New York Honeymoon, 11/9/07 - 11/14/07, Friday -Wednesday
We took our honeymoon in New York City because quility used to live there and it was a good excuse for a visit. She'd been talking about her New York friends and the New York restaurants since we'd met. We decided to wait until November because we were too exhausted after the handfasting to take a vacation, New York in August is too hot, and quility had a friend who was getting married in November.

The plan was to fly NWA out of Sioux City, Friday afternoon. A simple plan that didn't happen. We were at the airport before 3pm and we even got on the plane, and sat on the plane for 2 hours and 43 minutes and three failed attempts at taking off due to a "nuisance message". quility had the number to Northwest reservations. She called while still on the plane and soon everyone on the plane had the number. We deplaned still in Sioux City. Despite having transfered most of the flight to Omaha on the phone, we still had to wait in line to get everything officially transfered to Omaha and to get our luggage. This wasn't so bad because the woman in line next to us designed the museum at Ponca State Park so it was really cool to meet her. The people at the counter were nice (it wasn't their fault that the flight got canceled) and gave us eight $5 food coupons.

We were home around 10pm. We were a bit wired, so sleep was difficult. I told quility, "If you don't go to sleep, Santa wont come." We were up before 3am to drive to Omaha, which didn't allow extra time for breakfast, but did allow a few extra minutes for as much sleep as we could get. We saw several people we recognized from the canceled flight who had also transfered to Omaha. We walked through security and luckily our departure gate was the first gate right in front of us. quility managed to sleep on the plane (bless her) then we made a mad dash from one end of the Detroit Airport to the other to make our connection -- still no time for breakfast. I have long legs and used to walk fast a lot, but then people walking with me would complain and tell me to slow down, so I've been walking slower. quility gave my calves a workout power walking through the Detroit airport, a sign of things to come in New York City.

Looking out the window on the flight, there was solid cloud cover beneath us. I imagined that it was the earth covered by a blanket of snow, or an arctic landscape, white as far as the eye could see. flying is cool.

11:35am we touched down at JFK Airport. We had to get our stuff to where we were staying and then get to a wedding (plus, we didn't want to spend any more of our honeymoon than necessary in the airport) so we quickly spent our food vouchers, and ran out to get a cab, and ate our airport food on the way into the city.

quility used to live in New York and was constantly talking about the food. The airport food was better than expected, but if we had gotten in Friday Night, we could have been starting the day with a real New York City meal.

But we were in New York, and I just kept happily singing a They Might Be Giants song:

Everyone's my friend in New York City
Everything is beautiful when you're young and pretty
The streets are paved with diamonds and there's just so much to see
but the greatest thing about New York City is you and me.

quility's friend crash_mccormick was going out of town on vacation that week, and graciously offered to let
us stay at his place. We said yes thank you.

It was a nice place with a good location in Manhattan. plus it saved us hundreds of dollars in hotel expenses. We were very lucky to be staying there.

We went to the subway and I rode my first New York subway train (and tipped a subway musician) on our way to the wedding of Matt & Rachel. The train jostled like a wooden roller-coaster. quility was amazed by how much she'd forgotten. It turns out that it's like riding a bike, which despite popular thought, is a forgettable skill.




We got off the subway a few stops early at 110th st on the one line -- quility's old stop when she lived in that area of New York.
We walked past her old grocery store, her old apartment, the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, and stopped at Mondel Chocolates and got a weeks supply of fancy chocolates. We walked by Riverside Park. We stopped by Grant's Tomb (so now I know who's buried in Grant's tomb). It's amazing the things which just happen to be along the way.


There was so much everywhere in New York. Recently we took a trip across Nebraska. We would drive from one THING to the next THING. In New York, we were constantly surrounded by THINGS.

Rachel is a friend of quility and had come to our handfasting and played the recorder. She is such a wonderful person. I felt honored to able to be at her wedding. Matt's Jewish and Rachel's Protestant. They obviously put a lot of effort into crafting an interfaith service which reflected who they are as spiritual beings. quility was especially honored to be a part of the flower communion which they included as a way of creating community and decorating the chuppah.

We sat next to treadpath, screaminghippo & Tamsin at the wedding and the reception. I just love them. screaminghippo said about Tamsin, "Before she was born, we took a bunch of parenting classes. Then after we had her, all baby's are different so most of the stuff didn't work, and we were so tired that we forgot it. We would have been better off not doing the parenting classes and just focusing on weight training." it was great talking with them. I felt like they were instant friends, but then Everyone's my friend in New York City.

The reception was awesome. They served an excellent pinot grigio. The food was also excellent, and served by male models. These were truly gorgeous men, with perfect hair, like in the magazines because these were the men in the magazines. I couldn't believe how good they could look busing tables. It was truly noteworthy. They had a DJ and a band. Matt is a musician, and it was his band, The Shul Band. The DJ played dance music, andquility & I danced a lot. It was wonderful dancing with my wife. For me, dancing with my wife was the highlight of the evening. The band played some traditional Jewish wedding songs and we all danced in a way which reminded me of a spiral dance (hey, I'm Pagan, so Pagan stuff is my point of reference). That music and that dance touched something deep inside of me. It was truly wonderful.

quility got to see her Birthday twin, Luk, Rachel's nephew. His mother was pregnant when quility was last in New York, and he was born on quility's birthday.

We took the subway back to the apartment. The subway musician this time wasn't as good as the earlier subway musician, so no tip. I did notice the Subway art. Many of the subway stops had art, such as mosaics and statues. My favorite was the 14th Street 8th Avenue stop with little amusing statues all over the place. With music and art, the subways were a pretty groovy place to travel through.

At the apartment, we went up on the roof to enjoy the view. We could see the Empire State Building. There was no moon. We went to New York under the New Moon for our Honeymoon. Then we slept our first night together in New York.

Sunday we slept in, had the last of our airport food, and headed out for morning tea with Rachel & Matt. We took the subway to Times Square. It is a big area with lots of touristy shops and lots of billboards. It was so overpowering that there were definitely moments where it felt like we were in an amusement park.


We all met at Junior's for breakfast. They had stopped serving breakfast, so instead we walked west to 9th avenue to The Westway Diner. I had the waffle sundae. This was my first actual meal in a New York restaurant. I've got to admit, the ice cream was not as good as what we can get at Edgars or in Le Mars, but I liked starting with dessert first.

It was about this time that I noticed that the zipper on my solid leather backpack was malfunctioning. This became an ongoing issues for the rest of the trip. I realize that it means that I need a new backpack, but that's not easy for me. I've had this backpack for nearly twenty years. It's been with me on my greatest journeys. It wont be easy to replace. Through trial and error, I managed to finagle the zipper into a position where it was least likely to malfunction.

At breakfast, we ended up chatting with Sheila & Steve, a couple from Minneapolis (where we will be moving next year). She's a Pagan, and he's a gamer (the mirror image of us). After breakfast, the four of us went walking around together.

We walked through the Hell's Kitchen district and found a street closed off for an outdoor flea market, where I bought a little thing for $5 that I could play like a singing bowl. We also found a vendor with some actual singing bowls, which I enjoyed playing, but they were out of our price range.


We walked by the back end of the Port Authority bus terminal, down 9th avenue, across 38th by a place quility used to work, down 8th avenue to 34th where we could see Madison Square Garden (which much to my surprise was round) and by Macey's. If we hadn't gone over to the Westway diner on 9th, we wouldn't have walked that way and we wouldn't have seen any of that.

We arrived at the Empire State Building, waited in line to get in, waited in line for the security check, waited in line for tickets, waited in line for the elevator to the 80th floor, waited in line for the elevator to the 86th floor, loved the view, bought a refrigerator magnet, waited in line for the elevator down to the 80th floor, and waited in line for the elevator down to the lobby. All of that waiting worked out well because it gave us an opportunity to chat with our new friends, Sheila and Steve.

We were getting a bit hungry, so we stopped at a street cart on 34th street and got some sort of Greek/Middle-Eastern food. I think we got a gyro. I think our new friends got a falafel. We crossed the road and there was a little area like a mini-park in the middle of the road at Broadway and 34th where we stopped and ate. quility says that Broadway cuts diagonally through creating little mini-parks which are not useful as anything other than these wonderful little places.

After having enough food to be able to think, we realized that we wanted more food, so the four of us went to The Afghan Kabob House for dinner, which was yummy. At this point our new friends had to leave to get to the airport. quility hailed them a cab, and we said goodbye. We really enjoyed them and are hopeful that we will hang out with them after we move to Minneapolis.

Then we rode the train back to the apartment to recoup and relax for a few minutes before going to a show, which was just a few blocks from the apartment.

There was a Stagehand Strike which shut down many productions, but luckily quility's friend Lise had 8 tickets to an off off Broadway show, Goblin Market at the Vineyard Theatre, and we were also joined by Ellen, fadedpaladin, cattitude, womzilla, and nellorat. They seemed to enjoy it, and I'm happy for that. Hey, I saw a New York Play, YAY! The singers/actors were definitely better than any I've seen in Sioux City.

After the show we went to Paul's Burgers on 2nd avenue with Lise, Ellen and fadedpaladin on Lise's recommendation due to its convenient location. The waiter asked, "How would you like your burger?" we live in a world with government warnings about the dangers of undercooked hamburger, so I answered, "done." These days, it seems kinda stupid to even ask. The burgers were good, but not as good as Bob's Bar, the standard by which I judge burgers. The sweet potato fries were yummy. Apparently there's New York thing called an egg cream. I tried it. It didn't agree with my pallet, but I'm still glad that I had that experience. Before, I didn't know that I don't like egg creams and now I know (yay). I was chatting with fadedpaladin and he mentioned that he used to have a car so that he could easily escape the city if he needed to, but it was such a hassle to drive in the city, gas was expensive, and parking was annoying, so he got rid of it. He said that since getting rid of his car, his social life has improved. New York is definitely different from Sioux City.

Our normal pose involves me holding the camera, quility lining it up and then getting in position for us to shoot ourselves. We were lining up to do that, when the people at the table next to us graciously offered to take our photo for us. This is further proof that everyone's our friend in New York City.

Then Lise came back to the apartment with us. I showed her a singing bowl, and she and quility discussed our New York itinerary. She was a true New Yorker and had some invaluable suggestions. She was talking about traveling and how baffling it was to find that in other cities you can't always get Indian food at 11pm, and stores close at night. She just thought that it was natural that whatever she wanted was available whenever she wanted it. And geography was strange when they would describe counties as containing many cities instead of cities containing many counties. She left at about 1am. I asked if it was appropriate that we were sending her out into the dark streets at night. She said that she felt perfectly safe. New York is her town. I guess everyone's her friend in New York City too.

Monday we slept in again and didn't leave the apartment until morning was almost over. quility had a sore neck and we both had sore bodies from all the walking that we weren't used to. We took a train to Queens which actually went above ground for a bit of the trip. quility used to live in Queens, and her favorite restaurant was La Flor, so we went there for breakfast. We had baked brie and flautas for appetizers. quility had a portobella mushroom salad. I had the best French toast I'd ever had. The presentation was excellent. The check came to $31.10, and they gave us some complementary cookies, which we decided to save for the train ride later. I can understand why this was quility's favorite place for normal eating. It's one of the three places she'd been raving about including Roy's and Les Sans Culottes and was by far the least expensive.



We walked to where quility used to live. She said that when she lived here, she was the happiest she ever was in New York. Along the way we passed a little park with a whole bunch of sycamore trees. I'd never seen a sycamore like that before. They have a bizarre bark and look wrinkly. I soon found that New York is filled with them.


We visited with her old neighbor Charlotte. She's an elderly woman with a great Irish accent who doesn't get out much. In August she had part of her lung removed. She used to watch quility's cat Aska, and they mostly discussed Aska and other cats. Charlotte knew about every cat on her floor.

We walked around the Sunnyside area and saw an area planned by quility's great grandfather, Henry Wright. He designed large internal communal court yards to bring people together. I guess that's why everyone's our friend in New York City.

By this point quility was really sick of my continuously singing that same song, so I switched to Fairy Tale of New York by the Pogues

We saw several areas used in Spiderman, and where quility used to shop, and where treadpath & screaminghippo used to live (which brought back fond memories of gaming), and eventually worked our way back to La Flor for lunch. We ordered the fenel & sausage pizza, three petite burgers with straw fries, chocolate soufflé for dessert, and a big cookie for the train (which we ended up not eating on our next train ride because we wanted to save our appetites for dinner). My mouth still waters thinking about it. Wow that food is good.


La Flor is right under the elevated train, and right next to the stop, so before we knew it were on our way to Penn Station to catch a New Jersey Transit train to Swarthmore PA to visit treadpath & screaminghippo

They picked us up at the station, and we went directly to Roy's in Philadelphia for dinner. On the way, I got to see a little bit of Philadelphia. From what little I saw, it's got some beautiful buildings. But the big thing was Roy's, which was the finest fine dining I've ever had. There's certainly nothing in Sioux City that could compare. Roy's is a high end Hawaiian restaurant. Of course, being Hawaiian there was mostly fish on the menu, and I don't eat fish, but the non-fish items were wonderful.






quility had planned on our going to some nice restaurants. She had a complete itinerary of when we were going to where. That was way too much organizing for me to keep track of, so I decided that it would be easier to just only wear nice clothes throughout the entire honeymoon so that I could always fit in without having to remember the itinerary. The irony was that Roy's, the nicest of all the restaurants we went to, had no dress code.

We stayed the night at treadpath & screaminghippo's wonderful old house. They've been fixing it up and have repainted most of the interior with colors which worked well together. There was an infestation of mutant grasshoppers in the basement. They had small bodies and long legs. But they weren't dangerous -- just a little annoying and they stayed in the basement.


I noticed that they had cases of seltzer water in their house, and I remembered that crash_mccormick had cases of seltzer water in his apartment. I asked and treadpath said that seltzer is popular near New York.

It was raining that night. screaminghippo and I took the dogs out for walksies. I put up the weather hood zipped into the collar of my jacket and discovered that it hadn't been weatherproofed.

It was nice meeting their dogs, Pongo and Chaos. Pongo is an old dog who recently became a three legged dog. The fur is still growing back from the surgery, but she's starting to readjust. Chaos is an omega dog who is now attempting to be an alpha since Pongo has been slowed down. They are both really good dogs.


treadpath's mom knitted a stuffed dalek




We slept upstairs in a dormer. Well, I slept upstairs. quility forgot her earplugs and I snore, so she couldn't sleep and eventually headed downstairs to sleep on the couch, but saw that Tamsin wasn't sleeping in her bed, so she slept there. Tuesday morning, Tamsin told her parents that there was a lady sleeping in her bed, and was happy to find out that it was quility.

That morning, quility slept late due to her lack of sleep the night before. treadpath and I breakfasted on baked brie, crackers, sausage and cheeses -- breakfast of champions.

We left them the complementary bag of cookies from La Flor, but we horded the big cookie for ourselves for the return trip.

screaminghippo is a big fan of tea, so I learned that any tea can be decafinated. Dip the teabag in hot water and let it steep for one minute. Pull it out and throw away the water. Continue steeping in new water. It takes out about 85% of the caffeine.

They had this excellent scented hand soap. Trader Jacques French Liquid Soap; Orange Blossom Honey. They said they got it from Trader Joe's. quility normally dislikes anything scented, so I was really excited. When we went into town, I picked up 6 bottles.

Before going into town, we picked up Tamsin from pre-pre-school. We went to a shop called Ten Thousand Villages which promotes fair trade. It seemed like a very progressive shop. Then we had authentic Philadelphia style pizza (a little thicker and greasier than New York Style) at Apollo Pizza in Media PA, America's first Fair Trade Town. Tamsin loved the pizza. It was a rare treat and she enjoyed every bite.


screaminghippo had to go back to work. The rest of us drove to Doylestown PA and toured Fonthill a concrete castle built between 1908 & 1912 out of steel reinforced concrete. I expect that building to require less maintenance than any comparable building made with 2x4s. I'm a big advocate of steel reinforced concrete, so I loved touring that place. It was dark, and not very stylish, but it was built by a guy who knew very little about decorating, but quite a lot about making things permanent.


Tamsin was hungry, so we stopped for dinner at the Cock 'n Bull in Peddler’s Village. Tamsin was being very good in the car, so we rewarded her by eating dinner backwards. We ate ice-cream first, then entrées, and ended with appetizers. It was all really good. Surprisingly good, especially since we just picked it at random because we were hungry and it was there.





After dinner I kept playing with Tamsin. I wanted to keep her awake so she'd sleep on the return trip. Tamsin had a brand new stuffed manta ray (which means it was not yet covered in baby goo). I would grab it in my teeth and flail around growling, "arrarrarrarrarrarr". She would squeel with laughter and grab the manta ray. Then I'd bite it again and flail, "arrarrarrarrarrarr." while she'd squeel with laughter. This went on for about an hour.

treadpath took us to Elizabeth NJ to quility's friends' Gayle & Gino's house. It was a fabulous house. Really impressive. Tamsin was able to get out of the car and play with their boys, Michael & Joey. This also afforded treadpath a moment to relax, so I played my singing bowl for her, and then for Gayle who was curious about it. treadpath and Tamsin left, and soon after Gayle and the boys fell asleep.


We hung out with Gino and their basenji Nikki for a while, and then he gave us a ride to the train station and we headed back to New York for the night. We ate the big cookie from La Flor along the way. It was an amazing cookie.

Wednesday, after sleeping in, we went to Grimaldi's Pizzeria in Brooklyn for a truly iconic example of New York style pizza. On the walk from the subway to the pizzeria, we had excellent views of the Manhattan Bridge and the Brooklyn Bridge.


They were shooting a movie right next to the pizzeria, so part of the street was closed, but only a small part. We got there a few minutes before they opened. It was across the street from a wharf over the East River with an excellent view of Manhattan.


By the time we got back, the place was packed, but there was one table left, and we took it. Grimaldi's Pizzeria is in area called DUMBO, which means Down Under Manhattan Brooklyn Overpass. The walls were filled with little pictures of celebrities and big pictures of the Rat Pack. They are one of the few pizzerias to still use a coal fired oven. It's illegal for new pizzerias, but they got grandfathered in. It was an extremely yummy pizza.


Afterward we went back over to the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory on the wharf. We noticed a bunch of white limos filled with Asian wedding parties who were on the wharf getting their pictures taken. It was a wonderful place for wedding photos, but why were they all Asian? I asked the guy in the ice cream shop, and he admitted that he'd been wondering that too. Again the ice cream did not live up to my high standards for ice cream, but it was ice cream and I do love ice cream.


We met Lise and her boyfriend Moshe at the ice cream shop. It was his birthday, so she bought him ice cream, and then we walked over to the Jacques Torres Chocolate shop and got ourselves more chocolate. This chocolate was even better than Mondel's chocolate, and that was some yummy chocolate.


I should also note that we never shared our chocolate with anyone else. We horded it for ourselves as part of our honeymoon celebration. We only got one of any flavor and shared every piece between us. It was romantic and gluttonous.

I'd been noticing that the curbs were reinforced with iron, but now it was becoming clear that it was like that everywhere. Either that or the curbs were made of stone. And many of the sidewalks were also made of stone. Big slabs of stone. New York has made an investment in durability unlike anything I've ever seen, but then I've never seen a city that gets used as much as New York, so it has to be more durable.

I also noticed that there were chain link hedges. They took chain link fences, and wove artificial greenery through it. This obviously provided privacy but also increased security because it made the fences more difficult to climb. Once I noticed it, I saw it everywhere we went. What a clever way of making a privacy fence.

Lise & Moshe directed us to get on the Brooklyn Bridge (not as easy as you'd think) and then went their way. quility and I returned to Manhattan by walking over the Brooklyn Bridge.

The bridge is so big that visual perspective makes it look like the cables seem to almost come together at the top The way they extend, and cross, it made us think that right there at the top would be the perfect place for Spiderman to hang out, like a huge web.


Then we caught subway to Union Square where there was a huge farmer's market, and holiday shopping. We took our picture with a statue of Gandhi.


From there we met quility's friend Katya at Chat'n'Chew which advertises "Real American Home Style". I had a BLT with sweet potato fries. The sweet potato fries weren't nearly as good as the ones at the burger place after the play. And the BLT wasn't world class either. By this point in the trip I was spoiled from having had excellent food. Katya is engaged and will be getting married in the Caribbean. She had many interesting stories and was an enjoyable lunch companion.


Through out the trip I'd been amazed by the traffic, and about this time I was beginning to get more used to it. It occurred to me that all the honking was necessary as a courtesy to let other drivers know, "I'm here, please don't hit me." It's a difficult city for driving. It's a pedestrian city into which many cars attempt to navigate.

Also, everywhere we went, at some point we were bound to see signs on the parking meters announcing that that section of parking would have to be cleared during specific times so that some movie or show (such as Law & order) could shoot there.

In New York, quility worked for a company called Crossover Technologies, which made games and dissolved after 9/11. We were in the area where their office had been, so we walked over and I got to meet the Doorman, Angel. He remembered quility right away, and was so sweet. I'm so happy to have met him. He's from Puerto Rico, and his mother is there now and apparently the medical system has some problems, and he really wants to help her. There's concern because all the buildings in that part of New York are being bought up and turned into condos. He had a big folder all about it. He was so full of energy and so much fun to be around.


Then we found ourselves walking by the Flatiron Building, one of the most iconic buildings in New York.


The next event on our list was a Crossover reunion near Times Square, so we took the subway. It was after sunset and the lights of Times Square were beginning to show. We had a few minutes, and we were right there so we decided to go to Toys R Us. Just thinking about it gives me a fear reaction. It was claustrophobic with intensity. It was incredible, but there was just too much. They had an animatronic dinosaur in the Jurassic park section, and life-sized Lego structures, a ferris wheel, It was three stories of intense toy store. Before we left we did discover that it's a good place to go to the restroom.

We headed toward to a place called Spanky's BBQ for a reunion of the people from Crossover who quility used to work with, and they're SOs. eleanor, cattitude, bugsybanana, agrumer, Eric, Kathy, Aileen, Len, David, Kirka, Lydia, and womzilla. I really enjoyed meeting them. They are all wonderful people.


The location, however left a bit to be desired. quility had booked a private room and had confirmation emails. When we got there, no one at the restaurant knew anything about it and they had to struggle to try to accommodate us, and we were left just standing around for a long time while they got an area ready. And the food was rather mediocre.

Lately quility has been getting into making novelty soaps with things in them. For this gathering she made a bunch of soaps with 20 sided dice in them. I teased her for giving soap to gamers, but everyone seemed to appreciate the party favors.

A few wore jackets for a product they developed called Evolution. They referred to the jackets as their gang colors.

I was seated next to Lydia, who happened to be of Ukrainian heritage. I once spent a month in the Ukraine so we had stuff to chat about. It was nice meeting her and her girlfriend Kirka


From where I was sitting, it seemed that a good time was had by all.

We headed toward the subway and passed through Time's Square. Sunday we'd seen it during the day. I think that Times Square really needs to be seen at night to be appreciated. There are city codes that different areas in New York have to fit in with the aesthetic of that area. The aesthetic of Times Square is big flashing neon lights. There's a police station in Times Square with the words "Police Station" in big neon lights. The subway stops are the most eye-catching subway stops in the city. It was as bright as day ... well, dusk, but still pretty darned bright.

We rode the subway toward the apartment with bugsybanana and agrumer for part of the ride. I really enjoyed their company. Nice people. Along the way, we got to see special trains in the subway for hauling trash. I guess it makes more sense than clogging up the roads with garbage trucks. I always had a subway map on me. After we went a different direction from her friends, quility had me choose the next subway, and then when we got off the subway, she had me guide us the rest of the way to the apartment. She wanted to make sure that I could get around in New York in case I needed to. I'd navigated trains in Montreal and Frankfurt alone with no prior instruction, so this wasn't too challenging, except for one minor wrong turn after we were back above ground which I caught after about 10 feet when things didn't look right. It was a good exercise in trust, which luckily didn't require extra exercise of body.

quility and I staggered into the apartment, exhausted from all the things we'd been carrying with us all day, and the weight of our jackets on a day which turned out to be much warmer than expected. once we shed all the excess baggage, and sat for a few minutes, we felt 20 pounds lighter and we found that we actually had a bit of energy. There was still city out there, so we decided to walk around the Village for a while. We stopped by Forbidden Planet and we got ourselves a sonic screwdriver (yay). I loved that shop. We went into shops where they sold singing bowls and I found one that sold mallets separately so I bought a mallet. there was occasionally light rain on that warm night, but not enough that we felt any need to run for cover. We walked through Washington Square Park and saw the Washington Square Arch. We walked by bars and saw drunk people. We walked until blisters formed on feet and shins ached. We were just so happy to be walking in New York City.

Eventually we made it back to the apartment and crashed.

Click here for Part 2