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!  :)

It's up to you, New York

Monday, April 3

Spring Break--New York City

Washington Square Arch at night

During our spring break, Shelby and I are visiting New York City.  Partially to visit Anneliese when she is not in class and partially to see stuff and have fun!  

Shelby in the West Village

Yesterday (Sunday) Randy drove us to the airport, then as we were going through security, I remembered that I left my phone charging at home.  So, I had Shelby call Randy to ask him to bring my phone to the airport.  He was wonderful and was there 15 minutes later.  Which meant that Shelby sat at the gate with our bags and after meeting Randy to get my phone, I had to go back through security, which had longer lines than when we went through the first time.  Argh.  

When we arrived in New York, we used the subways.  When Randy and Joshua were in New York a few weeks ago, they found that it was faster (and less expensive) to take the subway from JFK than reserving a shuttle.  And it was WAY faster than the Super Shuttle (and less expensive).  It only took an hour to get to our hotel as opposed to a couple of hours.  We took the air train, which is sort of free to the Howard Beach station.  Then you pay to leave the air train (which is why it's only sort of free) and board the A train into Manhattan.  We got out at 14th street which is only about a 10 minute walk from our hotel.  

We checked in and went to our room.  I had texted Anneliese earlier where we were; she was going to meet us at the hotel to go out for dinner.  Well, she found out that many places close early on Sunday nights and with a few extra texts, one as we were leaving the hotel, she directed us to meet her at The Corner Bistro not too far away that was open later.  We had fun visiting with Anneliese, talking far past our meal.  We finally left when the waiter gave us continuous hints that he wanted to clean our table--we were the last in the back dining area.  

Anneliese walked us back to the hotel, then we sat outside on the front steps to the hotel and talked for awhile before Anneliese left around 1:00 to take at least two trains back to her apartment.

This morning, Shelby and I slept in, then set out to explore. We meandered up and down and around blocks at random, eventually ending up at Madison Square Park and the Flatiron builidng.  We rested our feet, then walked on to the Empire State building and visited the Museum of Math gift shop.  If you visit with children, I would definitely recommend taking them there--it looks very cool.

This is an Episocopal church--beautiful!

A Home Depot in Manhattan!

Flatiron Building

Madison Square Park

Shelby resting her legs

Empire State Building

Shelby sampling the wares of the sidewalk vendor

At this point, the angle of the sun was below the tall buildings and it began to get chilly.  Shelby hadn't brought her sweatshirt, so we walked back to our hotel.  We went to our room, then went to the lobby, waiting for housekeeping to finish.  When we went back to our room, they still hadn't done ours, so we stayed there until Anneliese texted where to meet her for dinner.  She had about two hours between a production meeting and her night class (astronomy).  We ate at Mighty Quinn's which is similar to Famous Dave's, but hipper and tastes better.  The three of us shared a rack of ribs and got fries, broccoli salad, and corn fritters as the sides.

Anneliese at a florist

They are selling flowers everywhere!  

Then, after eating and talking, we dropped Anneliese off at her night class (we were in the Village near Washington Square), we headed back to our hotel.  I had a blister on the bottom of my foot (I haven't gotten my barefoot callouses yet and wore my sandals all day) and we were both tired.  Last night we were up late and tired, so an early night to catch up on some sleep sounded good.  Of course, early was around 9:00.  So Shelby has just arrived back from taking a shower (bathrooms are down the hall) and I'll load the pictures and post this before I turn in as well.

This building is where the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory was.

A 106th commemorative display in honor of those who died in the Triangle
Shirtwaist Company fire.

Each flower has a tag with the name and age  of each woman who died
in the fire.  Some also list their job.  The women seemed to be aged
14 to 40.  What a tragedy.

Washington Square Park

Empire State Building

College Visits, Days 3 and 4

This is looking up at a sculpture in one of the classroom buildings at Iowa state.
There is evidently a law in Iowa that all updated buildings need to
install public art.

On Monday, we got up early; luckily the breakfast at the hotel starts at 6:00, because we needed to be on our way by 6:30.  Our hotel seems to be from the 1950s and has been updated.

This is outside the breakfast room of the hotel.

The hotel lobby

This is the inside of the breakfast room.

As we drove, it began to rain, then eventually, it was a downpour.  Wipers on high, trying to see the white lines so that I could stay in my lane, not able to see anything else.  It was almost bad enough to pull off the road.

Because of that, we arrived in Ames half an hour late.  We followed the directions, then figured out how to get to the parking ramp we needed to park in.  Luckily we had thought to bring umbrellas and were wearing sweatshirts.  Since we were late, we missed the displays of the different programs and the speaker had just begun.  We checked in, then when they told us to sit in the auditorium, I mentioned that I had been told to go to the pre-veterinary table to get our parking pass for the vet school tour that afternoon (it's away from the main campus).  One of the staff helped me find the table and we got there just as the professors had packed up and were leaving.  We got our parking pass and they promised to get us directions when we went to the program presentation.  Then came the sitting and listening to the welcome and student panel.  Then on to our program presentation.  We were led to a building on the other side of campus (in the rain) to hear about the animal sciences program.  Then to lunch, a campus tour, a view of a dorm room, then we went back to our car because Shelby's socks, shoes, and jeans were soaked.  My sweatshirt was soaked.  So she changed in the car and we drove to the veterinary school.  

The campanile.

A classroom building

Mechanical engineering and design program classroom buildings.

The computer sciences and an engineering building that were
designed to look like the Titanic (?).  The skyway between
the buildings is supposedly where the ship cracked.

This quote is found in the original (old) section of the library.

An original men's dorm that is now offices.  (It originally had a
pool in the basement).  

The veterinary school contains classrooms, an animal hospital, and the "trailerhood,"a trailer park where the grad students live to be close to the hospital, since the seniors are often on 24 hour call (it's a 5 minute walk from the hospital).  A professor spoke to us for 40 minutes and made veterinary school sound horrible!  Then we went on a tour and met professors who were so excited about being vets and showing students around and teaching them, that veterinary school started sounding positive again!

After spending the day at Coe in a very nurturing and personalized environment, Iowa State felt very impersonal.  It feels a bit like the U of M.  Coe seems to give you a lot of assistance to get what you need, while Iowa state expects you to take care of it yourself.  Just a difference of feeling.

After that, we met Shelby's friend, Adrian, that attends Iowa State and took him out to dinner.  I told him to choose where we went since he knows the area.  He chose a local pizzeria.  So we ate and talked, then we drove him to his night class, where he had a test.  Then we set out to drive to Minnesota Lake, where my mother-in-law lives, with whom we were spending the night.  The rain had ended during the vet school tour, but it was very windy, so we had to drive more slowly than I normally would.  We called her en route to let her know we'd be late.  Then after a late dessert, we stayed up late talking and went to bed.  

Tuesday morning, we slept in until 9:30, had a small breakfast, played dominoes, ate lunch, and finished our dominoes game before leaving around 3:45.  We arrived home to share our adventures and have dinner.  Glad to be home, less so to go back to school/work tomorrow!

College Visits, Days 1 and 2

Shelby and I traveled from Minneapolis to Iowa yesterday, February 18.  We left around 12:30, after sleeping in.  It was a long drive, but sunny and warm, so the 4 1/2 hours went just fine.  We checked into our hotel last night.  It seems like an updated 1950s hotel.  It is nice, but nothing special.  We walked down the road later to a Perkins for dinner.   After dinner, we talked, then played Crazy 8s for awhile before falling asleep.



This morning we were up and had breakfast before leaving.  They advertised a deluxe, hot breakfast.  When we walked in, I saw a waffle machine and felt let down, but then saw the buffet.  They had scrambled eggs, hash browns, sausage, bacon, biscuits, and gravy as well as the usual waffle maker, cereals, and breads.  They had nice glass glasses for milk and juice and cleared the tables when you were done.  Good breakfast, then out the door just after 8:00.

At Coe, walking from the parking lot.

We drove to Coe (about 10 minutes away) and parked.  Coe is a small college, about 1400 students.  It has it's own grassy campus and updated classic buildings between downtown Cedar Rapids and the freeway.  It has an amazing number of programs and majors for such a small college.  100% of students have an internship or research experience before graduation.  They seem to have a strong medical field--nursing, pre-med and pre-vet.  Every student is assigned to someone to make sure that they adjust well, make friends, and get involved.  All students are expected to live on campus all four years.  They even have upper-classmen apartments on campus and the fraternities/sororities are located in parts of dorms.  We listened to speakers and walked around.  Shelby flat-out refused to get her picture taken with the mascot walking around (the Kohawk). We ate in the dining hall and were constantly approached by people all day to see if we needed anything.   Shelby talked to the pre-vet, theater, and music people.  The theater rep said that they would love to have her do work-study in technical theater (since she has so much high school experience) and wrote down her name so that they could flag her work/study application.   She auditioned with her clarinet for a possible music scholarship.  All of the students that spoke talked about the close relationship students and faculty have.  It seems like a big extended family, very nurturing and close.  We visit Iowa State tomorrow.  We had an unofficial tour of the St. Paul campus of the U of M last spring (the student view) with a more official reception next month.  Shelby has a lot of thinking to do and feels a lot of anxiety about it.

Shelby warming up for her audition.  She is saying,
"you're really going to take this picture?"

After her audition, I wanted to walk around campus a bit, get a better feel and some more photos, but Shelby was tired out and we went back to the hotel to rest.  Today was a beautiful day--70 degrees (F) and sunny!  I wore sandals and a skirt (without leggings) for the first time since last October!

Shelby with the library in the background.

One of the dorms

The music building on the left and a classroom building on the right.

The student apartment buildings.