lunch with greg and a walk through downtown

 at 11:30 am charlotte and i were at joffrey to meet chanda and take the train downtown with her to meet greg for lunch at his workplace. this is the view of new jersey and the hudson river from his cafeteria window.

it was taco tuesday and since we all love tacos, that's what we had. we had fun checking out the snack area (they have popcorn, m and m's, and pretzels, along with coffee and water) and the magazines. time inc. was recently taken over by meredith corporation (this is really a very sad state of affairs for the time people, unfortunately), so several magazines have been added to the magazine take home area: better homes and gardens, cooking light, martha stewart, rachael ray and family circle. i wouldn't have minded looking at a rachael ray magazine, but they weren't currently available.

 after an hour, greg went back to work and chanda went to her physical therapy appointment. charlotte and i walked across the bridge to the new park just south of the 9/11 memorial. i had been reading about this park and was happy to finally be able to see it. the sphere, which is the only artwork to survive the september 11th attacks, was finally put in place near the memorial for people to see. it had been in battery park all this time.

it's a bit dented, but still intact, which everyone finds, justifiably, surprising. there's a wonderful new york times article about it here.

 charlotte in front of the freedom tower . . 

 i was trying to get the entire tower in the photo with her . . she's the dark figure in the bottom right of the pic above.

 we then walked to the national museum of the american indian at 1 bowling green in the old alexander hamilton customs house, built in 1902 - 7 to "house the duty collection operations" for the port of new york. after going through security with several grim and burly security guards, and passing through the beautiful roman dome, we slipped through a side door to start perusing the artifacts . . we kind of started at the end of the exhibit . . above is a central caribbean tripod vessel from ad 800 - 1500. we found the feet on these vessels very interesting and surmised that they must have been easy to place in a fire for cooking and heating.

 a figure of a chiriqui woman carrying a child upon her back, probably with a roboso, similar to what i used for korrina, morgana, and chanda. i did purchase the girls' robosos from a woman who brought the material back from guatamala. this figure is from present day panama.

 i do wonder why the figure was made. did they place them on their windowsills like i do with the many figures i own? is this naive of me to think? perhaps they were placed in tombs for the same reason i place them on windowsills? for company? do i place my figures on the sills just because they look pretty? or because i actually do imbue them with an actual life force that comforts me during the day? i suppose i don't give them the same strength to help me reach the next plane of existence, but there is a certain anthropomorphic sensibility . . and that's probably why i can't get rid of all those stuffed animals in a bag in the back room . . sometimes i despise stuffed animals as much as i despise balloons . . 

enough of this . .

 these jars were very interesting to me as they were painted with a centipede design. they're also from the chiriqui province in panama.

 at this point i got very restless and wanted to investigate the entire exhibit to see how extensive it was . . we walked through many rooms to get to the beginning which emphasized the central and south american native nations. it's a wonderful exhibit . . however, we both ended up sitting on a bench in a corner and i fell asleep . . and i think charlotte did also. when we finally came to, we decided we needed a hot chocolate more than another round of artifact observations (the rooms were very warm and soporific!).

 we walked from the tip of manhattan, all the way up broadway to l. a. burdick on prince street in soho and rewarded ourselves with one milk hot chocolate and one dark hot chocolate.

 charlotte was inspired to pick out chocolates as a birthday gift for her sister back home.

it was a fun end to a busy day.

excursion with aunt kathy

we walked along the river this morning to meet greg for lunch at time inc.

it's really warming up . . summer is definitely on its way.

 

inside the oculus just south of the freedom tower . . the main train station for the new jersey path trains and the 2, 3, a, c, e, n , r, w subway lines.

this station first opened in 1909 and was called the hudson terminal.

today it's a major commuter hub to new jersey and brooklyn and was designed by santiago calatrava. i found this article about it in vanity fair by paul goldberger very interesting.

i always feel like jonah or pinocchio when i'm down here.

advertisements take on a whole new meaning when they extend hundreds of feet as a movie along a wall.

at time inc.!

greg's work cafeteria serves up a great lunch for a reasonable price. today my sister and i had chicken piccata and arugula salad and greg and chanda had tuna, cucumber and avocado sushi. 

on the cafeteria patio . . 

overlooking the north cove marina . .

after chanda left for her improv rehearsal and greg returned to his meetings, kathy and i walked to chobani in soho. she chose the yogurt with chocolate bits and pistachio nuts, honey and mandarin oranges, which is what i thought she would do (i had the same). we sat here for a while drinking our black and tan la columbe coffees and resting, as it had been a long hot walk from tribeca.

 then we decided we finally better get started on the second half of our day which was a visit to the merchant's house museum on east fourth street.

 it was built in 1832 in the late-federal and greek revival style by joseph brewster and bought by seabury tredwell in 1835.

seabury was a hardware merchant and his family lived here for almost a hundred years. his youngest daughter, gertrude, died here in 1933 and her niece put it up for auction. a distant cousin bought it and established a non-profit organization which he ran. when he died in 1962, the museum was taken over by the decorators club of new york city, the oldest professional women's organization of interior designers in the country. today it's a national historic landmark and is unique in containing all of it's original furnishings.

the servants had to carry the coal to all the fireplaces in the house. they must have been strong because this bucket of coal is very heavy.

the beautiful garden which they rent out for weddings and small parties.

i really liked this painting, but couldn't see who the artist was.

the main hallway . . 

the servants' room . .

and the bell that called them when needed  . . 

it's a very tall house with five floors.

 

the house is now surrounded by tall apartment and office buildings, so it has a surreal feel to it when sitting in the garden. it's a little oasis within the city.

we walked home through washington square park . . 

where there is always someone making music . .

lunch with greg

 jason and i took a walk along the high line to chelsea market while chanda had a ballet lesson.

 when she got back, we walked along the river to meet greg for lunch.

 all the serviceberry trees are in bloom.

 i think these are coots.

 the day was one of the first humid days we've had in awhile. there was a beautiful cool breeze blowing in from the water, which was a nice contrast to the very warm sun that came out from the clouds.

we took him along the boardwalk . . 

where i pointed out my favorite city bird . . 

the mockingbird (the dark spot on the topmost branch in the center).

and then through penny park.

time inc. finally has its sign up.

 waiting for greg to come down.

waving hello for a pic to send morgana who had texted during a break in her classes. 

morgana's thursday snack at shakespeare and company.

greg had a morning of meetings and would have an afternoon of meetings . .

in between he had lunch with us. his cafeteria is nice and always has good food. we had salmon with a green salad and a farro salad. chanda chose different items from the salad bar and jason chose items from the hot bar.

i also had a ginger tea with honey and lemon.

 the outside dining area . . 

 overlooking the harbor.

 after lunch we walked through the oculus, which is the new subway station beneath the 9/11 memorial, and then up to the memorial and the freedom tower. then jason went on a walk to the old five points neighborhood that's described in the books he's currently reading (the gangs of new york, published in 1927) and chanda and i walked uptown.

 she went to ballet class and i went to the library.

 and then finally home past gay street and the rainbow cross (just another day in the neighborhood).