement in Lithuania, taken by amateur photographers that lived there. Serious wedding day portraits are intermingled with laughing groups of friends on holiday - one photograph of a young family shows mom with baby, dad holding a teddy bear, and you can even see grandma's hand in the frame shaking a toy at the little one to get him to smile. The first time you go through the photos you just learn about the settlement and look at as many as you can see. Two floors down you walk through again, and learn that a mobile SS death sqaud shot and killed all of them in the course of two days. 900 years of continuous Jewish settlement in that town, and in two days in September, 1941, all dead. No Jews now live in that town.
*The voices. One of the things that the museum does best is constantly move from macro to micro. Just when you're on information overload and you start to wonder how anyone might actually have lived through this or that particular horror, you come upon an exhibit of survivor's voices, or a theater where you can see people telling small stories of their experience. I will close with one small story...an older woman begins, talking about the first few minutes at camp. The shouting, the bewilderment...and one SS woman guard in particular, barking at them like a bulldog, she'd never heard a human voice that could sound like that. Then, the survivor pauses, and starts talking about how decent, kind, and good that SS woman was, that over the next months at camp she became her savior. It's an astonishing thing to listen to, the complete change in her voice as she talks. She describes one day when a higher-up SS man came to inspect their camp, and she was sick in her bunk with two other girls. This SS woman came, forced her to get up, tied their shoes and set them at their workstations, telling them to "get themselves together - today, it's a matter of life or death." The survivor closes her story by saying that this woman's example "pins a lie to the lips of anyone else who says that they had no choice".
Thursday, July 17, 2008
The Park
There comes a point in a vacation like this where time catches up with you...the heat, the pace, the relentless feeling that there's always more to see and do, and you're missing out if you spend an afternoon taking a nap in your very expensive hotel room. Anyway, I reached that point yesterday. I was ready for a slow down today, and wanted to enjoy The Library Hotel...so we did. I did wake up and head a few blocks down to Bryant Park for an early morning "quiet" moment...although it was permeated by the sounds of an enthusiastic calisthenics group, rushing commuters, jackhammering being done on the N.Y. Public Library right nearby, and the usual city traffic sounds. But then...leisurely breakfast at the hotel, a quiet morning in the room, and a lovely quiet afternoon in a park. Central Park, of course....
First, some free M&M ice cream treats they were giving out at the entrance:
Next, a stroll past the Sheep's Meadow. The sheep were looking tan and oily...
We rambled through The Ramble, and found Narnia...if only it was snowing and we'd come through a wardrobe, I'd know just what was going to happen next...
Next, a little castle overlooking The Great Lawn, with the following list of rules, including a helpful suggestion:
We stopped, read, and napped in the strength-sapping heat, and then slowly trudged back to the subway. We saw this very well-mannered guy on the way:
One last stop at Strawberry Fields, right near John Lennon's home, where a kind of crazy guy arranges these flowers each day, calls himself "The Mayor of Strawberry Fields", and gives speeches to the tourist hordes:
Then, our last subway ride, a stressful taxi in rush hour traffic to Penn Station, and the train to D.C.!
First, some free M&M ice cream treats they were giving out at the entrance:
Next, a stroll past the Sheep's Meadow. The sheep were looking tan and oily...
We rambled through The Ramble, and found Narnia...if only it was snowing and we'd come through a wardrobe, I'd know just what was going to happen next...
Next, a little castle overlooking The Great Lawn, with the following list of rules, including a helpful suggestion:
We stopped, read, and napped in the strength-sapping heat, and then slowly trudged back to the subway. We saw this very well-mannered guy on the way:
One last stop at Strawberry Fields, right near John Lennon's home, where a kind of crazy guy arranges these flowers each day, calls himself "The Mayor of Strawberry Fields", and gives speeches to the tourist hordes:
Then, our last subway ride, a stressful taxi in rush hour traffic to Penn Station, and the train to D.C.!
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Goodbye to the Pod, Big Mama's Accident, and another Monumental Museum
We said goodbye to the Pod Hotel today, in favor of fancier digs a few blocks away. More on that later, but for now, here are a few goodbye to the Pod photos:
Gretchen, being mod in the Pod lobby...
Me, also in the lobby, in one of the hip pod chairs.
These guys are awesome, and here's why: there were 4 bathrooms on our floor, and a little light system in our room told us when each was free. Bathrooms 1 and 2 were pretty normal, we didn't know where 4 was for a while, but 3...well 3 was bigger, had special features, and these guys on the wall right when you walked in. Made me smile each time.
We checked out and headed to the big museum of the day, the MOMA. G wanted to go to a special Dali exhibit and lecture, me not so much. I wandered around happily for 2 hours, listening to the free audio guide and learning lots of things. Here are a few of my random favorites...I sat in front of Monet's Waterlilies for a long, long time. Same with Rothko. I felt grateful to just be in the room with these paintings, experiencing them in their original size.
Leaving behind Rothko, Calder, Cezanne, Chagall and all the rest, we had some business to attend to...we picked up our luggage at the Pod, debated about how to get to The Library, which is our last-night-in-New York-splurge hotel. (Backstory: I read about this hotel at least 5 years ago, and always thought about how much I'd like to stay there if I was ever in NYC...it's organized based on the Dewey Decimal System, how cool is that? So here I am, and we can only afford one night, but they gave us a free upgraded room, and it's lovely here, so...I'm glad we did it.) We thought about a taxi, which would have been nice, since we had luggage...and we discounted walking because it was near 90 degrees and over 10 blocks...so we headed for the subway instead. Just one stop. Except this: (fans of Big Mama, be prepared). Just as I was lifting her to climb down the staircase of the entrance to the subway, her handle snapped off, and there she went...tumbling end over end past shocked and unhappy commuters coming up the stairs and landing at the feet of a very surprised man who looked up at my horror-stricken face and asked politely, "This your bag?" My goodness...I'm so lucky that she didn't hurt anyone, and I don't think anything inside was damaged...but it was a very dramatic moment.
We finally made it to the hotel, via our new subway stop:
it was really, really crowded:
...and after a rest, we headed out for the Staten Island Ferry and views of Ms. Liberty. Gretchen bought me a super cool present today, and here's a little explanation. We saw a girl on the plane wearing these super cool "sun"glasses. Then we saw several more here in NYC. They're ridiculous, they don't even have lenses, but they're pretty trendy, and I'm sure you're all jealous!
The short trip to Staten Island was great- it was nice to be out on the water in less oppressive weather conditions. Here are a few shots that captured the moment:
We stopped off at Magnolia Bakery on the way home to get some treats...we ate the banana pudding immediately since it's DELICIOUS, and saved the cupcakes for later. Now we're tucked away in our room, watching Annie Hall and having finished a little McDonalds dinner and cupcake dessert. Good night!
Gretchen, being mod in the Pod lobby...
Me, also in the lobby, in one of the hip pod chairs.
These guys are awesome, and here's why: there were 4 bathrooms on our floor, and a little light system in our room told us when each was free. Bathrooms 1 and 2 were pretty normal, we didn't know where 4 was for a while, but 3...well 3 was bigger, had special features, and these guys on the wall right when you walked in. Made me smile each time.We checked out and headed to the big museum of the day, the MOMA. G wanted to go to a special Dali exhibit and lecture, me not so much. I wandered around happily for 2 hours, listening to the free audio guide and learning lots of things. Here are a few of my random favorites...I sat in front of Monet's Waterlilies for a long, long time. Same with Rothko. I felt grateful to just be in the room with these paintings, experiencing them in their original size.
Leaving behind Rothko, Calder, Cezanne, Chagall and all the rest, we had some business to attend to...we picked up our luggage at the Pod, debated about how to get to The Library, which is our last-night-in-New York-splurge hotel. (Backstory: I read about this hotel at least 5 years ago, and always thought about how much I'd like to stay there if I was ever in NYC...it's organized based on the Dewey Decimal System, how cool is that? So here I am, and we can only afford one night, but they gave us a free upgraded room, and it's lovely here, so...I'm glad we did it.) We thought about a taxi, which would have been nice, since we had luggage...and we discounted walking because it was near 90 degrees and over 10 blocks...so we headed for the subway instead. Just one stop. Except this: (fans of Big Mama, be prepared). Just as I was lifting her to climb down the staircase of the entrance to the subway, her handle snapped off, and there she went...tumbling end over end past shocked and unhappy commuters coming up the stairs and landing at the feet of a very surprised man who looked up at my horror-stricken face and asked politely, "This your bag?" My goodness...I'm so lucky that she didn't hurt anyone, and I don't think anything inside was damaged...but it was a very dramatic moment.
We finally made it to the hotel, via our new subway stop:
it was really, really crowded:
...and after a rest, we headed out for the Staten Island Ferry and views of Ms. Liberty. Gretchen bought me a super cool present today, and here's a little explanation. We saw a girl on the plane wearing these super cool "sun"glasses. Then we saw several more here in NYC. They're ridiculous, they don't even have lenses, but they're pretty trendy, and I'm sure you're all jealous!
The short trip to Staten Island was great- it was nice to be out on the water in less oppressive weather conditions. Here are a few shots that captured the moment:
We stopped off at Magnolia Bakery on the way home to get some treats...we ate the banana pudding immediately since it's DELICIOUS, and saved the cupcakes for later. Now we're tucked away in our room, watching Annie Hall and having finished a little McDonalds dinner and cupcake dessert. Good night!
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Outside and Inside
First, Outside:
The Brooklyn Botanic Gardens. I saw a segment on these gardens one day a long time ago on Martha Stewart's show, and I've always wanted to go there. Super amazing. Even though lots of things weren't in bloom. Even though it was hot and full of summer campers bugging their leaders about when they could buy ice cream. I won't bore you all with lots of pictures, but here are a few...
The entrance, where we were greeted by a tattooed security guy with a thick Brooklyn accent. He patiently explained that things weren't blooming and recommended some things not to miss. Charming.
A lotus flower from one of the reflecting ponds.
That's me, yep, with my head being shaded by a 113 year old bonzai. The bonzai collection was the largest I've ever seen and quite educational. Especially since I knew hardly anything about them until today. :)
Next up: Inside, and a 45 minute subway ride later, and we arrived at (well, near) the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We stopped for a refreshing snack at Tasti D-lite, which is no Yogurt Park but it hit the spot anyway. Then...the Met. Wow. I've been fortunate to have been to a lot of museums in a lot of places, with amazing and famous collections. But my goodness. It feels like everything about this place announces: "You are now entering the Grandest and Most Important Museum in the World". And then it backs up this claim, with rooms like this:
and a little something for everyone like this:
and then later, just walking through one gallery to the next, I looked down and saw these guys:
And in the musical instrument collection, in addition to having the world's first piano ever, through which all the rest can trace their lineage, there was a case containing these:
(no big deal, just 2 Amati and 3 Stradivarius violins hanging out together, plus a few bows and stuff.)
We only had three hours, but we wandered through the place in awe, saw as much as we could, and ran out of time and didn't even make it up to the roof. Then we cabbed it home again, on G's suggestion. She's awesome.
After a rest, we headed out to the village to a comedy club for the nightly show and some dinner. There were some funny bits...but in between my nervousness that we would get picked out by the comics to get talked to, and my squeamishness with the raunchy humor...it wasn't my favorite thing so far.
Tomorrow is already jam-packed...gotta figure out how to fit all kinds of things in before we leave for W.D.C. on Thursday evening!
The Brooklyn Botanic Gardens. I saw a segment on these gardens one day a long time ago on Martha Stewart's show, and I've always wanted to go there. Super amazing. Even though lots of things weren't in bloom. Even though it was hot and full of summer campers bugging their leaders about when they could buy ice cream. I won't bore you all with lots of pictures, but here are a few...
The entrance, where we were greeted by a tattooed security guy with a thick Brooklyn accent. He patiently explained that things weren't blooming and recommended some things not to miss. Charming.
A lotus flower from one of the reflecting ponds.
That's me, yep, with my head being shaded by a 113 year old bonzai. The bonzai collection was the largest I've ever seen and quite educational. Especially since I knew hardly anything about them until today. :)Next up: Inside, and a 45 minute subway ride later, and we arrived at (well, near) the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We stopped for a refreshing snack at Tasti D-lite, which is no Yogurt Park but it hit the spot anyway. Then...the Met. Wow. I've been fortunate to have been to a lot of museums in a lot of places, with amazing and famous collections. But my goodness. It feels like everything about this place announces: "You are now entering the Grandest and Most Important Museum in the World". And then it backs up this claim, with rooms like this:
and a little something for everyone like this:
and then later, just walking through one gallery to the next, I looked down and saw these guys:
And in the musical instrument collection, in addition to having the world's first piano ever, through which all the rest can trace their lineage, there was a case containing these:
(no big deal, just 2 Amati and 3 Stradivarius violins hanging out together, plus a few bows and stuff.)
We only had three hours, but we wandered through the place in awe, saw as much as we could, and ran out of time and didn't even make it up to the roof. Then we cabbed it home again, on G's suggestion. She's awesome.
After a rest, we headed out to the village to a comedy club for the nightly show and some dinner. There were some funny bits...but in between my nervousness that we would get picked out by the comics to get talked to, and my squeamishness with the raunchy humor...it wasn't my favorite thing so far.
Tomorrow is already jam-packed...gotta figure out how to fit all kinds of things in before we leave for W.D.C. on Thursday evening!
Monday, July 14, 2008
Gloomy Day, not Gloomy Travelers!
Yep, it was overcast in NYC today, but the rain was over before we were up and about, (that is to say, it rained on the people going to work, not on the vacationers sleeping in until 10 :). The plan today was to head to Brooklyn, get acquainted with what would be the 4th largest city in the U.S. if it were its own city, and find Jacques Torres' chocolate shop. Check, check, and check.
Brooklyn was interesting, but seen from a tour bus perhaps less so. Getting out and walking around the DUMBO area was great, and we found the chocolate shop just fine:
And here's the cookie we got:
And my sister says it's a poor cookie that can't grease it's own bottom. I think this one's doing just fine...
Needing to work off the cookie and wanting the experience of seeing the Manhattan skyline emerge before our eyes, we headed on foot back across the Brooklyn Bridge. Obligatory pictures, one arty, one cheesy:
Next, we decided to try to catch a few highlights of the American Museum of Natural History. There's a show in the planetarium we'd heard was great. Alas, after a few subway mishaps and a long walk 'cross the park on foot, we arrived too late for the space show. We went in anyway and saw lots of dinosaurs. Look how cute this big guy is, feeding the baby like that:
By this time in the day, saying that we were "tired and hot" is like saying that clowns are only a little bit scary. "Exhausted and super sticky" is more like it. I laid down on the cool marble floor to take the picture above, and it felt...so...good. I didn't want to get up. Here's how we looked, too bad you can't tell exactly how sticky we were:
So Gretchen had the best idea yet of the day - we took a cab home. So great...so worth it...and I never would have let myself do that on my own. I was all set to walk back across the park, wait in the 100+ temps in the subway, and then walk home from the station. Hooray for G.
We rested for a while, then headed to Five Points in the East Village for a delicious dinner, D's recommendation...and while we did enjoy the chocolate brioche bread pudding, I have to say that I think D made it just as well at home. :)
Tomorrow we have big plans...plans that include getting up and out of the pod before 9. We will reward ourselves for this by having a pretzel croissant for breakfast. Have I mentioned how good those are?
Brooklyn was interesting, but seen from a tour bus perhaps less so. Getting out and walking around the DUMBO area was great, and we found the chocolate shop just fine:
And here's the cookie we got:
And my sister says it's a poor cookie that can't grease it's own bottom. I think this one's doing just fine...
Needing to work off the cookie and wanting the experience of seeing the Manhattan skyline emerge before our eyes, we headed on foot back across the Brooklyn Bridge. Obligatory pictures, one arty, one cheesy:
Next, we decided to try to catch a few highlights of the American Museum of Natural History. There's a show in the planetarium we'd heard was great. Alas, after a few subway mishaps and a long walk 'cross the park on foot, we arrived too late for the space show. We went in anyway and saw lots of dinosaurs. Look how cute this big guy is, feeding the baby like that:
By this time in the day, saying that we were "tired and hot" is like saying that clowns are only a little bit scary. "Exhausted and super sticky" is more like it. I laid down on the cool marble floor to take the picture above, and it felt...so...good. I didn't want to get up. Here's how we looked, too bad you can't tell exactly how sticky we were:
So Gretchen had the best idea yet of the day - we took a cab home. So great...so worth it...and I never would have let myself do that on my own. I was all set to walk back across the park, wait in the 100+ temps in the subway, and then walk home from the station. Hooray for G.We rested for a while, then headed to Five Points in the East Village for a delicious dinner, D's recommendation...and while we did enjoy the chocolate brioche bread pudding, I have to say that I think D made it just as well at home. :)
Tomorrow we have big plans...plans that include getting up and out of the pod before 9. We will reward ourselves for this by having a pretzel croissant for breakfast. Have I mentioned how good those are?
Day Number Two
Today was full of walking and waiting, punctuated by some pretty fun stuff. Number of modes of transportation taken today = 5. Sightseeing bus (which abandoned us in Harlem), taxi, city bus, subway, and of course, walking.
We started off at St. Patrick's...we had all good intentions of going to mass, but...well, once again the morning got away from us. We did stop in, and this picture is for my friend S, who always teases me about praying to saints. S, I thought of you as I lit this candle, can you guess who the saint is?
We next slogged through the crazy bustle of Times Square, where every building MUST have a "light feature ad":
...and headed for somewhere a little quieter- The Cloisters. (The medieval art museum of the Met. Museum of Art). One the way we saw a few more New York sights...on Central Park West is the Dakota Building, famous for many reasons, but most significantly (in my mind, anyway), it's where John Lennon was killed, right near where that security guard is standing:
and Yoko still lives in the building- her apartment is the one with the shuttered windows. Poor Yoko, I wouldn't want to keep my windows shuttered all the time like that...but then I am one of the annoying people taking pictures outside her building, so...sorry Yoko.
Trying to get to the cloisters proved to be difficult - combination of bad information from our sightseeing bus guide, our own lack of knowledge about the subway, and our frustrating inability to find a cab in Harlem. We finally did, and for $13 (yikes) he drove us all the way uptown to the Cloisters. We got to hear his life story along the way. Good luck moving to Atlanta and becoming a nurse, cab-driver man!
Here's Gretchen enjoying one of the peaceful cloisters:
This corbel was our favorite:
so, we imitated it:
In one of the gardens there were medieval plants and flowers, and I spent a long time trying to get a perfect picture of a bee on the lavender. Each time I'm on vacation, I'm reminded every day that I'm not a great photographer...so this will have to do. (I do, however, get better and better at taking self-portrait-arm-stretched-out picture, out of necessity).
We made our slow, public-transit way home, had a quick sandwich dinner, and headed back out to Avenue Q. Actually, "headed" is less correct than "ran the last three blocks since it was 5 minutes before curtain time and we thought we could walk it in time". We got to our seats a sweaty mess, but hooray, we made it to the show. It was great - hilarious, irreverent, sweet...just great. It's sort of like a Sesame Street for grown ups, and since you can't take pictures, here's a picture of me with another famous muppet:
Tomorrow: Hmm, not sure. Might storm. Many possibilities....we'll see!
We started off at St. Patrick's...we had all good intentions of going to mass, but...well, once again the morning got away from us. We did stop in, and this picture is for my friend S, who always teases me about praying to saints. S, I thought of you as I lit this candle, can you guess who the saint is?
We next slogged through the crazy bustle of Times Square, where every building MUST have a "light feature ad":
...and headed for somewhere a little quieter- The Cloisters. (The medieval art museum of the Met. Museum of Art). One the way we saw a few more New York sights...on Central Park West is the Dakota Building, famous for many reasons, but most significantly (in my mind, anyway), it's where John Lennon was killed, right near where that security guard is standing:
and Yoko still lives in the building- her apartment is the one with the shuttered windows. Poor Yoko, I wouldn't want to keep my windows shuttered all the time like that...but then I am one of the annoying people taking pictures outside her building, so...sorry Yoko.
Trying to get to the cloisters proved to be difficult - combination of bad information from our sightseeing bus guide, our own lack of knowledge about the subway, and our frustrating inability to find a cab in Harlem. We finally did, and for $13 (yikes) he drove us all the way uptown to the Cloisters. We got to hear his life story along the way. Good luck moving to Atlanta and becoming a nurse, cab-driver man!
Here's Gretchen enjoying one of the peaceful cloisters:
This corbel was our favorite:
so, we imitated it:
In one of the gardens there were medieval plants and flowers, and I spent a long time trying to get a perfect picture of a bee on the lavender. Each time I'm on vacation, I'm reminded every day that I'm not a great photographer...so this will have to do. (I do, however, get better and better at taking self-portrait-arm-stretched-out picture, out of necessity).
We made our slow, public-transit way home, had a quick sandwich dinner, and headed back out to Avenue Q. Actually, "headed" is less correct than "ran the last three blocks since it was 5 minutes before curtain time and we thought we could walk it in time". We got to our seats a sweaty mess, but hooray, we made it to the show. It was great - hilarious, irreverent, sweet...just great. It's sort of like a Sesame Street for grown ups, and since you can't take pictures, here's a picture of me with another famous muppet:
Tomorrow: Hmm, not sure. Might storm. Many possibilities....we'll see!
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