48 hours in NYC

We walked! I hit Manhattan around 1:00 pm on Friday, and by the end of the day, we had walked about 6 miles (that's not a guess), eaten lunch at Quotidian (black hummus and tunafish sandwiches), taken in one museum (International Center of Photography; one whole room of Robert Mapplethorpe), and dinner at a Thai restaurant (when they say hot, they mean hot).

On Saturday, we took a bus to the lower East side and signed up for one of the tours at the Tenement Museum—two apartments in a tenement building that have been untouched for about 60 years, with the history of the families who lived there.

On a mission to avoid chain stores, we had coffee at a neighborhood spot (NOT Starbucks!!) where we talked with the "owner" of this dog (the canine version of the mayor of the neighborhood), waiting patiently under the window for his walker.

Then back to public transportation (my personal tour guide)

and over to Soho, where we visited the Purl fabric and yarn stores. If you read the blogs, visiting these stores is kind of like having a seat for the Super Bowl.

In actuality, yeah, they are nice, but no bigger than our living room. I think the Washington area has spoiled me.

Then over to the Chelsea neighborhood, where we stood in line to buy a cupcake at Magnolia.

This bakery has had a lot of press and hype. We were hoping for one of their red cupcakes, and that it would equal the cakes that Dorothy used to make for birthdays. But these cupcakes were dry, the frosting was about 1 inch too high, and they were way overpriced. My advice? Make your own.

We finished off the evening by seeing the movie Atonement (see it, but don't blink or you'll miss something important) and having dinner at an Italian restaurnant within walking distance of Bridget's aparment.

General observations:

I've never seen so many fur coats as I saw this weekend.

New York City public transportation is fantastic. We almost never waited more than 10 minutes for a bus, older passengers with wheelchairs and walkers had no trouble getting on the buses, and the trains are clean and fast (even if a little bit confusing to someone who has never ridden them).

the Vamoose bus company knows what they are doing. Both on the way to New York and on the way home, the buses left on time and arrived a few minutes early. There are no frills, but the buses are clean, there was one rest stop both ways, and there certainly isn't a problem with lost luggage.

Bridget runs a fantastic bed and breakfast. Even Zoey

cooperated by letting us sleep until at least 7:00 am.