It's Saturday! Day 2 - and we have a plan for the day... Head to Donut Plant for breakfast, then down to Battery Park, lunch at Katz's, back up to Time Square to get show tickets, Central Park to kill time and revisit "the rock", dinner at Shake Shack, and then hopefully see Clybourne Park. Battery Park, Central Park, Clybourne Park...
We are up and ready to get going, and we take turns in our small shower which has a window that looks out into the alley - not frosted - just an open window that you can clearly see out (and into). We're on the first floor, and there is a window across the way. But it's great ventilation. Here are some of the pics of the apt that I said I would post..
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| Into the bedroom |
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| Down the hall to the door |
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| Our living room, den and kitchen |
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| Living room (all taken from the same spot) |
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| Bathroom.. and the tub that goes around the corner |
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| And our window |
We are still riding high from our encounter with Russell, recounting conversations and talking about how much his sign style makes him cuter (it totally does, and he doesn't need any help with that department anyway). Oh and we remember the weird guy in the red pants that he obviously didn't want to engage with. How quickly his face changed from our conversation to the other the one with weird guy. We wonder if this guy has been around before. Here's the pic of Patti with Russell ready to go work out.
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| Super nice guy |
Britt slept on the couch last night - its our third bed, and its really very comfy - but it's leather so she said that she got so hot during the night she was sweaty, like dripping - and she's out in the living area with the AC. She describes herself as a violent sleeper and we can't dispute that. Anytime we got up in the night, she was in a different awkward position, like head bent backward, legs up on the back of the couch. It's like sleeping couch yoga. One position looked like the kill pose from Karate Kid.
We start out for the subway with the handy dandy map app (free on iPhones) and it didn't have our starting spot in the right place and had us walking to a stop further away, so I
recalculate and they say the fastest route is a bus just around the corner. We get there just as it pulls up!! Lucky! We struggle with the metro cards a bit - I tried to give a quick tutorial before we got on, but it got there too fast. The card reader tries to be helpful with all these pics and examples and arrows telling you how to put the card in, but it just makes it more confusing, too much input - you have to just focus on the arrows on the card and make sure you follow that. Otherwise you take a long time to get on the bus, passengers roll their eyes, the driver chuckles a bit and takes the card from you to help you, poor dear... and that was us. Well, not ME of course (I did that last time and was determined not to repeat so I made sure I had it right this time).
We smell a little urine... Scott may be right. Maybe people do pee on the seats. We're in the back of the bus and we notice all the locals are sitting in the front area... maybe there is a reason.
We head to Donut Plant, a place recommended by Girlyman on their Facebook page (that's a group, not a person). And O.M.G. - it's like one of those gourmet cupcake shops, except with donuts... we each order two and share - oh and they also make their own homemade peach ice cream. Diabetic coma, party of 3 please. So Patti and gets the creme brulee, carrot cake and vanilla bean (I know that more than two, but the creme brulee is like a small creme puff) - and please it's incredible. In fact Patti and Brittany get the last two - I order one and the woman at the other register gets the last one before I do. I have to change my order and just ask them to give me something and they recommend the Tres Leches - she thinks I would like that (from what she knows of me in our 30 second encounter). I get that and a peanut butter and blackberry jam, it tastes just like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich inside of a Krispy Creme... drool. Brittany gets the creme brulee and a peanut butter and banana creme. The best by far is the creme brulee, there is a reason that it sells out. The sugar on top is exactly like the hard sugar shell and the creme inside is heaven. The carrot cake is up there - and I loved the peanut butter and jelly. We posted picks of some of the donuts on facebook if you haven't had a chance to see them.
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| The selection |
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| Outside |
We head down to Battery Park just see the water and look around - Brittany hadn't been there yet and we need to walk off some donuts. There is also a 9/11 memorial there - there was a globe sculpture that was at the World Trade Center, and when they found it, it was relatively unharmed for the amount of stuff that had fallen on and through it. And so it's no in Battery Park.
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| WTC Memorial in Battery Park |
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| Tower 1 and 7 being built |
While we're there we're approached by a homeless man that keeps telling us that we have "nice purses" - we're not sure what that means. Is he saying something else? (Britt thought he said "Nice plus sizes"... ) or is this a way to hint that we should give him nice money from our nice purses? The park is great because the weather is incredible. When we come up from the VERY hot subway, we are hit with air so cool it feels like New York is being air-conditioned. It's wonderful. We see where you catch the ferry to go out to the Statue of Liberty, walk along the water front, just chill for a while before we head back up to Katz's Deli. We realize that many of our must-see destinations involve food and that we will be posting about more food after we've just indulged in these donuts - oh well. :)
We look for a bathroom, and Patti had spotted one near the entrance to the Park (thankfully because another one we found had a very long line) - but this one seems to be a secret, no line, three stalls, no waiting. Brittany squeals from her stall that it's gross and wet and it won't flush and her pants are wet (and many other high pitched things) and Patti and I are laughing so hard because we know that by this time a line has formed and now she has an audience, people waiting in line for this glorious stall that she's in. I head outside and I see Patti through the doorway, completely entranced. This is what I see... and a close up...
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| Take me to your leader |
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| My view... |
Turns out she's watching a squirrel. A very talented squirrel... he was digging and finding ways under fences by digging his face in the dirt.. she was captivated. I'm still laughing because while I see this, Brittany is still being squeaky about the stall. She comes out and sees the line and people thank her for warning them. She's done them a service.
We head back on the subway but there is no direct line to get to Katz's ... we're looking at where we need to be and focus on the number - and we end up in Brooklyn. Oops. Oh well, we're just so happy to just be on a train. And cool. We get off and now we have more train options.. We just want to try all the trains, the 4, the 3... Do I hear a 2? Maybe a 1 - oh but that's a bus. What we really want is the 6. And then my phone tells us that a bus would be faster - the m15. But it's timed by actual schedules, which is great because you know when buses and trains should arrive, but it's bad because if you miss that route then the next time you search for a route it's completely different and possibly two block back the way we just came.... and by the time we get there, the M15 is gone and now we need the M9...luckily it's right next to where we're standing.
The bus ride is great - all through downtown, chinatown... we're cool, we didn't have to go below the surface, and we can see the city. We're looking for the Houston stop. They're supposed to turn and then stop. But they don't and suddenly we're in 4th street (Houston is
like zero in this case). So we rush off and find our way back. Not a bad walk, and Katz's is within our sight!
We had been here before, but it was during a week night and at night, so we had the place to ourselves. Not the case today - there is a line to get in, and it is controlled chaos inside. Once again we are warned not to lose our tickets - every person gets a ticket when they go in and every person gives it back when they leave, or your get a $50 fine. We step up to the line and pick the wrong guy to be behind, he's ordering for his whole family, but Patti reminds me to be patient, and our sandwich guy is worth the wait, lots of character.
I order the pastrami and corned beef with coleslaw, and he asks, "Are you staying baby?" - he's got a bit of an accent, so I have to ask him to repeat a few times - and then I get it. OH! For here or to go? I tell him I'm sorry, I'm not used to people calling me baby - and so he says "What they call you? Darling?" and from that point on I'm darling. Patti gets a pastrami with mustard - and Brittany who was in a much quicker line gets the combination on white and gets fries for us all to share. This is sooo good. We are stuffed and happy. And silly. Patti and I each go through a panic moment where we think we've lost our tickets. We JUST had them, and we're super paranoid about losing them - how could they be gone? Mine was on the floor, below my foot. And Patti's was in her pocket with her blackberry. We check out and Patti and Britt both get shirts - Patti's says "I found my ticket at Katz's Deli".
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| Mmm. Pickles at Katz's |
We walk back to the F station and what should be a 15 min straightshot to Time Sqaure to check for tickets for a show tonight. Omg. The F train is down for the day. So we ride it back downtown and plan to transfer to another train that goes to Time Square at the next station. Time Square has a million stations around it, nearly every line stops there at some point - and we can't find one. The train doesn't stop at the station where we could transfer (weekend schedule) and we end up in Brooklyn. Again. Change to the A train, and decide that we want the 50th street stop instead of 42nd... a ton of people get off at 42. Next stop 50th street. And the train doesn't stop. Are you kidding me? So we get off at 59th and take a different line (the D) back to 47th. We've been below the surface for over an hour. It's hot and gross and never at the right stop, and I am glad that we are finally where we want to be. Ugh.
In the midst of all of this, we have an odd fellow travellor. He's sitting right next to Britt, and he's slurping up noodles and egg drop soup. He's apparently got an issue with his lower lip because he's slurping up the soup, but a lot of it is dripping down on onto the subway floor. If you look closely you can see the noodles on the floor...
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| Britt's new friend |
We get off and surface to find a street festival! So that cheered me up again - hard to be grumpy in New York, too many things to do. But we want to head to time square and TKTS first - they open at 3 and its now a little after. The play line is always short, not the madness of the musical line. We get there to find that Clybourne Park is still on the board, and there are like 20 people in line. After all my worry that we were going to be too late to get tickets, we actually get there at the perfect time. We make a few line friends (there is a person wearing a Wash U polo in front of us), and the guy behind us is considering Peter and the Starcatcher, which we saw last time and completely recommend. Turns out his friend produced it and said that it was great - but he produced it, so he wasn't sure if that was just him saying that.
Now back to the street fair - the one we went to before was only a few blocks long, but this one goes on forever! It goes all the way up to the Park on 6th Ave, and since we're going up to the Park anyway we just decide to walk all the way up (about 10 blocks). It's cute, many of the same places repeated, purses, scarves, shirts... and little dog toy place. Patti finds a big glow in the dark ball that says "Luna" on it - but it's much too big for Luna's little mouth. Brittany got some for her babies that smell like mint to help their breath.
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| Luna. |
We (ok, I) wanted to do a redo of the Doctor Who pics on the rock - we were in the right place before, but not at the right angle, so the backgrounds don't match up. Patti is a very
patient photographer. Brittany has a little trouble getting up from the rocks, but we're not showing that picture on the blog (as me later).
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| Small Doctor Who rock |
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| Big Doctor Who rock |
Time to make a choice - walk back down to Time Square, about 20 blocks or find the subway.
We're droopy. So we find the train and it's a station with the full body turn styles - we are wary. We hated them last time because you have to be careful, sometimes they stop you mid turn and you're locked out. We had to buy multiple single tickets before when we got locked out.... Patti went thru first which was a mistake, we should have modeled the technique, rejected. Had to buy a single ticket. Grrrr. But now she's been initiated into the club.
Go out at Time Square and Britt needed to go to the M&M store again and we needed a potty (3rd floor). We're in line and it's long, when this lady just cuts the line a couple of people in front of us. The girls in front of us kind of giggle and tell her "this is the
line...". The lady just responds with "yes it is.". Whoa bold. Most skillful line cutter ever. I want to try it one day. I had to get a pic of her for posterity.
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| She's in the blue with the crocs... |
Got out of the store and we wanted to go to Shake Shack for dinner - it's just 4 blocks up, so we head in that direction before our show - we see it, but it was quite the line out the door and halfway down the block, and we're not hungry yet (we thought we'd get a shake), so we decided we just needed a drink for now and we ducked into the McDonalds (gasp!). It was nice to sit and have a drink and chat while waiting for the show. I carry my drink while we walk back and Brittany is concerned for me - she hates to carry a drink and walk. It just gets in the way. Ok...
THE SHOW!! It's show time!! I'm really excited about this show. Act one is set in 1950, a white family owns a house and is selling to a black family, with the reaction to a black family moving into their area from the neighbors... Act two is 50 years later, the same house, now in a black neighborhood, being purchased by a white family - and the parallels in the reaction from the neighbors...
We got seats in the mezzanine, second row - really in these theatres there are no bad seats. You're so much closer than at the Fox - just a completely different experience. The mezzanine has quite a slope to it though and the rows are tight. So when we sit, the backs of the seats in front of us are pressing into our shins. Painfully so. At intermission we move up a few rows to some empty seats, and we get a look at our shins. There is a huge indentation! Its very weird, like there is a hole in my leg - the upper seats are fine because the slope is at a different angle so the seats don't hit us in the shins. But all that is beside the point - what a great show! We chose wisely.
We know that the Shake shack is open till midnight, so we decide to walk back up and see if we can get in. Perfect way to end the evening! No line, we go right in and order. We know that we want burgers, it came highly recommended by a former co-worker of Patti's (Sandy) who said that the burgers were even better than Cheeburger Cheeburger... and it's the SHAKE Shack, so we had to get a shake. Patti gets a chocolate malt and I get a peanut butter shake, we all get burgers... I'm wearing my Gallaudet shirt that has sign language on it, and my cashier asks me if I work for the "Hearing disabled"... um sort of. Some of the tables are common tables that you share with others and our companions were having what Britt considers to be booth talk, not common area table talk. This guy she's dating, when he makes love he makes looooove... 20 minutes of details. And she wants to find a place to party on Wednesday because she needs to party every night of the week, that's her goal. It's great people watching - the lady in red... oh my.
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| Good burger |
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| Oh my... |
We walk back to the subway, which they say is accessible "through the passage" - which is a very long and hot walk through what seems like miles of "passage". Next time never take
a passage, always walk in the open air. Take the N down to the NYU stop and we see a lady coming up and talking to each person, handing out pamphlets for something. Britt and I pretended we were deaf. Had a very in depth conversation about flavors of milk you could but at the store. Totally worked, she skipped right over us.
We get off and walk back by the black cube. We have passed by this cube many times in the past 2 days, and I've told a story of how it was near the Blue Man group theatre because I remember it from when I camehere with my niece and nephew. And Brittany has never seen this cube before. It's just a HUGE black cube on an island in the middle of the traffic center... nothing conspicuous. But oh, she remembers the Chase bank (next to it). Hmmm.
Home sweet home and ready for Sunday...
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