April 14, 2025 - Janet is meeting us for a day of sightseeing. We'll meet her at the Main branch of the Public Library. I tried to get us tickets for the daily tour, but it was sold out in the first minute it opened. Luckily we can do our own tour. It looks like it's going to be a beautiful day for exploring the city.
Good Morning!
Bryant Park bench and tulips
We found Janet!
The lobby in the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, the main NYC public library
more lobby pics
They allow visitors in the famous Rose Main Reading Room
It is certainly elaborate. The ceilings are 52 feet high and the length of the room is 297 feet.
Beautiful sky painting on the ceiling.
The ceilings are all plaster, painted to look like wood.
Next we explored the Polonsky Treasures Exhibit. Janet and Kev are looking at Charles Dickens' desk and chair
This is a Matisse cut-out. He was bed-ridden after being diagnosed with cancer in 1941 and he created artwork using paper and scissors
Triumphal Arch is one of the largest prints ever produced. There are over 200 individual prints (woodcut) pieced together. It took 2 years to complete and was first printed in 1517
The original Winnie the Pooh (and friends, no Roo he was lost in the apple orchard). They were purchased from Herrods department store in London, for A.A. Milne's son Christopher Robin.
The Complutension Polyglot. The first multilingual printed edition of the Bible (Hebrew, Greek, Latin and Aramaic)
Feb 20, 1962, John Glenn was the first American to orbit the planet. He took this photo of Earth with an inexpensive 35mm camera that he bought from a drugstore in Cocoa Beach, FL. It was the first human taken color photo of Earth.
Charles Dickens had a favorite cat named Bob. When the cat died he had the paw made into the handle of a letter opener!
A view of the Chrysler Building on our way to Grand Central
Love the hustle and bustle of Grand Central, we also found the Whispering Gallery in the lower concourse near the Oyster Bar, where we talked to each other from opposite corners of the gallery.
pretty pansies
Next we're off to the Highline. Pretty cool smokestack left among the new buildings.
The big pigeon (16 feet tall) by Ivan Argote
pretty sleek bench with some lovely tulips
lots of tulips
the pigeon from across the Highline
Next a walk around Little Island
lots of daffodils here
selfie in front of Little Island
everything is budding on the Highline
A walk along the Hudson, with views of Hoboken
There's that pigeon again
Cheers! An $18 pitcher of Maggie's Lager at Reilly's Pub. It felt good to be off our feet after walking almost 9 miles today!
After yummy leftovers from last night we went out to a diner for dessert...gotta have some cheesecake while we're in NYC.
April 15, 2025 - Today we're walking across Central Park for a visit to the Met. We found that our Newfields Membership (our Indy art museum) gets us in free to lots of NY museums - the Met, the Guggenheim, the Frick, the Cloisters, the Brooklyn and Bronx Botanical Gardens and lots of others. It makes it so we can visit the Met for an hour or two rather than feeling like we need to spend the whole day to get our money's worth at $30/ticket. Tonight we're headed to the West Side Comedy Club for their free night called "Not Ripe Bananas" where comics try out new material. We saw 10 minutes of about 12 different comics, some good, some not so good. It was lots of fun, and only a block and a half from the apartment.
Pretty walk through the park, and a quick view of the San Remo from a different view.
Nice Central Park bench
cherry blossoms?
More domed atriums (at the Met)
a little different Water Lily painting by Monet
George Braque's "Boats on the Beach"
pretty hallway
view from the kitchen, I love the little outdoor space these lucky people have
West Side Comedy Club
Sunset Boulevard at the St James Theater
Nice seats, thanks Meg!
Mandy Gonzales played the role of Norma Desmond and it was quite good. The production was unique in that it felt like a movie. There were camera people on the stage and a huge movie screen behind the actors that showed close ups of them. At times they went backstage (AND out on the street outside the theater) with the cameras following them). I really liked it
We're back in the subway after the show. Sure is an easy way to get around at $2.90/ride
Maddy made tumeric chicken for dinner, yum!
How about that moon that looks like a ceiling light?! Love that pretty sky behind the San Remo
April 17, 2025 - Today we're headed to the Battery at the bottom of Manhattan. We'll have lunch at Fraunces Tavern, NY's oldest and most historic bar and restaurant (est 1762). It's known to be the watering hole for many of the founding fathers and was where George Washington gathered a group of his officers to thank them for their service nine days after the British left.
Fraunces Tavern
I had the famous chicken pot pie and Kevin had a bowl of clam chowder
We then walked down to Battery Park. There were lots of blooms and LOTS of people. I guess everyone's off for spring break the week before Easter.
The National Museum of the American Indian is in the Alexander Hamilton Custom House. This is a free museum, a branch of the American Indian museum in Washington DC
It's a beautiful building
quite ornate
The custom house from across the Bowling Green, the oldest NYC public park (1733)
We walked by the Charging Bull on our way to walk past the stock exchange
this was as close as we could get to it.
the NYSE
the Fearless Girl wasn't as mobbed as the Charging Bull (and I was more interested in seeing it anyway)
She was originally placed in front of the Charging Bull and the artist of the Charging Bull asked that she be moved because the piece "exploited his work" (Boo hoo). She is currently in front of the NYSE
Trinity Church
Next we stopped at Federal Hall, which is catty corner from the Stock Exchange. We took a 30 minute tour where we heard about the history of the building.
Federal Hall was the site of George Washington's inauguration and housed the first Congress, Supreme Court, and Executive Branch offices. The current building was used as a Custom House and then a sub-treasury
We walked through Sasaki Park near NYU to see if the cherry trees were blooming but only saw apple tree blooms
McSorley's Old Ale House (NY's oldest continuously operating saloon) was only a few blocks away, so we decided to stop for a quick beer. Kev's a two-fisted drinker
and we had to have the small plate of saltines, cheese and onions with our "light" and "dark" beers
headed home on the subway
Han Dynasty for dinner with M&M
