Wednesday & Thursday (Friday & Saturday)

I’ve done it again – waited too long after at trip to write down the happenings, and now they’ve faded into the whole, hard to separate.

I’ll do my best though, okay?

Wednesday
We got some lovely sweets from the Celebrate Cafe (run by the Lower Eastside Girls Club) and headed out to do some shopping. Sky laments the lack of good fashion for men here in Seattle, so we hit up quite a few men’s boutiques. Had a lot of fun trying on clothes we couldn’t afford. We bought ourselves a mutual/together Christmas present, a lovely acrylic crystal sculpture. After that we headed out to see a friend who had recently moved from Manhattan to Brooklyn and meet her new daughter. We walked around Prospect Park and had fun with the baby then hung out at their apartment for awhile. Katy and Santee are a super mellow, enjoyable couple and their daughter is absolutely a chip off the block. Seeing them was just so cozy and comfortable – really made it a nice day.

We got back into the city and instead of heading to the Russian Baths as we’d planned, we caved and ducked into Dok Suni’s because we had that shaky feeling you get when you forgot to eat for most of the day. Dinner was delicious, as it was last time, and the time before that… After dinner we met up with Karin (Sky’s cousin) and Barry and experienced Momofuku Milk Bar. We ate Crack Pie and Candy Bar Pie and some Cereal Milk ice cream. All delicious. The boys thought it was gimmicky, we girls thought it was tasty as hell. Whatever. Had a drink in an empty bourbon bar that was playing a lot of 90s Seattle grunge music (?) and then home for the last night at the Bed & Coffee.

Thursday
We were moving locales, so we didn’t stray too far: met up with Katy again, this time for breakfast at Shopsins in the Essex Street Market. That place is intense and so, so tasty. We also bought some chocolate covered bacon. Sky and I walked over to the much read about Opening Ceremony. It was OK. More expensive that I thought it would be. After that we hustled home to move our baggage and ourselves from the Lower Eastside to Harlem. We checked into the Harlem Flophouse (with the world’s crankiest caretaker) and relaxed for a few warm minutes amongst the steam heaters. Then we got downtown and took the “IKEA ferry” to Red Hook. There we had a DELICIOUS AND AMAZING dinner/drinks/dessert with Karin, Barry, Erin, Denise, and Denise’s very nice boyfriend who has a name that has since fallen out of my head. Sorry, Denise’s boyfriend. We had a room up in Harlem, but were so cozy at Karin and Barry’s that we spent the night on their air mattress, which means…

Friday
We woke up in Red Hook on a bright, sunny morning. Had a lovely leisurely breakfast with Karin and then went on the Red Hook Grand Tour: Karin’s studio, Barry’s bar, everyone who lives in Red Hook (they all know one another), and lastly, the Cobble Hill store in which Karin works. We had yummy Italian sammies and then made our way back into the city. We finally got around to the High Line and man, was it amazing. We strolled and moseyed and laid about in chaise longues. Our favorite art pieces were “Viewing Station” and “The River That Flows Both Ways.” The sunset was happening, so that made it extra spectacular. After that we met up with Big Eric (so named because he’s way tall) at a bad restaurant. It was the only bad meal of the trip and it was also the most expensive – lame. We made our way back up to Harlem and stayed in our B&B that night – cozy.

Sky in the Amphitheater of the High Line

Saturday
Ahhh, our last day! We met a friend, Estee, at the Hungarian Pastry Shop, just a hop skip and a walk from where we were staying. I was grouchy and hungry as we walked through the Columbia University campus, so I didn’t appreciate it as much as Sky wanted, but we quickly made amends over struedel. We were at the top of Central Park, so we all three took a nice ramble around the reservoir. The weather was GORGEOUS, by the way. The whole time we were there it was sunny, but Saturday was especially full of Vitamin D and was a bit warmer than the other days. We made our way back up into Harlem, stopping for a very sunny lunch on a patio, and back to our B&B where we dolefully packed for our flight home. We caught a lovely sunset from the train to Newark and, not counting the damn cruddy cold that hit me mid-flight, had a pretty easy trip home. Usually the last day of your trip is kind of a write off, but I’m glad we made it a late flight (left at 6pm), because Saturday was so lovely and relaxing – it felt like a full day of vacation!