New York 2019 - Day 2
New York 2019 - Day 2
I guess you could say we slept in, although with the two-hour time difference, it sure didn’t feel like it. Eight-thirty in New York is only six-thirty in New Mexico, and I woke up needing coffee. We found some, plus breakfast, across the street at Juniors, the place we’d gotten cheesecake the night before. We sat out on the patio and watched the cars, the people and the pigeons while we ate.
After breakfast, we wandered around the area with no real destination in mind. We bought t-shirts for the grandkids and poked around in the must-see places: Disney, Hershey and the M & M’s store. We made a quick stop at Old Navy to find Jeff a couple pairs of ... um ... unmentionables (underwear). The man travels for a living and is the world’s most efficient packer. He never forgets anything. I do. For some reason, I frequently forget to pack pajamas. It’s the reason I have so many. I have to buy new ones when I forget them. Jeff mocks me unmercifully about it. And this is the guy who forgets to pack enough underwear. I expect I’ve heard the last about my packing short-comings from here forward.
Old Navy seems to be operating under the delusion that men want their undergarments to sport pictures of rhinoceroses, banana peels and surf boards. They haven’t met Jeff. Plain and unadorned, that’s his style. It wasn’t easy but we found some without pictures. Mission accomplished!
By this time we’d been out and about for a few hours and were fed up with the crowds so we went back to the room. I did a little writing, Jeff edited a video, I dozed through a “documentary” about 9 Russian hikers who were murdered by a yeti in 1959 (there was photographic evidence), and we just enjoyed being lazy for a while. Finally, we ventured out again and ordered a Lyft as we needed to travel 40-some blocks to the East Village. We had booked a tour with Haunted Manhattan! We’ve done a few ghost tours in our travels. It’s a great way to combine Jeff’s passion for History and my obsession with anything creepy and gruesome. We were looking forward to it!
Jeff had chosen a shared ride for us, and when our car arrived there was another couple in the back seat of the Honda Accord. I got up front with the driver and Jeff squeezed in with the other passengers. As we rode, the other couple was discussing flights and seat availability, terms that are very familiar to anyone who flies “non-rev”, short for non-revenue. It’s a term the airlines use for passengers who are flying for free. I heard Jeff ask, “Do you work for Southwest?” The woman answered that she did. She thought Jeff looked familiar. It turns out she had been based in Denver for a while and had been a flight attendant on at least one of Jeff’s flights. What are the odds?!
We arrived at the meeting spot for our tour, Frankie showed up right on time, and we introduced ourselves around. One other couple would be taking the tour with us, Larissa from Connecticut and Andrew from the Bronx. We started the tour with a story of how the New York subway system came into place and the lesson evolved into a tale of a phantom train car.
Frankie was a fantastic guide! She spouted information and recounted tales of hauntings in the buildings she pointed out, all in a cheeky Australian accent. We even spotted Liev Schreiber, the actor, walking a scruffy little dog down one of the streets we were on. Or I should say, Jeff, Frankie and Andrew spotted him. I was too busy looking at the dog.
Two hours and a couple of miles later, we had been both educated and spooked. The tour ended around 9:30 pm, and we were hungry! Jeff had spotted a pizza place close to where we were so we made a bee line for it. Ray’s Pizza was a tiny pizza-by-the-slice place that seemed to be a favorite of the locals. After a bite of my mozzarella and basil slice I could see why!
When we finished, Jeff called for another car, not to take us to the hotel, but to a bakery called Paris Baguette, which was open late. I’ve told you about our habit of hitting a bakery every night to take goodies back to our room, and we had high hopes for Paris Baguette. We both thought, from the location, it might be the same one we loved so much on our last trip to New York. When we pulled up, it was obvious it wasn’t, but we went in anyway. I found a piece of cream cake with fresh strawberries and my decision was made, but Jeff couldn’t find anything that appealed to him. I bought my cake and we hoofed it the remaining 13 blocks to the hotel rather than waste time and money on another car. With the heavy Saturday night traffic, we could walk it faster. We were pretty happy to open the door to our room and kick our shoes off. We’d walked 8 miles over the course of the day and we were done!
I got into my pj’s and settled onto the couch with my cake. I didn’t even feel bad that I had dessert and Jeff had none. He had his chance!
More to come later. Love you all!!
I guess you could say we slept in, although with the two-hour time difference, it sure didn’t feel like it. Eight-thirty in New York is only six-thirty in New Mexico, and I woke up needing coffee. We found some, plus breakfast, across the street at Juniors, the place we’d gotten cheesecake the night before. We sat out on the patio and watched the cars, the people and the pigeons while we ate.
After breakfast, we wandered around the area with no real destination in mind. We bought t-shirts for the grandkids and poked around in the must-see places: Disney, Hershey and the M & M’s store. We made a quick stop at Old Navy to find Jeff a couple pairs of ... um ... unmentionables (underwear). The man travels for a living and is the world’s most efficient packer. He never forgets anything. I do. For some reason, I frequently forget to pack pajamas. It’s the reason I have so many. I have to buy new ones when I forget them. Jeff mocks me unmercifully about it. And this is the guy who forgets to pack enough underwear. I expect I’ve heard the last about my packing short-comings from here forward.
Old Navy seems to be operating under the delusion that men want their undergarments to sport pictures of rhinoceroses, banana peels and surf boards. They haven’t met Jeff. Plain and unadorned, that’s his style. It wasn’t easy but we found some without pictures. Mission accomplished!
By this time we’d been out and about for a few hours and were fed up with the crowds so we went back to the room. I did a little writing, Jeff edited a video, I dozed through a “documentary” about 9 Russian hikers who were murdered by a yeti in 1959 (there was photographic evidence), and we just enjoyed being lazy for a while. Finally, we ventured out again and ordered a Lyft as we needed to travel 40-some blocks to the East Village. We had booked a tour with Haunted Manhattan! We’ve done a few ghost tours in our travels. It’s a great way to combine Jeff’s passion for History and my obsession with anything creepy and gruesome. We were looking forward to it!
Jeff had chosen a shared ride for us, and when our car arrived there was another couple in the back seat of the Honda Accord. I got up front with the driver and Jeff squeezed in with the other passengers. As we rode, the other couple was discussing flights and seat availability, terms that are very familiar to anyone who flies “non-rev”, short for non-revenue. It’s a term the airlines use for passengers who are flying for free. I heard Jeff ask, “Do you work for Southwest?” The woman answered that she did. She thought Jeff looked familiar. It turns out she had been based in Denver for a while and had been a flight attendant on at least one of Jeff’s flights. What are the odds?!
We arrived at the meeting spot for our tour, Frankie showed up right on time, and we introduced ourselves around. One other couple would be taking the tour with us, Larissa from Connecticut and Andrew from the Bronx. We started the tour with a story of how the New York subway system came into place and the lesson evolved into a tale of a phantom train car.
Frankie was a fantastic guide! She spouted information and recounted tales of hauntings in the buildings she pointed out, all in a cheeky Australian accent. We even spotted Liev Schreiber, the actor, walking a scruffy little dog down one of the streets we were on. Or I should say, Jeff, Frankie and Andrew spotted him. I was too busy looking at the dog.
Two hours and a couple of miles later, we had been both educated and spooked. The tour ended around 9:30 pm, and we were hungry! Jeff had spotted a pizza place close to where we were so we made a bee line for it. Ray’s Pizza was a tiny pizza-by-the-slice place that seemed to be a favorite of the locals. After a bite of my mozzarella and basil slice I could see why!
When we finished, Jeff called for another car, not to take us to the hotel, but to a bakery called Paris Baguette, which was open late. I’ve told you about our habit of hitting a bakery every night to take goodies back to our room, and we had high hopes for Paris Baguette. We both thought, from the location, it might be the same one we loved so much on our last trip to New York. When we pulled up, it was obvious it wasn’t, but we went in anyway. I found a piece of cream cake with fresh strawberries and my decision was made, but Jeff couldn’t find anything that appealed to him. I bought my cake and we hoofed it the remaining 13 blocks to the hotel rather than waste time and money on another car. With the heavy Saturday night traffic, we could walk it faster. We were pretty happy to open the door to our room and kick our shoes off. We’d walked 8 miles over the course of the day and we were done!
I got into my pj’s and settled onto the couch with my cake. I didn’t even feel bad that I had dessert and Jeff had none. He had his chance!
More to come later. Love you all!!
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