Whoops, I forgot to log anything yesterday. I was busy!
October 6
- Got up, had protein shake and meds
- Met Kathryn for breakfast at Gracie Mews Diner on the recommendation of my Airbnb host; it was lovely
- Took a solo jaunt up to the Cloisters, first by taking the bus to Broadway and 86th and then hopping on the A train up to 190th Street
This trip involved taking the bus! I finally successfully rode a bus.
- Wandered around the garden and park for hours
- Actually got to the Cloisters itself; it was closed but I took photos of the outside
- Walked back to the front of the park
This doesn’t look like much but it was so much walking! The garden—which is called Heather Garden, by the way—was utterly gorgeous, and I took about a bazillion photos. The rest of the park is huge, with trails everywhere, and there are some really steep inclines and a lot of stairs. The park is the site of a former fort, Fort Tryon, and you can wander around overlooks made of stone, and it’s beautiful. The Cloisters building itself is also lovely.
- Ate dinner at New Leaf, a restaurant on the park grounds
Dinner was great; I asked them to make it without salt and they did! It was half a chicken, roasted, with carrot and asparagus couscous. For dessert I had three scoops of ice cream: chocolate, lemon, and basil. So good. At the end I thankfully remembered to take my meds. The sun had long since set by the time I finished eating, and it had gotten fairly chilly; I was happy to get back down to the climate-controlled subway.
By the way, the subway stop in front of Fort Tryon Park is so cool! The building looks so neat, with a big wood door and metal gates and such, and you have to ride a huge elevator way down to get to the trains.
- Rode the subway back into town, this time to 59th Street
- Took a different bus across Central Park to stop by and say goodnight to Kathryn
- Walked back to the Airbnb, stopping along the way for some mint Milano cookies
- Ate cookies and drank hot tea
- Took supplements and went to bed
October 7
- Got up around 8am, had protein shake, took meds
- Showered and got dressed
- Met Kathryn at Cafe Luka; she had a burger and I had a chicken sandwich
They gave me enough chicken for three people. I cut off what I wanted to eat and put that inside the seven-grain bread with one slice of tomato and some of the massive lettuce leaf, and left the rest on my plate. We shared my fries, which were good.
- Took the train with Kathryn down to Grand Central
- Took photos of the main terminal area that everyone takes pictures of
- Went to the Transit Museum Annex and saw the etiquette sign exhibit
This was so fun. In addition to New York signage, there were signs from around the world. There was also a loop of TV ads running, including a bizarre and hilarious and morbid one from Australia, Dumb Ways to Die. The gift shop had a ton of subway-themed stuff, but I didn’t find anything I really, really wanted, so we left with no purchases. (I was drawn to a collection of old subway tokens, but I’m not sure where I would put them.) Next door there was a store selling unique gifts, so we went in there and looked around too. Kathryn got herself some cute Alice in Wonderland stickers :)
While we were in the area we walked over to the UPS distribution center to pick up a package I had sent to Kathryn, only to discover that it was on the truck being delivered. Argh. Lots of walking for nothing. However, we did see a few New York City Comic Con cosplayers, at least.
We were both quite tired at this point so we went back to our respective apartments.
- Poked around online
- Met up with Kathryn again at our usual sushi place
- Remembered to take my meds!
- Walked over to a little bakery with Kathryn and had cute little cakes
- Back to the Airbnb whee
- Went to bed at 12:30am