Last Day :(

Our last day in NYC did not go wasted.  Ed, our scholar, needed to be back at Mt. Holyoke to work his real job so we were led for the day by Charles.  We started the morning at the Highline, a train track on the West Side that was turned into a super cool park.  We walked the entire thing and ended up near Grammercy.  We saw the house that Edna St. Vincent Millay lived in and found out that it's for sale.  (Only 2.6 million)  We took a coffee break at Magnolia Bakery and walked through the Washington Arch on our way to the Strand Bookstore for our last stop before heading back to bus.  I left NYC with a tan, a bunch of blisters, some trinkets and a great deal of knowledge about the city and how it works as well as how it has changed over the last 125 years.  Thank you so much Maine Humanities for providing us with such a wonderful class and experience for the last two years.  It was a true pleasure.

MoMA Day!

In the morning, we took a trip to Grant's tomb. It was big... really big. And marble. That's about it. More interesting than Grant's tomb was the much smaller and more depressing "Tomb of the Amiable Child" which is on the same site as Grant's tomb. Evidently a young area boy fell of the cliff by the river and died there. They buried him at the site and called him only "The Amiable Child".  But, enough of that boring stuff...let's talk about the Museum of Modern Art. It was magnificent! There was a Cindy Sherman exhibit that was absolutely fantastic and made my brain want to explode. I saw 'The Starry Night' and huge paintings by Monet as well as a painting by Mark Rothko. Everything I saw awed me. It was a great visit, though I could probably spend much more time and a TON of money in the gift shop. On the way back to the hotel, Nicole and I stopped to buy some prints from an artist outside (photo below). Tomorrow is our last day. :( I am excited to get home and see my family, but I will definitely miss the city.

The artist who spray painted Metro Maps and made them uber cool!

The tombs of Grant and his wife, complete with fake red, white and blue carnation wreaths.

From the bottom of the tomb looking up.  They put them low in the floor so that you had to "bow" to see them.

Knowledge Hurts.

So, I thought I signed on to learn about New York City's history and all the stuff that makes NYC the coolest place on the planet. Little did I know that the Maine Humanities Council would hire a marathon runner (literally) to lead our tours that seem to include a minimum of 26 miles of walking a day. Today we went to Harlem and toured some interesting spots. I got to see where Langston Hughes (one of my favorite poets) and Zora Neal Hurston (one of my favorite short story writers) lived. We then saw an excellent exhibit of official White House photos of Obama which made me want to vote for him even more, as if that were possible. We ate at a great place called Miss Maud's (see photos below) and I had fried chicken, ribs, candied yams and collard greens as well as fish and beans and rice. I ate it all too! We then took a tour of Central Park where I saw a bunch of turtles and a singing pirate. After a long stroll through the park I added blisters to my blisters by walking 24 blocks in 20 minutes to get to the Museum of the City of New York. By that time, my feet were blistered, sunburned and swollen and there was no turning back. We rushed from the museum to get tickets for WAR HORSE and I enjoyed 2 1/2 hours of amazing entertainment and foot relaxation before catching a subway back to the hotel. Oh, and I saw Kyra Sedgwick on the subway. Crazy good day!

Our yummy buffet fixin's from Miss Maud's.

Strawberry Fields, obviously.

Miss Maud's Restaurant.

Time for the Lower East Side

Today we spent the majority if the day in the lower East Side visiting Little Italy and Chinatown. We first stopped at the AMAZING tenement museum where we learned about immigrant families and their living conditions from the late 1800's to the 1930's. Having 11 of us at a time stuffed into an apartment with three small rooms and only 1 set of windows gave us a pretty good idea of what it would be like to be one of the multiple families that lived together in these apartments. We had a great tour guide named Dave who kept us well informed as well as well entertained. After, we had lunch at Katz's Deli of When Harry met Sally fame. I had 1/2 a roast beef sandwich and motza ball soup. YUM! We then took a tour of the Lower East side learning about the neighborhoods and various ethnicities that lived in them. A few of us set out to the China Town dollar stores to look at cheap trinkets.  I was approached by a sly looking Chinese lady and asked in a low whisper if I "Wanted to buy a handbag."  We took a break in Columbia Park where we watched many Chinese senior citizens playing cards while holding umbrellas. (It was really sunny out.) We tried some crazy Asian candy at a candy store and a squishy, spongy thing from a Chinese bakery.   The group then met up again at a Chinese restaurant called Joe's Ginger for some delicious grub. We ended the day with a sunset walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. It was a very informative day with a crud-load of walking, but worth every minute.

The famous Katz's Deli.

Me, on in the middle of the Brooklyn Bridge.

Chinatown eats.

The famous table from the movie.

Walking Fiend.

Today we walked, A LOT! We walked first to battery park, which contrary to popular belief, is NOT a park that runs on batteries! We then took a ferry over to Ellis Island to the Immigration Museum. Our scholar, Ed, did an amazing job leading us through the process that immigrants went through to get into the US. Then, we went into a theater where a park ranger/stand-up-comedian told us stories about seeing Ice-T at the arthritis doctors and exposing that George Burns used to tell immigrants "Your dances are no good here." in order to sell children dance lessons. We then watched a lovely film and headed to the exhibits for a few hours before returning back to NYC. I decided I would work to reenact, tableau style, the various monuments I saw. So, here are photos if me as Lady Liberty as well as George Washington. The originals are in the background so that you can compare. After what seemed to be a million miles of walking, which was, in reality about 3 miles, we saw the 911 Memorial. It wasn't finished, but it was still nice. It reminded me a bit of Charybdis in The Odyssey, except a bit calmer. Later, I had some authentic NY pizza and some cheesecake from Roxy's.

In front of the Federal Building.  Ironically, this is where the 99% of Occupy Wall Street came to avoid arrest the very next day.  Today is was relatively calm.

I didn't have a torch.  Or a crown, but had fun anyway.

Ready to head out.

Today we are visiting Ellis Island, another place I have never been. Our hotel does not have breakfast early, so we took a walk to Dunkin Donuts for coffee. This area in NYC looks a lot like London. I saw Vespa scooters and an English Sheep Dog! The Seaport Museum is featuring The Titanic and there were beautiful outfits in the windows. I am not sure if we will be able to go inside as they are not open in the evening.

My coffee.

Cobble stone streets and Vespa scooters.  Our hotel is the one right before the bridge on the left.

I am in New York City!

After a fairly smooth bus trip, we arrived in NYC at about 3:00 pm. I can see the Brooklyn Bridge from our hotel room, as evidenced by the photo below. Southside Seaport is an especially lovely section of the city with nice stores and great restaurants. Today, after settling in, we took the subway into Brooklyn to meet Charles for a short tour. We visited the not-so-famous memorial for martyred prisoners from the prison ships and talked to a lovely man from Paris, France. When members of our group said they were from Paris (Maine) he got confused and started speaking French. Charles then took us to his super cool apartment for a lovely garden party. We all decided he was "living the life". We ended the evening at a sushi restaurant right across from the hotel. Tomorrow we spend a very history filled day with Charles and Ed as they take us to Ellis Island.

The entrance to Charles' amazing apartment.

In the garden.

The memorial for Martyred Prisoners.

The view from my 3rd floor window.