New York City

Benjamin turned 40 in April. I had to be in New York the following week for work, so we decided we should go up on his birthday and spend the weekend in the city. (Incidentally, my work meeting subsequently got cancelled so I had to buy an extra ticket to come home which kind of sucked. But anyway.)

We stayed at a new hotel right across the street from Carnegie Hall, conveniently called The Carnegie Hotel. It was small and quiet - only four rooms per floor. We could also see Trump Tower from the window, which of course is not a bonus. The streets all around there are blocked off with permanent NYPD security stations and cops all over the place. THANKS, TRUMP.

We were only a couple blocks south of the park, so we spent some time time wandering around there.

Here's Ben doing that thing where he won't smile for a picture because he thinks he looks dumb, so instead he just looks mad.

On this trip we decided to hit some of the smaller museums we hadn't visited before, so Saturday morning we headed toward the Museum of the City of New York on the Upper East Side. However, due to a bathroom emergency by someone (NOT ME) we ended up popping into the to the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Museum as it happened to be on the way. The Cooper Hewitt turned out to be awesome! It's in Andrew Carnegie's old mansion and was worth it for the building alone.

There were also all sorts of weird exhibits too, though. Lots of 1920s memorabilia (jeweled cigarette cases, flapper dresses, etc.) and a whole series of rooms about how designers use scraps to make something new. There was also an entire room devoted to complicated miniature staircases. It was right up our alley.

The Museum of the City of NY was good, too. I love a nice history & culture museum.

We walked across the Brooklyn Bridge on Saturday morning. It was extremely terrible. There were way too many people and it was hot in the sun and UGH. I'm not going to do that ever again. It started raining then, so we headed back up to Midtown and went to the Morgan Library and Museum. Another great museum filled with oddities! I saw a molding of George Washington's face!

The next day we went back downtown to try to find the oldest part of town. Ben is always really into this sort of thing.

We found it! Look how old these little buildings are!

After this we walked to the Tenement Museum to learn about the Irish people who emigrated in the 1800s. I had been there once before a couple of years ago and remembered it being extremely bleak, but our tour guide this time framed everything in a not-as-terrible light. I was kind of disappointed, to be honest, because I had talked up the horror quite a bit before we got there.

We ended Sunday with a comedy show at the UCB Theatre, which was super fun. Then we walked back to our hotel alllll the way from the Lower East Side to Midtown.

We ate our faces off the entire time, but I did not take any pictures of the food. Restaurants visited included Momofuku Ma Peche, Marc Forgione, Dianne & Elisabeth, and a random pizza place on 10th Avenue. We were supposed to have a final dinner on Sunday night, but our brunch at Marc Forgione was completely ridiculous and we couldn't fit in any more food.

Before we left for the airport on Monday we did another loop through the park. The tallest building here is a new residential structure. I looked into it in the cab and the top floor penthouse is for sale for EIGHTY TWO MILLION DOLLARS.

I love New York! I mean, I always kind of hate it by the time the trip is over, but then I love it again immediately after a couple of days away.