I Heart NY

For an extended weekend in the fall, we did New York. Gary and I flew to New York last Thursday and flew back Monday night. What we did to fill the days and nights was a list that could fill a travel book. Suffice it to say it was great, fun, and an out of the norm trip for us. Here are some highlights:
After taking a shuttle bus from Newark to Grand Central Station, we met up with my niece Carmen who was gettign off her work at a swanky-retro hotel called the Ace Hotel in uptown. The hotel was hosting an "after party" for the band, U-2. Saw saw several celebrities at the event. Since we were newbie's to the subway, she met us at Grand Central and introduced us to NY and it's subway system. I'm proud to say we can get pretty much anywhere now without much problem.
To Brooklyn we went. She has a 600 sf (large by NY standards) 2 bedroom row house apartment. It is very charming. The view of the city on the roof top deck is very cool. There is no elevator and they live on the 4th floor. No wonder Carmen and Leo are in such great shape.

Friday, we headed out on our adventures. We went to Liberty Island. Very cool! The view of Manhattan was great as it was a beautiful day. We took the ferry back and walked over to the financial district after a good gyro and beer. We took photo opts of the city and the Brooklyn Bridge. Then we headed uptown to her hotel to meet up with Leo. After some great coffee, we headed over to Times Square. Loved it! Then, we headed over to Rockefeller Center and up to the top of the rock, the 69th floor. I highly recommend this. The views were amazing with a panoramic view of teh enitire city, including the Empire State Building, Central Park and all the burrows. You can't see Central park from the Empire State Building. Then we headed to Greenwich Village and had dinner at an understated pizza house, simply called John's Pizza. Real good authentic NY pizza. We then caught up with Leo again for a glass of wine in the village while listeng to a blues band at an outdoor cafe. We then walked through Washington Park near NYU and saw a replica of the Arch de Triump in Paris. Gary was noticing and photographing all grafitti in the area. He recognized several artist from Seattle. It was a good day.
Saturday, we headed to Williamsburg (the new Village according to Carmen) for brunch with her and Leo. We met up with some of their friends. Again, a great understated place with fantastic food. Gary and I took off on our own from there. We found ourselves in Queens on a graffitti quest. Gary hit the jackpot in an area called 5-point. It is a warehouse district dedicated just for that. Some amazing art is found there. After several hours and hundreds of photos later, I began to appreciate Gary's facination of this art form. We then made our way toward Uptown and Central Park East. We stopped in to see Leo at his work at the largest Apple store in the country. I loved the architecture of the store. A glass cube leading to an underground store. It is located next to the Plaza Hotel and Central Park. After a visit, we walked through Central Park towards the Guggenheim Museum. We spent hours experiencing that. I saw works by Picasso, Monet, Manet, Degault, Van Gough, Kandinsky, and others. I loved it! Did I mention that I loved it!!! After that, we headed back to Brooklyn and ordered Thai. Another amazing day.
Sunday, we heard some soulful gospel organ in the neighborhood pentecostal church down from Carmen's on our way to Central Park West and onto the Museum of Natural History. There we spent hours checking out all the dinosaurs and other great features. We also enjoyed the enormous planetarium. We then headed over to the Bronx. We knew we weren't going to get tickets for the Yankee's, but instead, we experienced a tavern near the stadium. Saw the game from there and enjoyed the atmosphere of the locals enjoy their home team. The Yankee's clinched the Eastern Division title with their win over their hated rivals, the Red Sox. It was a festive time to be there. We hung out longer after the game and got souvnirs', and more photos.
Carmen told us about a great hamburger joint on the West Side, so we tried it out for dinner. We later met up with her in the lower East Side. Along the way, Gary took hundreds more graffitti shots. We met her at a saki bar in the Soho area and then out for some great gellato. Finally back to Brooklyn.
Monday, after we slept in, we made it ovefr to a fun and yet another unassuming coffee house. We went to her work to drop off our bags and went over to ground zero at the World Trade Center site. There wasn't much to see but a new construction site. It was still a moving experience. Then we zipped back toe the Ace Hotel to collect our bags and off to catch our bus back to the airport. We made it just fine. The flight was good and we made it back home just in time to tuck Preston into bed.
I will always be grateful to Carmen and Leo for opening their place to us and for being such wonderful hosts. In all the time, the best of it was simply the quality time I shared with Gary and seeing him so inspired from the sights and sounds of New York. No regrest, no worries! So, in the end we did New York and loved it.