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