L'Ecole

Saturday night we rode a tour bus for an overview of the city. That's the Flat Iron Building above, and below is what Wall Street looks like from a tour bus.

The ticket allowed us to ride for 2 days, so we hopped off to take a ride on the Statin Island Ferry. This is a FREE ride that takes about 30 minutes each way. The timing of the ferry is such that you will spend around 30 minutes on the other side before you can catch the return ride.

Laura met us at the station when we finally returned, and we dined that evening at l'Ecole, a culinary institute here in NYC. We had a 5 course dinner. It started with one stuffed cherry tomato that was wonderful, then progressed on to an appetizer.

I selected a yummy shrimp and pasta dish. Laura and Garold both got a tomato and olive dish. Then we moved on to the fish course. I chose black bass, they both got the scallops. Both were delish! After that we had the main course. All three of us got the steak, the other choices were lamb, veal and duck. It was only so-so. I think we should have gone for the more unusual choices. Then they served a digestive salad, which was one tiny sprig of white lettuce along with a tiny little round piece of cheese and a dot of balsamic. So we ate that and waited impatiently for the dessert menu. Garold and I got the chocolate tart with caramel ice cream, and Laura chose the marscapone with strawberries. They were both very good. We did not get back to our room until at least 10:00 (maybe later, I was too tired to see the clock). We fell asleep almost instantly and slept ... yes, for 12 straight hours! We figure we walked another 8 miles yesterday. And that doesn't count the time we spent riding the tour bus. Our tour guide was a wannabe stand up comedian who was born and raised in NY. We heard about the air crash over the Hudson River (a phone call from Greg) and are very grateful that not only were we not involved, we did not even witness it. Although we did notice some NY Police boats speeding by at Battery Park, and wondered at the time what was going on.
PS: In the middle of the 3rd course Greg called to tell us that our first grandson (Lucas) will be born in December! We were too refined to dance on the table, but WOW! What an awesome surprise!

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Cezanne painted this picture of men playing cards sometime between 1890 and 1892.

I think that Van Gogh painted this vase of irises.

And these sunflowers and chrysanthemums too.

Renoir immortalized himself here.

All of these masterpieces, and many many more, are on display every day in New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. I am continually amazed at how much we have in America.

Our second day in NYC we spent the entire day at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It is a bit overwhelming, even in comparison to the huge museums (Vatican, Uffizi, Accademia) that we saw in Italy! There are so many rooms full of world masterpieces you can scarcely see them in one day, much less the 3 hours that the guidebooks recommend. We ate lunch in the museum cafeteria, where the prices were a bit high ($9.00 for a big salad with turkey and tuna) but it was good, and convenient. I took a million photos, which I will post later. I just hope I can remember what they are!!! Laura went out with her classmates to celebrate their last day of classes, and for dinner we went to John's Pizza just down the street from our hotel. Walking around a museum all day can really wear you out, although I must commend the museums here for great organization and amenities. We walked about 8 miles!