History Tour of New York

In January, Erin asked me, "do you want to go on a history tour of New York?" and I said "YES." 

The first day we spent downtown, on the Lower East Side and in the Village. 

Erin carried around this huge book with walking tours & interesting historical facts, and read aloud about all the places we went. This is right in front of Paul's Boutique, which is now a depressing wrap-themed restaurant.

We did the Shop Life tour at the Tenement Museum, one of my favorite places to go in New York, and then since Russ & Daughters is right there we really had no choice but to pop in for lunch.

We sat at the bar and it was perfect.

After that we walked over to The Strand - how have I never been there before?? I could have spent the rest of the trip in that place.

This man was a Union Square Park and we later discovered he has been dancing around in that unicorn swimsuit talking about shifting the planet to love consciousness for years and years.

Then we saw ALEC BALDWIN! It was a disconcerting moment when I recognized him as familiar before I realized why he was familiar. I forgot what it's like to see celebrities on the street.

We went in the Washington Mews on NYU's campus, a tiny peaceful street in the middle of the Village.

Then we sat in Washington Square Park people-watching for ages. The fashion scene in New York is by and large extremely unattractive right now. It's like the 80s, but everything is tighter and in more muted colors.

On our way to the next location we witnessed two girls come inches from getting hit by a car. I think Erin might have saved their lives by screaming. It was scary!

The site of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory is used as a campus building for NYU now.

We were trying to find the oyster bar inside Grand Central but ended up at Michael Jordan's steakhouse for drinks and popcorn instead. The kitchen was closed, which meant we got a great seat because not many people were around.

We talked at length with our server Raoul, who claims to "split his time between New York and Bangkok and Dubai" but also spends a lot of time in Raleigh. He has been an app developer and worked in HR, among other things, and is now trying to get some kind of clothing start-up off the ground. He appeared to be approximately 30 years old. He told us all sorts of stories about the celebrities who visit Michael Jordan's Steakhouse, including Scottie Pippin (horrorshow of a person), Hillary Clinton (SO rude - threw a fork!), Ivanka and Jared (extremely kind), and Tom Cruise, who got so drunk that Raoul had to help him to the car. It was at this point that I realized Raoul was definitely making all of this up. Tom Cruise has never been falling-down drunk in public in his life.

I went to the bathroom and observed Erin shaking Raoul's hand. They discussed a lot of aspects of working in HR. He gave us free drinks!

After this we were kind of drunk and needed food, so we walked to Koreatown and found a restaurant. It was excellent! They brought us these items when we sat down and Erin said, "what are all these things?" I don't know but they were all tasty.

The next morning we went uptown, taking the train to Columbia University in Harlem.

We walked through Morningside Park, which was quite nice...

...to St John the Divine Cathedral, the largest Gothic cathedral in the world, which I had nevereven  heard of before. !! It was so big it's hard to even see it all at once. We went inside briefly but didn't pay for the whole tour.

After this we walked to the City Museum of New York, which had special exhibits on the History of Protest in New York and on Post-Suffragette Feminist Activism. The end of the feminist exhibit was about Hillary Clinton's campaign, naturally, and there were all sorts of women our age wandering around with actual tears and talking to each other about the terrible America we live in right now. It was strangely empowering, and really gratifying to see that not just this place, but many museums (and libraries, and book stores) in New York are quite obviously fighting back against the notion that what's happening in the White House is normal and sustainable.

For dinner we went to a tiny place in Little Italy, and then to Ferrara Bakery for dessert. As this day went on the temperature dropped precipitously and it was pretty cold by dark, so we had to get some nice warm drinks.

The next day the weather was horrible. We'd planned to go to a museum in the morning but the whole rest of New York also apparently had this plan, so instead we went to an Irish pub for lunch and then shopping, and then it was time to go home. This trip was a great mix of brand-new places and NYC favorites!