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!

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!

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?

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!

It's All About the Pretzel Croissant

...but more about that in a moment.

We began our day, um, a little on the late side. After a slow wake-up, some planning (see below, that's G planning all over my bunk), and ticket-procuring, and breakfast downstairs at the Pod Cafe, it was...12:30.
We'd already decided to spring for the hop on/off bus tour to get the lay of the city. We knew only other tourists would be on the bus, and of course that was true. Lots of Southern accents, and lots of foreign visitors who didn't so much follow the narration given by the guide. (Sometimes they talked loudly through it, but to be fair, so did my fellow Americans, but on their cell phones, which is worse, methinks).

To say that the bus tour, and of course really NYC in general, is full of iconic sights may be cliche, but you know, cliches exist for a reason. For someone who's never been here, I must say I did feel a little thrill as we passed all the big hitters: Radio City Music Hall, Madison Square Garden, Rockefeller Center, Central Park, Times Square, Wall Street, Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building (embarrassing confession - until today I had collapsed those two into the same building in my mind, even after Jay's amazing Chrysler building dress on Project Runway.) I could have taken pictures of them all and posted them here...but instead, I just took pictures in my mind and for blog purposes here are a few of the sillier moments of the day:

So, near Times Square, there are some flagship candy stores. Hershey's (also of PR fame), and M&M are right across the street from each other. In Hershey, I wanted to buy just one small RPB cup pack, because that's my favorite favorite. Nope, no can do. Everything in the store was huge, gimmicky, and not worth the cash. Oh well. There was a cart outside selling much simpler versions for under a dollar.

We declined to pay $9.99 for the real thing, but anyway there we are on a Hershey Bar. I tried to look surprised. I'm not sure why.

Across the street at the M&M extravaganza, there were walls of every color imaginable:

But since they cost a ridiculous $11/pound, I opted instead to eat a blue peanut one that had fallen down in the grating that catches all the rejects:

Yep, I really did do that. One small, kinda gross, act of civil disobedience. (Later, when I tried to take a picture for my pal D in the Swatch store of a watch that I thought she would like, I was scolded by two employees, so I guess everything evens out in the end).

Whisked away from the Times Square mayhem by our friendly red bus, we chose City Bakery for lunch, upon various recommendations from guidebooks and friends. Yum. Expensive, but yum. The highest yum rating went to our new favorite food item here in NYC: The Pretzel Croissant.

It even has it's own website, here. Now I know, it may not look like much, but in person, it would be hard not to heart it - salty and sweet, soft and crunchy. Wish I could bring some home to share with you all.

Next up was some shopping, including this little store with $98 camisoles and a very funky pink rug:
And then a few more sites...here is my ground zero picture, because the actual site didn't strike a chord with me. It's full of construction, and it's not very clear where the towers were when you just look from the side. It's ringed by chain link fences with green security cloth so you can only see in through small gaps. Instead, I walked a bit away and took this photo. The crane sticking up is where the towers would have been. The two big buildings are way behind them.

This is from the inside of St. Paul's, a church nearby where the community gathered and the rescue workers slept. The things that look like leis are chains of paper cranes sent from Japan. The guy on the right is a 9-11 rescue worker signing books that people were buying like crazy.

On to Wall Street, where I gave the bull a good swift kick in the ___. That's for my IRA.

We headed back to the Pod, had a (very) brief rest, and then back out for a classic NYC dinner,

followed by hot street cart nuts for dessert, and then our first show. We got tickets to Tony-award winning Passing Strange, which was excellent. On the way home after the show, we walked right by 30 Rock (another a-ha moment for me- I didn't know the show was named after 30 Rockefeller Center, but now it ALL makes sense!), and we flirted with the idea of going up to the observation deck at Top of the Rock. But not for long, since it cost $20. Sheesh! Instead, we will all have to be content with this photo of what might have been...

Goodnight, friends!
E&G

Arrival in the Apple

We're here! After an inauspicious start in which I realized at the airport that I'd forgotten my ipod, and Gretchen promptly spilled her coffee all over the floor of the plane, we were off. Here is how the flight attendant handled the spill, prompting everyone who came by to either trip or comment:


The flight itself - unremarkable. We flew Virgin America, which felt like the poorer relation of Virgin Atlantic, which I suppose it is. No food provided on the plane, of course, snacks provided by Archer Farms (recognize that brand, Target shoppers?). And while there was a screen at every seat, and lots of things to do and watch, the movies cost $5 or $7 each. Gretchen watched 27 Dresses. I watched, for free, Dave Eggers giving a talk about 826 Valencia. One cool thing, however, was the drink service...it was all done on your screen, so you could just order up as many cranberry juices as you want and the flight attendant brings it straight to your seat. No big cart moving through every few hours. Soon enough (less than 5 hours), we rolled off the plane in JFK, picked up Big Mama and Medium Mama (Gretchen's suitcase is bigger than last time we traveled!), and tried to figure out how to get into Manhattan.

Now, a quick note. Because of circumstances beyond my control like moving and job interviews and stuff, I have decidedly not been up to my usual trip planning activities. No spreadsheet, no grand plan, no carefully researched list of attractions. So, when we got off the plane and were standing there in the arrivals hall, I realized all I had was a scribbled address for our hotel...I didn't know where the airport was in relation to the city, or how to use the subway to get there....nothing. Gretchen usually depends on me for that kind of stuff, and though she's stepped up admirably in the planning dept. this year so far, neither of us knew what to do next. Upon inquiries, we found we could take a taxi for $50, a shuttle for $29, or the airtrain/subway for $7. Guess what we chose?


Judging from the vast, echoing emptiness of the platform, it's not a popular choice. But it worked fine for us, and on the long subway ride into Manhattan we got to a big helping of local color. :) Lots of textbook New York accents, ladies coming back from the beaches in hotpants and high heels, and the sauna-like embrace of the subway air. We kept looking at each other, smiling, and saying "$7!"

We finally climbed up into the city lights,

found our hotel (which will get a post all its own), and had dinner at a neighborhood Italian restaurant aptly named "Lasagna":

Can you guess what exotic NYC delicacy I'm holding up?

Today we will surrender completely to the tourist impulse and take the double decker hop on/off bus tour to get oriented, and begin our attempt to get half price Broadway tickets. (Everything we most want to see, Wicked, Blue Man Group, and Avenue Q, appear to be sold out or at least super hard to get "reasonable" tickets for...)

Ciao for now!
E

Even Less Intrepid than Usual...

As posted on my regular blog, this summer I'll be staying a little closer to home. And I know, even though I've never been to NYC, lots of you have, and you must have recommendations...places to stay? eat? museums not to miss? anyway feel free to post them, and any on DC as well....much appreicated!