Sunday morning I had brunch with Rafi at a sidewalk cafe near his house. I ordered the buttermilk pancakes with bananas and strawberries but actually got the lemon ricotta pancakes which were very good. We had a big meal planned for that evening so brunch was perfect to hold me over til then.
Every now and then you see someone who's eyes are so beautiful that you can't look away. Well, a young girl and her mom (I'm guessing) sat next to us out on the sidewalk. The daughter had some similarities to Keri Russel with these light blue eyes that were perfectly arranged between her nose and forehead. She ordered a mimosa so she must've been at least 21 which made Rafi and I feel a little better that we weren't checking out a teenager :)
My head was hurting from Saturday night so we went back to Rafi's and relaxed. I watched a few recorded episodes of House. It's a show about a doctor with the last name of House who goes about treating his patients a little bit different but with good results. Around 5 o'clock we headed out down to Brooklyn for our 6:45 reservation at Peter Luger's Steak House. We showed up about 30 minutes early after changing subway trains 3 times. Going North or South through Manhattan on the subway is quite easy but once you have to get across town or over to the lower east side it actually takes quite a bit of time. I guess you can't really complain though, at $2 per trip no matter how many trains you take it's a lot cheaper than a cab.
We walked up to the host to let them know we were there and a bit early. They couldn't find Rafi's name anywhere on the list. I actually think the guy didn't believe us and tried to tell us that there was no way Rafi had made a reservation within 2 weeks for 6:45pm cause that slot fills up 1.5 to 2 months ahead. Rafi let me listen to the voicemail from Peter Luger's confirming our reservation and spelling out the date and time. Anyways, we got seated within about 20 minutes! We had a porterhouse for 2. It was a little more rare than medium rare but it was still good. The giant shrimp cocktail appetizer was very good as well.
After dinner, we went back to Rafi's apartment to try to find a comedy show to go to but they were all sold out. We ended up a bar called Prohibition on Columbus. They had a good band there playing covers of artists like John Denver, James Taylor, Bob Dylan, etc. Our waitress was from Sweden and had lived in New York about 7 years. For a Sunday night it was pretty dead so we had fun cutting up with Julia. We tried to drink enough so that our tip woudl help cover the $150 dress she bought that day.
Monday morning we had brunch at the Popover Cafe near Rafi's. Ham and cheese omelette for me and Rafi tried soem crazy Crab, mushroom, special... it didn't look good!
We went down to the giant Macy's to check it out. The place has 10 floors and takes up the entire block. I'd hate to pay the rent there. I towed my luggage down to Penn Station and saw that the next train that I needed was leaving in < 2 min so I ran down some steps and hopped aboard. I had a round trip ticket already in my wallet from the train ride in. My goal was to get back to ISLIP airport for my 4pm flight and it was now 12:31pm.
After stopping at every stop between Penn Station and the end of the line at Babylon, I got off the train. I had ridden 70 minutes in a car with no A/C and was sweating a bit. After getting off the train I realized that I had left my ticket on my seat so I had to go in and buy another 1way ticket to ISLIP. $2.25 later, I was good to go. Next train to ISLIP leaves at 2:26 and it was about 1:45. Hanging out on a train platform in the middle of no where with a bunch of people you don't know isn't all that cool but there I was. They had 3 platforms to choose from and I finally decided at the last minute to get on the train at platform 2 being that it departed at 2:26 and someone confirmed that it went to ISLIP. 5 stops later, I get off the train at ISLIP, the train pulls away and I look around and think... Ummm, where's the airport?
I stop a man who was also on the train to ask him for directions and help and he suggested that I call a cab. Well, without a cab phone number that wasn't going to be easy. A jamaican woman who overheard my conversation offered to help and said she would drive me to the airport. HOW NICE! She was a very nice, religious woman named Olive. We listened to praise music on the 20 min drive out to the airport and she told me all the good places to visit in Jamaica. In my limited knowledge I didn't realize that the town of ISLIP is different than the ISLIP airport and the two aren't even in the same place! It was now 3:25pm as we pulled up to the airport terminals. She told me that earlier that morning she had prayed to God so that he would let her help someone today and that I was that person. It was nice to meet a stranger who was willing to give her time to assist in my despair. I handed her a couple of $20s for the trip and she said she would give them to her church. Thank you Olive!
Boarding pass in hand, I now stood by my gate. The plane was delayed about 25 minutes so I wasn't really late after all. 1 stop in Baltimore and then a 3 hr flight back to Austin. My friend Miranda met me in Austin and drove me home.
7 days out of the office, 6 days in New York and some rainy fireworks over Town Lake. My 4th of July was quite fun and I definitely look forward to getting back to New York.
The Bodies
Friday morning I woke up with plans to see a few things. After turning on my computer to check email, work email, and get an idea of what subways to take to which stops I was out the door. The only thing that screwed me up is that my laptop's time clock is 1 hour behind so when I thought I was leaving the apartment at 9:04 it was really 10:04 and about half a block down the road I realized that this meant I wouldn't be making the 10am boat tour. There was another at noon so I settled on that one and figured I would go to the Empire State Building first.
I made my way downtown, stopped and had an omelette breakfast at some strange deli as well as one of these Black and White Cake cookies that I see everywhere. They're tasty! I found the empire state building by using my handy little NYC folding map but the line was HUGE and the wait was over an 1 hour. I decided instead to go down to pier 78 to catch my New York City Harbor Tour. $22 for a 90 min boat ride in the harbor with a guide and plenty of photo opportunities. Our guide was an older man in his 60s who had a few jokes that had been tried out on many boat patrons before me. The facts he offered as we scooted down the river were interesting though. I saw the empty air filled gaps where the twin WTC towers once stood, I saw pier 59 which is not much of a pier at all but it's significance being that it stood there waiting for the Titanic which of course never made it across the Atlantic.
We crossed under the Brooklyn Bridge, with the financial district on our port side and Queens on our Starboard we went a bit up the river crossing under the Manhattan Bridge and the Williamsburg Bridge. There were interesting views down the valleys which are lined with the tall buildings of downtown Manhattan. Through one of the valleys you could see all the way to New Jersey.
After the boat ride I decided to walk up the pedestrian path on the Brooklyn Bridge and look around. There were a lot of people walking, jogging and riding bikes up and down. I walked about 1/3 of the way across which was enough to get to one of the two arched pillars of the bridge. While up there I got a couple to take a picture of me with the financial district in the background. Talking to them a bit I found out they were Miss St fans from Starkville. I hung out with them for a bit and we went over to the Rockefeller Center to go to the Top of the Rock. There was not wait to get to the look out platforms on the roof and although not as high as the Empire State Building the view is very similar. You get a great feel for how large Central Park is in comparison to the city surrounding it.
I took the elevator back down to the ground level and said good-bye to my Mississippi friends. I headed a few blocks over to O'Casey's to meet up with Rafi and his work friends. We had drinks there before heading back up to Rafi's and changing and then back downtown. Of course it rained on us as we made it to the subway. We tried to get in to some club but it was sketchy so we changed plans. I found a good pizza spot on the way home and then a cab and the night was done.
Saturday morning we headed down to South Street Seaport to see The Bodies Exhibit. We had lunch at Katz's Deli along the way. I had a huge pastrami sandwich which was great. The have a sign hanging in the place that denotes the table where the famous faked orgasm scene from When Harry Met Sally took place. After lunch we walked down to the seaport. We met up with Ally and entered the exhibit.
The Bodies was an amazing exhibit of The Body! All of the bodies were of chinese men or women and were dissected in a lot of different ways. They had bodies that showed the skeletal muscle systems and how they attach to our skeletons. There were bodies that had been sliced perfectly in half leaving either a left and right side or a front and back side. Some bodies had been sliced into 3, 4 or more equal parts showing cross sections of our organs and bones. The coolest part of the exhibit that I thought was definitely the section on our circulatory system. They had a process by which they replaced the blood in the veins with a red liquid that hardens. Then using chemicals they were able to remove all other parts of the body leaving a life size web of veins! They had several pieces that were localized such as the hand or the heart or the lungs but the coolest of all was the one that was completely intact. I thought that I would be grossed out by some of the stuff we say but it was done in a very scientific way. If you have a chance to see The Bodies, I highly recommend it!
Saturday night I went down to the Village to meet up with An. We had a few drinks on the rooftop of Samba Sushi and then met up with some more friends around the corner at a small bar with live music. Kind of a cheesey cover band but they had a good sound and added a little touch of their own to the songs. We had fun there, danced a little and then headed home.
Brunch in the morning and a big steak for dinner tomorrow!
I made my way downtown, stopped and had an omelette breakfast at some strange deli as well as one of these Black and White Cake cookies that I see everywhere. They're tasty! I found the empire state building by using my handy little NYC folding map but the line was HUGE and the wait was over an 1 hour. I decided instead to go down to pier 78 to catch my New York City Harbor Tour. $22 for a 90 min boat ride in the harbor with a guide and plenty of photo opportunities. Our guide was an older man in his 60s who had a few jokes that had been tried out on many boat patrons before me. The facts he offered as we scooted down the river were interesting though. I saw the empty air filled gaps where the twin WTC towers once stood, I saw pier 59 which is not much of a pier at all but it's significance being that it stood there waiting for the Titanic which of course never made it across the Atlantic.
We crossed under the Brooklyn Bridge, with the financial district on our port side and Queens on our Starboard we went a bit up the river crossing under the Manhattan Bridge and the Williamsburg Bridge. There were interesting views down the valleys which are lined with the tall buildings of downtown Manhattan. Through one of the valleys you could see all the way to New Jersey.
After the boat ride I decided to walk up the pedestrian path on the Brooklyn Bridge and look around. There were a lot of people walking, jogging and riding bikes up and down. I walked about 1/3 of the way across which was enough to get to one of the two arched pillars of the bridge. While up there I got a couple to take a picture of me with the financial district in the background. Talking to them a bit I found out they were Miss St fans from Starkville. I hung out with them for a bit and we went over to the Rockefeller Center to go to the Top of the Rock. There was not wait to get to the look out platforms on the roof and although not as high as the Empire State Building the view is very similar. You get a great feel for how large Central Park is in comparison to the city surrounding it.
I took the elevator back down to the ground level and said good-bye to my Mississippi friends. I headed a few blocks over to O'Casey's to meet up with Rafi and his work friends. We had drinks there before heading back up to Rafi's and changing and then back downtown. Of course it rained on us as we made it to the subway. We tried to get in to some club but it was sketchy so we changed plans. I found a good pizza spot on the way home and then a cab and the night was done.
Saturday morning we headed down to South Street Seaport to see The Bodies Exhibit. We had lunch at Katz's Deli along the way. I had a huge pastrami sandwich which was great. The have a sign hanging in the place that denotes the table where the famous faked orgasm scene from When Harry Met Sally took place. After lunch we walked down to the seaport. We met up with Ally and entered the exhibit.
The Bodies was an amazing exhibit of The Body! All of the bodies were of chinese men or women and were dissected in a lot of different ways. They had bodies that showed the skeletal muscle systems and how they attach to our skeletons. There were bodies that had been sliced perfectly in half leaving either a left and right side or a front and back side. Some bodies had been sliced into 3, 4 or more equal parts showing cross sections of our organs and bones. The coolest part of the exhibit that I thought was definitely the section on our circulatory system. They had a process by which they replaced the blood in the veins with a red liquid that hardens. Then using chemicals they were able to remove all other parts of the body leaving a life size web of veins! They had several pieces that were localized such as the hand or the heart or the lungs but the coolest of all was the one that was completely intact. I thought that I would be grossed out by some of the stuff we say but it was done in a very scientific way. If you have a chance to see The Bodies, I highly recommend it!
Saturday night I went down to the Village to meet up with An. We had a few drinks on the rooftop of Samba Sushi and then met up with some more friends around the corner at a small bar with live music. Kind of a cheesey cover band but they had a good sound and added a little touch of their own to the songs. We had fun there, danced a little and then headed home.
Brunch in the morning and a big steak for dinner tomorrow!
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