Rain and Samantha's Excellent Adventure: NYC

Rain: Phew, so much stuff in the last 48 hours! We've certainly been having a wonderful time. On Friday night we participated in the wonderful closing ceremony of the Family & Friends conference at Ferry Beach and then spent a good portion of the last night there on the beach. I hung out all night with my friends there chatting and playing music waiting for the sun to rise, with a bit of a nap here and there... Sam and I caught the beautiful sunrise over the Atlantic ocean and then slept for a few more hours before heading down to Jersey. It was so nice to see all of the people I know and love at the beach, and I can't wait to go back next year. Hopefully, if plans go well, I might actually get to see a few of them again on the roadtrip! After we stopped at a seafood place that came highly recommended by locals and both had our first lobster rolls (delicious). The drive to Jersey took awhile because I'm not always so good with the directions, and I'm really new at driving standard... yeahhhhhh. By new, I mean it was my first full day ever. Highlight was probably when I stalled out at an intersection somewhere in Maine and then took about 7 failed attempts at re-starting and some helpful passersby telling me to "just put more gas on it!" before deciding that it might be better if Sam drove for awhile. I think I'm getting better though! We got into a near accident on the NY highway when some car came screeching to a halt in front of us and the car died when we had to stop so quickly, but I got us out of there again with no cars hitting other cars :).

We got to my Uncle Tommy and Aunt Pilar's house in NJ last night, and we spent all day exploring New York City with them and their kids today. One of the main themes of this trip is turning out to be trying all of the delicious local food everywhere, which I love. We went to a sushi/korean restaurant last night, and I tried a popular dish called Bibimbap for the first time (it was quite yummy, which is more than Sam might say about what she had). Then my aunt and uncle took us to a few more great places today. We had lunch at the Famous Katz's Deli in Manhattan and got the classic Pastrami on Rye. The place was insane, with tons of people and signs and lines and security guards all over the place. The sandwich was phenomenal though, and the celery soda (picture below) that I had with it was also odd but good. After that we went next door to a gelateria and I tried lemon-basil and lychee flavored sorbets (which were also delicious). We got to see some of the lower east side, chinatown, little italy, and the financial district. We went to the 9/11 memorial at ground zero, which neither Sam nor I had been to before. On a bit more of a somber note for a minute- the memorial was beautiful. I actually got a bit teary-eyed at one point... on the walls of the security room were pictures from all around the world right after that day when people in other countries gathered at vigils in solidarity with the United States. It was so touching to see people from places where the US doesn't always have the best political relations with, or stereotypes of (France, Russia, a few Middle Eastern countries) showing that none of that mattered and that at the most basic level, we are all simply human and we can stand together and have compassion for each other. It also made me wish that we spent more time aiming towards that togetherness than focusing on divisive things...

But back to fun things. After we left ground zero, we hoofed it back to the Lower East Side right in time for a nice summer thunderstorm, and another delicious meal at a Mexican restaurant. My dad met up with us for dinner and I was very excited that I got to see him because I hadn't really gotten to say goodbye before the trip started in Vermont. All in all it was a long and fun day, and I'm very glad that I got to spend time with some of my family here. They have been wonderfully hospitable to us, and although I'll be glad to see friends on the next part of the trip, I'll also be sad to leave here.

Samantha: Hi all! NYC was great, and Rain's family here is wonderfully hospitable and fun. The drive down here felt a lot shorter than 7 hours, and Rain handled driving my standard really well in heavy traffic, even with a close call on the highway. As she mentioned above, our journey is evolving into a food venture, and I'm quite all right with that. I had an unorthodox variety of sushi involving banana and cream cheese just to see what that was like...at least I know now how much I like traditional dishes. Our day in the city was a fun exploration of local stores and restaurants, to counter my previous and only other visit to NYC (it rained then, too, but we were in those incredible museums most of the time). I think my favorite part was walking through Chinatown, particularly the musicians playing in the park. Katz' was amazing, I'm really pleased I got to have that classic pastrami sandwich with homemade pickles, it mmmmperfectyah. I definitely understood why the place was completely packed. Dessert followed at a chic-modern gelato spot - I had Thai chili chocolate and bourbon pecan, delightful!

As we walked, I photographed as much of the street art and graffiti as I could. There are some well known pieces in the pictures that follow, as well as some eye-catching tags. I think graffiti will be my new favorite way to look at a city. Speaking of graffiti, check me out in front of Physical Graffitea (because it's awesome). In one small park that we walked through, there were several sculptures, including a 100 ft tall inflated ketchup bottle. There was also a young man sitting on a bench wearing what looked like fit-overs for glasses, toting several suitcases and a sign that read "Is anybody wearing a green hat?" He looked like an activist or maybe a performer, but we had to keep moving before I could ask him what he wanted with folks in green hats.

As Rain said before, we went to the Memorial. I couldn't leave NYC without visiting it. The same melee of confusion and hurt and "But why?" I had when I was eleven came back fresh when we entered the memorial. The pools that have been constructed at the sites of the towers are incredible, beautiful, endless, serene, somber, fitting. The way the water gently slipped over the edge into the seemingly bottomless center pool was soothing, just perfect. The new tower is nearly complete.

All in all, a very satisfying day in NYC.

Here's the second batch of pictures including some from our departure from Ferry beach:

toothpick magic at Ferry Beach

Hooking art at Ferry Beach

The wallet Brittany Lavery made for me (Samantha)

almost-full moon over the ocean

sunrise over the bay

the moon at sunrise

Lamp I do want at Huot's in Maine (Samantha)

Delicious stuffed clams for lunch at Huot's followed by....

lobster roll!

happy campers! LOOK AT RAIN DRIVING A STANDARD

neat clouds over the Tappan Zee bridge

59th street bridge? yup

tram to roosevelt island

farmer's market in Manhattan

neat mural on the Lower East Side

Katz's Pastrami on Rye

celery soda

lead singer of the New York Dolls (this one is for Joslyn)

The Stillers! I immediately imagined Jerry Stiller throwing some kind of fit and Ben Stiller responding in a Zoolanderesque way, so I was amused.

Lol Terminator-eyed Mike Tyson

It's Samantha/Keanu Reeves!

Super busy place!

Oh Hi mister, don't mind us, we're just taking pictures in your way while you try to work.

they really, really want you to

Gelato with Rain's family

Fuzzy Cecile the Travelling Beagle at Katz's

Look, I was there

So was Rain

Lenin statue downtown... whooda thunk?

so many gummy worms!

and lollipop!

and candy everywhere!

it's like the costco of candy. seriously.

nifty coffee-making machines.

Rain thought at first that this said "Taqueria" and then got so much more excited when she realized what it really said. Future career? Very possibly.