View from statue of liberty

Chapter One. He was as tough and romantic as the city he loved.

Like the rest of the world, things don’t really open until at least 9 on Saturday.  I actually had trouble finding a coffee shop to work in (I was out of the hotel at 7), but eventually found a place to get some work done.

New York Public Library

Tim had been wanting to check out this building all week (the giant one on 5th and 42nd), so we did.  There were some big rooms with lots of books in them.  Cool ceilings.

Central Park

Mid-February probably isn’t the best time to be wandering around Central Park, but I’ve never been so I thought it would be a relaxing way to round out the trip.  So we walked around a lot.  It’s a very popular place for people to run outside, as there was an endless stream of people jogging the primary routes.  Also, there were a ton of crappy runners.  Maybe they’re all just getting back in shape (probably one of the first “run outside” days of the year), but seriously, kind of pathetic.

We made a couple circles, and passed the same junction by The Lake twice.  The first time it was a couple breaking up, and the second time it was a couple who seemed to be in that blissful honeymoon period of actually being interested in what the other has to say.

Alice in Wonderland Statue – Central park was just forked path after forked path, but we didn’t have a particular destination in mind so it didn’t matter which way we went.  We stumbled upon this bronze rock draped in children.

Belvedere Castle – This is NOT a vodka castle.  Kind of misleading, but the views were nice despite not serving alcohol.

Loeb Boathouse – I think he and Leopold killed someone for fun here based on some kind of misguided Nietzschean philosophy.

Great Lawn – I thought it was OK. Should be called the OK Lawn. But it was winter.

Strawberry Fields – Again, it’s winter.  Not the best time to visit central park. There were no strawberries.  Plus this never even hit #1 in the US. I guess it sounds more appropriate for Central Park than “I am the Walrus” though.

Shakespeare Park – My brother a few moments after walking through the park and statues: “Who wrote The Tempest?”

Serafina Fabulous Pizza

Thin crust pizza on Madison avenue.  It was expensive and mediocre.  After realizing this, I started eating it with a fork and knife as a form of nonviolent protest.

And then we left. Jumped on the Subway back to Penn Station and then the NJ transit to get back to where our car was parked.  I left the GPS plugged in so the battery on our car was dead, but someone jumped us which was really nice.  I acted like I knew what I was doing but almost electrocuted myself.  But I didn’t which is great because while I haven’t given my death much thought, I’m pretty sure I don’t want it to happen in a New Jersey parking garage.

Despite my limited sleep I didn’t get tired on the 6 hour drive back, so that was nice.  We did stop once and I got 10 Timbits which were probably like 5 hours old.  Almost got 10 chocolate glazed, but at the last minute switched to 5 apple and 5 chocolate glazed.

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