This is the 5th time that Katrina and I have been to New York together. Over those trips, we’ve accumulated a list of favorites that we make sure to fit in every time we go. Actually, that list is getting pretty long. Even so, we always like to fit in new things as well, because New York always has new things to offer. Sometimes, like today, the new things are big NY standards that we just haven’t gotten to before.
We started the day with breakfast, Katrina going back for her Brooklyn Bagels breakfast bagel and me going for Dunkin Donuts again. It’s the little things in life, really.
The main event for today, though, was the Brooklyn Bridge! Neither Katrina or I had been. We decided to take the subway to Brooklyn Bridge Park and walk back across the bridge to the city. When we came out of the subway, it was a bit of a case of deja vu that took us back to our trip to Paris when we couldn't find the Eiffel Tower, because it was hidden behind a tree. We did find the bridge without much trouble, though.
The highlight of the park was Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory, actually not a factory but a small cash-only ice cream place. It’s important to call out that it’s cash-only, because they really wanted you know:
I got a scoop of butter pecan in a sugar cone. It was really warm out and the ice cream was a nice cool treat.
Ice cream in hand, we walked under the bridge to the north side of the park to see Jane’s Carousel. I’ve seen that carousel and the waterside there used in many movies and TV shows. We had snapped a few pictures as we were walking down below the bridge, but now it was time to head up to and cross the bridge itself. Thank goodness for the internet. We looked up directions on how to get up onto the bridge from there. The easiest access was via some very non-obvious stairs that we wouldn’t have necessarily run into otherwise.
We snapped lots of pictures as we crossed the bridge. Which was a bridge. But it was fun to just be up close and experience such an iconic location.
I’ll take this opportunity to mention again that it was very warm. The sky was clear, so it was also very sunny. I had responsibly put on sunblock that morning and reapplied it while we were crossing the bridge, but, spoiler alert, I still ended up with a slight burn at the end of the day. I’ve been trying to avoid sunburn, because I know that I’ll probably be much closer to the equator soon and I’ll be getting plenty of sun there. That’s getting a bit ahead of ourselves, though.
I’ve spent a lot of time in this post on getting us to this point in the day, so I’m going to skate lightly across some of the next stuff. Once we were back in Manhattan, we walked to Trinity Church known for, among many other things, being the resting place of Alexander and Eliza Hamilton et al also from the musical.
After that, we headed to The Strand Bookstore, a spot on Katrina’s to-do-list for this trip. My bookstore mission was to find a place to sit. After striking out with the full benches in the erotica section and the tiny chairs in the children’s area, I found a bench next to the stairs whereupon I employed my sleeping-in-class skills from high school to fool everyone into not knowing that I was taking a mini-nap in plain sight. It was magical and exactly what was needed at that point in the day. Oh, and I bought a book.
For dinner, we ended up at Five Napkin. Unlike the location near Times Square at which we’ve eaten before, we were able to just walk right in and get a table at this one. I got a burger with just bleu cheese and lettuce and we split an order of sweet potato fries. It was all wonderful.
After eating, we stopped back by the apartment for a bit and then headed up to the Broadway for our last show of the trip, The Boys in the Band.
TBITB is a play and plays can sometimes be problematic for me (and many other lovers of musicals with whom I’ve talked about this), but this one was really well done. It had a story arc - a beginning, a middle, and an end. And it featured several well-known stars, namely Matt Bomer, Zachary Quinto, and Jim Parsons. They were all really fun to see in person. I was particularly impressed with the performance of Andrew Rannells, a popular (mostly) Broadway actor.
So, we got to meet, very briefly, a couple of famous folks. Jim Parsons injured himself in the show a week or so back, so he is wearing a walking boot and didn’t come out to sign at the stage door afterward. Of note, near the beginning of show, Matt Bomer has a minute or two in a shower with frosted glass from the waist up. But, apparently there’s a small section of the theater that has a mirrored view into the shower, which we know now, because that’s where we were sitting. Hi Matt!
After our show and meeting people at the stage door, Beth joined us again for another trip to Scmackary’s, where I failed again to take a picture of my cookies. This time, I bought a S’mores cookie with a sort of marshmallow cream as frosting on top and split it with Beth and Katrina. It was good, but I’m glad that I wasn’t eating it all myself. The evening ended with us walking Beth back to her apartment again, taking the train back to ours, and then staying up late into the night - me packing and then working on some planning tasks for the rest of my sabbatical and Katrina just packing.
Fun conversation snippet for you. Jared to Katrina: “Okay. I’m packed!” Katrina to Jared, “I hate you. I haven’t even finished organizing my office supplies yet!