Anniversary in NYC

It's fitting that a couple of saints like Joe and me should be married on November 1, All Saints' Day. (tee hee) This year, our anniversary fell on a Thursday. Joe had been in the city all week for work. I took the train down on Thursday afternoon to meet up with him and celebrate the occasion of our fourth wedding anniversary.

I arrived around 7:30 starved and ready for a sumptuous dinner. We went out to one of Joe's frequent haunts called Dylan Prime, which claims to be "Tribeca's Premiere Steakhouse". I have absolutely no qualms with that statement. They served up one of the most amazing filet mignons that I've ever had! I highly recommend it next time you're in the area. And, the tarte de pomme tatin was also top-notch.

We stayed in the financial district in a hotel practically on the water's edge. Just over Joe's shoulder you can make out some buildings. They're on the Jersey shore. While Joe stays there all the time for work and is pretty familiar with the area, it was entirely new for me. I'm not that familiar with the neighborhood. Sure, I'd been down to Ground Zero before, but it was cool to get to experience some of the finer points in the area.

Like this store...

I doubled over laughing when I saw the sign on the awning which
read "Amish Market". (Moms: if you double click on any image, it'll enlarge it for you.) I couldn't stop laughing at the irony. The Amish... in New York City... in the financial district. Maybe you have to grow up with Amish people to appreciate the humor.



Friday was a day for lots of bombing around, after Joe finished up some work. We set out to visit the Lower East Side Tenement Museum. Along the way, Joe showed me a beautiful fountain near Battery Park and we took a look at the Brooklyn Bridge. I wanted to see just how steep the pitch of the bridge was, given that some 30,000 NYC marathon runners would be crossing it on Sunday, including our friend Steve. Good luck, Steve!











We wandered through Chinatown past the smelly eels thawing on ice, and all kinds of other Chinese 'delicacies' that I'm not sure I'd want to try right now. Like bushel baskets of 'trippy' Chinese mushrooms. We turned down Mulberry Street until we came to the Tenement Museum. Unfortunately, their tours didn't start until the afternoon. So we moved on.

With all that walking I had worked up quite an appetite, so we hit the Whole Foods for a snack, which turned into lunch. We stopped by a nearby GAP to browse their maternity wear. No luck. As it happened, we'd end up having to go to three different stores before I could get my hands on some mom-to-be gear. That story's amusing enough that it gets its own entry.

We strolled over to Soho and explored some cute shops.

We zigzagged northward grabbing a coffee and cut through Madison Square Park,
where we stopped for some laughs at a dog park. There was a chocolate lab there who reminded us of Ginger. Even with the cacophony and chaos of 40 some dogs howling, barking, snarling, yipping, and chasing each other around, this chocolate was interested in one thing and one thing only: its owner's tennis ball. Hmm. Sounds familiar.





We marveled at the garden surrounding the statue of William H. Seward, America's Secretary of State who purchased Alaska in 1867.






Our walking tour ended late in the afternoon at 34th, but not before Joe could catch me with Lady Liberty. By then, I was beat. It felt like we had been walking for hours. My stomach felt so heavy; my legs and back creaked and ached. I later learned, when we mapped our route back at the hotel, that we had walked EIGHT MILES!! Now, had someone told me that we were going to do that, I would have had the good sense to bow out. But the time passed so quickly. We were enjoying ourselves so much.



I felt no remorse that night wolfing down a warm and delicious plate of rigatoni at Ecco italian restaurant that night.


Here I am Sunday, looking all refreshed, ready to head out for more walking. This time, taking it a little easier. We had to catch our train back to Albany mid-day.

What you can't see in this photo is the onslaught of pain that would creep up on me in the wee hours of Sunday morning. Never again, will I walk 8 miles (wittingly or not!) in the second trimester. Let me advise anyone else who thinks this might be a good idea--it is NOT! I have had the deepest aching pains in my pelvis, lower back and abdomen all day today.

On the bright side, I like to end things on a positive note, I can say that we had a very memorable anniversary sans enfant for the last time in, at least, 18 years. :-)