Day 3

     Our third day started with Jessica braiding my hair, then it was a brisk walk to the garment district. Any fan of fashion and/or Project Runway is familiar with the garment district. I wanted to check it out, and Jess was game. Since it was Saturday, a lot of the stores were closed, but Mood was open. Along the way, we passed this church.

We also spied the headquarters for the Girl Scouts, as alumni, we had to take a picture.  

    Check out the venting of the streets! It is crazy that beneath the streets of Manhattan, there are more than 100 miles of service pipes that bring steam to about 1,800 buildings. It's been in use since 1882.

We spied the fire department. They had Batman on the building.

Jessica matched the Mood elevator doors, kismet!

    Even the walls had fabric on them!

Look at all the pretties!

    I matched the wall! Jess found some neat fabrics for a quilt she's working on. I found some buttons to repair Henry's coat. I saw this girl with a unique shirt that she made herself, and I loved it.

    The buttons got pulled, and I took them to a desk to get a ticket before purchasing. I noticed, however, that I was overcharged. The buttons were $2 a piece, and I was charged $3.40 a piece. So I took the box up to the front to verify the mistake. The gentleman who made the ticket was quite affronted, but recognized his mistake and walked away very disgruntled. Goodbye and thank you, Mood!

    We stepped into another shop that advertised $5 a yard, and you went past all these gorgeous beaded and sequined rolls of fabric, down a wide staircase into the basement, where it was all self-serve. Jess found some fun fabrics, and I found a yard of Tabsco fabric.

  

 Then we meandered our way towards the theater district, stopping at a conveniently placed pizza shop.

The pieces were huge and delicious!

Our matinee was for The Buena Vista Social Club, a musical about Cuba's musical history. 

    The live band was amazing, and the songs were beautiful. I purchased the album after the show. We were seated right on the balcony, and the usher was adamant that nothing was to be placed on the banister. She said that once a program fell off the banister and sliced a patron down on the floor below. I'm sure it was a bit of an exaggeration, but who knows. My neighbor felt it was overeach, as she had only set her program down on it to adjust her coat. We shared a giggle about it. 

    After the show, we walked to our early dinner reservation, and I spied a few of New York's finest! Our destination was the Buena Vista. When I saw its name, I felt it was meant to be. However, once we entered the narrow, dimly lit hallway of an interior, I began to have second thoughts. While they served Latin-inspired dishes, they didn't even have Latin music playing! I was hoping for a continuation of the show, but it fell flat.

     After some delicious Empanadillas, we waited and waited for our main course to arrive. I had ordered the braised oxtail, and Jess had the chicken rollade. 

    After an unreasonable amount of time, in which I began to panic we would miss our evening cruise, we were informed that they gave our dishes to a different table, so they were being remade. They finally arrived, and though very good, our taste had soured by the experience; they didn't even try to make it up to us. We ate and hurried to our last destination of the day.

Circle Cruise's night cruise!

    We got there in plenty of time, so I needn't have worried. Along the way, we were passed by a delivery driver blaring Latin music, and we joked that he had a better ambiance than the restaurant. Jess stopped to use the facilities, and I stood at the front of the boarding line. She came out and was mistaken for a priority passenger, and that caused a bit of a hullabaloo, but it was corrected, and we boarded the ship. The seats are first-come, first-served, and though there were several passengers, there were plenty of open seats; we got a nice spot by a large window.

    The tour guide was interesting. He kept using pop culture references, some of which I didn't understand. It made him very hard to follow, but the ride was lovely, if chilly. This Pepsi-Cola sign has been in Long Island City in Queens since 1936. The Pepsi bottling plant closed in 1999. It was lowered from its original location in 2009. So now it sits in front of a million-dollar apartment building. I pity the poor person who laid out a million dollars only to have to peer through a neon sign every day.

    The Brooklyn Bridge! A nice skyline.

    And the Lady herself!

    The tour was nice, and the bus stop was just across the street. Unfortunately, we had to wait 30 minutes for the bus to arrive, but it was a nice night. We passed the Radio City Music Hall on our way back.

    It was a great day. My flight was early the next morning, so we didn't stay up too late. I did ask the concierge about getting a taxi. I was afraid the bus wouldn't get me there in time.  Turned out that getting a taxi is dead easy at 6 a.m. I said goodbye to my sister, then bundled my things into a taxi van and headed to the airport. I got there just in time to get through security and grab a milk for my shake before getting on the plane. 

    The flight home was uneventful, and I was glad to see Daniel when I landed. Jess had another day in the city, so she braved it alone, but she did great catching a few more shows and sightseeing. I think she may be ready to be a New Yorker.

Day 2

     After a few restful hours, we breakfasted on pastries, and then Jess went to her meeting, and I caught up on my daily games. I play solitaire, Words with Friends, and Merge Dragons every morning. They have daily goals that I challenge myself to hit them every day. I also did my scripture study. When she returned, it was time to catch the bus for our true crime walking lunch tour. 

    We walked through the East Village and Little Italy, learning about gangs and how they evolved into the Mafia during prohibition. Such infamous names as: Lucky Luciano, Dapper Don, and John Gotti. We started off at John's of 12th Street, a “Red Sauce Joint,” where Joe Masseria had an attempt on his life. Our tour guide was recently retired police detective Frank. He was great. I enjoyed his Brooklyn accent, and he was so knowledgeable. 

   

     We started with a spaghetti lunch and learning how some gangsters held court here in the 20's and 30's. During prohibition, John's lit this candle to say they had alcohol for service. It's actually several candles, and they still light them!

    The food was great, and the atmosphere was amazing. There were frescoes and paintings that were originals. They had so many pictures of famous people, including Danny Kaye!

    Then we took to the streets. It was quite the challenge to create the streets of NYC 1926 in 2026, but Frank was definitely up for it. He brought pictures and colorful anecdotes and regaled us with the gritty details of life run by crime. 

    I spotted a few of these tiny Amazon carts running around. They are wild.

    New York is Bananas! There were several bananas throughout the city, and then I spotted this store. I have no idea what they sell, but I had to capture them and the feeling of New York they evoke.

    This police precinct is famous due to Brooklyn 99. It was having some work done, so we didn't get the best view, but I was fascinated to learn about the green lanterns. According to the NYPD website, “It is believed that the Rattle Watchmen, who patrolled New Amsterdam in the 1650’s, carried lanterns at night with green glass sides in them as a means of identification. When the Watchmen returned to the watch house after patrol, they hung their lantern on a hook by the front door to show people seeking the watchman that he was in the watch house. Today, green lights are hung outside the entrances of Police Precincts as a symbol that the 'Watch' is present and vigilant.” Which is so fun.

    Our next stop was St. Patrick's Basilica. Built in 1808, this site is still frequented by the Pope when he comes to town. There are catacombs and a graveyard. I had to take a peek inside.

    We headed to our last stop, and I loved all the unique shops sandwiched together, like this clothing store: Decendent of Theives. Such cool ideas and things. 

We finished our tour at La Bella Ferrara for some amazing cannoli.

    This bakery is on Mulberry Street! And to Think I Saw it on Mulberry Street is one of my favorite Dr. Seuss books, so you know we had to get a pic of us there.

    Down the road, you could see that Little Italy was ending, and there were paper lanterns up, so we went to investigate. We did get sucked into a tourist trap for a bit along the way, but they had fun magnets, so it was worth it. We ended up in Little Chinatown. We found this amazing food vendor that had fruit from all over Asia.

Jessica found some mangosteens, and we bought some to take home. 

    We went through a park where someone was playing a traditional Chinese instrument, we stopped for a bit, but the park was packed, and so we decided to head back to the hotel. It was at this point that my confidence became my downfall. We caught the train and had it to ourselves for a bit. 

I liked this peek, us on the train.

    Unfortunately, I headed us to Queens instead of back to downtown. We came out to a different fruit vendor, and his wares were very reasonable, which was our first tip-off. The next was the lack of skyscrapers. We tried to ask Google, but it made us more confused. We asked a few locals and finally figured out how to get back. We celebrated our return with mangosteens, and they were amazing. Jess had them in the Philippines when she went to pick up Makayla from her mission there. They were told you can't find them in the States, and she was so happy to find some. She texted Makayla to brag. She softened it by telling her she would bring some home. 

    We went to dinner at Veerays, a Michelin-awarded Indian speakeasy right next door to the hotel. We used Jess' food credit to try their 6-course tasting menu. We started with mocktails, and I had the Lucky Luciano in honor of our earlier tour. It was nice. We had the place to ourselves for a bit.

    While I wish I could tell you what we ate, I have no idea what they were. They were all amazing though! 

The bread served with this dish was quite spicy, which surprised me.

Dessert was this delicious custard. 

    After this fabulous meal, we walked it off on our way to the theater. The theater we went to was quite interesting. New World Stages is an Off-Broadway five-theater complex in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan. It was so unassuming on the outside and goes on forever on the inside, like a Tardis.  I loved this mural we passed on the way there. 

    Our show this time is The Play Gone Wrong. I had seen it before in a middle school and high school production, and was excited to see a professional version. Jess had never seen it before. We were in the second row, just out of splash range, which was great. If you are unfamiliar, at a certain point in the play, the actors keep spitting out their drinks repeatedly.

    This play is hysterical and so much fun. Especially if you have ever worked on a play. My favorite bit was catching one actor doing everyone's lines under his breath. Jess really enjoyed it. It was fabulous. We headed home for a hot chocolate nightcap and didn't stay up too late this time!