This morning Josh and I woke up at 4:30 a.m. and scrambled to finish getting ready for our trip to New York. Josh K.'s sisters picked us up at 5 a.m. and drove us to the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport where we nabbed a quick breakfast and boarded our plane shortly after 6 a.m. A half an hour later we were airborn and heading east toward New York.
After a two-hour flight, Josh and I landed in New York at 10 a.m. We got our baggage and our friend (and future roommate), David, met us at JFK in Brooklyn. We took the A train into the city, dropped our stuff off at David's apartment on the Upper East Side, and then hit the city full force.
We started with Central Park, exploring the Conservatory Gardens (just steps from David's apartment), wandering through fields of bright flowers and mazes of shrubbery, marble statues, and ponds. We took in views of the city skyline from the reservoir and popped out of the park around East 90th Street to get a hot dog in front of the Guggenheim Museum. (We snapped the picture above just outside the park's wall in front of the Guggenheim at East 88th Street and 5th Avenue.)
We hopped back in the park, found the small pond where children float sailboats and parents read newspapers at a small waterside cafe. We sauntered over to the Bethesda Fountain, one of the most famous fountains in the world. A fantastic live jazz quartet played nearby while we sat at the fountain. (This fountain is the setting of the gorgeous final monologue in the HBO film "Angels in America." If you haven't seen the movie, rent it ASAP. It's amazing.)
We wandered out of the park and found a five-story Barnes & Noble on 66th Street and then snapped this picture in front of the fountain at Lincoln Center. Shortly after we left the entire cast of "Desperate Housewives" was photographed here for an ABC promotional event. You may also recognize this fountain as the place where Sex and the City character Carrie Bradshaw had her big date in a perfect gown and a dazzling chignon updo, but I digress.
The three of us walked to SoHo and had dinner at the fantastic Penang restaurant (seen above). The food was delicious and the service was whip fast. We wandered the streets of SoHo, drooling at the apartments and boutiques surrounding us, stopping at the Mac flagship and at Magnolia, a famous bakery. We ate our goodies from Magnolia in a small, leafy park across from the bakery, breathing in the New York spring night air. It was the perfect ending to our first day in Manhattan.
