The last day...

It is our last day in New York and if you can believe it....there is a postcard show! First we met Richard for breakfast then said goodbye. Great spending time with him. Off to downtown to the postcard show.

You can see by the crowds it wasn't too busy. Norm says a lot of "older" men.

But he enjoyed the experience and bought a few postcards too.

No this isn't a postcard but the real thing. And it is the last day for Coney Island for the summer. We have to go! I admit I was somewhat unsure but I was pleasantly surprised. Not as run down as I thought, great beaches and truly a look back in time.

There is a boardwalk, real wood. 

Rides like this roller coast called Thunder Bolt. You couldn't pay me enough to go on it. 

 How to keep cool. But the best part was the beach.

 

Water pretty warm and lots of sand. Even good for Yellow Bunny.

The side shows are a bit weird - Creep Shows Norm called them and sure enough a carnival barker came out to try and entice Norm in. No such luck but check the things he could have seen - Weird women, creep show - so polically incorrect!! 

And beer..

We even saw a bride and groom on the boardwalk.

It was a perfect way to end our NYC experience. But I have to leave one last oberservation about New York - GARBAGE. Where does it all go?  You see two bags on the side of the road then there are 6 and then 20 or more. And is this barge taking it to a secret location. I think an investigation is needed. Maybe a W5 or 60 Minutes topic...

 

Just asking??

New York New York

Saturday in New York City means flea markets, shopping, interesting characters and of course dinner and lunch out. The flea market wasn't too exciting but shopping at Macy's was pretty good. Not one but two sundresses. It is even too hot to wear shorts. Walking down the streets on a hot day it is always surprising to see dogs in this weather but there are lots of them in the high-rise canyons of Manhattan. Here Norm stops to say hello. They are dachshunds and the owner is always willing to talk about his pets. He said there was a fourth white one at home often mistaken for a Jack Rusell.  

For lunch we snuck into a French bistro called Buvette. Rosé, Croque Monsieur, chèvre with scrambled eggs and sun dried tomatoes. Absolutely delicious. Ate so fast forgot to take a picture. 

Some of the characters you see along the way, can only be in New York. This guy had dancing dolls as he played his guitar and sang in the subway. A pretty good La Bamba kicked off his repertoire as we waited for the D train on the sweltering platform underneath 57th Street. 

Our accommodations, Airbnb turned out quite well -- not the newest, coolest (temperature wise) or cleanest apartment but it provided a place to sleep, and less expensive than staying in Manhattan. It's in the Park Slope neighbourhood of Brooklyn, a short walk from Prospect Park, the borough's equivalent of Central Park.

We are on the first floor and there is an air conditioner for one room. The apartment is what we would call railway car style -- one long hallway with rooms off it. 

The kitchen where every morning and evening a cat, Pop, shows up for food. She scratches the window and expects to be fed, so we did. 

The living room.

The apartment needs a little updating but we were comfortable.

Saturday night Richard picked his favourite restaurant for dinner, Momofuku. You start at the bar for 45 minutes and finally get in for your reservation. It was probably one of the noisiest dinner places filled with young people I have been to. But the atmosphere and food were really good. I felt very New Yorky! 

We have spicy shrimp with watermelon, beet salad, mushroom stuffed buns, sable fish sandwich, kimchi, spicy pork dish and another mushroom dish, I think. All delicious. 

Late night back to Brooklyn, and a good night's sleep even after all the exotic food.

Museum Mile and more.....

We started our day with breakfast with Richard at Cousin's Joes in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Richard went to work and we went to the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum. It is one of only two museums in New York that falls under the wing of the Smithsonian Institution. It is the only museum in the US devoted to historical and contemporary design. 

That's Norm's finger holding up our stickers. Creative eh?

Our first exhibit was very creative and shiny... Need shoes or mirrors? 

Can you see us? 

The museum had an exhibit showing computer animation and how Pixar creates their movies. They had drawings from Up, Up and Away, Toy Story, Inside Out, Cars, Brave, The Incredibles, Wall-E and more. Back in 1986 the first computer animation, Luxo Jr was released. Remember the mommy and Junior lamps? It won an Academy award for Best Animated Short Film. Yellow Bunny felt right at home. 

 Next we checked out design from when Norm and I were younger. Beautiful classy items. 

Next time for coffee and on to the next museum.

Oh and desserts. That's a bombolini on the left and a chocolate-dipped macaroon on the right. 

 Next the Metropolitan Museum. It is so big that in the few hours we were there, we saw such a small part. It would require days and days to visit the more than 2 million works. It is the largest art museum in the US. 

Norm and I split up so this is some my highlights. Jackson Pollock, Picasso, Modigliani

What a place!

Lunch in Central Park from a food vendor - hot dog, chicken pita and a coke, so New York.

 We thought of taking a subway but Yellow Bunny thought she would check out the yellow cabs. No we walked. 

We met Richard at Pete's Tavern, the oldest continuously operating restaurant and bar in New York City. 

Norm commented that he hadn't met any famous people in New York but check the photos above him and you might see Peter Graves and Natalie Portman. Look carefully. And I think we sat in the booth where O. Henry wrote his story, The Gift of the Magi.

Richard and mother with beer. 

I think my glass was bigger. Did I tell you how hot it is here? You need liquids. We finished off the night by going to Richard's favourite pizza place, Posto. It was excellent. 

We can take the same subway home which keeps us from getting lost. 

Total Tourism Day

Have I told you how hot it is here? Well it is hot, really hot, humid hot, hot I have never experienced before and yet we are having a great time. Thursday we started by going to the suggested Dizzy's Deli for breakfast near by. Norm orders "Mary's Oatmeal with Pistachios and Strawberries". Oatmeal and it is mid morning and it is hot! But we both agreed it was very good. 

We caught the subway to downtown Manhattan. If you are lucky the train cars are air conditioned, we were lucky. We walked by the new Oculus, the World Trade Centre Transportation Hub. It was designed by Santiago Calatrava. He describes it as resembling a bird being released from a child's hand. It is interesting to say the least. Wow!

We walked over to the National 9/11 Memorial. The reflecting pools are set in the footprint of the original twin towers.  All the names of the victims are commemorated around the sides of the pools. On each person's birthday a white rose is placed by their name. It is amazing how emotional the place is. 

Full steam ahead for the complete day of being a tourist. We walked to the ferry terminal to catch the Statue Cruise lines. We are off to Liberty and Ellis Islands. 

First stop, the Statue of Liberty. Yellow Bunny was definitely impressed.

Me less so when Norm insisted on this photo. 

Next Ellis Island. On both islands they have decided that placing a cutout of a dog that rotates in the wind, will scare away the birds. We did not find this too successful. 

You will note those are Canadian geese. Sorry about that. 

Ellis Island was really informative. Learned about the thousands of immigrants that arrived in the US around the turn of the century. 150 different nationalities and around 170 different languages. Many arrived by ship and what did they display this information with but postcards, hundreds of them. 

One touching detail of the museum was from an interview with an Italian who remembered women tieing balls of wool to the pier in Naples, then unfurling them as the ship moved away, leaving the strands floating on the air until they vanished in the distance.

Part of the information at this National Park was about the restoration of the building. From 1892-1954 it was used for immigration and a hospital. But the building was left to decay after it closed in 1954. In 1986 work began to restore it it to the appearance of 1918-1924. 

Off to meet Richard for a wild night on THE RIDE. We caught the subway in rush hour and the train filled up even more. Did I tell you hot it is here? 

The Ride is an interactive bus tour where we sit sideways on the bus and watch the people on the sidewalk go by and learn some interesting facts about New York. Mostly the two young emcees entertain us with jokes, singing, quiz questions and silly facts. As the bus travels along we wave wildly to people walking by, some wave back others very confused. Did you know that there are only 8 and half million people here but 58 million visitors come each year! The ride is about an hour and a bit and during the Ride we were entertained from the sidewalk as the bus stopped at lights, by a rapper, businessman dancing, sax player and singer, ballet performance at Columbus Circle and probably more....

Jackie one of the emcees sang, danced and performed the entire tour. She was quite entertaining. 

Off the bus into Time Square. There are mascots, Statues of Liberty, naked women with their breasts painted and you name it, it is there. Yellow Bunny joined in and if you note her ears just managed to block out one of those painted ladies...

Late night, time for home. And it is still hot. 

Victoria to Vancouver to Toronto to New York City

Hello from New York! Yes we left two days ago and we are finally getting caught up. Our flight to Toronto, known as the red eye, is just that, as once you land in Toronto your eyes are red from lack of sleep. Next we went through what one could call extreme security by the USA, Homeland, FBI, CIA and more. We had at least six boarding pass checks and a new photo to confirm the passport photo. Once on the plane I didn't wake up 'till La Guardia airport, which is crowded, under construction and without an easy way into town. Wanting to see the real New York, we took the bus and subway to Brooklyn and our Airbnb, arriving two and half ours later. It took longer than the flight to NY, travelling through three boroughs of this huge city to reach our home for the next few days.

We are staying in Park Slope, a pretty nice part of Brooklyn, lots of old brownstone buildings. Off we went for a snack and to check our neighbourhood and of course a New York Times. 

We headed into town to meet Richard but first we wandered through Washinton square. In New York you can see anything and I mean anything. On this day it was lawn acrobats.

 Possible Cirque de Soleil calibre?

Norm could not resist getting up close with the yellow cockatoo, Lolo. Possibly another performance act.... (She actually said "hello" in my ear.)

This is the arch at Washington Square and Mary with her cool new pink travel dress. 

We met Rich and had dinner at the Sacred Chow. This vegan restaurant near NYU was really good and I now know what seitan is, wheat gluten. Very tasty when mixed with olives or BBQ ginger. 

Next we headed to Broadway where Richard had tickets for the theatre, An American in Paris at the Palace, with music from the 1920s by the Gershwin brothers, but very up to date choreography.

What an exciting evening at this classy theatre. We even knew some of the tunes and loved the ballet and modern dance plus amazing costumes. 

No photos allowed of the performance but I snuck one of inside the theatre. We headed home afterwards on the F subway line. Pretty empty at this time of day. Wait till you see rush hour tomorrow. 

Home by 11 and into bed. We didn't wake up till 10 this morning. That is 11 hours of sleep! It felt good and we needed it after that red eye flight.