Day Two in NYC - 9/22

We started the day in Greenwich Village. I've been doing Yamuna Body Rolling for 5 years so I could not pass up the opportunity to have a private consultation at their flagship studio there.Ben did some sightseeing around Greenwhich Village and met up with me lat morning. After Yamuna studio, we headed to Soho



and had lunch at Souen, a macrobiotic restaurant with a wide array of vegan choices. I had the Pad Thai and Ben had an amazing salad and could not resist trying some China Cola.






After lunch we headed downtown to the financial district. We took a 2 hour
Big Onion walking tour that covered the historical aspects of that area of the city. The Big Onion tours are all led by graduate students. Our guide was a PhD student from Columbia University who is studying American History. We had a small but diverse group with people from all over including Bombay, London, Sydney Australia, New Jersey, and Washington State.

We started our tour at Trinity Episcopal Church. The large sculpture of is a replica of the root from the tree that saved the church from destruction on 9/11/09.In 2005, artist Steve Tobin created a ten-foot-tall bronze sculpture of a sycamore tree’s root structure for Trinity Wall Street. The sycamore in question is known as “the tree that saved St. Paul’s Chapel,” because it took the brunt of damage from debris falling from the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, and the chapel remained relatively unscathed. You can see a video about the root sculpture here: http://www.trinitywallstreet.org/webcasts/videos/faith-culture/9-11/the-trinity-root










The first photo above is looking down Wall Street at the front of Trinity Church.


Below are some pics of the amazing architecture in downtown. It was so hard for us to stay focused on where we were walking as the architecture above us was so beautiful and so diverse. The first pic is of Bowling Green, the oldest park in the US.









These last pics are of the US Customs House which is now a Smithsonian Museum, right in front of Bowling Green. There are 4 statues on the front of the building representing Africa, Europe, the US, and Asia:









After the tour we could not help ourselves. We had to make our way over to check out the infamous sculpture of the Bull.Unfortunately, Ben only took some rear view photos as that seems to be the Bull's most popular angle.



Then we were off to the Brooklyn Bridge and made our way across it into Brooklyn.









After that we took the express subway home, to the peace and quiet of our apartment to rest up for our trip to the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and the Tenament Museum tomorrow.

Day One in NYC - 9/21

We arrived at our apt in Chelsea just after 9am. The weather is absolutely incredible. We walked up to mid town in the morning, passing the Empire State Building


and Chrysler Building and making a brief tour through the NYC Public library. The chandeliers in the library are absolutely amazing.

We then walked up to Grand Central Station and walked around inside there






before heading back down Park Avenue for lunch at Franchia, a Korean vegan restaurant.

I had the asparagus and avocado salad with the sushi combination platter. Got the vegan cheesecake for dessert and it was amazing!

After lunch we headed back up to Park Avenue to see the Waldorf Astoria. Just as we arrived, the surrounding streets and subways were shut down and hundreds of NYPD officers surrounded the area. We were basically stuck outside of the Park Ave. entrance to the Waldorf for a half hour while the area was swept by the secret service. After two sweeps and lots of helicopter activity overhead, President Obama arrived (at the entrance around the corner from us) and within minutes all of the NYPD officers and secret service agents disappeared and everything went back to normal as far as traffic activity.

After that we went on to St. Patrick's Cathedral.




It is the one thing I remember so clearly in my mind from my trip to NYC with Nana 26+ years ago. After St. Patricks we crossed the street to Rockefeller Center. We took the hour long Architecture and Art History tour there (we were the only ones on the tour and it was well worth the $10), in addition to Top of the Rock tour.








For dinner we ate at John's Pizzeria in Times Square. It is a church that has been converted to a restaurant with all of the stained glass still in place. Ben had pizza and I had the grilled vegetable platter with a large spinach salad.