Category: Uncategorized (Page 3 of 6)

Today is the day of eating I have been waiting for all week. Ha Staying in midtown right off Times Square has its advantages, in that the 42nd Street port Authority Bus Terminal basically is the hub for almost every line of the subway in the city… and if you can’t get there from 42nd street, you walk south to 34th street and grab a train or subway from Penn Station, or you walk East and grab anything else at Grand Central. So, I wanted to get out of Manhattan and explore an area of “locals” so we took the 7 train as far out as we could take it, to Flushing.

Flushing is a very diverse melting-pot neighborhood with Chinese, Nepalese, Korean and other ethnicities all mixed in. The Main Street/Roosevelt Ave intersection in Flushing is the 3rd busiest intersection in New York! It’s a bustling place.

Flushing is one of the 5 original Queens towns from when Queens county was established when the British took over the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam in 1683. It has a bit of history.

Walking out from the subway station, you definitely had no doubt you had stepped into a very large Chinatown… but the pace was slower than Manhattan- people walked a little slower. It was busy and very “close” with awnings over the sidewalk, goods spread outside the store. But again, I’m drawn to this sort of community and network feel- not the modern sterile sort of shiny glass and elevators. Plus- the food in these places! You’d have to roll me down the sidewalk if I lived here. I might quite literally become one of those 600 lb women they have to knock the wall out to get her out of her apartment in a medical emergency! Lol

We were headed to Asian Jewels, a Chinese dim sum house where they serve you from carts of steaming baskets of dumplings and small plates. This has been consistently rated as one of the best places for dim sum in New York, so the day was quite literally planned around this meal! Ha

Dim Sum started as small plates served to farmers and travelers along the Silk Road in tea houses as a means of serving some sort of food with the tea. Tea houses were sort of the pubs of the time and place. People gathered here for conversation and relaxing in the evenings after work or before settling in for the night. Dim Sum now is just a style of Chinese cuisine typically served for breakfast or lunch. Most places even in the US don’t serve dim sum after 3 or 4pm.

All of the Chinese waitresses LOVED Norah and kept commenting on how beautiful she was. To the point she was super embarrassed and quietly told me she wished they would stop. haha She’s definitely growing up and getting more self-aware. She had to perform in her school’s talent show last week and she said her hands were shaking because she was nervous. I don’t think this child has ever gotten nervous before.

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After eating, we had quite a bit of a walk across to Flushing Meadows- Corona Park. It was needed. I needed to digest all that food.

This park was created for the 1939 World’s Fair. It was an ash dump until the 1930’s (featured as the Valley of Ashes in the Great Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzgerald). Robert Moses, the great urban planner/public works creator around New York responsible for parks, highways, the Verrazano Bridge between Staten Island and Brooklyn, the Battery Tunnel, the Bronx Expressway and a lot of other great and controversial projects, led the creation of this park.

The park contains the Billie Jean King Tennis Center-which hosts the US Open Tennis tournament annually.

It contains Citi Field- the new stadium home of the New York Mets, after Shea Stadium was demolished in 2009.

It also hosted the 1964/1965 World’s Fair… which actually had a lot of impact on the world as we know it today, but you probably don’t realize.

Walt Disney consulted on designs and exhibits. The Its a Small World ride and song that we know was actually conceived and designed for the World’s Fair here! It ran here for 2 years, and was then repurposed into a ride at Disneyland theme park in California. Eventually copied and installed for Disney World in Florida.

The same with The Carousel of Progress, designed for the General Electric pavilion- Disney’s “most boring ride” to most people and kids- but one of my favorites. haha The carousel with animatronic people and animals and a theme song of “There’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow” was designed to showcase technology and innovations and was cutting edge for its time. Sidenote: we got stuck on this ride a few years ago. We were stuck in the 1920s over and over and over and over. haha It was only like 15 minutes, but we definitely played that scene quite a few times before they shut the ride down. ha

Also, the concept of the metal seats on a conveyer belt used to usher people through rides originated here as they were expecting 70 million guests to come through the fair over 2 seasons. Disney eventually would use this concept in his parks for tons of rides.

Initially, Walt Disney wanted to use the Flushing Meadows site for his east coast park to recreate what had been so successful in California…but eventually, he purchased the swampland in Florida and made it into what it is today. It recreated the landscape and altered the American family dream to include a trip to Florida to visit this park.

We visited the Queens museum which houses an amazingly huge miniature diorama of New York.

You walk all along the edge of the room to see various boroughs and buildings.

I really didn’t think there was much else to see here. There were a few artist exhibits and posters.. but it all felt a little over my head in terms of appreciating the art of it all since I’m not a real artsy person… but then I stumbled on this little room in the corner, dedicated to the design of Tiffany glass. It turns out, Louis Comfort Tiffany was disappointed at the quality of glass available and decided to open his own glasshouse furnace in 1893 in Corona Queens, just a mile or two from this museum. It was very rural at the time and allowed him to keep his glass recipes secret, well away from competitors in Manhattan. In 1901 he added a foundry, woodworking, metal working and other services to give him complete production control of all aspects of his business.

Charles Tiffany- his father- was the founder and owner of Tiffany & Co Jewelry…and Louis C Tiffany, started out as an interior designer and quickly found a passion for stained glass panels. This leaded Tiffany glass is what he became known for and what lives on today. A Tiffany lamp sold at auction for over 3 million dollars a few years ago! Supposedly you can find more common models for around $5,000. I’m not sure I’ve ever actually seen a real Tiffany lamp in anyone’s possession. I thought I had because there are so many of these style around, but it seems they may all be reproductions or rival designers made to look like Tiffany lamps. I don’t know all that much about them, I could be wrong. If anyone reading this does know- please let me know!

What I found the most interesting was this case exhibit showing that they were cut and then wrap each individual piece of glass with copper, to help the solder stick to the piece.

Then they were assemble the lamp over a metal dome pattern to ensure the design was correct and shaped correctly.

As we were leaving the Queens museum, a lady walking past us said “they are doing a puppet show up there… I wish my daughter was with me to see it… but I thought your daughter might like to see” – And she did!

It was a cute little modern rendition of Little Red Riding Hood put on by the City Parks department. The puppet mobile performs in a different park 5 days a week 6 months of the year. I think they said their schedule was on the parks website.

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We walked a good few blocks to Corona which seemed to be a more Latino geared area where Flushing was more Asian. Kegan said he saw about 6 people that I looked like, so yep- must be in the Cuban and Puerto Rican area! Ha

When I lived in South Florida, people would walk right up to me without missing a beat and start talking to me in Spanish. And then if I didn’t understand or couldn’t answer them, they’d roll their eyes and walk off. At first I was like how rude! But after a while I realized it’s because I look very Cuban haha and these old ladies were super offended my young butt didn’t even know Spanish.

For the record, my DNA shows 0% Italian, Mexican, Cuban, Puerto Rica. or any other nationality people usually think I am. I’m a conundrum lol

I was so excited to see that Benforamo- The Ice King of Corona was open! I was afraid I just walked a mile for nothing. But if there is creamy Italian ice at the end, then it’s all worth it. This is the standard for Italian Ice. In business for over 60 years. They have like 50 different flavors and multiple sizes to choose from. It was busy with almost everyone walking by grabbing at least a small $2 cup.

https://vimeo.com/34416081

If you’ve ever seen the intro to The King of Queens- you basically just hit the highlights of our day. Ha they are walking down the street in what appears to Jackson Heights (where we headed next) lounging in the Park, underneath the US Steel Unisphere globe, eating at Benfaramos… hilarious. I only found this intro after our visit while looking at the Benforamo website lol apparently, they live in Queens on the show. haha I thought the title was just a play on Queens, Kings, rooks, etc…never actually put it together! So now I feel stupid. lol

I had been seeking a bubble tea since breakfast Dim Sum so we had our Uber drop us off a few blocks early when I saw the stand.. and because I felt bad for the guy sitting in traffic trying to get the 3-4 blocks down that I had keyed in. I didn’t know it was SO busy there!

We walked on down under the 7 tracks seeking a Birria taco truck. But it turns out, the truck doesn’t show up and serve until 5 and it was only 3:30. Boo. I’ve never had birria tacos, but they are the new fad food showing up all over social media and my Indy foodie food group. I figured this would be a really good spot to try them. But I guess we’ll have to seek them out closer to home.

As we approached the Jackson Heights subway station, I spotted a place I had bookmarked to go and try Nepalese food. The photos people had taken of the dumplings and soup looked amazing as well as the rice dishes. We still weren’t super hungry and I felt guilty taking a table to only order a bit… but they weren’t super busy, plenty of seating open, so we went in.

Norah ordered French fries again. Don’t know what’s up with that… but whatever. She’s been good this whole trip- if French fries are her choice for lunch/dinner- so be it. Ha a little comfort of home I guess?

We didn’t know what to order so I started stalking their social media and ordered what someone else had that looked amazing.

I immediately googled and made sure I could make this again in the future because it was going to be a LONG flight and Uber out to this restaurant again haha and there were plenty of recipes for momo in jholi. Let me know if you want an invite when I recreate this masterpiece at home. Ha we were reading a recipe and tasting the broth, making sure we agreed that those ingredients were definitely present here. Oh my Lordy.. it was so good. It was so good that after we got to the hotel later in the evening, we tried to go order more dumplings in broth, knowing full well that Times Square Kung Fu kitchen would never live up to this, but the restaurant had just closed. Probably better. Ha

The rest of our evening was boring. We were in the hotel by 6pm and didn’t leave again. Norah got some iPad time, Kegan watched TV and I caught up on blogging.

Tomorrow we catch a train out of Penn Station to go upstate to Poughkeepsie to explore the countryside of New York along the Hudson River Valley.

We took the subway north this morning to 72nd street on the upper west side so we could walk towards our museum and pass Zucker’s Bagels and Smoked Fish for breakfast.

The dinosaur skeletons were particularly cool. So many full remains!

My favorite “dinosaur” is the Giant Ground Sloth. These things are sooo cool. I love when we find a skeleton. This particular dude is the largest skeleton ever found. He was massive. Or she… I don’t want to be presumptuous.

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They had a very large collection of pacific Island items including a statue from Easter Island. Also, tons of Aztec, Inca and Mayan items as well

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One of the more interesting items I thought were these diorama recreations of various port and trade cities at a high point in their history.

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Some other random items we liked today:

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Amazingly, we didn’t get tickets to the Hall of Gems and Minerals- I couldn’t figure out how to join the virtual line… figured maybe it was already sold out for the day since online said it usually was… and Norah was disappointed- but when we passed by the entrance, the attendant let us in anyway without asking for tickets! Ha there was no line so I assume since it wasn’t stacked full of people, anyone could go in but we’ll just pretend we were super special 🙂

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After we had seen all our brains could take of museums for the second day in a row, we headed down to the subway back towards our hotel to grab some food. The subway station was decorated appropriately.

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He said the pastrami was great and the pickles were spot on… but he actually likes my matzah ball soup that I make better! Haha

After dinner we hung out in our hotel for an hour until it was time to head south towards Wall Street again to visit the Van Gogh Interactive Exhibit on Pier 31

The Van Gogh exhibit was very cool. I’m admittedly not much of an art buff- and of course I knew a couple of Van Gogh’s majorly famous works, but so didn’t realize he was so young when he killed himself (37), I didn’t realize he was roommates with fellow artist Paul Gauguin and I didn’t realize that an argument with Gauguin led to the famous “ear” incident where Van Gogh cut off his own ear with a razor blade and put it in an envelope and dropped it off at a nearby brothel.

Needless to say, they weren’t roommates after that, Van Gogh checked himself into a mental health facility and remained there painting. He was discharged in 1889 and within months shot himself in the abdomen and died two days later.

Tragic story, terrible mental illness. Beautiful art produced from the madness.

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After coloring, we entered the VR experience room where we wore Virtual Reality headsets for a 15 minute ride through Van Gogh painted fields to see some of the villages and scenes he painted. Then, because we had VIP tickets, we got to select a Van Gogh printed poster to take home.

Overall, a great experience. There are many of these around the country right now. I highly recommend a visit!

Tomorrow we’ll head out through Queens to Flushing- the end of the 7 train line to experience some of the outer boroughs and search out some great Asian food.

Today will be a pretty short post even though the day was fairly long 🙂

We took an Uber up to The Met to save some time because we got moving a little late and we had timed entry tickets to The Met. We had the Uber drop us off at Butterfield Market, a swanky little grocery with sandwiches and coffee and a surprise for me- a sushi counter! I love sushi rolls for breakfast, so I was set. ha

They also had Cape Gooseberries, my favorite fruit! I have been growing them for the last few years but we didn’t do a garden this summer, so I hadn’t had any because they aren’t very common… They are a Peruvian Ground Cherry, sort of like a tomatillo/tomato but tastes sweet and tangy like passion fruit.

Kegan found a Scottish Smoked Salmon sandwich on brown bread, so he was pretty thrilled as well.

Since we had a couple minutes extra, we ran by William Greenberg Desserts and got a few mini Black and White Cookies- a staple of New York! If you ever watched Seinfeld, there was a whole episode about the black and white cookie. Most of the major long-standing places that made black and white cookies seemed to have closed their doors during the pandemic… but William Greenberg is still open and standing.

We grabbed a table outside The Met and ate our breakfast of sushi, smoked salmon, fruit and cookies! ha I’d like to think people were looking at us weird, but truth is- it’s New York, no one gives a hoot about what anyone else is doing. ha

First, we visited the Rome and Greece wing. I wanted to make sure I got to see all of that before my brain was overloaded and I was missing things. Roman history is definitely my favorite (I’m sure you know that if you’ve followed this blog at all. ha Every trip- ROMANS! ha)

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Some highlights of the Egyptian exhibits

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The American Wing had tons of colonial furniture, clocks, Tiffany glass, jewelry, paintings… some of my favorites:

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A large section was devoted to Medieval and European Portraits

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Finally we walked through the Asian art wing. I don’t know a lot about Asian history or a Cambodian statue from a Tibetan statue.. but there were some intricate pieces and colossal statues that caught my eye.

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After we had seen all our brains could take of the museum, we headed out behind the museum into Central Park.

First stop was the Group of Bears statue.

We walked along to the Obelisk or Cleopatra’s Needle.

It was a gift from Egypt to the US in the 1880s… and is over 1000 years older that Cleopatra!

We had to sit and rest because I was wearing dress flats all day in a museum and then walking across Central Park just trying to not look like a tourist for our Broadway show. ha Also, the Gershwin theater required Norah to have a negative Covid test within 6 hours of the show, so we sat and gave her the test and waited for the results. Then I photographed the test, alongside her passport for Identification and a phone screen showing the date and time.

When we arrived, the girls checking vaccines and tests were super impressed with our preparedness. haha

Continuing on across Central Park we passed Belvedere Castle, a miniature castle designed as a focal viewpoint for various parts of Central Park and situated on the highest point in the park. Central Park is so busy and so many people exploring, it’s hard to imagine…but from the 1940s to the 1980s, this castle was shut down and a target of vandalism and disrepair until it was restored and reopened. Blows my mind because now all of New York is so busy and so upscale/nice/clean…It’s hard to imagine the New York of the 1980s or early 1990s. or even more so, the New York of the late 1800s or early 1900s.

There is a nicely manicured area called Shakespeare’s Garden.

We entered the subway at the Museum of Natural History station- which we’ll be right back up to tomorrow to visit this museum

We found a Shake Shack right around the corner from the theater that had a nice table outside that we relaxed at and ate for over an hour waiting on our time to go through the Covid line to get in. They separated out different seating areas into different times of arrival and our seating area was the first group set to arrive 50 minutes early.

Turned the corner and realized we were at the Ed Sullivan Theater where they film The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

Wicked plays in the Gershwin Theater, named after George and Ira Gershwin- playwrite and lyricist brothers. Since 2003, Wicked has been playing here. It has the largest seating capacity of any theater on Broadway with 1933 seats

We were definitely the first group in. Totally empty theater.

We had the front 3 seater row of the mezzanine overlooking the lower level and the stage. Wasn’t the best view in the house- but we didn’t sit by people we didn’t know and there were no tall heads in front of us….so it was a great seat for me 🙂

The play was very good. I loved the “alternate” story of the Witches of Oz. It was no Hamilton. ha That musical BLEW.MY.MIND. I’m not sure anything else will ever live up to Hamilton. This one was objectively good, though.

Seeing 2,000 people file out of a theater all at once was interesting… lol

Walked through Times Square again because we decided to walk the 10 blocks instead of trying to hop the subway one stop since 2000 other people were headed that way too. It was a decent walk through the busiest weirdest part of Manhattan. ha Tomorrow is the Museum of Natural History and the interactive Van Gogh museum in the evening.

Today started out with a quick subway ride to Chelsea to have breakfast at the Starbucks Reserve Roastery. There are only 5 or 6 of these around the world. This one is a 3 story collection of seating and bars offering booze and coffee, pastries, fancy sandwiches, tasting flights of various coffees. All in a fancy schmancy setting of walnut furniture, fireplaces and copper. Designed to celebrate their coffee and their process.

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Honestly, it was good food, but we were both underwhelmed at the coffee. Maybe we aren’t fancy enough haha. My cold brew- the whiskey-aged- tasted like a shot of whiskey…legit. I had to just drink it fast. ha The prometheus blend was watered down so much it didn’t have much flavor…and the nitro cold brew which is normally served cold when I order it at a regular Starbucks was lukewarm. Kegan said his espresso was so bitter, he didn’t enjoy it and he orders straight espresso from Starbucks constantly. Off day? perhaps.. or perhaps thats the true profile their coffees should have and we just don’t understand. ha either way, decent experience, not a necessity ever again.

We headed over to the Hudson to see the newest park in Manhattan, Little Island. Public space built out over an old Pier no longer in use. Has a very distinctive look from land or the water.

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Norah added her name to a wall of names as part of an art project designed to help people feel more connected and together as part of a post-Covid re-opening.

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We had tickets to the Museum of Illusions that I knew Norah would love because she watches a bunch of YouTube videos with these sort of optical illusions all the time.

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Following this museum we walked towards the famous Dominique Ansel bakery. Famous for inventing the Cronut. I’ve had his baking cookbook for quite a few years now and he gives his recipes for Madelines, cronuts, cannelles, etc but I always wanted to actually get something from his bakery. Turns out still, to get a cronut, you have to order them two weeks in advance. So I did…. Just plain cronuts. 6 of them- the smallest order I could make.

There was some confusion, they couldn’t find my order (even though I had my order receipt and # -but they don’t go by order number. Ha it was a bit of a mess) but they handed me 6 cronuts and I left. But they weren’t what I ordered. Ha turns out we got 6 salted caramel cronuts that were filled with a crème and iced with a caramel fudge. And they were cold. And they had definitely been in a fridge since yesterday. So I think they lost my order and I got whatever was set aside for mess ups such as this. Ha and they weren’t that good. But a flakey layered cronut needs to be eaten within hours of baking. That’s why we had a one hour pickup window.

Sadly. Kegan and I agreed that ol’ Dominique may have gotten a little big for his britches. Ha but oh well. Sometimes when you’ve been wanting something for years, it will likely never live up to the hype… but this was especially disappointing because everything about it was objectively not right. Ha

Walking along the area we ended up walking around New York University-NYU campus.

There was a science related home decor store that I wanted to stop into called The Evolution Store. They had some very interesting insect and animal specimens for purchase as well as fossils and gems.

Our walk took us along to an unassuming building that you would never know the history of without seeing it labeled on Google Maps or specifically seeking it out. This was the former location of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory- and the famous Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire in 1911.

The shirtwaist fire was the deadliest industrial accident in the city. 146 garment workers, mainly young Jewish and Italian women newly immigrated to the US who burned to death inside the building or were killed when they jumped from the 8-10th floors of the building to the pavement below.

The workers were locked into the work areas to prevent the girls from taking unauthorized breaks and to prevent theft. When a fire started the doors were locked from the outside and no one could escape and the guy with the keys had left the premises. The owners of course were not locked in and they escaped to the roof when the fire started and left all of their workers inside to die.

Sidebar- I’m no fan of labor unions these days… but it’s because of things like this that they exist at all. Large organizations with all the power will never do what’s right by workers without workers having some leverage. Usually that leverage is the ability to leave and go to the competition…but in early industrial days, there were so many immigrants coming in every day- you were lucky to find employment and there was someone else waiting to take your spot when you died at your machine. The girls in this factory were only making the equivalent of $300 a week in today’s money for six 12 hour days.

The owners were never convicted of any wrongdoing and went on to open another factory- where they were also fined multiple times for locking women in to that factory too. Doesn’t take a leap of the mind to figure out these men were evil and had zero regard for the women they employed.

One of the bystanders watching the girls jumping to the deaths was Frances Perkins. She would go on to organize worker’s rights and eventually 20 years later would be the Secretary of Labor under FDR, the first woman to serve in any president’s cabinet.

We proceeded to walk through Washington Square Park, a big open space around NYU and Greenwich Village area with a big fountain and a famous arch dedicated to George Washington.

Just a street over from the park is the Washington Mews, an private gated cobblestone streets with adorable buildings on each side, which since the 1950s has housed offices for NYU. Before that, some artists lived here, and before they were houses, they were originally horse stables. A cute little street to walk down.

We hopped the subway to the Flatiron District to see the flatiron building and couple other sites before heading up towards Central Park but the building is currently under construction and has scaffolding all over the outside! A bit disappointing. I read that the entire building is empty through 2023 while they do an overhaul. I always pictured people living here and that single window on the skinny end was likely some posh living room or bedroom window…but turns out its all corporate office space. No residential at all. So, instead, it’s just a bunch corner office executives with the awesome offices.

Just on the other side of the intersection is Eataly. A fancy Italian market with hot food and sandwiches and gelato.

We grabbed some food and ate it on a park bench outside.

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Right next to Eataly was a Lego store that Norah wanted to visit (it is her vacation, too ha) so we went exploring. I made some notes for Christmas, it wasn’t totally lost time.

After that, we hopped on the subway again and headed North to Central Park…completely forgetting I had art museum tickets to ARTECHOUSE and planned to tour through Chelsea Market that we were supposed to hit before leaving the area. Whoops. North we went.

When we exited the subway there was this huge black building. I thought it was cool. Turns out its Trump International Hotel. ha I knew it looked familiar! and it also explained why there were 30 cops surrounding a crazy guy who had just spit on some lady’s face who was just walking down the street. We were like “why are there so many police officers around to begin with??” turns out it’s because this building invites a lot of controversy and likely a lot of threats and security needed.

Here at the entrance to Central Park at the Merchant’s gate entrance (a name given in the 1860s to show appreciation for the role commerce in the city’s economy) stands a monument dedicated to the 258 American soldiers that died aboard the USS Maine.

The USS Maine exploded while docked in Havana, Cuba which was under Spanish Rule at the time. The ship had been sent there is protect US citizens due to Cuba revolutionaries and anti-Spanish violence that had been occurring. We of course wanted Spain out of the Americas since they controlled Puerto Rica, Cuba, Guam and others….and this explosion- which is still debated about what or who actually caused it- was the battle cry that finally got Americans ready to go to war. “Remember the Maine!” became the catchy phrase that would lead the way.

We backed Cuba’s right to independence and signed a declaration that authorized our president to use force if necessary to secure that freedom. Spain declared war on us. But then we declared war on them the next day! and made it retroactive 4 days prior! HA! sure showed them… ha

But Spain wasn’t prepared to fight a major war across the ocean against a foe like the US. It didn’t take long for the US to capture the Philippines. Then to free Cuba from Spanish control- with the help of a young secretary of the Navy Teddy Roosevelt and his volunteer group of cavalrymen called “the Rough Riders”. After that, the Spanish signed the Treaty of Paris- freeing Cuba, signing over Puerto Rico and Guam to the United States and selling the Philippines to the US for 20 million dollars.

The irony in this, is that the Philippine rebelled against their NEW oppressors and the US lost 10 times the number of men in 3 years putting down Philippine rebellion than they did fighting Spain.

Anyway, after the USS Maine explosion occurred- William Randolph Hearst decided there should be a monument to the tragedy and raised funds by running ads in his newspapers, collecting donations small and large until they could build this monument.

We ventured on into the southwest corner of Central Park

The beauty of New York City and why they are able to build such monumental skyscrapers here is that the island is basically solid rock. the bedrock is just under the soil and in some places, like in central park- its actually above the soil. People were relaxing on the rocks, hanging out. So naturally, Norah wanted to as well.

After wandering in Central Park for a bit (don’t worry, we’ll see more later) we had a Norah event planned at Columbus Circle. On Columbus Day… haha I had no plans of that, just a coincidence.

The Shoppes at Columbus Circle is a very nice retail plaza that is a part of the Time Warner complex- the most expensive piece of real estate in all of Manhattan.

They even have Botero sculptures in the main atrium.

We were headed for a store called CAMP. One floor was retail games, toys, books and a few fun items to play with… but the 2nd floor was a kid art studio- including a paint splatter room, spin, art, painting ceramics, making slime and other fun hands-on items.

We were very early, so we went downstairs and explored- they have an old truck the kids can climb inside and play with.

They had a sequin room that I wanted to go play in. ha

After this, I had plans to go back up the edge of Central Park and see a few famous Upper West Side buildings like the Dakota building where John Lennon lived, then go across into Central Park and see the Strawberry Fields John Lennon memorial…. but Norah was done. Like, she kept it together in the mall, but no way was I going to get her to walk more and spend another couple hours out. I know that kid’s limits. ha So… back towards midtown on the subway we went, grabbing carryout sushi from a shop called Wasabi on our way.

Tomorrow we’ll spend most of our day at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and see Wicked on Broadway.

We started our morning a bit later than normal because we were all up so late for SNL and we had less than 5 hours of sleep two nights in a row prior. It was pretty nice to sleep until 8:30. ha

Right outside the front doors of the hotel is Angelina’s Bakery. They had some great looking pastries.

I got the cheese danish above and the ham and cheese focaccia below that I split. Kegan got the spinach and egg focaccia.

We got some coffee and headed out towards “the river”. I say it with quotes because apparently, when you are on an island surrounded by rivers, you need to specify to your spouse WHICH river we’re walking toward. ha We were walking about 20-30 minutes when all of a sudden we passed Grand Central….and I KNOW where that is on a map…and it is nowhere NEAR where we should have been. haha Turns out, Kegan was walking us towards the East River… I was planning on us heading West towards the Hudson River. ha. So… we got an Uber right over to where we needed to be and all was well.

We booked the Circle Line Landmarks cruise and we could not have picked a better date and time for it because the minute we boarded, it rained until right about the time we got back.

We were 40 minutes early because its one of those places that writes “be here 30 minutes prior to departure” and departure was at 11:30, so we arrived at 11. It said they boarded the boat at 11:30… but when we arrived they said 11:45. and actually didn’t start until 11:55… and didn’t leave until 12:30. Annoying. I’m a punctual individual! If you say 11, I’m there at 11. Then I’m grumbly and annoyed that you lied to me. ha

Anyway, because we were over to the pier early, we checked out the USS Intrepid which houses the Intrepid Air and Space Museum which included planes and even a space shuttle on display in a military aviation museum.

We walked by the convention center of New York city- the Javits Center- where they are currently holding the ComicCon convention. A couple people I follow on Instagram were in there including Adam Savage formerly of Mythbusters fame. It truly is crazy all of the things going on in New York at one time. 8.8 million people live here and about 14 million people visit every year.

My pictures are absolutely terrible because of the rain, but posting a couple anyway.

After the cruise docked again, we caught another Uber down to the World Trade Center tower to see the 9/11 Memorial and museum on the previous site of the twin towers.

One of the first sites that stood out to me was The Oculus. It’s the new World Trade Center Transportation Hub opened in 2016. It connects PATH trains from Jersey and subway trains and is the 5th busiest station in New York.

There is a mural project right next door. Multiple giant spray painted art pieces… they were very vibrant.

After a little ticket issue where our digital tickets were showing invalid even though they showed today’s date and appropriate time for entry… we headed inside the 9/11 Museum.

I would hope/think that everyone is familiar with 9/11 and the events and there is no need for a long historical post about it. There are many great documentaries documenting the terror, the heroism, the individuals who ran into the building when others were running out. I recommend you watch a couple to really reflect on how our world changed that day… and really learn the facts of everything that transpired. It’s still gut-wrenching 20 years later. We watched a very moving documentary The Falling Man a few years ago, a documentary trying to identify the man from the famous New York Times front page photo showing a man falling to his death after being forced out of the North tower, likely by fire and smoke.

It’s estimated that over 100 people fell from the towers before they collapsed Some say closer to 200. It was these initial falling deaths after the planes hit that had a catholic priest named Mychal Judge from St. Paul’s Chapel- the closest church to group zero – running over to the site to pray last rights over these bodies. He himself was killed by the debris as the south tower collapsed. His body was carried out of the North lobby shortly before the north tower fell, creating one of the most iconic images of the day

If you haven’t heard of Mychal Judge, you really should read up on him. A man who dedicated his life quite literally to the priesthood. He was a pillar of marginalized communities throughout his life, supporting and loving those traditionally neglected and shunned from the Catholic church. He was at the bedsides of countless AIDS patients as they died alone in the early years of the epidemic. He has been nominated for sainthood since his death, but it wont happen because of his stance and work within the gay communities and the information that came out after his death that he himself was gay, though celibate as required by his priesthood. He seemed like a man that walked the walk and lived his values… and I think it’s important to remember and learn about genuine people doing great deeds in their lifetimes.

We entered the museum from the ground level with most of the exhibits being underground.

The first overlook was down to the slurry walls which were poured as sort of water levies to keep flood waters from infiltrating the ground underneath the towers. The walls held even in the collapse of the towers. Also- “the last column”- the last piece of steel to be removed from the site during cleanup was relocated here to the museum.

Most of the museum was in galleries and did not allow photographs. Anything with images of people, items that belonged to people, etc- there was no photography…so most of the museum. There is an online catlog of over 60,000 items that have been collected that are related to 9/11 history.

https://collection.911memorial.org/

Outside, the museum sits between a North and South reflecting pool. The original site of each tower.

Now it was time for a bit to eat for us. Joe’s Pizza is your quintessential New York slice. Great crust, quality toppings, guys yelling at you to order faster… all of it. ha The owner Joe is in his late 70s but he still manages the product and the operations- and says that the recipe hasn’t changed in over 40 years.

Continuing our walk of the financial district, we passed the Federal Reserve Bank of New York building.

Just down from there was 57 Maiden Lane. It doesn’t exist anymore. Like most everything in New York, the history has been replaced with newer and “better”. They even bulldozed George Washington’s mansion on the waterfront to make way for ferries and coast guard! Like seriously?? Who was steering this ship for 100 years or so…. they were demolishing everything with zero regard for history or preservation.

Anyway, 57 Maiden Lane was the residence of Thomas Jefferson.. and historically significant for being “the room where it happened” (if you’ve ever seen Hamilton the musical) – the great 1790 Compromise, where Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and Thomas Jefferson entered a dinner meeting as bitter sworn enemies and somehow came out of the meeting deciding to approve Hamilton’s plan to create a national bank and assume state debts…and in return, Hamilton would support moving the United States Capital to Washington, DC. We always think of DC as our nation’s capital… but you may not know that from 1785-1790, New York City was the center of government and our nation’s capital…which really does make more sense… but those darn Southerners. We had to give them some sort of win..and I think Hamilton knew when compromising on the move that it wouldn’t matter where your put the politicians and lawmakers, all the banking, money, commerce and trade would stay in Manhattan, even more free to grow and operate without the constraint of politics intermingled. Smart man, indeed.

Our next stop was in front of Federal Hall. The United State’s first official courthouse. Hamilton as a lawyer argued cases here, including the famous 1804 Manhattan Murder Trail. Its the site of the 1st congress, the 1st supreme court and the original 1st office of the Executive Branch of the United States (you know, before we figured out you probably shouldn’t put all 3 branches of government in the same stone building when they run the entire country). George Washington was also inaugurated here.

This statue stands on the exact spot where he took his oath of office on April 30, 1789. George Washington really doesn’t get enough credit for shaping the presidential landscape. He was so popular in his time that when he stepped down from running for another term, the nation was shocked and horrified. They had only ever lived under kings previously- they had no real concept of a democratically elected president with a set term of power….and for Washington to see the need to transition while he was still alive and to let go of the incredible amount of power he had for 20 years…first as general and then as president….well, I don’t think you’d find that from today’s politicians.

The New York Stock Exchange building was around the corner on Wall Street. Wall Street was actually originally named after a true wall in the colony by the Dutch where residents would meet to trade. This trade and commerce continued and Wall Street and lower Manhattan continued to be the center of transactions and trade. Up until the 2000s, the trading floor was an absolute mad house of securities representatives screaming prices and stock symbols, following ticker tapes and just generally seeming like a work environment that would make me hate my life… These days, most markets trade completely electronically and the NYSE here has been closed to the public since September 11th. The NYSE still invites special guests to ring the opening bell and there is still some trading on the floor (I think anyway- in the Covid pandemic at least for a while, they went to all electronic trading-I’ll have to talk to my father on that one, he’s a CNBC daily watcher)

We walked on toward Battery Park on the very tip of lower Manhattan, walking by the Alexander Hamilton US Customs House. It was built in the early 1900s in a Beaux-Arts style- looking much older. It was the processing point of port taxes, which prior to implementing corporate and income taxes- was the government’s primary source of income. (Let’s go back to that, please! ha) It currently holds the Museum of the American Indian but we didn’t have time to visit as they were closed.

Our next building of interest was the Fraunces Tavern- an original building from the 1760s that was an early meeting place for Rebel patriots to meet and gain support for their revolution. George Washington bid farewell to his troops here after the revolution. Aaron Burr and Hamilton were said to be drinking here the night before their famous duel. The building was purchased by the Sons of the Revolution and restored to a tavern with a period appropriate dining room like the one Washington would have been sitting in.

From here we hopped an Uber up to Chinatown because there isn’t really a good subway station in that area. I was sort of surprised to find that there is sort of a big circle of area that doesn’t have a station. But it was a quick ride by car. We got a better view of the Brooklyn bridge now that the fog lifted and it stopped raining.

Chinatown was my favorite area of New York so far… cozy, small streets, low buildings, so much going on, family run restaurants, decorations strung across the street, very busy. Right up my alley.

I had planned to eat at this Now Wah Tea Parlor that had a line down the block. I wondered if we would get in because their online reservations showed booked through Oct 19th…but we gave it a shot. They supposedly have been in business since the 1930s and have great dim sum and dumplings. Guess we’ll never know 🙂

Instead we decided on Boka Korean Fried Chicken and it was a good decision. We got some soy garlic wings and an order of LA Galbi- California style Korean BBQ short rib dinner. Norah got French fries. Ha

After eating there, we went to eat elsewhere. Ha a stop at the Original Chinatown Ice Cream Factory which had tons of awesome flavors

We walked all along Canal Street eating our ice cream passing vendors, restaurants, Little Italy headed towards Tribeca (shortened as the “triangle below Canal Street”)

The photo above of Little Italy was taken with Kegan’s iPhone 12 Mini because I was eating ice cream. The photo below was taken with my iPhone 13 Pro Max. Incredible camera difference! I debated between bringing my Fuji camera and lens and eventually decided I didn’t want to drag a camera around… so glad I didn’t. This iPhone legit takes as good of photos as the camera I spent a lot of bucks on a couple years ago. Go Apple.

We were meandering through Tribeca in search of the Ghostbusters Fire house. This is the real working fire station that was used for the exterior scenes in Ghostbusters . It seems the firemen here have embraced the nostalgia.

Kegan required me to take a photo of this tiny police car. Modern problems require modern solutions. Ha

We entered the subway at the Franklin St station and had it all to ourselves.

My hair was angry from the rain and wind all day ha it was straight when I left! Ha

We crashed on the beds at around 8:30pm and watched a bit of TV before falling asleep. Norah was put to bed at a much more realistic bedtime tonight 🙂

Tomorrow is another full day of events and exploring before the week slows down for the rest of the trip.