Bite Number Two of the Big Apple

Inside the Met. This is the room where they have a fancy ball in the movie, Maid in Manhattan. I may have watched a few trashy NYC movies after our trip. And by trashy I mean chick flick garbage. 

We designated Friday as our Museum Day and spent many hours at the Metropolitan Museum and the Museum of Modern Art.

Big Guy had heard somewhere that the taxis in New York were subsidized, making it quite affordable to take. This is not true, it's the same amount of money or even a little more than taking a taxi in a place like Edmonton. We took a taxi from our hotel to the Met because it was about an hours walk away. It cost us about $17 dollars but I now can say that I have hailed a cab in NYC, even though it was pretty pathetic. Sorry, I didn't do it as dramatic as you see in the movies.

Taxis in the streets act like sharks in water. Many times we saw a driver pull over three lanes to get to a person, making all the other drives very upset as he cuts them off. Yes, I said "he" as I have never, ever seen a woman taxi driver. Try to prove me wrong. 

The Met is a beautiful museum, full of many, many fascinating exhibits. I would have loved to spend an entire day there, but unfortunately it was like we had a full plate of activities to eat up with awkward chopsticks. I should explain that the reason we went to so many different sights on our "student" budget is that we purchased City Passes. It was $89 per person (if you bought each ticket to the attractions separately it would have been $160).

With the passes it enabled us to:
-Go on a 2 hr Circle Line Sightseeing Cruise (we did this the day before and were able to see the Statue of Liberty, etc)
-Entry to the Empire State Building Observation Deck
-Entry Metropolitian Museum of Art
-Entry to MoMA (Museum of Modern Art)
-Entry to the Museum of Natural History (like the Night at the Museum movie)
-And your choice of either Top of the Rock or the Guggenheim Museum (We chose Top of the Rock)

Big Guy poses with Hercules.

The Met is a pretty impressive museum, the best in North American for sure. We strolled through the Ancient Rome sculptures, the Pacific Rim Aboriginal artifacts, a very large Egyptian exhibit, featured Matisse exhibit, European paintings, Asian art, American paintings, and of course Big Guy's favorite, the weaponry exhibit (featuring knights in shining armor, samurai swords, guns, pretty much anything that a typical dude thinks is cool). I have to admit that it was pretty sweet. I think all in all we covered about 70% of the museum, not too shabby.


  

I thought the creepy children/toddler paintings were funny. This little dude has a squirrel on a chain. I also thought this guy's face looked like Big Guy's.

The security guard watching the cleaning staff dust off the table.

 

I thought the lady in the painting looked like Alauna, or at the very least a Fletcher sister.

Big Guy with Boy George.

Come on, everyone has seen this painting. Even every Canadian knows this is famous.

A view from the second level. Very pretty courtyard-like areas.

A little overwhelmed.

There was a real deer underneath those glass balls. Japanese art.

Little Dragon meets Dragon head.

Warriors!

We walked to the MoMA museum from the Met as it was about halfway back to our hotel. The Met is located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. I wished we could have spent more time just walking around that neighborhood as it is the most expensive to live in and I would have loved to "people watch". I was most definitively checking out the women! I loved seeing the lovely jackets, scarves, hats and boots. We walked along the outskirts of Central Park and hit a whole bunch of famous places.

                                    

 If you have ever watched the Tom Hanks movie, Big, you will recognize this store. It's the giant toystore that he works at when he is transformed into an adult. Who can forget the scene when Hank's character and his boss perform the giant keyboard duet?!

Big Guy liked seeing all the toys and can't wait to play with Little Dragon.

Cheesy cheese!!

Giant piano!

 Then we walked by the famous Tiffanys store (Breakfast at Tiffanys anyone?) and into the Trump tower to snoop around.

In the Trump Tower.

I hear Donald Trump has a toilet made out of pure gold, seems practical.

Smile doorman!!

Before we went to MoMA we stopped into a little hole-in-the-wall Japanese restaurant and shared a lunch. The bubble tea there was gross, not like the Dream bubble tea in Edmonton that I have become so accustomed to. I miss that place!!

I think I would have enjoyed MoMA more if it wasn't so darn busy. It was packed with people. I should have known better than to go on a Friday night but we had to squish everything in our busy schedule.

Andy Warhol. Mmm mmm good!

Monet and Big Guy sticking a carrot rattle in Little Dragon's mouth. He was making so much noise!

Picaso.

A little more Picaso.

Modern art is a very diverse thing. I kind of like modern art for this reason. Different pieces of art speak to people in different ways. Some seem to have taken a lot of time and thought and are breathtaking, some are  very political or sexual, and others are just plain weird.

Monet and the Keyes fam.I wish I would have brought more jackets. I look like such a bum wearing the same thing over and over, but we did pack light. Only one suitcase for three people, you should be impressed.

This to me says, I am a black checkered box that continues on.

Japanese art. This says to me EYZ (examine your zipper)

Friendly neighborhood...

Come on!!! Little Dragon could have done this!

Ahhhhhhhh!!! To take a picture of this I had to get around a bunch of people (The original, it's on loan)

Ummm? Oh, I get it. Chairs!

Drinking a bottle of Coke. You are faceless, blinded by the influence of a ruthless corporation.

After MoMA we walked back to our hotel and stopped by the Rockerfeller building to snap up some pictures.

On Saturday, the only official thing I wanted to do was to go to Rockerfeller. The whole morning and afternoon I just wanted to walk South of our hotel (which we hadn't yet done) and explore the different districts. Big Guy just wanted to go to the Financial District to get a picture of him grabbing the famous Wallstreet bull by the horns. Happy to report we were able to find it.

Passed out!!! We did let him nap one morning.  He likes sleeping on his tummy.

So we walked past the Fashion Institute of Technology down 7th Avenue into Chelsea. I saw the Gotham comedy club that I wanted to go to so badly and live in NYC when I was 21 years old.

Get it? Get it?? Ha ha!

I loved Greenwich Village. It's more of an student/hipster area. The NYU campus is in this area. The design of the buildings, small little shops and bakeries were so enchanting. We stopped in the famous Magnolia Bakery (see SNL song Lazy Sunday, also featured in a certain TV show, with a certain Carrie Bradshaw and Miranda Hobbes) and purchased some overpriced but absolutely delicious cupcakes and some super yummy banana pudding.

What Greenwich village looks like. Big Guy thought it was similar to Montreal.

He's all like, "Can I have a cookie? Just one?"

Outside Magnolia Bakery in Greenwich Village. Yummy yummy!

Then we were in Little Italy and soon in Chinatown. It was amazing how quickly we were in another district of Manhattan. We were also able to move fast because Little Dragon was gound asleep for an hour. We found that when he was in his carseat for a long time, day after day, he would holler until one of us picked him up. Poor little guy. I don't blame him.

Chinatown was a busy, loud, full of people place. It seemed like every shop was a grungy little I Love NYC store, full of t-shirts, hats, paperweights of the Statue of Liberty, magnets, toys, etc. You know, the stuff that you think you NEED when you are in a touristy place but later, when you return home, think, "Why did I buy all of this junk?" It made sense to me that there were a million of these stores in Chinatown because they probably purchased 100% of the stuff from China.  

Chinatown!

I don't know if you can see it very well but they still have their necks and heads on them!

I would like to report that I didn't buy very much crap. I was good. Of course I got a I "heart" NY t-shirt, but other than that I just purchased some postcards and that's it (from those junky stores at least).

In Chinatown, on every corner, of every block, there are little Chinese ladies that would say to me in a robotic way, "Hey lady! You want Coach purses, Tiffanys jewelry? Watches?" I was tempted to say, Yes, just to see where they would take me and the caliber of these seemingly high end goods, but I refrained just in case they decided to murder me.

Dragon was growing hungry so we ducked inside a Burger King in Chinatown and bought a smoothie so we could use it as a place of refuge. In the restaurant I heard one of the most entertaining conversations between two African American males. It went something like this:

1- "Where's Jerome?'
2- "He's in jail."
1- "For real?"
2- "Oh, you haven't heard? He was out in Harlem when him and his baby momma got in a fight. The neighbors called the cops."

Oh, how I already miss New York.

We saw the outer edge of the Tribeca District, it's apparently an up-and-coming hotspot, at least that what I heard on TLC, from a reality show realtor.

We then walked close to the Brooklyn Bridge but decided we wouldn't walk across (maybe another trip, when it is warmer outside) and into the Legal area of the city which is the northern part of the Financial District.

This is a park in front of NYC's city hall.

Mr. Lawyer in training by a pretty courthouse.

We found the bull, snapped up a picture and ate some lunch at Subway before going to pay our respects at the 9/11 Memorial.

Look at how happy he is!

Now, this whole 9/11 thing is rather strange. The more you read up on it and see the documentaries of the pictures that only made it to TV once and the facts behind what the press released and what really went on, make it definitely sound like the whole thing was orchestrated not by terrorists living in caves in the middle east, but rather terrorists in the USA who have outrageous incomes and intentions of making more money by declaring war (remember those weapons of mass destruction that were never found in Iraq?).

I liked how the names of the service men and women and the people inside the buildings who perished were on the sides of the fountain. It is still a beautiful memorial.

I feel sad for the people that died. I have been thinking a lot recently about death and how awful it would have been to have died on one of those planes or in the building. I am glad that they have made monuments with the names of those that have perished. But it was appalling and ridiculous to see how many police and security were around the site. Really? You think people are going to boom ground zero, again? Big Guy and I witnessed a security guard holding a plastic, bright blue and yellow spaceman gun that they confiscated from a little boy. It's all about fear mongering.

So to enter the memorial you have to go through airport-like security. When we were walking towards the memorial we saw four security guards escort an older lady out. She probably had a mental illness and was most likely talking a little nonsense, but really. Four guards? It was just sad for many reasons. And the cherry on top of the whole thing is that when exiting the site, there is a gift shop.

There are two giant fountain like pools where the buildings bases would have been. Viola! Nothing for the third building that fell (building 7).

Little Dragon's favorite spot during our outings was being tucked in Big Guy's jacket and sucking on his lapel.

We took the subway (which was only $4) back to our hotel.

Little Dragon had a little nap and Big Guy made a run for a Grimaldi's pizza (one of the best pizzas in NYC, apparently Frank Sinatra used to have this type of pizza flown to him). It's more a local secret and  Big Guy took a long time to find it because there wasn't a big sign. Apparently it was hidden and he had to walk through a store to get to it. Weird? I wasn't with him so I can't really give any more details.

The evening was spent with a walk to the Rockerfeller building. We talked to a guy that worked in the building about the process to get Saturday Night Live tickets. Apparently for standby tickets you have to get up super early in the morning and many people camp overnight (for more than one night) and it's not even guaranteed that you get a seat. Crazy??? I think I'm just going to try to get some tickets and enter the NBC lottery this summer.

Both Big Guy and I liked the Top of the Rock. It was a beautiful view of Central Park and of the Empire State Building. The experience was so much more accommodating than that of the Empire State Building. They had a little video before you go up the elevator. The elevator itself had a glass roof and every over floor had lights on the side so you could see how high you were going up. And on the observation level there were large padded benches and classical music playing. Just better all around.

On Sunday we went to church. The meeting house was different than any other church building I have ever attended. It was basically like the church bought out a small apartment building. We took an elevator to the 3rd floor where the chapel was located. It was kind of like a barbell shape with the elevator in the middle. We got there a tad late so had to sit in the back section, which made it so you couldn't see the speaker at the pulpit because it was in the other rectangular part of the barbell shape.

Sunday we ate some delicious burgers at a burger joint called... wait for it... brgr. It was too hip to add any vowels. I had a great veggie burger and Big Guy ate a real meat one. The cows are all grass fed so it's healthier all around.

The onion rings were called onion haystacks or something...? Regardless, they were so tasty.

The afternoon we went to the Museum of Natural History. It was okay. Not the best. There were a lot of stuffed animals. I guess it's the next best thing to a zoo. It was really packed with a lot of families with screaming children. 

Comparing humans to monkeys. The baby is about Lewis's size!

 After spending a number of hours in the Museum and quite frankly, feeling all museum-out, we walked back on the Upper West Side of NYC. We walked through a quite neighborhood and made our way to where the LDS temple is located. On our way we walked past a news studio (CBS, I believe).

Newsroom. They were busy looking at their phones.

LDS temple on Manhattan Upper West Side.

We then went for supper at a market and had fresh sandwiches and salads. On our way back to the hotel we went through the bottom width of Central Park, we would have liked to have explored it more, but it was getting late for Little Dragon, between 8-9pm and he was screaming bloody murder until we ducked into a Starbucks and fed him until he passed out.

Little Dragon checking out Big Guy.

Central park with a sprinkling of snow.

Homer picture for Hannah!

The last day in NYC, Monday, we slept in, I think Little Dragon slept until 8am which doesn't happen that often, checked out of our hotel and walked around Chelsea, purchasing scrumptious $1 cheese pizza slices. At around 2pm we headed to Penn Station to take our Amtrax train to Syracuse. On the train ride home Little Dragon slept for 4 out of the 6 hours which astounded me.

Gigi Cafe!!

Little Dragon all tuckered out.

Came back to this! In the Syracuse, Amtrax parking lot.

Because of freezing rain warnings we stayed in Syracuse overnight at a hotel. It was nice getting some much needed rest there and not having to travel at night. Overall, we had a great trip and are happy to see things out east that we normally wouldn't have the chance to. However, we all were thrilled to come back to a nice quiet apartment.