New York Stories

We are back in Ottawa now.  Ottawa seems so quiet and small.  New York seems like a dream.  It is hard to believe that just a few hours ago we were in the busy bustle of such an incredible city. 

This morning, before leaving, we hit MoMA.  The kids really liked it, in fact more than the Museum of Natural History.  MoMA was light and airy filled with art that they knew.  The looked at the sculptures, picked out the instruments of the Three Musicians, and debated what can be considered art.  I was only sorry that we had not left more time for MoMA. 

Another original walk in New York was the High Line, a public park built on an historic freight rail line elevated above the streets on Manhattan’s West Side.  It gives you various views of the city and is filled with wild flowers and herbs.  My friend whose family is posted in NYC took us on the walk.  We got caught in a thunder and lightning rainstorm and had to wait under scaffolds for over an hour.  But it was fun because we had friends to chat with and the kids had friends to play with.  When the rain finally let up, we finished the walk and found ourselves having lunch in Chelsea Market.

Later that night, we went to see my friend's apartment.  It was really cool to see an actual Manhattan apartment and the amazing view she had from the 27th floor.  She invited Aveen and Amrita for dinner and insisted that Jaime and I go out for dinner alone.  She really wanted to do that for us, and it meant a lot to us that she wanted to do that for us.  (Thank you.)  And when else would we have dinner on Madison Avenue while the kids watched A Night at the Museum (after having just visited the Museum of Natural History).

Another place I was really curious about was Greenwich Village.  We took the subway to Madison Square and walked to Union Square.  From there, we went to Washington Square and wandered the narrow, curving, tree-lined streets of Greenwich Village with charming brownstones.  We found Amy's Bread, a sweet little sandwich and cake café, which was recommended through a personal note in a travel book I borrowed.  We had yummy and original sandwiches - peppery grilled cheese and tomato, a fancy, mini-tuna - and finished with cupcakes and lemon cake.  A few doors down was a bookstore with a lot of really beautiful books on architecture in Manhattan and Brooklyn. 

One night, we walked through Soho, browsing through the shops as we made our way to Little Italy.  Once there, we had dinner at Lobardie's, the first pizzeria in the US.  The server guided us through twists and turns and up the stairs into a backroom, from where we were sure we would never find our way back.  We ordered a pitcher of coke and the traditional, New York, thin crust pizza.  It was worth the long subway ride.

The cafes in New York surprised me.  With the exception of Starbucks, with which we Canadians are intimately familiar, when you order a coffee in New York, they add the milk for you.  I don't like that, because I have to put just the right amount of milk in and nobody can do that for me.  So I had to remember to always ask for milk on the side.  There is a reason why "on the side" was such a big thing for Sally in When Harry Met Sally.

New York is an amazing city, so busy, so big, just so.  Things that made our trip particularly special .... having friends there to give us the personal touch, having to make our way through an actual neighbourhood to buy groceries (Whole Foods on 97th) and do laundry (in NYC, you drop off your clothes and they wash and fold it for you), and the book we were reading (Walls Within Walls - we were even able to find the apartment building where the kids in the book lived). 

It is hard to believe that NYC is so close to Ottawa yet it is such a different world.  We are already talking about our next trip back there.  I would like to go in the Fall (maybe not this Fall), when Central Park will be full of colour and the weather cooler.  Next time, maybe we will stay in a hotel closer to downtown.  I can't wait to go back to MoMA and see another Broadway play, maybe go to a concert.  There is no end of things to do.