http://www.thefriendlytoast.net/

After breakfast Liv and I walk through the MIT area, we find the Ray and Maria Stata Center, Building 32 —  read about this controversial building here:  http://www.designbuild-network.com/projects/stata/

It’s amazing to see this architecture in person.  Then we moved on to Harvard Square and found the original recording venue for Click & Clack the Tappet Brothers, the hosts of the Car Talk radio show.  Listening to their show is one of my favorite Saturday morning past times.  We walked through Harvard campus and through Harvard Square and got a good taste of the Ivy League.

We head across the Charles River for site-seeing and lunch.  We are joined by my friend again and we walk through Boston Commons and the Public Gardens, parts of downtown and Copley Square.  We make a quick photo shoot stop at the Trinity church which is directly across the street of the Boston Public Library, both of which are downtown Boston.  The architecture in this town is quite remarkable.  So many different eras are represented.  After we get our fill of downtown, we head to the North End, also known as Little Italy.  This truly feels like a little Italy.  This area is filled with great Italian restaurants.  (I ate at one last fall when I was in Boston, but couldn’t remember which one it was.)  Olivia was charged with finding a restaurant for lunch.  We walked around for a while enjoying the cobblestone streets, narrow passages and sidewalks.  Lots of people out – we passed a wedding taking place at the first Italian Catholic church built by Italian immigrants.  Now that’s an Italian wedding!  We wend around a few more corners, go in one restaurant, but decide not to stay.  We walked down a few more doors, turn a corner and find G’avanni’s.  As soon as we cross the threshold, I recognize it as the same restaurant I ate at last fall – way to go Liv!  This place has fabulous food.  It is very small, maybe seats 20-25 people, dimly lit, wine bottles stored on the walls and Italian music playing.

http://www.gvannis.com/

After the late lunch we stop by Mike’s Pastry for a cannoli, which we’re told are the best in town.  My friend leaves and Liv and I are left up to our own devices.  We walked down to the harbor for a walk along the boardwalk.  We passed through an Italian festival, celebrating Saint John, there’s a DJ spinning tunes, we heard “That’s Amore” by Dean Martin.  We really got a taste of Little Italy – it was perfect.

http://www.mikespastry.com/

The evening was still young and the sun was still out, Liv wasn’t ready to call it a day yet.  We walked some more and read through a theatre guide that she had picked up earlier in the day.  We discover the Cirque de Soleil is in town.  We’ve never seen it, but have always wanted to.  Wanting to escape from reality, we dive into this incredible fantasy world of Cirque de Soleil’s, “OvO.”  Ovo means egg in French.  We couldn’t have asked for anything more spectacular to end our 10-day East Coast tour.  With a full moon shining over Boston, we were tired little puppies – but very happy.

Thanks Boston!

http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/en/shows/ovo/default.aspx

Part of the Strata Center at MIT

Dewey, Chetham and Howe - Car Talk Original Radio broadcast venue. Second story window in Harvard Square.

Rumored to be a dorm where famous SNL comedian's stayed.

Trinity Church and Copley Square, downtown Boston

The Boston State House

G'avanni's! In North End, Little Italy

Mike's Pastry -- famous for their cannoli's

Cirque de Soliel

Liv @ Cirque de Soliel

Liv and I have become adept at train systems, (wish we had a larger mass transit in Portland).  We arrived at the Back Bay station in Boston, bought a “Charlie Card” and found our next subway train to take us to our final destination – a hotel in Cambridge.  We got there in no time, Boston is smaller than NYC.  Our hotel was conveniently located right next to a major subway station, which made it easy for us to get around Boston.  At the hotel we slept for a while, showered then went out and took a “Duck” tour.  This is a tour in an amphibious vehicle with an entertaining tour guide/driver.  It was cooler than New York, and raining.

The tour took us all over Boston and some of Cambridge, then we boated up the Charles river for a while and took in the sites of both Boston and Cambridge.  If you’re ever in Boston, we highly recommend this tour.  It was a fun way to get introduced to the historical sites of Boston.

http://www.bostonducktours.com/

Early evening we met up with a friend mine for dinner at the Independent in Somerville, a local bar and restaurant. Good food and drink.

www.theindo.com

We turned in early, looking forward to a day of site seeing in Boston.

Cheers! The bar from the TV show.

Partial skyline of Boston.

Liv's artistic shot of an orphaned river doc leg

We ate or got coffee from this adorable cafe called the Kithenette on 123rd and Amsterdam.  Check it out at:  http://www.kitchenetterestaurant.com/home.html.

Today took us to the Metropolitan Museum of Art: the last thing that was on our list of must-see places.  We took the M3 bus which took us straight to the steps of the Met.  We grabbed our first hot dogs from a street booth and sat on the steps of the Met to eat.  We were serenaded by an acapella singing group, crooning tunes like, “Up on the Roof,” “On the Boardwalk,” and more.   I couldn’t resist buying their CD.

The Met was full of wondrous treasures from around the world.  After leaving, we walked through the neighborhood directly across from the Met.  Nice, upper East Side Brownstones – prime real estate in NYC.  We returned to the apartment to pack.  We had another evening event to squeeze in before we departed – The Moth!  This is a storytelling competition.  It was held at the Housing Works Bookstore & Café.  We arrived early at the bookstore as we were told this event sells out quickly.  You could only by tickets at the door that night.  We stood in line for over an hour, good thing we did because the line built up and wound around the block.  Doors opened at 7pm, the show started at 8pm.  There were 10 storytellers, each story was judged for authenticity, shear entertainment, and if the audience—by the end of the story—care about the storyteller.  Each person shared an intimate story about them selves.  Humor and drama were mixed into each story.  The winner was a quantum physicist who had tried to keep a relationship together by using a stuffed panda bear – guess quantum physicists aren’t much for talking in relationships – or at least this one wasn’t.  Anyway, his story was compelling enough to gain the highest score of the evening.    One of the best stories I’ve heard was from Mike Birbiglia – Sleepwalking.  Liv says her favorite story from The Moth is told by Edgar Oliver, a poet and playwrite who lives in New York.

For sample stories, check out:    http://www.themoth.org

The Moth ended and Liv and I hoofed it to the subway to get back to Harlem, gather our bags, and head to Penn Station for our train.  We met a helpful math teacher named Jack at the subway station.  He had been at the Moth too.  He gave us quick subway directions  and we chatted while we rode the subway together. We parted ways at the platform of the One Red Line: he went to Queens; we went towards the Bronx & Harlem.

At the apartment we finished packing, freshened-up and headed back to the hot and humid subway to catch a train to Penn Station.  Our train left at 2:40am bound for Boston.   Liv and I visited almost every major neighborhood, sometimes more than once, walked about 5- 6 miles a day, and learned the grid system that NYC is so conveniently built upon.  The apartment we rented from Airbnb.com was what we expected – nothing fancy.  It was an okay place to sleep and shower with easy access to busses and subways.

Until next time…good night and thanks, NYC!

Highlight of the Day:  The Moth

The Kitchenette

Sphinxy -- great Egyptian comic strip character!

Olivia studying American sculpture at the Met.

View of NYC on top of the Met Museum!

One of the pastry cases at the Kitchentte -- yum!

Waiting for the Moth...

Our travel party is now again Liv and I.  Wednesday took us back to the East Village we shopped and poked around Broadway and Houston streets.  We lunched, then went to find our Thursday night venue for the Moth storytelling.  It’s a bookstore in Soho called the Housing Works’ Bookstore and Cafe.  This find was a cached treasure of used and rare books, music and movies.   We snagged a couple of gems for ourselves.

http://www.housingworks.org/social-enterprise/bookstore-cafe/

Our next stop was Grand Central Station and the Chrysler Building.  Findin the right subway train to get us there was a bit of a challenge this time.  We chose to hop on the F train which would take us to our destination.  We had to ride the train to the Brooklyn Bridge station, which was going away from Grand Central, but we figured it would ultimately get us there.  Brooklyn Bridge was the last stop on the line, everyone got off but us.  I interpreted the map to indicate we should stay on the F train and it would reverse its direction and start going back up the line to Grand Central.  Hesitation on the subway means you’ve fated yourself to maybe not the right decision.  Liv and I argued if we should get off or stay on…two stubborn girls.  The doors closed and locked before we could get off!  The train sits still for a minute, then starts to move.  Olivia turns and looks at me and says, “this train could stop in the middle of the tunnel and just sit there.”  (There’s no cell service in the subways and you’d better be sure that you’ve made it to a bathroom cause there’s no bathrooms in the subway stations.)  I say to her, “don’t panic.”  We stand there and look at with the “deer in the headlights” look.  We’re thinking we’re stuck here for a while.  I sit and look at the LED display hoping for the next stop is…something flashes across the screen, “REMAIN INSIDE,” there must have been a camera in the car.  We can imagine what entertainment we must have been to the person on the receiving end of the camera.  Two silly broads stuck on the train and starting to panic.  Another message flashes across the display, NEXT STOP, CANAL STREET.  Yes–we were going in the right direction, just as I had thought! Those mometary panic attacks really gets your adrenaline flowing.  Olivia and I laughed so hard at ourselves we had tears of relief dripping down cheeks.

Grand Central Station and the Chrysler Building were definitely grand.  We just don’t build anything like this any more.  One of the last stops we wanted to make was 91st street at Riverside Park.  For those of you who’ve watched “You’ve Got Mail,” this is the place where Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks finally meet each other at the end of the movie.  It’s a beautiful park running along side the Hudson river, full of trees, hills, gardens and people running, jogging, biking, walking.  Truly a lovely spot in the bustle of New York.  We lounged on a park bench in the shade for quite a while.

http://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/riversidepark

Our evening took us to the famous Lenox Lougne, a jazz club in Harlem on Malcom X Blvd and Amsterdam.  We had a great dinner there, drank Harlem Punch while listening to some great jazz with a little blues mixed in.  Couldn’t have topped of this day any better than that.

http://www.lenoxlounge.com/

Highlight of the Day:  Panic Attack on the Subway

Grand Central Station

Flock flowers in Riverside Park

Liv at Riverside Park

Standing in the place where Shopgirl and NY152 met: 91 St. at Riverside Park

Lunch time rolled around and we made our way to Katz Deli in the East Village.  This is a famous deli with yummy food and servers that like to flirt.  It is famous also for the deli scene from “Harry Met Sally.”  There is even a sign hanging from the ceiling with an arrow pointing to the exact spot of where the scene was filmed and says, “I hope you’ve had what she had!”  Sweet.  Their pastrami was to die for.

http://www.katzdeli.com/

In the early evening Liv and I went to “Promises Promises”, a revived Broadway musical.  It was entertaining; sets, music and costumes were well done.  We ate a late dinner at a diner with outside seating, right on Broadway.  Beats driving home to Wilsonville after a show.

http://ppc.broadway.com/shows/promises-promises/

Highlight of the Day:  Katz Deli.  Pictures of famous people on the walls.  Seeing Mr. Katz himself and flirting with the server.

Katz Deli in the East Village

After that we trekked towards mid-town for lunch.  I broke off from the group and had lunch by myself in Bryant Park, next to the New York Public Library.  After lunch we dropped Kelly and Molly off at the Port Authority and ventured onto Pier 83 for our 3-hour site-seeing tour around the island of New York.  This was a relaxing, entertaining and informative tour.

http://www.circleline42.com/new-york-cruises.aspx

Once back on land we headed to Brooklyn for dinner and a walk across the Brooklyn bridge.  We took the train across the Manhattan bridge and landed in Brooklyn.  Getting off the train we got a great restaurant tip from a local guy, called Jack’s Rice — Asian fusion food.  It was the best meal we’ve had so far.  After dinner Becki & Chelsea headed back to Harlem and Liv and I walked the Brooklyn bridge.  Had quite the wild cab ride and walk to get to the Brooklyn bridge, but we finally figured it out.  It was a spectacular walk.  We got home around 1:30am.  (We’re keeping late hours ever since we arrived.  Too much fun to be had!)

Jack’s Rice:  www.riceny.com

As promised pix from Monday.

Highlight of the day:  Walking across Brooklyn Bridge with Olivia

Yes, had to get the tourist shot of the Guggenheim ceiling!

Artwork from Jack Rice's restaurant in Brooklyn

Walking across Brooklyn Bridge

Me & Liv on Brooklyn Bridge with Manhattan Skyline...

Liv geting artsy with her photography.

We started off with breakfast at the Kitchenette.  http://www.kitchenetterestaurant.com/

Hopped on a bus that took us to Time Square again to visit MoMA.  Saw Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” and an exhibit on Maya Deren a ground-breaking female film maker.   http://www.moma.org/

After MoMA we met up with Kelly, another one of Olivia’s girlfriends from her India group.  She traveled into the city from near Pittsburgh, PA.  It was lunch time, so we found a nearby deli ate, then moved onto Central Park for a stroll down the Literary Walk for Liv.  We found so much more…Central Park could be a person who has ADD or ADHD dream or nightmare.  There is something different happening every 50 feet –so much diversity.  We saw, remote control minature sailboats, walked the Mall and found this incredible fountain, music–all sorts:  drum circles, flutes, choral groups with chamber music, guitars, people roller-blading, biking, hiking, jogging, walking, pedicabs and horse drawn carriages, weddings and engagement photo shoots, and much more.  Tonight we opted for dinner back in Harlem at El Tina’s.  A local hole-in-the-wall serving Dominican Republic food.  Had fried plantain’s for the first time, shimmed and swayed in our chairs to the latin music playing and cracked each other up.  We were again the minority in this small, local hangout, but we were very welcomed and had a blast mixing it up with the locals.

Highlight of the day — really, I have two:  First, hearing a small family choral group sing Bach’s Canon in D and Ava Marie, accompanied by strings; a cello and two violins.  The scene was in a tunnel inside Central Park, decked out with arches, baroque style moldings and painted ceilings overlooking the fountain and lake where the row boats filled with couples and families were floating.  And…a guy throwing up hugh soap bubleThere are moments in time where you pierce through the veil…this was one of them for me.

Second, watching Liv, Molly and Chelsea spontaneously joing dancing in a drum circle, again, in Central Park.  It lasted for almost 30 minutes.

Sailboats in Central Park

Olivia, Molly, Kelly & Chelsea in Central Park

Bubbles at Fountain, Central Park

Rollerblader in Central Park near Shakespear Ampitheatre

Molly, Chelsea & Liv Dancing in Drum Circle

Drum Circlel @ Central Park

Had to throw this pic up before I hit the sack.  Best pic from the whole day!

Off to bed for me, more to come on Day 3…

Olivia and Molly, just couldn't resist a little toying with Johnny Depp!

I’m back.  Day three brought us more fun:  Molly from Ithaca, NY.  She was in Olivia’s India group.  Time Square, New York Public Library, Rockafeller Center, Atlas scuplture, St. Patrick’s Cathedral (with a wedding in progress); Radio City Music Hall, Iced coffee on Avenue of the America’s, Washington Square and topped it off with a visit to the Village Lantern a comedy club and the Garage Jazz club both in Greenwich Village.  Food was okay today, ate a some interesting local places.  We’re getting really good with using the bus and subway systems.

Highlight of the Day:  Tick and  Tack the street players.

Love this imaginary.  This building is across from St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the window is just above the Atlas sculpture.

Washington Square in Greenwich Village (The East Village)

Glo, Live, Molly, Chelsea & Becki in Washington Square

Tick & Tack Street Players @ Washington Square

Olivia and I head out to find breakfast.  We land in a neighborhood deli, grab some food and off we go down 123rd street hoping to catch a bus down to the Frick Collection:   http://www.frick.org/

It’s remarkable at how many churches there are in Harlem.  In just the few short blocks we walked, we saw at least a dozen churces, big and small, and all different denominations.  The neighborhoods are made up of the Brownstone row houses, all with stoops to gather on.  Olivia and I both liked the way all of this humanity was condensed into such close quarters, and all on this little island called New York.   As opposed to somewhere like LA or Chicago, which are so spread out.

Our walk took us to Malcom X Boulevard.  There must have been a lot of history about this street as we kept seeing the double-decker tour buses moving up and down the street.  We find our bus and hop on for a cool ride.  Weather here is hot, but not unbearable.  We make it to the Frick Collection and puruse through in a couple of hours.   Leaving there we cross the street and duck into Central Park for a tree-lined walk.

http://www.centralparknyc.org/

Central Park is beautiful;  hilly and more trees than I had remembered.  Lots of people out and about playing, sunning, touring, etc.  Liv and I find a shaded bench with a view and relax.  While there, Olivia gets a call.  Chelsea and Becki are in town.  Chelsea is Olivia’s friend from her India trip, Becki is Chelsea’s mom.  They are joining us for a few days in NYC.  We hoof it across Central Park to jump on the bus headed down Amsterdam street towards Harlem.  The girls are waiting for us near the apartment.

Reaching Harlem about 30 minutes later, we find Becki and Chelsea and get them settled.  After a couple of hours of chilling we head for downtown near the Financial District, to Pier 17 for a music live festival and some dinner.  We find both.  Music was okay, but the view from our restaurant was spectacular.  Overlooked the Hudson Bay and the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges.  Check it out.  While eating dinner the sun went down and we saw the city and bridges light up!  We finish up the night with a visit to the top of the Empire State building.  The Empire State building was our least favorite experience.  Felt kind of like a Disneyland ride, waiting in lines and merchandising, yuck.  But Liv took some stunning pics.

Liv and Me at Pier 17

Brooklyn Bridge before Sundown and from our outside dining table

Chrysler Building from top of Empire State Building

NYC from top of Empire State Building

Our first day of travel was good.  Started from PDX in early morning hours, had a layover at O’Hara.  At O’Hara, we met Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova from the movie Once.  Their band is called the Swell Season.  A chance meeting, but delighful.   Olivia and I are huge fans.

Check out their music:  http://www.myspace.com/theswellseason

We landed at LaGuardia airport in the early evening.  Ready for action.  Our bus ride from LaGuardia was a dive into diversity.  At least four different languages spoken on the bus, and the landscape was surprisingly beautiful.  The sun was beginning to set over Mahattan and the water of the Hudson river sparkeled.   A couple of mishaps leaving LaGuardia, our bag was delayed — a good thing as it turns out.  We didn’t have to shlep it around while we were finding our apartment, which turns out to be near the heart of Harlem.  We got off the bus too soon and found ourselves in an area that was a little sketchy – we got directions from a NYFD station.  We got back on the bus and headed down the road.  Olivia and I were curious  what neighborhood we were in.  We got our answer from a sign hanging from a bridge, “Welcome Harlem Children.”  Shortly after that I sited the Apollo Theater.  Olivia and I felt a rush of excitement and anticipation.  We were exactly where we wanted to be!  We jump off the bus at 125th street and Morningside and walk to our apartment taking it all in.  The air is hot and muggy, just as we expected.

We find our place, walk up four flights of stairs in a narrow stairwell with old exposed brick, marble stairs and old wood banisters.  Our key fits the lock of the apartment, yeah, we’re in.   We settled in quickly, unpack then went out into the night to find some dinner.  Walking the streets of Harlem was almost like a Norman Rockwell picture.  People out on their stoops talking, kids playing in the streets, it was surprisingly quiet.  Olivia and I spot a 24-hour small grocery store, we plug that into our heads for later.  Walking past a church, folks out on the steps, we stop to ask for a  local dinner where we could find a burger and fries.  “Well,” they say…”no burger and fries, but beyond that,we recommend Miss Mama’s Spoonbread restaurant.”  We walk a little further down and find our place that serves Southern cuisine.  We had the best southern fried chicken, meatloaf, collard greens and potatoes ever, with fresh squeezed lemonade and fresh homemade peach cobbler.  It was perfect.

We enjoy the walk home, buy some groceries and feel completely at home.  (At least I did, Liv had to work on it a bit.)  We found our pillows about midnight and drifted off to sleep, dreaming of what’s to come.