Manhattan Sampling

Tuesday, April 4

Today, we were meeting Anneliese for lunch, so Shelby and I decided to go exploring in the Village (our hotel is in the East village and we would be meeting Anneliese probably in the west village).  We randomly wandered up and down streets, sometimes even crisscrossing where we had already been.

This was part of a sculpture where St. Vincent's hospital used to be.
It has all of "Song Of Myself" by Walt Whitman printed out (it's a VERY long
poem).  The hospital is well known because it treated the victims of the Triangle
Shirtwaist Fire, the victims of the Titanic, and had the first AIDS clinic in New York.
The picture of the sculpture itself didn't turn out.

Signs of spring!

A Village street

This used to be a courhouse on the site of what used to be
Jefferson Market.  The Times blasted the architect for
planning a beautiful building in (then) a bad neighborhood.
It is now a public library (and what a library!)

The courthouse that wanted to become a library

A sculpture

Cute cafe

pretty church

Shelby with sculpture

We then met Anneliese at an Asian place for lunch before walking her to her afternoon class and heading to Midtown.  We had tickets for Top of the Rock to go up to the observation deck of Rockefeller Center at 7:15.  Well, it drizzled most of the afternoon, but we saw a lot.  For Shelby, we went to the Hershey store, the M & M store, the Lego store, and the Nintendo store.  We also went into Grand Central Terminal and the Central Library.  We were cold before the time for our Top of the Rock so we found a Starbucks and had hot chocolate and a warm treat (I had a scone and Shelby had a muffin).  When we got to our place to go up to the Top of the Rock, we were told that visibility was very poor, in fact the top of the Empire State Building wasn't even visible.  We could change our time for the next night which was supposed to be better.  So we changed for tomorrow night.  They recommended 6:40 because there are many steps to get up there.

Shelby at the Hershey store

Shelby in Times Square

More signs of spring!

The world's most narrow building

beautiful carving on the side of this building

Grand Central Terminal

New York Central Library

Rockefeller Center

Lego Store

Nintendo Store

We then met Anneliese at Washington Square.  We were still kind of full from our Starbucks warm-up, so Anneliese took us to the best view of Manhattan--upstairs in the Kimmel Center (the student union).  So we looked and found some seats to talk for awhile.  We eventually each grabbed a slice Artichoke pizza (that's the name of the place, not the type of pizza), then went to a local pub to hear a Celtic music session.  Unfortunately, we got there near the end of the session so we only heard a few songs.  Then Anneliese went to the Jane with us--we were hoping to use one of the tables in the cafe or the bar and play cards and talk.  Well, they wouldn't let us in the bar because the girls aren't of age and the desk clerk said that we're not supposed to go in the cafe when it's closed and that he doesn't have keys for it.  So----we just went to our room and all three of us sat on my bed and talked.  Until 2:30 in the morning.  Then Anneliese left to go sleep on the couch at the radio station she works at on campus (for a variety of reasons--it's a long story).    So by the time Anneliese left and Shelby finished her shower, we did't get to sleep until after 3:30.  Agh--I'm too old for this!  :)