Off to the Met

24 June 2021 NYC

Kristine and Dave stayed the night at the AirBnB.  We grabbed a quick breakfast on our way to the Metropolitan Art Museum. We had already purchased tickets for an 11:00 entry.   Its a good thing too since there was already a line at the door.  The line was not too long so we were inside before we got uncomfortable.  The museum required masks and some attempts were made for social distancing.  That made the quest for a bathroom a bit difficult.  We asked for assistance, we followed the signs in a circle and asked for assistance two more times.  We found them and saw allot of exquisite artifacts along the way.  A few of the highlights follow.  

Breakfast was everything we wanted.  An adventure in ordering, a reasonable price and most importantly tasty and filling.

We were pleased to find that the staff now identifies which parts of each statue are restorations and which parts are original.  This head is the restored portion.

A beautiful type of stone

Modeling the latest Roman postures...

The Meso-American wing was fascinating.  They were more playful in the works of art that they created.

This dog looks more ferocious than the crocodile did

Evidence of the first karaoke host! 

The classic stick your tongue out for the picture 

Before you were able to bronze baby shoes, you were forced to sculpt the entire foot

What a find!  An entire mural by Thomas Hart Benton, also my feelings about morning tea.  Must have tea!

No Bull, all cows.

Big Family Fun

23 June 2021 NYC

Erik, Susan, Dave, Kris, Karl Dixon, Carlos, Polly and Johnny Olson III

We got the "band" back together and it was a non stop laugh fest.  New old names were revealed, exploits recalled, new bandmembers were welcomed and plans for the future were shared!  Also a big platter of Sarge's Deli Meat was consumed.  Turkey, pastrami, corned beef, center cut tongue, cold slaw, potato salad, three kinds of pickles, mini cup cakes, beer, wine and ice tea.

Kristine says she is the normal one!

After the rain on Tuesday we went to Sarge's to get all the food for Wednesday.  It had cooled off and we decided to take a seat, order up a Hot Tongue Sandwich and eat some herring. Best decision of the day.

Let the consumption of meats commence

 

We wake up to a new season entirely!

23 June 2021 NYC

Although it is officially summer, we woke up to a fresh spring morning.  It was 61 degrees and clear as a bell when we first stepped out.  Our plan was to spend most of our day in Central Park so that is what we did.  Previously we always stayed over by Times Square but this trip we are just blocks away from the entrance to the park z it is time to exploit this advantage. The weather was superb all day and so we wandered, gawked on a bench and then wandered some more.  The Central Park Zoo, the Women's Rights Statue, volleyball games, the endless lines and processions of graduation day,  Pedi-cabs, the horse drawn carriages, the multitude of dogs and dog walkers, the Nannies with tow headed kids tagging along, the big granite domes, the bike riders, joggers, speed walkers, roller-bladers, skateboarders, gee gawkers, rubes and the rare class act; all of the things we appreciated this fine day.  

A dense grove of trees

Name this type of penguin: Adélie, Chinstrap, Emperor or Gentoo

All hail Emperor Penguin

That is one big head of feathers

Another Penguin

Goose goose duck

Mr Saxophone!

Hip hip hooray for Women!

In the shade of a big green tree

Sojourner Truth lost her finger in a farming accident

A fun day for all!

Off to the Market

22 June 2021 NYC

It was market day for us. Chelsea Market that is. It was hopping and mostly open.  Lately you never know how "open" a place is.  We had a glorious lunch of Thai food.  Leslie had Pad Thai and I had a Jungle Curry.  The Jungle Curry was listed with 4 hot chili peppers to denote it's level of spiciness.  Our waiter "Mike" still asked me how hot I wanted it and I said Thai Hot.  To their credit, my nose ran for a couple minutes, mid meal, but it was much more flavor than heat.  Mike was just delightful and we talked about Thailand and his home town up in the north of Thailand. Perhaps his other tables were less enthusiastic about our monopolization of his time, but we could have talked all day.  We knew that there was going to be a large glut of rain coming in today so we were prepared with rain gear.  Lucky for us, we jumped into a cab 5 minutes before it started raining hard.  A big bullet dodged!

Chelsea Market

Niche food items 

Currywurst is curry and a sausage!

Pad Thai for Leslie.

Jungle Curry for me.

Yes, that is a Jungle Curry sheen on my brow

Ayada is a well oiled machine.  Our dishes arrived within five minutes and they were on the table.  The food was delicious and portions were reasonable.  The entire meal was less than $40 soo I give it a rating of 👍👍👍

Interesting interpretation on a curry.  Along with the traditional ingredients they used green beans, eggplant and  jalapeno.

"Mike" told us his real name and we tried to pronounce it.

Ohmmmmmm.

Time to don the rain gear and batten down the hatches!

MidTown East

 21 June 2021 NYC

Central Park on a Monday afternoon is a fantastic place to be.   There is the greenery, the walkways, the waterways, and the wildlife. Then there are all the humans;  humans with their dogs, humans playing harmonica for an audience, humans on their bikes, humans running around to get exercise and finally humans like us wandering around aimlessly enjoying a fabulous afternoon.

The new New York skyline

Truncated ziggurat anyone?

A sliver of a building 

 Everywhere we go I am always amazed at the amount of effort put into these slabs of metal

A nosh mid wander

So much going on!

Traveling again at last!!

21 June 2021 NYC

What a long strange 18 months its been. We were so lucky to get to travel to the Galapagos back in February of 2020.  Who would have guessed that our trip to visit 10 European capitals would have been canceled?  Not us that is for sure.  We  rescheduled that trip for June 2021. With an nod to Covid we picked AirBnB's and ApartHotels so we could avoid dealing with crowds.  As of 1 May, we were faced with the uncertainty of being allowed into the EU coupled with the possible loss of our deposit money so we had to cancel that trip.  Actually rescheduled is a more appropriate word.  We hope to finally get to Paris in September. 

To satisfy our wanderlust we put together a domestic trip.  We start in NYC  where we get to visit family. Next we travel up to Boothbay Harbor, Maine with a few stops on the way.  Then more stops on our way over to Angola Indiana to see Kim and Ken.  We finish up in Chicago to visit with Susan V.  

So here we are in NYC.  A few pictures follow ...

  

Groovy!

Lunch, hmmm sake or wiskey?

A three tier restaurant 

The waitress showed us the "wireless menu" and based on our reaction, she quickly gave us the hard copy menu

Sushi, sooo good! 

A sample of the interior of our place.