what do michael jackson, saurkraut, and the wonder wheel have in common?

day 3 was a good one, filled to the brim with things we'd never done

in the city before.  like i said before, you can go a billion times

and each one will be totally different!

we decided to explore the neighborhood in harlem that we stayed in.

not bad, definitely not scary like everyone always makes it sound, but

definitely different than what we're used to.  i just wish i'd gotten a shot

of all of the wig stores - there were a plethora, all with faceless heads

that had horrible wigs on them.  i also wish i'd bought one of them for

myself on the weekends.  or at least halloween.

you could see the apollo theater from the roof of our apartment building.

in case you're wondering why this theater is so great, it helped a few

semi-popular stars get their start...michael jackson, lauren hill and stevie

wonder are just a few who got their start at the apollo's amateur night.

lots of cool art work on the sides of buildings.

we trekked it down to the lower east side to take a tour of the

lower east side tenement meuseum.  we got to walk through the first

tenement/apartment building that was built in manhattan.  made me think

a lot about the show "who do you think you are" and the movie "far

and away."  we weren't allowed to take any picures in the meuseum, but

the bakery - baby cakes - where we bought a pre-breakfast snack was

more than happy to let me take a photo with the golden girls.

after we walked about 50 feet from the bakery, we spotted a great

little place that was serving beautiful crepes, so we stopped for our

actual morning meal.

after the meuseum, we saw things in chinatown that we didn't even

know existed.  cool things.  i have got to read a real book about

manhattan because my guide book just doesn't cut it.  which is weird

because you'd think a guide book would have the complete history of

a place, right?  i know, i'm a genius.

we (I) then spent far too long looking for ny mets hats to wear to the game

as we cut through little italy to get to soho and to a train station that would

take us to the outskirts of brooklyn and finally to citifield.

richard got a little tuckered out and had to reboot with a slice.

this one definitely rivaled grimaldi's from our second vacay.

yes, it really was that cheesey.

after a long train ride we finally got to the game...at the end of the

first inning.  but we did find some $5 hats right outside the gates...

the cheapest, worst hats in the world, but the penny-pinching gene that

is the strongest link in richard's frugal dna strands was more than happy

with the bright blue top-hat, and it was my fault we were late, so i didn't

argue for even a second.

richard didn't want to look at the camera because his nose was bleeding...

not really.  but seriously, we were pretty stinking high.

thank the lord for saurkraut.  especially on major league hot dogs.

the mets lost, but they had a pretty good comeback so it really was fun

to watch.  i'm sure it would have been more fun watching the yankees play

(win or lose), but they were out of town that weekend.  next time.

after the game, we headed to the one and only coney island.  which is pretty

much a glorified state fair that is stationed at the southern tip of brooklyn all

year round.  it took us 2 hours to get there because of subway line changes, but

it was totally worth it for the following reasons:

1.  we got our fortunes from zoltar & scary grandma.

we both got literally the exact same fortune.  from two different

machines, and two different highly trained professionals.

shocking.

when i said scary grandma, i meant it.

2. richard said he didn't want to go on any rides (he gets motion sick walking

down the stairs to our apartment), but i talked him into riding in one of the

swinging cars on the wonder wheel.  he regretted it almost immediately.

i, however, think its one of the greatest things we've done as a married couple

and that our love is that much stronger because of it.

words don't even begin to describe our ride.

but the looks on our faces do.

3. richard smith was crowned mr. muscle after wrestling this greasy

character's arm to the table. that's right ladies, he's all mine.

4. and even though we'd been eating all. day. long. we had to try a coney dog

from nathan's, home of the annual hot dog-eating contest.  the cheese fries

were also very enjoyable!

now, we've had some shotty luck when it comes to weather on a few of

our vacations (see nyc trip #1), but we literally missed hurricane irene by

only 4 days...coney island and the surrounding areas were evacuated for

that drama queen of a storm, and i am not even a little bit sorry that we weren't

there for that.  i love me some coney island!

days like this...

are why we'll keep going back again and again.

i started the day off kissing central park trees right on the lips.

richard made some new friends in the subway.

we enjoyed a stroll around bethesda fountain.

made our way to the loeb boathouse to eat brunch, but were accosted by disgruntled

employees on strike who would pretty much not let us in.

i was p.o.'d, my friends.  and that's putting it lightly.  i was not kind to the stupid

employees, but that's where richard balanced our little marriage out that morning.

he was very kind and rushed me to the nearest eating establishment in the park.

it's amazing what a little food can do for a girl's attitude.

happy wife, happy life.

we then made our way back to the boathouse (avoiding the picket line so that

i didn't have to go to the slammer for murdering someone on our vacation) to

rent a boat and set sail on the lake.

richard was a natural.  kind of.

if you don't look too closely at the water, it really is beautiful!

we'd walked around the lake on our first trip, but it was so fun

to see everything from a different perspective.

i only rowed for a minute because i was getting us absolutely nowhere,

but it was a blast just to be out on the water laughing and talking with

my best friend.

it was sure nice of the city to have these watering holes around the city

seeing as it was bloody hot and insanely humid.  pretty sure i didn't stop

sweating the entire time we were there.

slice #2

my first, but not my last, cannoli.

we just missed the opening of the new world trade center memorial, but we did

make a trip to the tribute gallery at ground zero.  it was a very touching and

emotional experience, and it was like stepping into a time machine that took us back

ten years.

there was a timeline that included quotes of people and victims involved in the

attacks, as well as video being played of what things were like at the trade centers

before 9/11.  it was kind of crazy to walk through this little museum with strangers,

crying with them.  we didn't talk to each other, but i felt close to them because of what

we were experiencing together.

some things that were found in the rubble - much of it was from gift shops, stores,

and offices in the towers.  everything still had ash and dust all over it.

part of one of the buildings

do you remember in the days after the attacks how people would make

posters with their loved one's information on it because they were missing?

i remember watching people just waiting at ground zero, looking for their friends

and family members, crying with my parents while we watched the news.

they had walls and walls of those posters in the gallery.

fdny uniform

there was a room that held small tributes made by friends and family for the victims

of the attacks.  lots of pictures, letters, mementos.  all of it was very touching.

oragami cranes that were made and sent to nyc from school children in another country

to tell the community that they cared about their hurt.

i'm really glad that we got to experience and learn more about that big

part of our nation's recent history.

found some sweet sculptures around the corner.

made our way to chinatown where we tasted a bit of fried plantain

and octopus from a street vendor.  it pretty much just tasted like

old fry oil.

mosied over to little italy for some pastries from my favorite bakery, ferrara's.

then headed to our go-to hole in the wall, sal's...

where richard enjoyed one meal to stay...

and one to-go.

we jumped on the train to brooklyn to go to coney island, but the minute we

got there black clouds rolled in with some killer wind and rain, so they closed

the place down.  perfect timing.

so we got on the train back to manhattan and found ourselves seeking refuge

from the storm in a trendy little chinese restaurant that we had absolutely no

business being in.  remember on date night when tina fey and steve carrell go to

that restaurant where they stick out like sore thumbs?  that was us.

and just like in the movie, we loved every minute of it!

they asked if we had reservations.  no.  so they showed us to the corner ha!

the lights were super low, and red!  and the music was crazy loud w/ lots of bass.

people were ordering some crazy drinks from the bar that you can see right behind me,

but not us.  we stuck w/ water, which i'm sure is why our waitress loved us. 

or maybe it was the fact that we only went there to order an appetizer.  hmmm...

the food network has a show called 'the best thing i ever ate,' and on one episode

they showed these egg rolls that were mucho crunchy and wonderfully delicious.

well, we liked them a lot, but we loooooved the lobster cream cheese

sticks to the left better.

much better.

while we were inside the snooty-patooty brasserie, the weather gods

smiled on us and the rain stopped.  so we headed down to walk across

the brooklyn bridge. 

the perfect end to a fabulous day and night in the greatest city in the world.