Things I learned:
- Manhattan has the best food ever. Within a few block radius from Kim & Nathaniel's new place, one can enjoy the following unique delights, among dozens of other options: a tea sandwich or panino (singular of panini) from 'ino, a variety of delicious open-faced toasts from Blue Ribbon Bakery (or a delicious full brunch a few doors down at the full-size restaurant of the same name), various seafood from the new "urban" beach shack Ditch Plains (from 7 am til 2 am), delectable cream puffs from Beard Papa's, and even breakfast from the ever-reliable McDonald's, which brings me to my next point...
- McDonald's serves breakfast until 11 am. At least the location on the corner of Houston and Varick does. I could have sworn the cutoff was a universal 10:30, but sure enough, at 10:55 on Sunday morning, ever-so-slightly hungover and in desperate need of a bacon, egg and cheese biscuit and hash brown, I rolled into the the Mickey D's on the corner in my pajamas, and to my delight I still saw all the breakfast sandwiches on the display window. I even got to see the diligent McDonald's employee turn the menu crank at 11 o'clock sharp to switch to the burger lineup. Perhaps it is a New York thing? Or is it just a Sunday thing? I need to do some follow-up research to get to the bottom of the breakfast hour. Either that or McDonald's can just start serving their full menu all day.. that'd be much easier.
- The new Fifth Avenue Apple Store is cool, but probably much more "oooh" and "ahhh"-worthy at night. The inside is not so spectacular, and in fact the SoHo store with its large classroom/presentation area is much more impressive. This is not to say I wasn't extremely excited about experiencing a little Charlie & the Chocolate Factory moment and riding in the great glass elevator at the new location.
- New Yorkers are nuts. We spent a few hours in Madison Square Park on Saturday for a big barbecue fest featuring lots of different BBQ experts from around the country, all selling $7 platters of their special recipes to any person willing to wait in a 2-hour+ line. That's right, on a relatively chilly and breezy June day, the park was packed with people who spent their whole afternoon for a single plate of BBQ that they probably could have gotten at a local restaurant for a fraction of the time. (Granted, I was there, but we had the luxury of waiting in the "fast" lines with our prepaid food pass, so we may be crazy, but not that crazy.)
- Speaking of lines, it seems everywhere you go you have to wait, but everyone is more than willing to do it. My two-day experience in Madison Square Park provided strong evidence to support this. On the Friday of my arrival, I waited at 2:30 in the afternoon in a fairly decent line for the chance to try a popular Shake Shack burger. As far as I understand, you either think this is the best burger in the city or the most overrated. I personally found it very delicious (although at that point I would have eaten a Tootsie Roll and loved it), in the same style of Cali's In-N-Out burgers, perfect with a side of crinkle cut french fries and melted cheese, and a cold and delicious chocolate milkshake to wash it all down. What made this experience even better is that when we were back in the park on Saturday for the BBQ extravaganza, we waited in that long line again for more milkshakes and more crinkle cut fries. Ok, maybe I shouldn't be calling New Yorkers so crazy; it's the damn tourists like me who cause all the problems...
- Just because Jake Gyllenhaal and Natalie Portman may have been spotted at a certain West Village establishment by some Paparazzi and pictured in a current issue of a popular celebrity magazine, it does not mean you will necessarily see them out at the same venue on a Saturday night. In fact, you probably won't. Ever. But it's still fun to try and stalk celebrities, though you usually end up seeing them strolling the sidewalk in their sweatpants when you least expect it.
- Finally, and this is for any of you who have never taken the DC-NY $35 round-trip bus: a reservation means nothing. From my personal experience, the policy for boarding the bus is absolutely, no-exceptions, first come, first serve. If you have a reservation number, you can present it to the bus people, if only to make yourself feel better and for them to feel like there's actually a method to their madness, but in the end, if you're past the cut off when they start doing a headcount for who will fit on the bus and who won't, if you have a reservation and the dude in front of you does not, it doesn't matter 'cause he got there first. Makes plenty of sense, huh? (Kinda reminds me of Larry David on Curb Your Enthusiasm and the outrage he expressed about his doctor's office policy to treat people according to the order they arrived and not by appointment time.)
- Oh, one last thing. Since I took Friday off and was able to spend a full weekday in the city, here is my question: Who are all these people in New York and what do they do? I mean, I know a heck of a lot of people who do work normal (and ridiculous) hours, but what about those people who are always outside? The thing about New York that always amazes me is that at any hour of the day on almost any given street, there seem to be so many people outside, whether they're eating, walking their dog, chatting on their cell phone, or just hanging out. Restaurants are always packed, and there are always tons of people leisurely dining and shopping. Are they actors? Models? Musicians? Rich bums? Workers on the overnight shift? I wish I knew. Ok, so maybe this doesn't count as a "thing I learned," but I'm still curious... I guess that's why everyone loves New York so much. So diverse, so busy, so mysterious.
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