It's Sunday night and I'm wrapping up an excellent weekend. It included some adventures, some down time, some dining, some shopping, some of a little of everything.
I worked late Friday and enjoyed the company of The Captain & Ginger at home. Boy, do they make a great pair. I was going to go out, but instead my guests made me stay home (let's just put it that way).
Saturday, 7/1
I joined
Gary & Michele Little as they entertained Gary's sister and Brother-in-Law,
Heather & Brandon, who were visiting from Seattle.
We ventured to the
American Museum of Natural History on the Upper West Side and enjoyed an afternoon checking out their dinosaur exhibit as well as the
Afrian and American animal dioramas. At first cheesy-seeming, upon further inspection, these were awesome. Check out the photos and realize that these are taxidermy-based scenes with actual animals and habitats designed to look real which blended into amazing art.
You honestly had to get right up to the glass to realize that these were in fact not real... and even then it was hard to tell! Just amazing. My personal favorite was the
Lesser Kudu, at right -- it emotionally assigned:
"I AM Gary Little!". Another fave:
the Beaver; in honor of OSU's National Baseball Championship as well as my favorite OSU Alums, Jesse Paulson and my dad!
The big thing I took with me from the AMNH is that there is no shying away from
evolution vs. creationism there! We evolved from apes. No argument; no ideological challenges. These be how things are. I loved it.
After getting rushed out of the Museum at closing, we strolled back to the UES by way of Central Park -- which friends, is truly magnificent in the summer. As it was living in France, this park IS an extension of peoples' homes; it's their backyard. People were out playing softball, having picnics, reading, sun-bathing, jogging, relaxing, meeting friends. With a Midtown backdrop, it really is something to experience.
Saturday night we made our way to
Asia de Cuba -- an awesome restaurant on Madison @ 38th in the Morgans Hotel. We enjoyed sitting at the communal table and had a feast! Expensive and worth it. Great drinks; amazing portions; awesome taste combinations; not the best service, but good enough. Rumor has it the bathrooms were on the disappointing side, at least from Michele & Heathers' reports.
After dinner included a tour of the city led by Gary Little with the first stop at a place I can't wait to take guests myself:
Rare View. A rooftop deck on Lexington @ 37th, we drank $15 cocktails in perfect view of the red, white and blue-lit Empire State Building and the even more stunning
Chrysler Building -- one of the last Art Deco skyscrapers ever built (1930) in the Art Deco style and my favorite in New York.
The night became even more of an architectural walk through time with stops at
Grand Central Station to check out
the ceiling, a trapse through the
Helmsley Building and the
Waldorf Astoria Hotel.
Here's what I know: architecture is amazing; we just have to notice. And bottom-line, there's simply a lot to notice here. I'm looking forward to noticing even more!
Sunday, 7/2Today was a similarly good day, but one that was really more about me. I started the morning doing something I thought I would do a lot more of in New York: SHOP! I've been meaning to get downtown to
Century 21 just to see what it's like and today I made the trek!
Century 21 is a HUGE department store here in New York that carries European and American designer clothing for 25-75% off retail. I went and got exactly what I was looking for: stylish dress shirts. I landed two Ben Shermans and a Kenneth Cole for 50% retail. Eighty dollar shirts for $40. In addition, I scored another
Modern Amusement crow sweater and a funky jersey-cuffed button-down. Yes, I'm writing about what I bought today. You'd think my life must be boring, but I'm telling you, it was such a score, I'm
still giddy about my purchases today! Century 21: Big Fan! The place was a bit of a jungle -- agoraphobes beware!
An interesting note, Century 21 is across the street from the site of the former
World Trade Center. I was able to cross the street to see get a bird's eye view of the hole that will soon be the
Freedom Tower. I hadn't been to the World Trade Center site since
soon after 9/11 when they were still clearing debris.
Nearby, I also walked through
St. Paul's Chapel which has essentially become a museum of sorts to commemorate the now infamous day in history. The have preserved the stump of the tree that saved the church from being destroyed, a bell made by the mold of the Liberty Bell as a gift from the people of London, atrifacts hung around the property right after the tragedy, cots used by rescue workers to sleep, and more. What's even more interesting is that the grounds of the church were essentially littered with refuse from across the street, but the church wasn't touched, and many of the
tombstones in the courtyard surrounding the church still stand, including those dating back to the late 1700s, early 1800s. Amazing.
Even today, it's entire site is quite powerful even as we near the five-year anniversary of the tragedy. Wow. Five years.
I did some walking downtown to enjoy the sun and the day, which included relaxing in
City Hall Park, and catching up with friends (Steph & Jess, the photo at left is a shot from where I was sitting during our chat!).
Today was a 90-degree day with relatively low humidity, so sitting outside wasn't pure anguish. I realize I may never get tan this summer since I can't take humidity -- and that's a sad thought to me. However, I also chuckled when I realized that meteorologists here are right... what they say will come actually comes! Whereas in Seattle, our forecast percentage of being right rivals the Mariners' batting average, here, when they say thunderstorms are coming, get inside already! I got a kick out of today's weather report and thought I'd share a little of what it's like to summer on the East Coast. Note that it's still 72 degrees outside right now (12:12AM):
A COLD FRONT WILL APPROACH THE REGION THIS EVENING AND TRIGGER SCATTERED SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS. DUE TO THE HIGH HEAT AND HUMIDITY...THERE WILL BE ENOUGH INSTABILITY FOR SOME STORMS TO BECOME QUITE STRONG...AND POSSIBLY SEVERE. AS A RESULT...THE STORM PREDICTION CENTER IN NORMAN OKLAHOMA HAS PLACED THE ENTIRE TRI-STATE AREA UNDER A SLIGHT RISK FOR SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS THROUGH THIS EVENING. THE MAIN THREAT FROM THUNDERSTORMS WILL BE STRONG AND GUSTY WINDS...ALONG WITH DANGEROUS CLOUD TO GROUND LIGHTNING AND POSSIBLY SOME HAIL. IN ADDITION...THUNDERSTORMS WILL BE CAPABLE OF TORRENTIAL DOWNPOURS... POSSIBLY PRODUCING LOCALIZED FLASH FLOODING.(And, yes, the meteorologists were right...)
After work yesterday, a bunch of us went to Whiskey River for a team-building Happy Hour. The hour turned into many hours and much fun over beer pong and mexican food.
