New York City, October 2007

Thursday, 10.4.07

First off, I've never been to New York. I feel like this admission excuses any ill-formed impressions or factual errors or god forbid misidentification of a neighborhood.

Anyhoo.

New York! What an amazing city. I went in with high expectations, and the Big Apple met and surpassed them--and this without even laying eyes on the Statue of Liberty. The excuse for the trip was an amazing rock show on Randall's Island on Saturday 10.6 (Arcade Fire, LCD Soundsystem, Les Savy Fav, Blonde Redhead, yeah I know I know!), but Cathy and I had been wanting to visit for a while anyway. We planned a long weekend (almost a week) around the show, and we stayed with friends Heidi and Michael up in Inwood, the northernmost area of Manhattan.

We flew in to LaGuardia on Thursday afternoon. We hopped a bus at the airport and took the bus to 125th (in Harlem) where we switched to a subway. The A Train took us all the way to 207th, where we got off.

It was moving toward evening, and we were hungry, so good thing right out of the subway entrance and across the street from our friends' apartment was Grandpa's Pizza, where we scored a slice of fresh mozz and basil before we even got rid of our bags.

Great pizza. It wouldn't be the last time we ate there.

Michael let us up; their apartment was downright spacious from everything I've heard about housing in New York, with a full bedroom off in the back, a decent galley kitchen, and a large room divided into office space and dining space, connected by French doors at the rear to another room, which housed another desk, a futon, the tv, and more books. We spent the rest of the evening chatting over cocktails. I'd never met Michael before, but he's a gracious host and an interesting and funny guy. He's the librarian for The Cloisters, which is the medieval arm of the Met. Built by a Rockefeller in the early part of the century, the building houses, among other art and artifacts, the Unicorn Tapestries.

We were all hungry, so we ordered a whole pie from Grandpa's, this time with mushrooms on half. Again, outstanding, and it still wouldn't be the last time we ate there.

Heidi, a friend from Austin who stood up for Cathy in our wedding, got home from class late that evening and we talked a while longer before heading to bed. We'd be up early the next day, eager to explore the city.