Jenster's Musings

Thursday, July 12, 2007

New York City - Part Two

Just to clarify, Katie and I went to New York City the week before my surgery. There's absolutely no way I could do all the stuff we did at this point.

Friday morning we took our time waking up. I love the heavy curtains in hotel rooms that make you think it's still dark out even while the sun is beating brightly outside.

After preparing for the day and packing up our belongings we checked out, left our bags at the hotel baggage check and headed out. First stop was Starbuck's across the street. It was teeny tiny and all three of the tables were occupied, so we got our goodies to go and walked over to the 8th and 42nd Street subway. It's kind of like a small mall so we were able to find a place to sit and eat.

Then we found our sub and took it up to the American Museum of Natural History - the same as seen in the movie "Night at the Museum".



In my NYC - Part 1 post I made the comment I warned Katie about the possibility of nude paintings. No such speech was given because this was a history museum. Right? I didn't think about the prehistoric, ancient and even more modern people who eschew clothing. And yes, the mannequins were anatomically correct.

Katie took it all in stride and looked at the exhibits without staring, while I, on the other hand, was trying not to stare. For instance, I'm sure I was wrong but prehistoric man looked to be circumcised. I couldn't say for sure, however, because I didn't want my 12-year-old daughter to catch me checking out the package on the hairy little mannequin. So while my interest was purely scientific, (i.e., prehistoric man couldn't have been circumcised) I was afraid said interest would traumatize the girl.

We made it to every exhibit in the museum looking for the Lewis and Clark exhibit from the movie, but we never found it. Obviously that was just for the movie. We did find this, though:


Dum Dum didn't speak to us, however. Must have been too early.

I snapped this shot for Taylor because what 15-year-old boy doesn't want a picture of boobies?


I have several other pictures of dinosaur skeletons and stuffed animals and interesting textiles, but I won't bore you with those.

We left the museum and walked across the street to sit and rest a bit in Central Park.


Our plan had been to take in middle Central Park since we'd hit the lower third last November. But we'd been doing quite a bit of walking anyway so we decided to take the subway down to Greenwich Village, find a quaint cafe and eat something delectable.

This was only my third trip into the city and I should learn a little bit more about where I'm going. We got off the subway and were a few blocks West of Greenwich Village. I don't know what that area is called, but the street we walked down is lined with all kinds of fetish shops. Giant store windows with leather collars, S&M gear, whips, chains and an extremely buxom mannequin in a French Maid costume.

Thankfully there was a pickup game going on across the street that had us both fascinated so Katie didn't really get a look at all that stuff. And since she was with me I was unable to run in and make a purchase. I'M SO KIDDING!!!

We made it over to Washington Square and were thoroughly delighted with all the different bands and jugglers and street performers. They were quite entertaining. First were the chess games in the park JUST LIKE IN THE MOVIES!





Next was the jazz band with the guy playing TWO trumpets at the same time. He must REALLY be full of hot air.






The arch at the entrance - or in our case exit - to Washington Square





The fountain where adults cooled off their feet and kids splashed around.





A bluegrassy, hillbilly rock sort of band. These guys actually had CDs and I'm kicking myself (figuratively because I'm not into self-pain) for not buying one. Country music is NOT my thing, but I love some good bluegrass and if it has a rockin' flavor to it then even better.


After meandering through the park and enjoying the wonderful bands we went in search of scrumptuals. I didn't realize it at first, but this is where New York University is. I mean, I knew NYU was in NYC, but we were AT NYU. And you know college students. They require massive amounts of sugar and caffeine so we didn't have to look long before we found Crumbs, purveyor of unique and delicious confections.





Katie chose iced tea and a Boston Cream Pie cupcake and I chose iced Hazelnut coffee and a Devil Dog cupcake. Once again, we dug in before I could take pictures. We really must learn to control ourselves.




But look at the gooey goodness in the middle of my cupcake! It was nothing short of Heaven.




After our much too short brush with edible ecstasy we made our way to the subway station - a different station - and we came upon this very cool lamp post.



Our dogs were barking as we took the subway back to the hotel to grab our bags, and then another sub to Penn Station to get the train back to Trenton. The train ride from NYC to Trenton was delightful. She had a magazine and I had my book and we got to just sit in an air conditioned car for an hour and a half. Bliss.

And this wraps up my week with Katie. Not only did we have a ton of fun, but it was cultural and maybe a little too educational for the both of us. She won't be old enough to go to the Youth Conference next year, either, and we're already making our plans.

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Mused by Jenster :: 8:18 AM :: 17 People musing:

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