New York, New York

In April, Kirk and I spent the weekend in New York.  It was so fun to get out of town for a short vacation.  We left Eliza at home with her grandparents, and even though it was my first time away from her overnight, it wasn’t as bad as we expected.

Not bad for a photo from the plane!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

     

Unlike most of our trips and vacations (especially to big cities), we didn’t make any prior plans.  Kirk wasn’t sure how I would feel being away from Eliza, and we figured we’d just wing it.  On Friday night we were planning to meet up with some of Kirk’s coworkers in Greenwich Village, so we decided to visit a place I had heard about on the cab ride into town that was also in the Greenwich area…the Mermaid Oyster Bar.  To say it was delicious is and understatement.  Never had Kirk had such fantastic oysters, and we kind of gorged ourselves on them, clams, mussels, crab claws, shrimp, and my lobster sandwich.  We think the oysters we had were steamboat, quilcene, hamahama, wellfleet, permaquid, and beausoleil, but there were so many options (check the website and see for yourself).  Fantastic.

After dinner we met friends at the Village Underground night club that features a fun large band of diverse vocalists and musicians performing everything from rap to Latin to rock.  The highlight might have been Sweet Caroline en espanol!  And it was a fun time with some of Kirk’s coworkers.  The evening couldn’t have been more fun and it made it so much easier to not be at home putting my baby to sleep.

 

On Saturday we decided to walk around and found a great little neighborhood “garage sale” (hard to call it that when it’s in a vacant lot without garages, right?) where we had fun digging through “treasures” unlike what you find at Indiana sales and bartering a lot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kirk had a field day going through the tons of tools, bits, and hardware.  He found some reasonably priced hammer drill bits he had wanted, and kept bartering until they were worth it.  Thankfully they made it through TSA screening at the airport!  I came away with a bracelet and a few other little sparkly things!

Other funs things we did on Saturday included walking around shops and visiting the New York Public Library’s main branch (which surprisingly is a very limited library and doesn’t have books for you to check out).  The building was beautiful and they even had a really cool exhibit on mapping the New York shoreline.  Kirk loved looking at old maps!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    A view from our hotel room.

 

 

 

 

 

Since we didn’t have plans (or tickets!) for anything (unlike our last NYC trip), we decided that if were going to see a Broadway show, we’d find cheap tickets that went un-purchased late Saturday afternoon.  While researching which shows we’d even want to see, Kirk came across The 39 Steps and a great deal for student tickets, so that’s what we did.  I know, we’re not students any longer, but it’s amazing what you can do with an old Purdue University ID and a smile. 

For those Hitchcock fans out there (like Kirk), you’ll recall The 39 Steps as one of his movies, but this show was definitely a twist on that old favorite.  The play was an amusing reinterpretation of the overall plot and characters, but instead of being suspenseful, it was a comedic lampooning of Hitchcockian plot devices and noir themes.  It was hilarious and the entire cast of 4 played over 100 characters (mostly being played by two members of the cast who had to wear lots of different hats (literally), and made for much of the best humor) and had to do some very physical performances.  Hitchcock himself even made an appearance, which you know he always does in his films, as a silhouette during a more creative scene.

 

 

 

Times Square on a Saturday night, pre-terrorist bombing scares.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On our way to brunch on Sunday morning, we came across a block of Madison (I think) that was closed off for filming.  We chatted with one of the crew who told us that they were shooting “Mildred Pierce,” an HBO film starring Kate Winslet, Evan Rachel Wood, and Guy Pearce.  Yes, we were a half block from the amazing Ms. Winslet, yet we didn’t actually see her, although we did enjoy watching the old automobiles drive, stop, reverse back to their marks, repeat (must be a fun job).  Later that day was our other famous (I am using this word lightly) person spotting…a pregnant Bethenny Frankel and her husband at the Sunday farmer’s market.

 

 

 

 

 

For brunch we met up with one of Kirk’s good high school friends, Orchid, who had recently moved to NYC from DC.  We let her pick the spot, and she proved her culinary prowess by choosing Craftbar, one of the places owned by Tom Colicchio.  You may know him from his role as the producer and main judge on Top Chef on Bravo, one of our favorite shows to watch.  Kirk had some amazing shrimp and grits with chorizo, okra (his fav), and a perfectly poached egg.  I had eggs over easy, bacon, and potatoes.  It may sound boring but it was the best breakfast I have had in a long time.  Kirk was begging me for some of my bacon.

 

 

And what trip to NYC would be complete without a stroll through Central Park?  One fun thing to note – we love our new camera!!  You sure can tell a big difference in these pictures vs.. the ones we took two years ago in the park!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The big skyline changed back to the fields of Indiana, and sadly, the weekend was over, but hopefully we can make this a biennial event!  Of course we were happy to get home and see Eliza though :)