New York City

So earlier this month, I flew out to NYC to visit Shari and Jen.

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Friday - Flushing

I flew out on Friday afternoon and landed in LaGuardia, where Jen picked me up and we went to a park in Flushing where the World Fair was held.

We waited until Shari got off work and then met up with her for bubble tea and dinner. After wandering around for a bit, we decided to have hotpot. :-)
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Saturday - NYC (Manhattan)

Early on Saturday, I left for NYC with Jen where we met up with Shari at Penn Station. We walked for a bit, got some bread, and then sat in the middle of Times Square to eat.

After we ate, we went to the M&M Factory before heading over to Columbus Circle and then walked around in Central Park.

M&M Factory

Columbus Circle

Once we exited out the east side of Central Park, we sauntered over to Shari's apartment and the hospital where she works (with the ridiculous spiral staircase).

Then we headed down Manhattan to East Village for falafels and frozen yogurt. Along the way, we crossed The Cube (apparently it's called Alamo) that looks exactly like The Cube at UM-Ann Arbor (because it was made by the same person). We ended this round at McSorley's, one of the oldest pubs if not the oldest.

We then power-walked over to Washington Square Park where we met up with Jen's dad and brother. We enjoyed a couple hours of street entertainers there, including a contortionist guy and Tic & Tac.

Washington Square Park

Street performer in a box.

Tic & Tac

We had dinner at Katz's and walked to Chinatown afterwards for rice pudding before heading to a train station back to Jen's house. It amused me how Chinatown had expanded and cannibalized the surrounding area, including most of Little Italy.
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Sunday - Brooklyn

On Sunday, Shari, Jen, and I went to Green-Wood Cemetery. We saw such features as:

Green-Wood Cemetery entrance

Battle of Long Island monument

Altar to Liberty - Statue of Minerva looking at the Statue of Liberty

Leonard Bernstein's grave

Hillside Mausoleum

Once we finished up looking around Green-Wood Cemetery, we headed over to Grimaldi's Pizzeria for lunch under the Brooklyn Bridge.

Next, we went to Red Hook for key lime pie (clearly this trip to NYC centered around food, lol). We got a nice view of the Ikea ferry passing near the Statue of Liberty.

Then we found some street vendors and bought pupusas (or rather, Jen and I got pupusas, since Shari didn't like it).

After stopping by Jen's aunt's birthday party (where I proceeded to feel quite out-of-place), we went to Brighton Beach and walked along the beach to Coney Island.

Phew! And that concludes my trip to NYC!!
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Backlog: 08-06-10 to 08-08-10