The world has changed since I last blogged here. The unimaginable has happened, and DJT has been elected president. Heartbreaking and terrifying, it gets worse every day. But before that happened, I went back to NYC with Cathy.
I flew through Chicago this time, instead of Atlanta, so I had a chance to grab some caramel corn and Chicago Mix from Garrett's as a surprise for Cathy in between flights. I took a cab from La Guardia, but due to mid-afternoon traffic, it took nearly an hour to get to the hotel, which turned out to be right across the street from the Port Authority bus terminal (which is right across the cross street from the New York Times). The Empire State Building was visible from our window (ok, so you had to get close to the window and look sharp left to see it, but still...). I went out to explore, walked through Times Square, and ended up at Bryant Park, home of NY Fashion Week, where they were setting up a Christmas Village and ice skating rink. I know I didn't see it at its best, due to the construction zone atmosphere, but Bryant Park is really cute. I got a great picture of the Chrysler Building from there, too. When I got back to the hotel, I happened on a free "happy hour" buffet with several yummy. hot snacky things - little cheeseburger sliders, fried green beans with chipotle dip, etc. (When I tried to take Cathy the next night, though, it turned out that it was only on Wednesdays. Bummer.)
The next morning, we had breakfast at Carlo's Bakery, home of the Cake Boss from TLC. It isn't the home bakery, of course, which is in NJ, but it was still fun to have one of their famous "lobster tail" pastries. We then headed for the World Trade Center area to see the Oculus (our "big white thing" from the Feb trip, which wasn't yet open then). The Oculus is a Calatrava-designed building next to Ground Zero which is both a subway hub (still being developed) and a high-end shopping mall. It is absolutely stunning, but we didn't spend any time going into stores - we weren't dressed well enough. :)
From there, we walked to St Paul's Chapel, the home church of George Washington. Though it is only a couple of blocks from Ground Zero, it sustained no damage at all during 9/11, and was used as a rest station for rescue workers during that time. They were supposed to have a small 9/11 museum, but it apparently has been moved to a location across the street. The chapel is undergoing some restoration, and the Washington pew had been removed, but there were still interesting things to see there. St Paul's Chapel was built as a satellite church of Trinity Church, to serve the outlying "country" people. The funny thing is that Trinity Church is only a few blocks away. I can't imagine how the chapel could be in the country and Trinity in the city. You can practically see one from the other, they are so close together.
We then walked down to Trinity Church to see Alexander Hamilton's grave and attend a free concert in the church. The concert was somewhat disappointing. The schedule said it was supposed to be Irish fiddle music, but it was something involving subway and city sounds (which we had been hearing all day on the street). Still, it was nice to see the church. There was a geocache in the churchyard, but grabbing it would have involved climbing up onto a big statue/fountain thing (and probably needing a boost to get up onto the first level). Yeah....no.
In the evening, we met up with Megan to have dinner at Carnegie Deli, which was scheduled to close forever at the end of the year. This time we only waited in line for maybe 45 minutes. Megan and Cathy split one of their signature ENORMOUS pastrami sandwiches, and I had the absolute best grilled cheese on marble rye with tomatoes and bacon. When Cathy told Megan about the Garrett's popcorn, Megan said, "That's the advantage of arriving in Penn Station". Turns out that Penn Station, where Cathy's train arrived, has a Garrett's! Still, mine came from the Chicago motherland, so it's still better. :P
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