PAGANS AND LUTHERANS: The New Yawk Trip

Seems like, every two years my sister Elizabeth finds some frequent flyer miles in time to fly me to her town, a little place on an island on the east coast. Not far from the corner of 86th and York Ave.

This time, the trip went like this:

Fly in Friday night.
Dim sum Saturday morning, down in China Town! I scored two cashmere scarves and the coolest hand-folded dragon from a street vender. The dim sum consisted of a sticky rice dish baked in a seaweed wrap, with mystery meat. Then some other unknown Chinese dishes that we grabbed from the various carts that came past our table. The place was packed. We sat at a large round table and were the only non-Chinese there. A man at the table gave us advice in Sino-English, some of which we understood. Nice practice for the guy.
Later, coffee and pastries at Cafe Roma in Little Italy.
Two--count them!--two Broadway shows on Saturday. Theater gluttony.

Sunday morning early we caught a double decker bus from Penn Station to Washington D.C. The plan was to surprise another sister, Rebecca, with my glamorous presence. The surprise worked to perfectio--sans glamour-- complete with her husband snapping photos of the look on her face when her baby brother showed up. Very cool. Parties. Long languid evening with family, just goofing around.
Monday morning, off to the new museum exhibit of Vesuvius and Pompeii. Very cool. Lunch with two sisters, then off on the double decker bus back to New Yawk. I sat on the second level, up front exactly above where the driver sits. Nothing but sky and road! Too cool. We grabbed beers and a pizza from Arturo's on York Ave, and watched IRONMAN. Again. It is still fun to watch.

Tuesday I begged off. I mean, I'm flying home tonight. Let's not plan anything. So. A late breakfast at Popover's on the west side, then a long walk across Central Park, marvelling at the way the city's character changes from block to block. Every block of New York City has decades of tales to tell. This morning I was focused on the Old Ladies of New York, these small, wrinkled, interesting-looking lifelong NYers. Very intent upon what they are about.

We stopped at Barnes and Noble for our traditional Spend- Elizabeth's- Gift- Cards splurge. I picked up a couple; she picked up a couple. We had a mocha latte at Starbucks upstairs. Too cool. Home, a nap, and we wandered out again to check out the East River park a few blocks away. There is a special small, tiled playground for little dogs. Then there is a larger playground for big dogs. Medium-sized dogs are out of luck. The little dogs wrestled with the little dogs. The large dogs gloried in the presence of the large dogs.

The East River in January is not very pretty, but the whole thing is still eye-candy for me. What a rube. I take a picture of a corner vegetable stand. The guy's asparagus is freezing, what is this? It's New York.