Hey everyone. Remember me?
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It’s Wayne. I write on this blog.
I know. It’s been a little while since I have done a post. But I am back. And I am here with the last post in my series on our New York Trip.
You know.
The New York trip.
The one we took in February.
And it’s now April.
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Yeah, I don’t know. I have no excuse.
Enjoy!
February 2022 New York trip Day 4!
Day 4. Hrm, where to begin with Day 4.
Well, maybe I should start by reminding you of the happenings on Day 3.
“Yeah you should remind us. It HAS BEEN like FOREVER since you posted last.”
Shut up, random reader voice in my head.
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As you might recall, Day 3 ended with a late-night game of Phase 10, copious amounts of alcohol, and Larissa falling asleep sitting up.
And as you might have expected, those sorts of debaucheries one night lead to a lot of, erm, regret the next morning. Regret in the form of exhaustion and headaches. Sooooo….we kind of had a hard time getting out of bed.
Is what I am saying to you now.
Which was a bit of an issue since we had a morning appointment destination happening today. So like…even though we did eventually wake up, it was the whole getting out of bed thing that still remained difficult. As we lay in bed, though, we figured it was an important thing to try and figure out breakfast.
I was in the mood for bagels and lox today so the question remained – do we try for delivery? Or do we try our luck finding a place near our morning-time destination?
Delivery?
Place near our destination?
Option A?
Option B?
This whole debate took far FAR too long and before we knew it, time had gotten away from us. We had 11AM tickets for our destination and it was already hitting 9AM.
So breakfast schmeakfast, right?
Well, regardless. Our breakfast window had closed. We not only had to get ready like normal-type today but this was our “leaving New York” day as well. Which meant we had to both get ready AND get our room all packed up.
So we all showered, got our bags packed, met up with the Falzones in the lobby, and dropped our bags off with the front desk so we could get a little more New York in before leaving. And this New York situation was a bit of a trek from the Embassy Suites so we grabbed a couple Ubers and headed over to…
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The Metropolitan Museum of Art!
Like I said, we had 11AM tickets for the Met, but we had heard lines still kind of build even with people having timed tickets. So we arrived at the museum at around 10AM. And were greeted with this.
Wow, people really like art, I guess. Who knew?
I mean, I get it though. I wasn’t 100% on what pieces they actually had in there but I was hopeful they would have one of my favorite paintings…
Fingers…
Wait, I mean paws crossed.
Right? Because they’re dogs.
And they’re playing poker.
We got into the line on the left side as that was the ticket-holders line. Which. Was shorter? I guess?
As we were standing there, it became hella-obvious skipping breakfast was a bad call. There were rumblings of just skipping the museum and getting breakfast and it became pretty obvious I was the only one who actually wanted to be there.
Which felt odd. On account of I’m the guy who counts Spice World as an underrated piece of cinema, thinks Punky Brewster should be in the pantheon of great television shows, and has a picture made of Legos hanging in his dining room.
Joe ArtCritic I am not.
But I dunno. I kept thinking back to when we visited the Vatican Museum in Rome a few years back and what it felt like to be standing in front of something painted by Michaelangelo, or Raphael, or Leonardo Da Vinci.
Ugh, no. I am not going to make a Ninja Turtles joke. This is high-class stuff you guys.
And yeah, I kept thinking back to what that felt like and I knew this place had a lot of that to offer. So I really wanted to go. I offered to go by myself but I did so with just enough of a pout to show I wasn’t really serious about that.
So…we waited. And by 10:30 we were inside.
Cowabunga!
Sorry. I’m weak.
You guys, this stuff is from the 1500s. Like what? That’s nuts right? I wasn’t even alive then.
As I mentioned, breakfast was skipped so everyone was a bit hangrified. So a lot of our first hour was spent asking things like, “where is the café?” and “what time does the café open” and “if you don’t give me some food soon, I will set fire to this entire place?”
OK fine, that last one wasn’t really a question. We were certain of it.
And as we were walking around looking for food, we did still get to pass through some pretty neat-o art whatchamacallits. Like the Arms & Armor room.
Such a cool collection. I mean these things were heavy.
Yeah, heavy metal.
At the end of the room, they even had Henry VIII’s field armor. And also at the end of the room? They even had Owen.
Next stop was the American Wing, where there was at least A café.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t open yet. So we just hung around the sculpture garden for a little bit taking in the sights. And it was a pretty beautiful space.
That sculpture above features the angel of death.
Wow, there were a lot of Bill and Ted’s references in this museum.
As we were hanging around the American Wing, we took a look in the adjacent café and it didn’t look like they had much of a variety so we decided to head down to the Eatery on the ground floor.
The breakfast door had long shut so I got the fried chicken sandwich.
Which, like. I mean. Guys, it was a museum café. This thing ain’t winning no chicken wars, But it was food. And at that point, just that simple fact was enough.
Back to the art!
We next made our way to the European Paintings section.
Check out this situation. In the painting below (Roman Charity, Hendrick ter Brugghen, 1623), Pero is a daughter who is nursing her starving, imprisoned father who has been sentenced to death.
And if you look closely, you can spot a figure hiding in the background, watching…which is supposed to suggest some lurking danger. Crazy stuff.
This next one? Night Hag Visiting Lapland Witches (Henry Fuseli, 1796).
And then there’s this one – An Allegory (Domenico Guidobono, 1710-20).
This one has a sorceress, skulls, bats, a frakkin chimera. A chimera.
Dude, art is f’ing metal. Is what I am getting at right now.
There was a specific Disney-focused exhibit we wanted to see – Inspiring Walt Disney: The Animation of French Decorative Arts. So, everyone else headed off to see what that was all about while I stuck around in the European Paintings section to see some more masterpieces. The plan was to meet them down there in a little bit when I was done.
I was on limited time but I knew I had a lot I wanted to see. I mean, yeah, I also know there is A LOT more of the Met to see but with the window I had, I stuck with the European section. And I had to make quick work of it, you guys.
How quick? Well, let’s do a time check. At this point, it was 12:25 PM.
Let’s do some art.
There was a lot going on up here. Buckle up. Here come the pics.
Like these Renoirs.
And a whole slew of Van Goghs.
Like, man. Actual Van Goghs. And that’s not all. Monet was up in this B.
Water Lilies? Where am I right now? A random girl’s dorm room in 1994?
And I mean, did you think we wouldn’t have any Matisse here?
Pfft, you stupid idiot.
Toulose-Latrec over here…
…Cezanne over there.
And a Picasso thrown in there for good measure.
And done. Time check? 12:31.
Yup. I saw alllll of that in 6 minutes. And it was still kind of breathtaking. I was dizzy a bit from everything I just squeezed into that 6 minutes. Everything was beautiful and oozing talent and all that. But I don’t know. When I stand there in front of a real, actual Van Gogh or Monet or Picasso, its more than just appreciating the work. To have hundreds of years collapsed into the mere feet that stand between you and a historical work of art is something when you really think about it. It really puts the whole of one’s existence into perspective.
I dunno….I don’t wanna get too deep on here, but it really makes you appreciate how short our time actually is here and how important it is to ensure you treasure every moment and soak in everything life gives you. And that, coupled with the fact that you are, in fact, soaking in some pretty amazing things in that very moment makes admiring art so much more than just looking at a bunch of pictures.
Now for the bad news.
As I said, everyone else had made their way down to check out the Disney exhibit but, unfortunately, the line was hours long at this point.
Yup.
Hours.
And I know. That seems the most Disney-est of all the Disney exhibits ever. A line that would take hours to get through? Hella-Disney. I see what you did there Metropolitan Museum of Art.
But, we had trains to catch and what not. So I mean. Ain’t nobody got time for that.
Nickie said her and the rest of the crew were heading outside and said I could meet them on the steps in front of the museum.
Which gave us the chance to pretend for at least a minute we were students at Constance and, more importantly, Blair Waldorf minions.
Hrm, well….
I mean….
Like, pretty close.
Maybe if Larissa wore her beret.
You know you love me. xoxo.
It was actually a pretty perfect day outside, especially for a February. Sunny and in the 50s. So we hung out on the steps and just soaked in all that big apple energy.
And while we were sitting there, I decided to cross another New York staple situation off my list – a dirty water hot dog.
Well, I mean. Not exactly. At the cart outside the Met, the dogs were not actually steamed so there was really no water to speak of.
But eh, I’m sure there was still dirt.
I ordered a dog with mustard, ketchup, and relish. Look at this guy.
And I mean, it was a pretty tasty hot dog. I love me a nice expensive steak and whatever but sometimes hot dogs just hit, you guys.
Also, I started a trend because all of a sudden, everyone was visiting carts. Larissa, Mia, and Owen went over to a cart across the street that promised both coffee (for Larissa) and coffee (for the kids.) I believe Larissa ordered a latte.
From a rando truck on the street.
And I think it was disappointing.
Who would have thunk?
Mia grabbed a cookies and cream ice cream bar and for some weird reason I have no pictures of either Mia’s ice cream or Larissa’s disappointing truck latte. Day 4 was just an off day you guys.
Owen opted for a Strawberry Shortcake.
And that was a pretty perfect choice, Owen. The Strawberry Shortcake is a legit ice cream novelty choice.
I’ve never been prouder of Owen. Is what I am saying to you now.
Oh also! Look who we found while we were sitting there.
OK yeah, so our departure time was quickly approaching so we made the decision to grab a couple cabs and head back towards the hotel.
Cabs ah heah.
Well, technically, we didn’t take the cabs back to the hotel. We took them to a location close to the hotel – Bryant Park – where they had this super cool winter village thing happening.
It was all kinds of good, wintery fun in there. With all these food and merchandise booths set up.
And they even had bumper cars.
ON ICE.
While the food booths were definitely tempting and there was an especially welcoming fresh-hot donut booth that I had a hard time saying no to, we came to Bryant Park with a plan. We had definitely done a pretty good New York food tour over the past few days but had a few items we still needed to check off. Bagels and lox were probably not going to happen, but a pastrami sandwich? That seemed doable.
Our Pastrami Plan was that we would get to Bryant Park and then Uber Eats or Grubhub or DoorDash or whatever-else-it-is-the-kids-do-these-days pastrami sandwiches to the park.
Unfortunately, there weren’t any tables available. And anyways, the whole 50 degree sunny day situation was not really jiving with the Winter Village setup.
Additionally, the original plan was to order delivery from Katz’s Delicatessen but they were closed for the Monday holiday.
Sooooooez.
We made alternate arrangements.
I found another location known for the pastrami sandwiches relatively close to us so Tony and I offered to walk to get the sandwiches while everyone else made their way back to the hotel to find a table in the lobby on which to enjoy our delicious meats and what not.
The location we landed on was the 2nd Ave Deli on East 33rd. It was about a 16-minute walk. As we made our way there, I called in our order and got one last look at this bad boy.
So here’s a weird thing about me. Whenever I see a skyscraper, there is always a little tiny part of my brain that says, “it turns from a building into a robot, right?” Like from Big.
My brain is a weird and wondrous place. But yeah, every time I see a skyscraper…that scene plays out in my head. And I think how, while that scene was painting buildings that turn into robots as something kids wouldn’t want to play with, I thought it seemed pretty fun. Like, imagine acting out this whole scene where you have your Godzilla toys coming in to destroy this city and one of the buildings came to life and fought back. I mean, OBVIOUSLY, Godzilla would still win in the end because you know, Godzilla. But the building would put up a pretty good fight. At least a better fight than any other building ever did.
Yup. Every time I see a skyscraper. Which is a lot of times. Since I live right outside Boston.
Also, this is probably the first time I have ever admitted this. Like, to anyone. Even Nickie.
I bet she is really happy with her life choices right now.
Where was I?
Oh right. The deli.
And inside. Well, inside was a magic factory.
I checked in with the guy up front and he said it would be a couple more minutes so I took in the awesomeness that was the 2nd Ave Deli. Not only did they have meats upon meats but there was also a sit-down restaurant in the back. With beer.
Meat AND beer? This is like some sort of dream I once had.
Also…ALSO. While we were waiting, the guys behind the counter gave us some free pastrami.
Wait. There’s a such thing as FREE pastrami?
It was all happening.
Anyways, soon enough our order was up so we took our bag o’ meatstuff and walked out into the world, excited for what awaited us. On the way back, Tony was also in search of a pretzel for Mia since he was pretty sure she wouldn’t be down with the whole cured meat situation.
Thankfully, we were in New York and the streets are legit paved with hot pretzels.
And Mia was very happy for that fact when we presented her with said pretzel upon our return.
But you know what I always say. Pretzel Schmetzel.
Always. I always say that.
But yeah, we had some pastrami to get to.
Oh man was this a good sandwich. A really good amount of pastrami up in there and the meat was insanely flavorful. The rye bread wasn’t too bad either. I mean, if I had one complaint, it would be the absence of a marble rye choice. But this rye was still pretty tasty stuff.
The 2nD Ave Deli was also hella-generous with the pickles.
I also should note I paired my pastrami with a Bud Light from the lobby fridge. Which, I know. I am kind of some sort of genius.
But life isn’t all pastrami and rainbows. Into every life, a little rain yadda-yadda-yadda. Soon after we all finished up our pastrami and pretzels, the Falzones had to get going as they had an earlier train than us to catch back to Boston.
Womp-town.
The trip was edging towards its inevitable conclusion. And I mean, the Falzones are some of our favorite people to travel with. So it always sucks saying goodbye to them. They’re awesome. And it’s not the best when awesome things come to an end.
Obviously, their departure had a profound effect on Owen.
We spent a little bit of time hanging out in the lobby, talking about some of our favorite things we did this weekend. Which is one of our favorite things to do as our vacations wind down. And this short 4-day trip actually gave us A LOT to talk about.
We did all the things.
At around 3:30, it was time for us to get our stuff together and make our way to Moynihan Train Hall. While we could have ordered an Uber, we figured a walk would be nice. We had a good amount of time before we had to board our train, so we could take our time. And besides, we’ve walked everywhere this entire trip. Why buck tradition?
We made it to Moynihan at around 4PM and like I said, we had a little bit of time before our train. Where to go? What to do?
Hrm? Oh. There’s literally a place called The Bar here? Sounds like my kind of place.
Since we had just eaten, we were all looking only for some liquid refreshment. Owen ordered a water.
Yup. A can of water.
Ha, only in New York. Amirite? What a crazy pla….
Hrm? Oh. They have cans of water in Boston too? Right. Well.
I don’t get out much.
Nickie and I each ordered a…um. A beer.
Yup. That’s as specific as I’m getting. Dude, it’s been like two months. You’re lucky I remembered it was even beer.
I can tell you we most likely enjoyed them.
I mean. It was beer.
We drank our drinks, paid our bill, and had one more stop before we boarded our train. And this stop? It involved cupcakes.
Soooooo.
As you might recall from Day 1…
Or you know maybe you don’t recall because you NEVER LISTEN TO ME!!
But on Day 1, we visited a place of wonder and delight – Magnolia Bakery after skating at Rockefeller Center.
But check this shizz out. There was also a Magnolia IN THE TRAIN STATION!!!111
Moynihan? More like Moyni-hand me a cupcake.
Amirite?
Ahem. Look. Treats.
And oof, I’d like to point out how much of a grown-up I’ve become of the restraint I exhibited by not shoving my big fat face into this tub of banana pudding.
I’m a big kid now.
We ordered up 6 cupcakes to bring on the train for us…and Myles…to enjoy. Yeah, you guys. We were super close to seeing Myles again. Remember Myles? He’s the older one.
I also grabbed an iced coffee.
Which was not only delicious but it also kept leaking all over my hand.
So I mean, that’s fun.
Soon after we left Magnolia with our treats in hand, we heard the announcement that our train would soon be boarding. We lined up at the escalators and within minutes, were heading down. And like I said, Myles was there. He picked up the train in New Jersey so he was on there waiting for us at a table in the café car.
We also brought Myles a 2nd Ave pastrami sandwich. On account of we are the best parents in the history of parents.
It was exciting to see Myles. I like Myles. And he was kind of excited to see us. He was a little sad because he had to leave Hannah. Which is understandable. I know it must be so hard knowing it would be a little while until they could see each other again.
But, on the plus side – CUPCAKES!
It was super nice having the table on the way home so we could play some Phase 10 and eat cupcakes all the live long day.
And we made it through all ten phases, you guys. Which is quite an accomplishment. On account of we never make it through all ten phases, you guys.
What?
Who won?
Oh I mean that doesn’t matter. It’s all about having fun and being with people you lo…
Pfft. Just kidding. I totally won. In your face, people I love.
But yeah, I guess its not THAT surprising we made it through all ten phases. I mean the train ride WAS 4 hours. And since we had left at 5:30, that had us getting into Boston at…
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Come on, you can do it.
5:30 plus 4 hours equals…
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Ugh. 9:30. We got into South Station at 9:30.
And while none of us were starving, we could do with a little nosh. I know just the place…
Yup, McDonald’s. I mean, McDonald’s itself is obviously uber-exciting and blog-worthy. But there were also two other underlying reasons for hitting those golden arches.
For one, I had a free Happy Meal coming to me on my McDonald’s app due to the obviously disgusting amount of fast food I eat.
And number two? The Happy Meal toys were currently Stitch-related. Yeah, like Lilo & Stitch Stitch. Which on the one hand, yeah…not super current. But on the other hand – shut your stupid mouth it’s Stitch.
We got our food and ordered up an Uber to take us home. And when I got home, I opened up my Happy Meal Box and found….
What. The. Hell. South Station McDonald’s.
I mean, I love Encanto as much as the next guy, but you can’t be out there being like, “Stitch this” and “Stitch that” and then hook a brother up with some Camilo Madrigal nonsense.
Oh well. At least I had a cheeseburger to drown my sorrows in.
And anyways, whatever. We had our own Stitch excitedly waiting for us when we got home.
Lilo was also excited. In fact, she was so excited, it was impossible to get an actual real-life picture of her.
Yeah, that’s the only picture I have of Lilo. You would think, due to the fact that I can now take however many pictures I want in an effort to get it right, I would have something better. But nope. This is it.
I’m the best.
Anyways though – yeah we were home. Which means our New York trip has come to an end.
Hope you guys enjoyed it. I know we did!!
Last post – Day 3
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