So Wednesday is finally here as are Eric and Lindsey. We cleaned up the apartment and made sure to leave them some drawers and closet space. Once they arrived we hung out for a little bit and caught up, but quickly the hunger pangs hit and we were off to lunch at the Shake Shack. I think both Eric and Lindsey agreed that it was worthy of some of the hype that surrounds it. From their it was a stroll up Columbus Avenue and back to the apartment. Felice called upon Eric with technical input from Lauren for some computer upgrades on her computer. We then took a subway to the Bronx to see the House that Ruth Built, when we met up with Lauren and her friend and coworker Andrew. We got to see the Yankees beat the Royals and were treated to Andy Pettite, star Yankee pitcher, and two home runs in the first inning. After a subway ride back from the Bronx we were surprised that we had managed to walk 5 miles. I am pretty sure we are going to achieve one of my goals that is to reach 200 miles walked during the trip. Two others are also still possible: to go to all 5 boroughs (as we have a Staten Island Ferry trip planned) and to go the whole two months without ever taking a taxi, except to and from the airport. We will see if we can be successful on all three.
Thursday was a rainy day unfortunately. Eric, Lindsey, Felice and I took a subway to Long Island City to meet Lauren for breakfast at Cranky's, a little restaurant that is in search of an identity. That being said, the food was pretty good. Then we went to hang out at Lauren's, apartment to chat, play with Ella and make plans for the day. We split into two contingents. Eric, Lindsey and I, after a quick stop at the pier nearby, took a subway to the American Museum of Natural History. I will admit that my subway skills were poor today and while we did get where we wanted to, it was a bit of a longer route. Oh well, I guess I am not a local yet. We had a great time at the Museum and we then met Felice and Lauren at the apartment, but not before Eric and Lindsey shared a New York hot dog from a Central Park Hot Dog Stand. Lauren and Felice had gone to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to see a fashion exhibit comparing designers Prada and Schiaparelli, which they said was excellent. After relaxing for a bit, we then took the subway in and had dinner at Vice Versa, a Broadway area restaurant. We had a nice dinner and again we split, with Eric and Lindsey off to see The Book of Mormon, while Felice, Lauren and I went to see Jersey Boys. Jersey Boys is produced by the company that Lauren works for so besides seeing an excellent show with great acting, singing and songs, we got to look in the Playbill and see Lauren's name in it. I have to admit that more than once, I wanted to tell the patrons around us, "My daughter sitting right here works on this show and here is her name in the Playbill." Of course I didn't do that, but don't think I didn't want to. We were so looking forward to Eric's response to The Book of Mormon since he grew up in the city of Mesa, which has a significant Mormon influence, especially in his high school. We were not disappointed by his response. Both he and Lindsey loved the show and have been recounting dialog and songs ever since. Felice and I finished the day with 4 miles walked, and it wasn't until Felice and I were on the subway home that she told me that because of the heavy rain, Lauren and she took a cab to avoid the rain. Well, at least I haven't taken a cab.
Weather on Friday started yucky, but got better as the day went on. Eric and Lindsey headed to Bleecker Street for a pizza tour which they totally enjoyed. They learned the history of pizza as well as the history of pizza in New York City. They also got to sample pizza at three different restaurants in the City. We, on the other hand, met Lauren at Max Brenner's for lunch. It was supposed to be for breakfast, but Felice and I were tardy. After breakfast, Felice, Lauren and I went clothing shopping and I think we hit every shoe store up 18th Street and up 8th Avenue. But we had a great time joking and talking and I even got Felice to try on a pair of boots with spike heels. No, she did not buy them. We had our best shopping luck at Old Navy and after awhile, Eric and Lindsey joined us there and did a little shopping as well. Because they were tired from their pizza tour with all the walking it required and I was tired from all the shoe shopping, the three of us headed back to the apartment to relax, while Felice and Lauren soldiered on. We ultimately met up for dinner at Bareburger and it was a great meal. Bareburger is environmentally conscious and serves pure products including organic foods and very interesting protein choices. The sides were great and yes also had dessert there and it was also great. We took a subway to Times Square to see the new musical, Newsies. This musical was brought to Broadway by Harvey Fierstein and the folks at Disney and was based on the highly successful Disney film of the same name. On the positive side, the dancing was spectacular and included dance numbers, jumping, tap dancing and ballet. Unfortunately, it was my opinion that the acting was weak, the singing of the leads not strong, and the new songs not particularly memorable. It was good to see, but I can assure that the opinion of the majority of the audience was not consistent with mine. It seems that the show appeals to pre-teens, teens and young adults, many of whom grew up with the Newsies or with Disney in general. Hence, there was constant schreeching of young girls, to the point of distraction. The amount was consistent of how you see young girls greet heartthrobs, like the Beatles, Davey Jones, Bobby Sherman, Elvis and [fill in the blank]. We finished the day with 5 miles walking and 5 subway rides. Buying a monthly or weekly ticket has certainly been the best economic decision for us, that is for sure. Oh, as always, I was wearing a UofA shirt tonight and I got some more UofA love on the C Train on the way home. Bear Down.
Saturday was the day we planned to get to the Brooklyn Bridge early to walk across it without there being any crowds. Well I guess 10:00 isn't early enough because there were a bunch of people, but we walked across anyway in about a half hour for the 1 1/4 miles. It was a bright, hot and humid day so after cooling down on the other side of the bridge, we walked a little around Brooklyn and then Eric and Lindsey went to the Brooklyn Brewery for a brewery tour, while Felice, Lauren and I took the subway back into Manhattan and had lunch in Greenwich Village. The restaurant was Organica Ka and we sat out on the street. It was very nice and we hated to leave, but we had more window and shoe shopping planned. We did make a brief stop at an open-air market where we purchased some cookies which we ate along the way. Lauren, then headed to Our Time to work on the rehearsal of the teens' show for early June while Felice and I headed back to the apartment to relax, nap and recover from our 5 miles of walking so far. After the brewery tour (and a little pizza from a cart at the brewery), Lindsey and Eric headed back to the apartment, but stopped at the New York Historical Society for a new exhibit on beer in New York. In the evening, we had dinner in Chinatown with Melissa and Taka, Lauren's former roommates. They had picked the restaurant, Shanghai Asian Manor and we let Melissa order for us and she did so in Chinese. Our trust was well placed as it was an excellent meal. We then walked to the Original Chinese Ice Cream Factory for ice cream and then Felice and I headed home while the Eric, Lindsey and Lauren headed out to a movie. As I have mentioned before, weekends on the trains are an experience, not only because certain trains don't run, but because repairs and maintenance make for changes as well and sometimes the websites that should know this stuff doesn't. It was also interesting tonight because you see all types on the trains and in our train car this time was (no not a naked lady) but a husband and his drunk wife. She was so drunk that when he ushered her out the door, he had to hold the door to make sure she made it out before the doors closed and left with her still inside. Once he had her outside, he wasn't as supportive of her as the train's poles had been and she fell right to the ground as the doors were closing. There was a collective gasp of the train car's occupants, but as soon as we left the station, it was all forgotten. Somehow I think that is a metaphor for the City of New York, but I am way too tired as I type this to get much deeper than that. One other thing we saw a couple of days ago that I forgot to report, is that we spotted an undercover police car this week that revealed itself to help support a fire truck trying to get through traffic. The thing that was noteworthy was that not only was this undercover car painted like a yellow taxi cab, but it was a Prius. That just seems way to unfair to the traffic law breakers, now doesn't it? We finished the day with 7 1/2 miles, which pushes us over the 200 mile mark to 206 miles. We did not get to the Staten Island Ferry tonight, so we may not get to all 5 boroughs.
We are rounding into our last few days and will be vacating Casa Freed-NY on Thursday.
Gary and Felice
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