Did I mention we walked almost everywhere? Everything is closer than it seems, so walking is a good and cheap option. I didn't mind it—gave us a chance to look around and appreciate the city. But it was cold! I had four layers on underneath my coat. FOUR! Adam had been forced to buy a beanie and scarf the night before.
On this day we planned to visit the 9/11 memorial. But not without breakfast! On our way to get bagels we passed a place called the Donut Pub. All the donuts on display totally sucked me in. How can one NOT try a cronut that looks like this?!
I've never had a cronut before—glad I finally got to. The lovely crunch of the layers, and softness of the dough combined with the chocolate glazing, caramel topping and filling was perfection. Shoot! I'm making myself hungry.
I looked it up and the Pub has great reviews. I want to go back!
For second breakfast we had Murray's Bagels. Those too did not disappoint. I saved half of mine to snack on later. (I think I ended up eating it on the plane home. What a treat!)
I have never seen so many shmear options. Can you see all of them in the top part of the case below? How does one decide? I should have asked for more than one—I'm sure they would have thought me silly, but still accommodated me. Why didn't I think of that!?
Then we grabbed the subway and headed down to the memorial.
Below: Arriving on site.
The memorials are simply too huge to aptly show in a photograph. The awesomeness of them helps to put into perspective the immense tragedy that took place. We were essentially standing at the grave of all the people whose names are engraved there. This realization is sobering and upsetting to say the least.
The museum is underground, it feels heavy and solemn, which I think is appropriate.
If you would like to take an interactive tour online by the memorial
click here.
In the image below you can barely see the Survivors' Staircase to the right (
click here for a tiny bit of info), and on the left, the "block" you see is a life size corner of one of the buildings so you can grasp the enormity of it all.
Which when you get closer, offers a view of the base/footings for the towers.
Below: The Last Column. "The final Steel beam ceremoniously moved from Ground Zero."
Below: Adam is sitting at the slurry wall. The wall that didn't break, which "limited the devastation at the World Trade Center." If it had broken there might have been flooding of the PATH tubes, flooding of the subway, and parts of lower Manhattan. There's a short article on it
here.
The wall is enormous and I had never heard of or seen anything like it.
After seeing the main areas with all the large artifacts, we entered the museum. (Camera's not allowed.) Here I noticed two girls were STARING at a woman in front of me with her back toward me. I stared back at the girls—they were virtually unblinking, didn't notice me staring at THEM and I thought, "How RUDE." And then a bit later when I was in a position to see the woman's face, I realized it was Sarah Jessica Parker! (I did NOT stare at her thank you very much.) Adam noticed her later and said "Is that...?" to which I said "yep."
Second celebrity citing!
Anyway, you can spend hours in the museum. All the events are well documented. There are personal stories to be read, real recordings to hear, animated descriptions of events, and other paraphernalia to look and interact with. There is a dark room in which to reverently listen to recordings of family members of the deceased share their experiences with boxes of tissues near by.
After a couple of hours of this, I was emotional and was ready to leave. The weight and sadness of the events of 9/11 get heavier and heavier, until it feels like you will crumble if you can't get out of the basement and into the open. So that ended our trip to the memorial. Worth it. But be prepared.
Then we went looking for lunch and it started raining. We didn't let it stop us in the least.
We found a little shop and took a bit of lunch to eat on the go. (We had a hard time finding anything with great ratings in Lower Manhattan...I never would have thought.)
We walked to and around Battery Park.
And since none of us were especially keen on actually visiting her, we waved at Lady Liberty.
It's surprising how small she seems.
Then hopped on the train to find more food! (Actually...I feel like we did more, but can't remember what it might have been.)
Jamison did a stellar job of leading us around and we only had to backtrack a few times. One of those times we finally needed to pull over from foot traffic and have a huddle in the rain while we got our bearings.
Then at last we arrived at Jack's Wife Freda for a sit down meal in "a lively all-day NYC bistro executing American-Mediterranean cooking in understated digs." (Dafni you would have liked it.)
See their website here. GREAT branding by
Paperwhite Studio. Sooooo Instagramable.
I think we got lucky it wasn't crowded. I thank the rain for that.
Below: Jamison working out some kind of deal with Lee so she can taste as much as possible.
I think our friends like hot chocolate.
Below: I took a picture of this corner because I thought some things about it were cute. And it wasn't until later I realized sitting there was Courteney Cox and Johnny McDaid. So surreal. Several women came in later who couldn't contain themselves and HAD to get a picture, cheering when it was obtained. Even one of the waiters decided to take her dinner break and sat down next to me, facing the couple so she could stare at them while she ate–no shame. Her co-worker applauded her and said "You get it girl." Oh brother. It's fun to see celebrities, and a little bit weird, but the way people freak out, get rude, and loose it is beyond me. I hope they didn't notice me taking the picture....
Anyway, third celebrity citing!
Below left: The Green Shakshuka—2 baked eggs in a green tomatillo shakshuka served with challah toast.
Below right: The Madame Freda—pressed sandwich with duck prosciutto, cheddar béchamel, gruyere and a sunny side up egg. (That sounds really good right now.)
Below: The Rosewater Waffle—Lebanese yogurt, fresh fruit, and honey syrup.
Jamison had the Dominique Ansel Bakery on her list for dessert so while we went looking for that we found a little treat shop and had a cookie to eat on the road for first dessert.
The Dominique Ansel Bakery is most known for its invention of the cronut. That's right! They are the first ones to have created the popular treat, so naturally by the time we arrived they were out for the day. (So glad I'd had one earlier!) I tried this pear tart thing instead. (Not good. The glazing was tasteless.) I think the others had more success with their choices.
Next on our list to visit was Grand Central Station and by then it was rush hour traffic. I almost got left behind. Yes, I was that last person to smoosh myself on, thus putting people off balance—but I wasn't about to miss that train!
Below: Entering the station...
...and there we are! I liked being there that time of day, listening everyone trying to get home and the clicking of shoes and voices echoing around in the great room.
There's a lot of beautiful detailing to enjoy as well. (Someday I'd like to take an art deco tour of the city. How awesome would THAT be?)
Below: Why is Lee laughing? All I will say is...you gotta watch your peripherals at all times. He saw someone...interesting...coming directly toward me from the side, I barely stepped out of the way in time. Thanks Lee. Thanks.
Back up on the streets, we found a great place for a photo...wait for the light to turn red and BINGO! Awesome photograph.
Lee can't let a good idea pass him by.
Most of you know
St. Patrick's Cathedral. It's quite a site among all the modern architecture and stands tall and white. We'd tried to get in the night before but it was too late.
This time however, we were able to enter.
It's rather magnificent and inspires a certain kind of reverence plus very serious conversations in the pews.
I would have enjoyed viewing the interior during daylight. The windows are all stained glass. And the marble and statues must look glorious!
Wouldn't you enjoy an organ and choir performance in these walls? Or maybe even Chanticleer? Be still my heart!
After leaving St. Patrick's, we happened upon Magnolia Bakery. Since it's customary to eat dessert after a church event—we went in. I was pleased. (Don't confuse this with Chip and Joanne's Bakery.)
Fun Fact: I've been to the bakery before with my design friends and subsequently chose it as my college branding project—renaming it "Maggies" to make feel more personal and inviting. Gave it a new color scheme, logo, and then branded aprons, hats, menus, stationary, and created a new way of folding a cake and cupcake box. So, I have a special affinity for the Magnolia Bakery.
The Bakery is well known for its banana pudding, so OF COURSE that's what I chose. The memory of how good and rich it tasted did not disappoint.
After third dessert we needed something salty...second dinner.
Jamison had the Halal Guys on her list and their food cart was parked right outside our hotel—though we could have found it easily by following the delicious smell of gyro and chicken, falafel, rice, and special sauces.
Weren't we full? Of course! We actually had to reduce ourselves to sharing...Jamison is still totally OK with that.
We took our eats up to our rooms, peeled our tired feet from our shoes, unbuttoned our pants, and played a game of Farkle before bed.
Thus ended our second day in the big apple.
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