Back from the Beeg Apple, part 2

So, well, a week ago today, Evelyn dropped us at the Peekskill train station and we got on a train to Manhattan. A one hour ride from this small-town burb and we were right in the middle of Grand Central Station.

We popped up into the main terminal only to head for the S-line of the MTA subway system, and shuttle right over to Times Square. It was there we first hit the streets of New York City. By this time, lunch was calling and we had a very expensive, but pretty good, lunch at the Brooklyn Diner, a good example of the Times Square kitsch. From there, we hit the pavement and walked, probably farther than any native would, to B&H photo which was part of Adam's mission. Exchanges and purchases for friends were done, and unfortunately my sweetie didn't really have any shopping of his own on his agenda. We headed from there to his cousin Eli's place, a walk-up studio near the north-west corner of Central Park. Eli was putting us up for our stay in the city, so we had promised that meals would be on us, and she led us to a very interesting Peruvian-Chinese restaurant, of all places! I had a beef stew with coriander, Eli tried their "world famous" roast chicken (every restaurant in the City claims a world famous something, it seems), and I totally forget what Adam had but it was good too.

Our Tuesday night mission was a trip to the Apple Store on Fifth Avenue to pick up my new interface to the world. I asked if we could do that earlier rather than later in our stay as then I'd have a day or two to try it out in case something was wrong. Nothing was, and my new MacBook is named Obsidian. Eli has a couple of unsecured WiFi spots near her so I admit, I was pirating a bit of bandwidth to get started.

Wednesday, we headed back down to Columbus Circle, and spent much of our time wandering Central Park. Again, check out Adam's pages for the photos. There's alot of walking to be done in New York City, and I was actually suffering some strain injuries by then, so we were meandering, resting, watching what went by, etc. Mid-afternoon we made a disappointing stop for street meat (not nearly as good as home) and a bit later found a more favourable pizza. We then met up with Eli, and headed towards Madison Square Garden to meet her partner Damian, and grab dinner before our Cirque du Soleil show. A Korean BBQ dinner ensued, and then Damian was back off to study (law student) and Adam, Eli and I headed for the WaMu theatre at the gardens. Wintuk is not exactly a Cirque du Soleil big top production, and while it had many of the trappings of Cirque which I love, it had very trite dialogue and lyrics which made it seem really dumbed-down. I definitely prefer Cirque's classic abstract story told through the performance. That said, the stunts were, as always, amazing, though and it was an enjoyable show. We went for dessert at Junior's, a diner-style restaurant famous for its Cheesecakes, and then we were back home to crash on the pull-out in Eli's studio again.

Thursday, Adam and I were on our own the whole time as our hostess was busy with school and work. It was, unfortunately, a dreary, rainy day, though, so we wandered the town. We had thought to check out the International Center for Photography's museum, but the gallery was featuring war journalism displays which weren't really of interest. We popped back to the Apple store to check out laptop cases, but nothing really suited me (I had hoped Wintuk would have Cirque du Soleil's laptop backpack, but it didn't). We wandered next door to FAO Schwartz, a famous toy store, and admired much but surprisingly, didn't buy - most of what I thought would be cool for nieces and nephew really wasn't that different from what could be purchased here. The really outstanding stuff was, of course, in the 5- or 6-figure price range. The larger-than-life model of Iorek Bjarnarsson was impressive, but set up so that it couldn't be photographed very well.

We got on a bus back to Times Square, which had somehow become the point from which we landmarked, despite the fact that I think I'd seen enough of it after 1 day. The bus stop we got off at was coincidentally right in front of the Social Sciences and Humanities branch of the New York Public Library, one of four large, non-lending research libraries in the system and the one housed in the original NYPL building. The building is actually built on top of the original Croton Dam, the first Croton reservoir having been right in the city. We walked in, and happened to catch the start of a tour led by one of the library Docents (volunteers), so we joined. It was a fascinating introduction, and our guide was a superb speaker armed with all kinds of New York trivia. The building itself is a treasure, and its collections are priceless - from clay tablets to DVDs, all to be perused for free (though possibly very strictly supervised and contained, as in priceless items such as the Gutenberg Bible and other ancient manuscripts).

From there, we made a second trip to the Swatch store because I'm a sucker for those goofy wristwatches (we'd been on Tuesday already) and I did the classic tourist thing and bought the "only available here" Times Square swatch, and another dress one, and I'd already bought a sportier one - oops.

At that point, we hit Chevy's Mexican grille and had a made-at-the-table Guacamole and some nice tex-mex entrees, and then, despite Adam's lingering wish to find an improv show, we found we really were too beat for much else and headed "home".

Friday morning we took Eli out for a nice brunch at a french bistro, and while she headed home to work, we were off to the American Museum of Natural History. I need to spend another week in New York just to see more of that. It's an impressive maze-like facility. We paid the "suggested" general admission of $15 a piece and declined the add-on fees for special displays - which was fine as we'd never have had time. We saw the space and cosmos displays, hall of the Northwest Coast native peoples, the Human Origins exhibit, Meteorites (very quick rush through that) and Gemstones and Minerals. That covered about 1/8 of the square footage, maybe, if we don't count the closed areas. Wow.

Having originally intended to head back to Peekskill "mid afternoon" - we didn't finish at the museum until almost 5, and then picked a random restaurant for dinner, an upscale Japanese place that was quite good. Grabbed our bags and took the subway back to Grand Central, bought our Peekskill tickets and got back there around 8:30. Evelyn, funny enough, was in the city for her play and got home around 11.

Saturday was our last day before the haul home, and our first with Ev and Andrew both home, of course. We got taken to a local tourist site, Bear Mountain, a high point in the local range where you could drive right up to the lookout point, so we did. A little bit downhill in the same park is a recreation area, with an ice rink, Inn/restaurant (under renovation) and a carousel, so little Robyn got her first merry-go-round ride. She wasn't quite sure what to make of the whole business.

A late lunch, coffee stop, and then it was back home for Ev to get ready for her play - and we headed back to Manhattan for one last night and real "off off Broadway" show. The drive in was an adventure itself, and included a quick zip past Ground Zero at the World Trade Center site. We got to the theatre later than curtain call, but with a bit of time to spare. I will admit - I've seen worse theatre and better, but it was really exciting to have a friend in a real show and Ev did great despite the challenge of most of the rest of the cast having been re-cast for this closing week. She was a bit upset that the re-cast lead really couldn't seem to learn his lines, so just made it up as he went and rushed through. The play was, by its nature, depressing, but nonetheless interesting, if challenging, to watch. Our last kick at Manhattan was to head to Canal Street for a late-night Chinatown meal. Mission accomplished, we were home by about 2 am, then up again at 8 for the long haul back home. 9 hours of interstates and some exhausted crabbiness on my part (sorry! I was getting tired!) and we sailed through the border at Niagara falls, having been forewarned by a fortuitous pixel board of delays at Lewiston.

And that was that. There's much more of New York, city and state, that I'd like to see someday, but now I just need to catch up on sleep, and hope I can get back into my routine for tomorrow.