Adventures in NYC

Good news! we both successfully graduated last week- and as a reward Mumpus got to go down to visit Naomi in Connecticut/NYC for a few days. Grumpus was supposed to come, but had lots of work to do, despite having successfully graduated.



First, our plan was to go see The Book of Mormon, the new, hot Broadway show by the creators of South Park, but sadly, being so new and hot means that it is impossible to get tickets. So instead we planned to get up at the crack of dawn (5:45 am) to drive to the city and wait in line until the box office for "Anything Goes" opened (at 10 am)- to get rush tickets. Believe it or not we were NOT the first in line! or even the second or third in line! We were 7th, and by the time they came to tell us there were sold out for the matinee (at 9:35 am), there were about 30 people behind us in line.

As we wandered into Time Square, Naomi suggested that instead of trying for a third string choice, we could explore the city all day--- which, being sunny and in the 70s after being rainy and cold for a week was a SUPER great idea.

Shack Shake burger, dog and fries

Just our luck, the first thing we discovered was a big PR gig set up by Walgreens to donate to the American Cancer Society--they had all sorts of steps set up so that for each one you walked, Walgreens donated a penny to the cancer society. That was great and all, but the REAL cool part was we got free pedometers that we used to calculate all of our steps and mileage for the day.

We first wandered to Madison Square Park to eat a burger, dog and fries at Shake Shack. We picked up some free Sobe drinks on the way (another PR campaign; not delicious), checked out Mario Batelli's Eataly, and 15 minutes after Shake Shack opened (at 11am!) there was a line of maybe 60 people waiting for burgers! It went pretty fast and the food was delicious and cheap.

Homemade pistachio cherry ice cream sandwich

Cooling off our feet in a flat "waterfall" on the High Line

Then we wandered down to the High Line- the renovated elevated railway line above Chelsea- now a beautiful urban park and walkway with fantastic views and nice, windy paths through the wildflowers.

On the way there we stopped in Three Tarts for a homemade cherry-pistachio ice cream sandwich and a mini kumkuat tart. Yum.

After that we walked through Chelsea market, got an Americano and Machiatto, and ended up trying on fabulous (although expensive) clothes at Anthropologie.

Coffee break in Chelsea market

We both almost got something, but didn't want to walk around with bags, so we decided to go again in Connecticut, and we hopped on the train to head uptown to the Met.

View from the terrace of the Met

At the Met we saw: (1) the new Alexander McQueen exhibit (crazy, lots of fashion students), (2) Diane Keaton (as she walked by us in line for the exhibit), and (3) the view of the city/Central Park from the rooftop terrace (very green, cool skyline). Then we got street food on our way towards the Plaza Hotel: (1) a garlic pretzel, and (2) a mini Belgian waffle with Specaloose spread (made from Belgian gingerbread cookies) and bananas.

Belgian waffle with Specaloose and banana!

Garlic pretzel

THEN, because a day exploring with Naomi always includes a culinary feast of epic proportions, we had wine and appetizers at the Food Court at the Plaza. This is a very cool, very elegant restaurant where you sit at counters at one of half a dozen food stations - pizza oven, seafood, sushi, etc. We chose the pizza oven, had a proscuitto and fig flatbread, and got the sous chef's tips on the best spots to eat in Manhattan.

Procuitto and fig flatbread

After wine and flatbread we walked over to Totto Ramen to meet our good friend (and former roommate from Beijing) Gideon. Grumpus was most sad to miss this dinner. We had biiiiig bowels of ramen and homemade tofu with fresh ginger, and heard all about how much more hip Gideon is than either of us (no surprise there). Apparently the new hip thing is this interactive play in Chelsea - Sleep No More-- based on MacBeth, that takes place in a creepy house that you walk through while the play takes place with you/around you. According to Gideon you can go into the kid's bedroom, pull back the bloody sheets, and that is fun and not scary. We both disagreed. But then again, we're not very hip.

Housemade tofu at Totto Ramen

Finally, after a wonderful dinner, another walk back to the car, and two very sad, black and bloody feet (I stupidly wore plastic flip-flops), we drove back to Stratford.

All in all it was a super fun day. TOTAL STEPS= 21,697, TOTAL MILEAGE: 9.457!