Sunday, October 20, 2013

Day two in NYC.

We awoke at 7:45am -- wow, a great night's sleep!  We were meeting Andrea and Marlon and the kids at 10:00am at The Bluebell Cafe.
http://www.thebluebellcafenyc.com/welcome.html
By 9:15 we had checked out and retrieved our car, and I found a primo spot on 22nd Street close to 3rd Avenue.  Little-known secret: on Sunday all on-street parking is FREE in Manhattan!!!  So awesome.

Anyway, we snagged a 6-person table when we knew they were close to the place.  The children are still clinging to Mommy, but they warmed up to us as Bob was just being Bob -- a fabulous grandpa wanna-be.

Nori and Andrea were apparently looking at a sign on the wall...

 Lorenzo was pretending that his bacon was his tongue...

 Marlon and Nori were checking out a coloring book...

 Nori was contemplating her choice of colors...

 And once out on the street, Nori modeled her ensemble.

Lorenzo showed off his Star Wars jacket.

 And Nori was jumping!

And we ended our visit with Bob and Lorenzo dueling!







Initially stressful but ultimately fun weekend in NYC.


Bob was due home on Friday morning, but because of three truck breakdowns related to the same issue, Friday evening found him near the Ohio/Pennsylvania border, and he couldn't begin driving until 4:30am. We had matinee tickets for Once, so I was torn -- should I see if Frank and Chris wanted the tickets or try to make the show by meeting Bob in Keasbey, NJ, where he could park the truck for the night. We decided on the latter, figuring that we could at least see the second half of the show. And we timed things so well that I arrived only five minutes before Bob, who is seen backing his rig into a teeny space.
And here's another shot of one of places where one can get a tanker washed out.
So Bob changed in the truck, and off we went at 12:30 to Manhattan.

Believe or not, we parked on 28th Street, stowed our bags at the Hotel Indigo, and made it to the theater in time to buy an expensive beer in a sippy cup onstage before the play Once began!

After enjoying an excellent production, we walked back to the hotel, rested for a few minutes, and then left for dinner at our favorite NYC restaurant, Colicchio and Sons taproom across the street from the Chelsea market.
 http://www.craftrestaurantsinc.com/colicchio-and-sons/
On the way, we saw two subway entrance signs where someone had carefully added a tilde decal to the NR line -- too funny!

Our beer guy Chase was off, but his associate, Jessica, talked to us, and somehow we ended up with soup and two of our four beers on the house - wow. Here's the soup and Bob's bone marrow appetizer and duck confit entree. I was being good, so I ordered skate and beef carpaccio.


On the walk back to the hotel, I decided that we had to walk by Rosa Mexicano for a pomegranate margarita -- yummy as always.

And then we had some spectacular views of the Empire State Building as we walked up Broadway.
Here's another shot.
Back to the hotel by 10:15 and in bed by 10:30...