Heading Northeasterly – Day 6
On Tuesday, 10/27, we awoke to a beautiful sunrise coming
straight in the windows of the spare room in Sarah and Kevin’s place, lighting
up the city:
We also awoke to this little face, which is apparently what
happens when you sleep inside a bedroom normally populated by small children:
Good morning!
We got ready to head out on the town, and we stopped for
croissants at a great pastry shop near Sarah’s, Patisserie des Ambassades; we
also grabbed caffeine to go at nearby Double Dutch. Both were delicious! We hopped on the very crowded subway train
and headed downtown to our first stop, the 9/11 Memorial.
The new Freedom Tower,
near the site
While we didn’t visit the museum itself (not enough time,
and we weren’t sure if we could handle the emotional impact of it), we did
stroll through the Memorial Park, which was lovely. There are two giant water features in the
Park, each one the size of the footprint of one Twin Tower, and they were very
well done. The sound of the water
eliminated any other noise, and it seemed to be a great place to reflect on
what happened here, without being too commercial or maudlin.
One of the water features
Names of each person
lost in that tower were engraved on the stone
We next headed to Battery Park, on the south end of
Manhattan, to rest on a bench and wave hello to Lady Liberty.
Chris says hello!
A cool site in Battery
Park.
Since it was also relatively close, we wandered over to Wall
Street, to take some pictures and feel the finance swarming around us.
Smell the money.
The NYSE – you can’t tour here anymore,but you can still take pics.
The spire of Trinity Church, seen from Wall Street
The iconic bull
statue, actually not on Wall Street
After Wall Street, it was time for lunch, so we headed (via
subway) to Blind Tiger Ale House in Greenwich (I think. I’m still not 100% clear on the grouping of
Manhattan neighborhoods). We’d heard
about Blind Tiger from watching Brewdogs,
and it lived up to the hype. The draft
selections were excellent (all from other breweries – Blind Tiger doesn’t brew
their own beer), and the food was good as well.
The Brussel sprouts in black bean sauce were particularly good, but
everything we had went down super easy.
Enjoying our lunch -
yes, it really is as cozy as it looks.
Although we could have easily spent the rest of the day
drinking and eating at Blind Tiger, we got back in tourist mode and hit up the
subway, emerging at Bryant Park. We
wandered through the Park (using a really great public restroom – we were
legitimately amazed at finding it in such a good condition) and headed into the
5th Avenue branch of the NY Public Library. Sadly, the Reading Room was closed, as I
really wanted to see where the iconic scene from Ghostbusters was shot. We
got this pic instead:
Sad face.
That’s a mural of what it looks like in front of the door.
We wandered through the Library for awhile and then headed
out, stopping to take a picture with the lions out front.
Books AND kitty cats!
My 8 -year old self would be so pleased.
We next wandered to Rockefeller Center, taking in the
platform where the Christmas tree will be and the already-installed famous
skating rink.
Seriously, there are a lot of sights in New York that can be called “iconic.”
I’m trying not to overuse the word, but it’s hard.
Look! I found another iconic sight!
Around the corner, we found Radio City Music Hall:
As well as some mounted officers, where one horse waited
until the picture was over to start chewing on the tree to the right of the
shot:
Nom!
We were about ready for a break, so we headed down into the
bowels of Grand Central Station (seriously, all of these sights are like 4
blocks apart) to Oyster Bar. We let our
waitress select a dozen oysters for us, in three different types, and we enjoyed
them all (the Moonstones were our favorite):
Nom!
After our snack, we headed to see the main terminal of Grand
Central:
Just as gorgeous as
advertised.
We also peeked in The Campbell Apartment, a lesser known bar
in Grand Central. It’s a gorgeous place,
and thanks to Sarah and Kevin, we knew we should at least look inside. Essentially, Campbell was a rich dude who
used to travel a ton, and he built his own apartment inside the terminal. His game/trophy room was converted into a
bar, and it’s opulent in the extreme.
There’s a dress code so if you go, plan accordingly, but you should at
least poke your nose in to see what’s up.
It was now time to head back to Sarah and Kevin’s to dress
for our big splurge dinner of the trip, at Eric Ripert’s restaurant, Le
Bernadin. We got all gussied up (men
actually had to wear suit jackets – fancy, non?) and headed back into the
subway, arriving at the restaurant just before our reservation at 5:15. We ended up picking the 8 course tasting
menu, splitting one wine pairing between the two of us. Suffice to say that it was absolutely
outstanding. Here’s a pic of course 1, a
yellowfin tuna carpaccio:
It was expensive, to be sure, but we felt it was worth
it. We won’t eat there again, choosing
to spend our dollars in another place, but for a one-time extravagance, it was
absolutely outstanding.
After dinner, we decided we wanted to see the lights in
Times Square, but we didn’t really want to get enmeshed in the madness
there. In looking at Yelp, we found a
great hidden gem in the Renaissance Hotel’s bar. The hotel itself was right next to Times
Square, and the windows of its bar opened directly onto the site. Thus, we sat in the quiet, relaxing
atmosphere, but still got a chance to see all of the hustle and bustle below
us:
Drinking bubbly and enjoying our final night in the city
The NYE ball!
We relaxed for a little while and then jumped back on the
subway, for our final excitement of the night – having dessert at
Serendipity! Although we didn’t plan to
do this, Sarah’s Mom Maureen and her husband Billy were passing back through NY
on this evening and upon finding out none of us had ever eaten at Serendipity,
Sarah snagged us a late reservation. We
joined the rest of the gang there and thoroughly enjoyed our desserts.
Mo and Billy with
their amazing concoction
Fortified with sugar, we all headed back on the subway to
the apartment, where we attempted to stay up and chat, although that ended
pretty quickly for me at least.
The next morning, we said goodbye to sweet Bluebell at the
apartment, and Sarah and Kevin, as they dropped us at LaGuardia Airport. We had a wonderful time in both DC and NY,
and a huge thanks to everyone who let us interrupt their lives during our
stay! We hope to see you all again soon!
Later!
Amy
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