Uptown, Downtown, All Around The Town

A few posts back I made reference to the 'cast of characters' that populate my life and therefore this blog. This past weekend three of them came to visit. There's Lynn from Texas, Kelly from Chicago and Maureen from Massachusetts... good friends all.

This was the second time Lynn & Kelly visited NYC and we talked a lot before they arrived about what they'd like to see and where they'd like to eat .. eating is very important to us ...Maureen, is a more frequent visitor, living closer to the Big Apple and because she has a very hectic business travel schedule she could only spend Friday/Saturday with us so we set the tempo to her beat.

On Friday we went to Central Park . starting at Strawberry Fields


we walked north and east to Belvedere Castle and its magnificent views .. Shakespeare's Garden was a rest stop on the way .. that's a steep climb up to the Castle.


Have you ever noticed the wonderful Griffin above the doorway to the Castle?



Then we continued east to Fifth Avenue through an underpass where the acoustics are just perfect for blowing a horn


and where just before exiting the park there is a playground with a fun statue of 3 bears ...




From Central Park we walked up Fifth Avenue passing MoMA and the street vendors selling t-shirts...



Our destination was The Museum of the City of New York
.. and on the way.. oh around 98th Street we saw a film crew and stopped to gawk .. Lynn and I turned to one another and simultaneously cried DIRTY SEXY MONEY! Yup .. that's what was filming.. its such a fun show ..and it was even more fun to realize we knew what was happening



I think it was the highlight of the day.

Onward we trekked .. the Museum Mile is a nice walk .. once inside we spent quite a lot of time seeing old NY and the other interesting exhibits and of course the gift shop ..


We were sort of tired and hopped a taxi back to the Westside stopping at Senor Swanky on Columbus for afternoon refreshment of the adult nature..excellent margs!

For dinner we went to Lotus on Columbus which used to be part of the Baluchi chain of Indian restaurants. Its small and cozy and the food is devine..

On Saturday we cabbed down to Pier 78 and took the NY Historical Society's Boat Tour .. and it was just a wonderful experience .. these pix speak for themselves...








After the boat returned to the pier Maureen had to head home and after much hugging she left and we took a shuttle bus down to 14th St and began to wander .. we visited
The Little Pie Company and then headed over to The Spice Market for a rest and a drink .. then we walked down to the Village .. across Bleecker... this gargoyle cried out to be photographed


And these wonderful singers got us snapping our fingers to oldies




And the t-shirts downtown are a lot more .. expressive ..



We walked south to SoHo and then hopped an uptown train back home ..

As we walked down Broadway we saw a crowd in front of Zabar's .. no, they weren't giving away free lox ...



For dinner we went to Calle Ocho .. food, drink and excellent music.



On Sunday we took a quick trip to the Flea Market and then brunch at Vnyl .. and on the way back to get their bags and head to the airport we passed this . a true NY pumpkin, and a fun way to end this blog ..