Getting our Bearings around The Big Apple

This is our hotel, 79 Park Hotel, on the upper West Side.  The towels and room are clean and in good repair, and the bed is pretty good, as are the pillows.  It's a bit far away from the Midtown action, which explains the price point.  As Dad says, life is a series of trade-offs.

 

I like seeing all the different doorways as we walk down to breakfast, plus ART!  What a wonderful thing to see all over the place.  This crow sculpture is on Broadway, and according to the sign, some variants are found all the way down.

Zabar's for breakfast, where we talked to a local about pizza, bagels, the price of bagels, and the Occupy Wall Street protests planned for today.

Cream cheese with a lightly toasted bagel. The guy's toasting skills are above average--I loved it.

We walked into Central Park, seeing placards on benches (it's raining). . .

. . . a fence around the Shakespeare garden . . . 

 . . . and the names of the gates (entrances) into the park.  Here are only three: Hunter's Gate, Children's Gate and Scholar's Gate.

Belvedere Castle, not yet open.

We pop through into the East side of the island, and start walking down Fifth Avenue.

Ta Da!  The Apple Store.  As usual, I am compelled to go in.  As usual, I have no idea what to do there once I am inside.  Back home I say hi to one of Peter's friends, but this time all we did was give an extra charge to our phones, then went next door to FAO Schwartz, then continued down the avenue.

 

It's lunchtime for Chad and we meet him down by the Rockefeller Center, and head up to his lair in the clouds (33rd floor), where these billboards flash day and night and day and night.

We walk by the Christmas Tree, still in scaffolding, being trimmed and clipped, in preparation for the holiday season.

He heads back to work, and we walk (in the rain) to find lunch, passing by this colorfully lit tree at Radio City Music Hall.  In another life, I'm going to someday see the Rockettes perform.  Doesn't look like it will be this trip.

We wander into Anthropologie, where they do interesting things with basic items, like this flourescent tube sculptury thing.  They were working on the holiday windows and some of the items I saw werre tin foil, clear straws, and scotch tape (being used to fog in the window, below).

Next up was the MOMA, where we did the Express version: in and out in 75 minutes.  We thought it was a good place to go to get out of the rain.  So did every other tourist in Manhattan.  It was swamped.

I always love Dan Flavin's work (above) and the Jasper Johns piece below made me think of my daughter-in-law, Kim, who loves this painting of his.

I was intrigued by the special exhibit they had on print and the graphic arts, but it was a quick once over and we were done.

Back out in the rain, we head down to Times Square to meet Chad.

Stopped only by this temple to consumerism: the M & M store--a whole store with the narrative centered around a small circular candy-coated piece of chocolate.  I succumbed when I saw that you could make a mix of your own colors.  Always tempted by color (certainly not by the flavor--funny how I used to love them so), I made a couple of small mixes to take home.

We picked up Chad, then headed back out into the rain to eat at a shop in the base of 30 Rock: Rockefeller Center.  These paintings are in the lobby.

Then across the street to the Lego store.  The logo over the doorway is an imitation of the one over the doorways of the Rockefeller Center. Clever.

Daylight shot taken a couple of days later for clarity.

Artsy night shot.

I know all these shots are mostly too dark, but it was night.  And raining. (Did I mention that?)

One of the things that always intrigues me is when I see murals/paintings, etc. trying to represent abstract ideals, such as "Thought" like this one is.  

And a butterfly mosaic on the walls of the subway tunnel near the Natural History Museum, as we arrive home.

 

We played this electronic game all day, trying to check-in different places and we tried to be at the top of the Leaderboard.  When I hit it, at the Lego store, I quickly took a photo to prove my dominance.  It only lasted a brief moment, but what fun for this old lady.