New York Honeymoon, 11/15/07 - 11/18/07, Thursday-Sunday

Continued from Part 1

Thursday we slept in. By now you might notice the recurring theme of sleeping in. quility had an itinerary for the trip and hadn't allowed for sleeping in, so there was a lot on the list that we weren't getting done. Personally I wasn't worried about it. I couldn't complain about missing a few wonderful new experiences when my days were filled with wonderful new experiences.

Thursday was rainy all day, and the hood on my jacket was useless. Luckily my stocking cap was somewhat water resistant, but we were still exhausted from pushing ourselves Wednesday, so we decided to take it easy Thursday. A decision which was forgotten after we eventually left the apartment.

We used crash_mccormick's computer to download the photos that quility had taken so far on her digital camera, and then she burned them to disk. Neither of us was familiar with his computer, so it took me a while to then figure out how to eject the disk. Then we took some time to lie around share chocolate. My next project was to figure out how to upload the photos to Photobucket, but before I got that done, it was time for us to head out for breakfast.

We had slept, and relaxed, but we were still exhausted from all the walking. We live in Sioux City. Sioux City is one of the largest cities per capita in the United States, so people drive everywhere, and I have an extremely comfortable vehicle. So we went from driving in comfort to walking and riding uncomfortable public transportation. All things considered, we were doing pretty well.

We went to breakfast with eleanor from crossover. We met her at her apartment and also met her dog Morgan and three cats; Hayes, Norton and Gramercy. Morgan seemed to be part lab and all sweet. eleanor was preparing for a trip. We played with the animals.


We went to breakfast at a place called Southwest NY in Two World Financial Center with a nice view of the Hudson River. eleanor chose it because I asked for a place that was close and good. I ordered the SWNY Wrap and it was delicious. quility got the Goat Cheese Salad and said it was good. quility is from Ohio and I'm from Iowa. eleanor was fascinated by the vowel states. quility jokingly referred to them as "fly-over states" because most of the people on the coasts fly over them on their way to somewhere else, but eleanor seemed honestly interested. eleanor told us about a guy named Bob who she clearly loves, and it sounds like he loves her too. I sure do wish them well. They deserve happiness.



Winter Garden is across the street from where the World Trade Center used to be. There's a large window overlooking a big hole where still nothing has been built. Since quility was last in New York, entire skyscrapers have been erected. Sioux City has completed major road projects since then (and if you know Sioux City, that's saying something). But ground-zero is still a big hole in the ground. It's a huge unhealed scar in our nation, and the wound is being kept open for political reasons. I hope they build the memorial and let the healing begin soon.

eleanor directed us to a store called Century 21 on the other side of the big-hole-in-the-ground because it had cheap New York merchandise in the basement, and then we parted. and continued on. quility wanted me to see Century 21 because it was a place where real New Yorkers shop. It wasn't fancy or touristy. I also found it interesting to walk around the big-hole-in-the-ground.

From there we took the subway to catch a ferry to see the Statue of Liberty, but it was raining, foggy, and the water was choppy, so we decided that we had plenty of other parts of New York to see. It was nice to see the new ferry landing facility in Southern Manhattan. It was a nice facility with pigeons flying around inside. It was also interesting to see that subway stop. The train stops on a curve and the platform moves over to the train.

Another subway ride and a bit of walking as we looked for Les Sans Culottes, one of quility's three favorite restaurants, but it wasn't where it used to be. That's okay because it had more than one location so we could still go there, but we didn't know where the other location was and we were getting hungry.

Instead we went to a restaurant called Hallo Berlin. I enjoyed it more than the German food in the Amana Colonies (which really does not agree with my pallet) but it definitely wasn't the best or cleanest restaurant in our New York tour of restaurants. quility was disappointed that it had dropped in quality since she was last there.

From there we went to the American Museum of Natural History to see their Mythical creatures exhibit. It was really cool, but we were too exhausted to really enjoy it. Before the trip, quility kept saying that we should be walking more to prepare for the New York trip. I don't know if I could have prepared for this. No one in Sioux City walks this much. New York is a workout.

They set times for when people could go into the Mythical creatures exhibit to keep it from getting too crowded, so first we went to the area with the stones. I gave quility the star sapphire engagement ring that my father had given my mother, so she wanted to look at their collection of star sapphires. They had some which were bigger, but I like hers more. They also had one of the largest meteor rocks in the world (big hunk of iron).

This picture is actually two pictures badly photoshoped together (her language). One picture with a flash showed her hand, but not the big stones in the glass case, the other showed the stones but not her hand. Luckily, my wife is resourceful and determined. Perspective notwithstanding, the stones in the case were ginormous, but I still think that the star in hers is more perfect.

The Mythical creatures exhibit was really cool. It mostly pointed out that the creatures of mythology could actually be traced back to other creatures. In a shimmering ocean, a manatee could look like a mermaid. Dinosaur bones look like dragons and other creatures. A giant squid is a lot like the Kraken. The tendency is to say, "Ha ha, weren't those people silly for all those mistakes that they made" but then I look at recent science and I am constantly seeing massive corrections of what we thought we knew. The ancient people were trying to understand the world around them just like we are, and the answers they came up with worked for them just like our answers work for us. Their mythologies also served as valuable morality tales, just as we tell the story of Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer.

There was a section dealing with Africa and another dealing with Latin America, and it was all fascinating. We were exhausted and could barely move, but we just kept trudging along, too fascinated to stop until eventually the museum closed and we had to leave.

Usually in the subway, the musicians and entertainers are in the station, which is amazing. Every trip underground offered live entertainment. On this trip there were four young men on the train doing amazing dancing between the stops. It was beyond break-dancing. I have a tough time standing on the trains, and they were doing dance moves beyond anything I could even imagine attempting. Everyone on the train actually applauded them. They got tipped well.

We staggered back to the apartment, crashed, and ate chocolate. We got the photos uploaded to Photobucket. By 8pm we were ready to go to Les Sans Culottes

The bus ride to Les Sans Culottes almost shook my balls off. Really. I had to check to make sure they were still attached. It vibrated more than an unbalanced washing machine.

Technically, we went by the UN, but it was on the other side of the bus, it was night, and the bus was an express, so all we saw was the bottom of flag poles whizzing by.

At Les Sans Culottes they brought us appetizers. A huge basket of sausage, and another of fruit & veggies, and cheese dip and pate. It was all amazing and we filled up on appetizers. By the power of Greyskull, it was awesome. Multiple kinds of sausage, carrots, celery, cucumbers, tomato, radishes, cabbage, lemon, apples, oranges, cantaloupe, and green onions. As a kid I used to eat green onions with salt, so that's how we ate them. Most of the people I know have melon ballers and that's how they prepare cantaloupe. I eat way too much cantaloupe to go through that much effort, and I like to eat it all the way down to the skin, so I just slice it, and that's how they served it as well, so that was validating. I normally don't care for pate, but theirs was awesome. We pretty much finished off the pate and the cheese dip, and they were in fair sized bowls. We also made a sizable dent in the fruit and sausage. They also had a really good house wine. We got the white.


For entrées, we got filet mignon and chicken cordon bleu. They were good and big portions. Like Midwest portions only in a New York French restaurant.



After the appetizers, we were too full to finish the entrées, but luckily dessert goes in a different stomach. For dessert, we got chocolate mousse and creme brulée. The Creme brulée was superior to every other dessert we had on the trip. They brought out the dessert and a blow torch and caramelized the top at the table. So the presentation of the dessert had great showmanship to it. Then we tasted it, and our taste buds felt justified in existing. That was the moment for which taste buds were created. We loved the chocolate mouse, but we ended with the creme brulée. That was the taste we wanted left in our mouths.



Allowing for the tip, the whole thing cost about a hundred dollars, but it was very worth it. That was a great experience.

Afterward we walked to 53rd & 3rd because I'm a Ramones fan and I wanted my picture taken there, but it was dark and the picture didn't really turn out.


Then we took the subway home. Throughout the week I'd been seeing Wet Paint signs in the subway. Earlier in the week I had lightly touched a finger to something marked Wet Paint and found that it was a slow drying alkyd paint. That night on the subway I saw a wall marked Wet Paint, and saw someone leaning against the wall wearing a leather jacket. At some point he pulled away from the wall and realized that he'd been leaning against wet paint, and also realized that his jacket was pretty much ruined. I'm a painter and might have information which could help him, and so I approached him, confirmed that the jacket was most likely ruined, but that if he could get it before the paint could set, he might be able to get off most of it with fingernail polish remover, figuring that it was about the only strong solvent that someone in the city would have easy access too. He thanked me and shook my hand, which I found to be a positive and affirming experience in the friendly city of New York (although I couldn't sing about it because quility had banned me from singing that song).

Eventually we staggered to the apartment, we went up on the roof to look at the city at night, and then crashed with no memory of falling asleep. The entire trip was like dining at Sans Culottes, we felt like we could do no more, but it was so incredible that we couldn't stop.

Friday morning, we were tired, but we only had two full days left in New York, so we got up and walked a few blocks to a Ukrainian restaurant called Veselka. quility got borscht and assorted pirogies including a pumpkin pirogi. I got banana buckwheat pancakes with corned beef hash. it tasted Ukrainian to me. I rarely ate Ukrainian food when I was in the Ukraine, and now I remember why. quility seemed to enjoy it and for that I am happy.


We went into a Ukrainian shop, The Surma Book & Music Company. In the Ukraine, occasionally children will wear traditional garb for some reason at school, but other than that it's extremely rare to see Ukrainians dressed like traditional Ukrainians. I also never saw anyone with nicely painted eggs in their homes, or little cardboard figures which split open to reveal other cardboard figures. In short, I never saw anyone actually owning the things sold as Ukrainian souvenirs. The shop was a fun place to browse.

We walked to Lafayette & 8th and saw a giant cube which was able to swivel when pushed. quility described it as, "This is where they wind up the city."


Also in that same location was a groovy new skyscraper that wasn't there when quility was last in New York.


We went shopping in St Mark's, which also required a bit of walking on what were by then unsteady legs. I had stopped carrying my backpack, and left it at the apartment because I was too tired to handle the extra weight. Luckily my jacket had many pockets. I got a CBGB's shirt, at the CBGB store, which was sold to me by the first skin head I've ever met. He was bald and had the work SKIN tattooed on his head. A CBGB shirt from the actual CBGB store in New York. This was no Hot Topic knock off. This is the real deal, to the extent that there can still be a real deal.


In St. Mark's we also saw an actual automat


Shop Smart, Shop S Mart


Then we took a bus toward Toys in Babeland, a very positive and affirming sex shop. The bus started turning where we didn't expect it to turn, so we got off and walked the rest of the way. My legs feel sore just remembering it. oy vay. Aside from the pain, it was amazing. We walked through The Sara D Roosevelt Park and there were checker boards built into park benches. In one of them we saw a perfect little faery charm.


We walked through Chinatown and Little Italy, which were wonderful but we were staggering like living dead at that point.

Finally we made it to Toys in Babeland. Yay. What a wonderful shop. In Sioux City the most positive and healthy sex shop is Doctor John's, which is much better than the average sex toy shop, but still not in the realm of Babeland. Other sex shops hide their shame in black shopping bags. The Babeland shopping bags are bright pink with their company name proudly displayed on the side. There was no shame or other uncomfortable vibe, just a positive and honest approach to sexuality. It was very nice. It would have been nicer if there had been a place to sit, but at that point, standing was more relaxing than walking. Plus, it was relaxing just being in that wonderful shop.

After that we wandered through an outdoor bazaar which was so wonderfully third world. There were all these little booths crammed together with tarps over each one sticking out like awnings, leaving a little slit of open sky above the middle of the narrow walk ways. quility was worried that she's be claustrophobic, but she did fine. It was another fun place to browse.

We took the subway back to the apartment and enjoyed the subway musicians. We ate leftovers and went up on the roof to see the view during the day.


After a bit of sitting, relaxing and eating chocolate, we took the bus north to sight see while sitting. This time we took the local bus instead of the express. It made more stops, but bounced my balls much less. This time when we went by the UN, we could actually see stuff. It's probably more interesting on the inside, but we did see it, so it's on the list. yay.


We rode the bus around 3pm, and there were a lot of kids on the bus who had just gotten out of school. I think that really caught me off guard. Around here we have special buses for kids, but there they ride public transportation like everyone else. Public transportation is just a part of everyone's life. But to me it's a grown-up thing. I'm used to grown-ups having grown-up things and kids having kid things. In New York, everything seemed like grown-up things, so it seemed out of place to see children. I like New York and I like New Yorkers, but it's just hard for me to imagine raising kids in New York. It is just so unlike what I imagine as the way children are raised. It was a bit of culture shock.

We had planned to ride the bus down fifth avenue and look at all the fancy shops, but it was getting late and so we skipped that and went to the Guggenheim, which was significant to me because I'm a fan of Frank Lloyd Wright and he designed the Guggenheim. Cool building. We went to the gift shop and got a refrigerator magnet.

Then we walked over to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Their refrigerator magnets were even more overpriced than the other places' refrigerator magnets, so we passed on adding one to our fine collection of commemorative refrigerator magnets. We walked through the Egyptian section, which was huge and a little overwhelming. quility noted how we respect the recent dead, but the ancient dead, we put on display. We saw what looked like ancient multi-sided dice, and imagined ancient Romans playing a role playing game.


We walked over to the Roman section and I saw a two thousand year old silver bowl which looked a lot like a singing bowl. It had been polished, so there was no evidence of whether or not it had been played like a singing bowl. It was labeled as being a fancy bowl, but if it had been a singing bowl, that would be significant. I was excited about the possibility.

By this point we were sitting as often as we were willing to allow ourselves. It was a constant struggle between our desire to go on and our desire to stop. We were so exhausted that we could hardly go on, and yet we did.

Most of the museum was buzzing with people, but somehow we found ourselves on a lonely mezzanine. I guess not many people found the hidden unmarked elevator. We had lots more Roman antiquities and not a lot of other people.


From up there we saw a gallery filled with suits of armor, which we had to then find an elevator downstairs to see more closely. They were pretty cool.


We took an escalator upstairs to the art. We really enjoyed looking at the eyes in the Rembrandt paintings which showed such compassion. There were Rembrandt paintings next to paintings which were stylistically similar, and we played a game of Spot-the-Rembrandt by looking at the eyes. We did fairly well for novices. There was a recreation of a medieval room which gave us the willies. We don't know why since there was nothing distinctly creepy about the room.

Overall, the museum was a moving experience which touched us much more deeply than we expected, probably because we were emotionally fragile due to excessive exhaustion.

We had reservations at the New York Roy's. We were too tired to walk and even too tired to wait for a bus, so we took a cab to the subway stop. The cabbie was from Algeria and went back every year to visit. We didn't want to be rude, but it worried us that he was getting distracted from New York driving. We couldn't keep track of how many laws he broke in the mile ride. Then we had to walk by a ground-zero construction fence to get to Roy's.

Roy's; we had been waiting the whole trip for this experience. Most people sit across from each other in restaurants, but this was our honeymoon, so we sat next to each other. We sat, relaxed, and enjoyed the comfort of Roy's.


We couldn't help but compare this Roy's to the PA Roy's, for instance in PA the green-beans had an excellent seasoning and the ribs were meatier. But even so, it was still excellent. quility started with a drink called a purple haze with her appetizer, and I started with a 2006 Hexamer Riesling, the best riesling I've ever had, and I really like riesling. For appetizers we had a combination platter. With the meal, quility had champaign and I had a red wine. Oh amazing meal. I had a 22oz ribeye with asparagus. The steak was amazing, and I come from the area where steak is made. Better steak than PA. This was another example of why taste buds were invented. quility had grouper. The steak was better.




For dessert we had Creme brulée (which was good, but not as good as Sans Culottes) and they gave us a chocolate soufflé on the house in celebration of our honeymoon.


At $200 it was the most expensive meal we'd ever bought for ourselves, but it was very worth it. We loved it. We love the place. We even love Amy, our waitress.


Roy's is attached to a hotel. Despite being completely amazing, it wasn't very busy. We were very happy to be there, and we hope that other people enjoy being there and Roy's prospers ever after.


We took the subway, staggered back to the apartment and slept.

Saturday was our last full day in New York. We were scheduled to go to the Bronx Zoo, but it was an hour and a half away and would have required a lot of walking. Also, we live an hour and a half from the Omaha Zoo which is also a world class zoo.

New York is a world class city. If you make a list of world class cities, New York is bound to be on the list. So it's nice to reflect on the fact that there are some world class things in the Siouxland area; Edgars, Blue Bunny, Bob's Bar, Archie's Diner ... I would put these up with anything in New York.

crash_mccormick was due back, so we packed our stuff. We brought an extra bag in our other luggage into which we packed all of our souvenirs. We came with three bags and we left with four bags.


We stowed the luggage in the living-room, and left to meet cattitude, redbird, womzilla & supergee for Dim Sum in China town.

When we got to China town, we weren't certain where to go. quility called cattitude and soon discovered that he and redbird were on the other side of the street.



Apparently Dim Sum is Chinese for funky appetizers. I'd never had it before. I'm glad for having had the experience because now I know that I don't have to do it again. I learned something (yay). quility seemed to enjoy it and for that I am very happy.



Then we went to the Chinatown Ice Cream Shop and got Lychee sorbet and Zen Butter ice cream. We didn't finish the Lychee. The Zen Butter wasn't bad. Neither met our high standards for ice cream, but we were thankful for the new experience.

We walked around China town and did a little shopping. womzilla & supergee had to take off. I wish I had gotten to know them better. To be honest, I was a bit distracted by all the amazing things around me, and only one more day to explore them. We continued shopping with cattitude & redbird. I enjoyed Chinatown. I've shopped in areas like that before and felt very comfortable. Unfortunately this often led to me wandering off and shopping on my own. I love shopping. No one else seemed quite as into it as me, but I had fun.

After a subway ride, we wandered into Central Park, which was lovely.


Eventually we ended up in the Central Park Zoo. It was kinda strange seeing natural wild creatures surrounded by skyscrapers.


After a week in New York it was extremely grounding to just take a few minutes of peace watching the animals.


We wandered out of Central Park, crossed the street, walked by the Apple store (a big glass box providing the entrance to the underground store) and went into FAO Schwarz. Wow. That place is really amazing. When we went into the Toys R Us in Times Square, it was insane and over-powering. FAO Schwarz was huge and busy, but it felt much more comfortable and tasteful. Of course everything was out of my price range, but it was wonderful being there. Their full size Lego statues were much nicer than Toys R Us's full size Lego statues. They had nice everything. If I could have afforded it, these would be the toys I would want to give a child.

From there we took the subway to Grand Central Station. We rode in the front car so that I could look out the front window into the oncoming tunnel. That was kinda cool, like riding an amusement park dark ride -- a really dark ride. In grand Central, we went to the archway outside the Oyster Bar to the whispering gallery. We could whisper in one corner, and hear in the opposite corner. We picked up a slice of Junior's authentic New York cheesecake, and then we went to a store in the terminal which was reputed to have the best cheese selection in the city, and got an assortment to give to crash_mccormick to thank him for letting us stay at his apartment. Grand Central Station is a really impressive place.


redbird was tired and went home. cattitude went with us out to Queens so that we could once again eat at La Flor.

We rode in the front car again so I could look out the front window. It was night, but there was still more to see than there was in a tunnel. At one point, cattitude & quility got nostalgic remembering the stop they used to take to game with treadpath & screaminghippo.

Ah, La Flor. Wonderful La Flor. I got the butternut squash soup and fillet mignon. quility got flautas de pollo, mango salad, and braised ribs. cattitude also got the filet mignon. The soup was good, but quility enjoyed it more , so we swapped and I ate her salad, which was also yummy. It was an excellent meal. quility's ribs were succulent but she was not completely satisfied with the flavor. Had she eaten the same meal in Sioux City, She'd be raving about how amazing it was, but she had just spent a week eating the most amazing food of her life. Upon reflecting on this, she seemed much happier with the meal. For dessert we got a chocolate soufflé, a chocolate cake, and a third pie which was quite good but as yet unidentified. It might have been a pumpkin carrot cake. The head chef sent it on-the-house because he recognized quility. All the desserts were yummy.


The main chef, Viko Ortega, was there. quility and I each made a point of complimenting him on his excellent food.


The only complaint cattitude and I had was with the guitar player in the corner. I suppose he was competent enough for some venue, but I just doubt that this was it. The average subway musician was better. I was willing to forgive him for what he did to Leroy Brown, but Piano Man on a guitar? That's just wrong. And he massacred Across the Universe. Simon & Garfunkel songs are so incredible that even that guy managed to sound okay for about half a song. The really good thing about his performance was that discussing how bad it was provided me a bonding moment with cattitude, and I am happy for that. I like him. He's a good guy.

We took the bus toward the apartment because the train was sort-of not running, or something. It worked out because the bus went down 5th avenue and we were finally able to look at the fancy window displays on the expensive shops. The first one caught me off guard and I spontaneously exclaimed, "Holy Shit!" It's like all the things in all those movies, only right there, for real.


We ended up in Penn Station and wandered around for a while It was like a shopping mall in Des Moines, only with subways and Amtrak.

We said goodbye to cattitude and went back to the apartment, gathered up our stuff, put the fancy cheese in the refrigerator, left a thank-you note, used the bathrooms one last time, and headed out to grab a cab to the Vanderbilt YMCA. quility was excited for the experience. That is where we would have stayed if it hadn't been for crash_mccormick. Our room had a double bed, thus setting a new record as the smallest bed we've ever slept in together. The mattress was wrapped in plastic, and not especially comfortable anyway. We made the bed with our own sheets. Then we relaxed and ate the last of the chocolate to celebrate our last night in New York. It was not a great night's sleep. We were very lucky that crash_mccormick let us stay in his apartment.

Sunday morning, we packed up the bedding, ate the cheesecake from Juniors for breakfast (which is slightly thicker and subtly cheesier than normal cheesecake) and carried our four pieces of luggage about a half mile to the nearest subway (like real New Yorkers) which we rode to Jamaica station, where there were actually guys with dread locks and Jamaican accents. Then we took the AirTrain to JFK airport, which was the smoothest train ride of the entire trip. The recorded message said with perfect diction, "The door is a closing." That made us chuckle.

We checked all of our luggage, and went through security. We were actually running a bit early, so I stopped at Sparro and got a slice of what was advertised as New York Style Pizza, although I thought it tasted more like Philadelphia style pizza.

The plane lifted of at 11:37 am, officially ending our stay in New York almost exactly eight days to the minute from when we arrived. We flew from New York to Minneapolis, and then Minneapolis to Omaha. I watched out the window as we took off from New York and as we landed in Minneapolis. They each had large residential areas, but in New York the residential areas had much less space between the houses. I didn't really mind the crowds in New York because it seemed to create a good environment for artists and bazaars. From what I could see, New Yorkers are good people.

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.