Yesterday

was super fun!

It was Alex's second day off in a row, after almost a month of nonstop work. So we made a day of it!

First, we went ice skating in Bryant Park!


This was fun. It was not even too cold, and by the time we'd been skating for half an hour, I had taken off my gloves, scarf, and hat, and unbuttoned the top of my coat! It took a little while to find my skating legs, but then I got pretty good. Today my hip flexers and the tops of my quads are so sore!

Anyway, once we stopped ice skating, after about an hour, I was suddenly so hungry I could barely function. So Alex took charge, and found us a little Cuban restaurant on 45th and 5th - and it was a total find! Alex ordered empanadas, which were only ok - Mama's in Sunnyside is much better - but I had a pork sandwich with sweet plantains and green salsa and onions, and it was just the perfect combination of flavors. And I don't even really like pork!


Escape to Cuba!

After eating, we thought we would continue subway stopping the 6 for a while. So we wandered over toward the 51st St. stop, drifting at one point into a very very fancy hotel-type building, all lit.


Eventually, we got on the subway, and emerged several stops later at 86th St., as we had last left off at 77th. The area around 86th and Lex is not particularly interesting, as far as I can tell, but there is a cute bakery we did not enter.


There are also pretty lights, and a good looking restaurant that was closed.



We had walked east a couple blocks at this point, and started heading north toward the 96th St. stop, and come 90th St., we happened upon Ruppert Park. I am interested in parks, so we wandered through!


One tree looked like it was conducting!


Once we had crossed through the park to what I guess was 91st St., we found that for a block it was a pedestrian-only street, which is great.


We also passed the Tasti D-Lite that Alex and Meredith and I stopped at a year and a half ago when we were walking down from the top of the park looking desperately for frozen yogurt!


Also, we found the super sexual pill.


We eventually achieved 96th St., and took the train one stop up to 103rd, which housed a lovely mural.


We also stopped at the East Harlem Cafe, which was cozy and lovely and delightful despite their bad hot chocolate. I would go back for the coffee and the atmosphere!


Across the street were some truly great murals.


We reached 110th St. and turned left, heading toward the 2/3 stop at Malcolm X Blvd at the top of the park; we had some business on the Upper West Side, which shall remain unelucidated because it involved buying a present for somebody! On the way, we walked along the Harlem Meer, which is beautiful in the evening.



After our business on the Upper West Side, we headed down to Finnerty's at 13th and 2nd - the only 49ers bar in the city, as far as we can tell! It was great to walk into a sea of red, to feel at home among California expats for the '9ers-Steelers game - especially because the game was so so great and satisfying and exciting and fun!

We were among friends.


Anyway, there are more pictures from yesterday, and I'll post the full album on facebook, possibly as part of a winter album. (Although first I should make sure I've put up all the fall pictures I want to!) Tomorrow I'm having a latke party, so I'll have to keep y'all updated!

P.S. Usually when I go to create a new post on blogger, it gives me the options of viewing what I'm doing in html or in, I don't know, regular, where it actually has buttons to do what I want to do and format how I want to format. But today it is only showing the html option! This is a pain, because I don't know all the html codes for centering text, changing font size, etc. Does anybody know what the deal is or how to fix?