What Did We Do in New York, You Ask?

Perhaps you've seen some sketches or pictures of our New York trip and thought, I wonder what else they did? Well, here's a list:

1. Rode the subway.
2. Walked in the rain in Chinatown - bottom of my pants got soaked but oh well.
3. Went to Jing Fong on Elizabeth Street for great dim sum, great atmosphere. They seat you at communal tables, where everyone who has already eaten gives you pointers on what to get and how to get it. This place has the carts of dishes that ladies bring by your table for you to pick what you want, but it is also acceptable to go hunt down a particular cart if it hasn't made it by your table.
4. Bought candy that I will draw but will never eat from a Chinatown candy store.
5. Went to the Guggenheim, the outside of which is looking lovely these days, for the Frank Lloyd Wright show, but it was soooo crowded, because it was Saturday, and there was a Frank Lloyd Wright show. Walked up 2 blocks to Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum. We'd never been there before, it was much less crowded, housed in the Carnegie Mansion, and had an interesting exhibit that paired designers with makers of natural materials around the world (wool, wood, I can't remember what else).
6. Looked for a restaurant called the Beer Bar for dinner and, well, beer (for T), but it was closed. On a Saturday night? Went instead to Fonda del Sol and ate and ate and ate. It was a perfect way to spend a Saturday night.
7. Had breakfast at the Applejack Diner.
8. Took the subway to Brooklyn to go to the Brooklyn Flea, which was advertised as being "under the Brooklyn Bridge." You wouldn't think the Brooklyn Bridge would be so hard to find, but we had a bit of a difficult time. When we finally got there, there were fewer vendor than expected because everyone thought it was going to rain. There were also no food vendors, which was a disappointment, but I did buy an awesome dark-blue dress (to add to my collection of dark-blue dresses, on the purchase of which there is now a moratorium), and random snapshots to paint from.
9. Rested. Ahh.
10. Took a looooong subway ride up to Washington Heights to visit Cousin Joe Jr. (actually 1st cousin once removed, if anyone cares.) Had a FABULOUS evening enjoying the view from his terrace, enjoying the wonderful food he cooked us, enjoying all of the wine he had in his house, and most of all enjoying the conversation.
11. Took a gypsy cab back to the hotel. Our driver didn't know where Grand Central Station was, first suggesting that we wanted to go to Queens, then attempting to deposit us at the Port Authority Bus Terminal, which is at least also on 42nd. We found this hilarious.
    
12. Poor T went to a conference.
13. I went to Battery Park, roaming around with an impaired sense of direction until I found the Museum of Jewish Heritage and saw a wonderful exhibit on the writer Irene Nemirovsky. It was one of the best non-visual-art exhibits I've ever seen. It was interesting, moving, and just generally well put-together. I cried, I sketched, I bought a book of the exhibit.
14. Overcame the grief of that exhibit by shopping! Scored at Anthropologie, swore off H&M for good (because I'm not 16).
15. Still exhausted from Saturday and Sunday, T and I took it easy and went to the Stage Deli for dinner. It's hard to pay that much for sandwiches, but dang they are good, and they have excellent knishes.
16. T had to go to the conference again, poor guy.
17. I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art all day. Here's what I did there: 1) Pictures Generation exhibit looked very much like art school. 2) Model as Muse exhibit - I wrote in my sketchbook "kinda gross". 3) Sped through the Bacon exhibit - apparently it was about Francis Bacon and not bacon, which was disappointing - here's what I wrote down about it: "too many teeth." 4) Love the new atrium in the American Wing. 5) Love the new gallery under the grand staircases. 5) Enjoyed the Roxy Paine installation in the roof garden. 6) Loved the new Oceanic gallery.
    
18. Upper east side for dinner - excellent pizza. Didn't mean to travel that far for pizza, but it was good. Followed up with some Tasty-D-Lite.
19. Breakfast at Pershing Square - finally! I've been wanting to eat there the past couple of visits. The food did not live up to my expectations, but it is super cute in there.
20. Morgan Library - so neat! The actual library part was very interesting, and the exhibits were good, too. An exhibit of newly acquired pieces included: 1) a letter from TS Eliot - very funny, 2) pictures of Mark Twain that he added self-depricating captions to, 3) some sketch books, including one of Degas's, 3) an incomplete illuminated manuscript with a sketch of what was to be painted, 4) snapshots with detailed descriptions of a driving trip of Europe, by William Randolph Hearst, 5) lots of other fascinating stuff.
21. Went to the airport early enough to grab a couple of Nathan's Famous hot dogs for lunch.