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gnomi...in which our heroes prepare for a trip to the Big City, arrive, and the hijinks begin.
Actually, let me start on the day before the Amazing Adventures began. On Tuesday, 23 December, I was privileged to spend the afternoon withgem225, wandering and giggling around Harvard Square. Much fun was had, and only minimal singing, which is odd for me.
On Wednesday, MAB and I had a late-for-us train. Traditionally, we leave for our NYC trips on an early morning train. This time, however, we had decided to take a 1:15 PM train, which gave us the opportunity on Wednesday morning to go to the comic book store, the post office, and the library in preparation for our trip. That accomplished, we went home, finished our packing, and hied ourselves to the train station.
We'd decided to travel First Class on the Acela Express to NYC (we've been taking the Acela Express almost exclusively for a while now; the comfort and quickness of the trip definitely makes up for the extra cost), so lunch was included with the price of our ticket. And - because we've had problems in the past - we verified more than once that our kosher meals had been loaded onto the train. So the trip was lovely, with us sharing the ride with two men from San Francisco who had been touristing in Boston and were now going to New York for the holiday. We shmoozed with them on and off through Connecticut until we all disembarked at Penn Station. And I got some knitting done and spent the rest of the trip untangling the mess that crazy woman made of my yarn (farwing, you may remember the crazy woman in question.) But I finished untangling the mess and reballing my yarn just as we were pulling into NYC, so all was well.
The trip to MAB's mom's place in Queens was uneventful. We arrived in NYC right around 5 PM on Christmas Eve, so I was somewhat surprised at how crowded the subways were with people obviously coming from work (business suits, briefcases, and the like), but other than that, the trip was unremarkable.
On arrival in Queens, I was too tired to want to go out seeking dinner food, but - thankfully - the kosher pizza place not horribly far from MAB's mother's place was delivering, so food came to us. All good. We ate dinner, we shmoozed, I alternated knitting and embroidering, and eventually we went to bed.
On Thursday morning, we got up earlyish-for-vacation to go on Big Onion Tours' 13th Annual Christmas Day Jewish Lower East Side Tour at 10:30. We got to the meeting place for the tour at around 10, and MAB and I asked the guide where we might be able to pick up breakfast prior to the start of the tour. He sent us to Kossar's Bialys, where we acquired breakfast. We then went back for the tour itself, which for two hours wandered us around the Jewish sites in the Lower East Side.
After the tour, we were meeting friends for Chinese food and a movie (traditional NYC Jewish Christmas), but we had half an hour to kill. So we went first to get pickles from The Pickle Guys and then back to Kossar's for a dozen bialys for breakfast for the week. Eventually, we met up with our friends and went up to her parents' in Westchester where, after lunch (and seeing her father's amazing model train setup), we went to see Paycheck, which we seemed to like more than most of the critics did. Following the movie (and the retrieval of our friends' son from her parents' house), we returned to Manhattan, from where we caught the subway back to Queens.
On Friday, MAB and I again got up and out early, this time to meet up with his uncle for a trip to Brooks Brothers and then out to Queens for MAB's uncle to meet our neice (who he hadn't met yet, seeing as he lives in California and the baby is in New York). We met up with the uncle, procured for MAB a new sports jacket, and then headed for Queens and MAB's brother's place. We visited there for a while (though were unable to see our sister-in-law, as she was ill) and then headed back to MAB's mother's house. Once there, we quickly repacked some of our stuff and then dashed out to head to Manhattan and the home of friends of ours in Washington Heights for shabbat. We stopped for lunch at Kosher Deluxe, getting there right before their closing time. And even after they were officially closed, they let us (and others) stay and eat, which greatly pleased us.
From lunch, since we were headed to the A train (and, thus, down a couple of blocks and over an avenue or 2), we walked to the new location of Coliseum Books, where we bought and shipped home some books about New York that we haven't been able to find at home. We then headed up to Washington Heights for shabbat.
Stay tuned for more exciting adventures!
*As we were called by a friend on Monday...but I'll get to that story.
Actually, let me start on the day before the Amazing Adventures began. On Tuesday, 23 December, I was privileged to spend the afternoon with
gem225, wandering and giggling around Harvard Square. Much fun was had, and only minimal singing, which is odd for me.On Wednesday, MAB and I had a late-for-us train. Traditionally, we leave for our NYC trips on an early morning train. This time, however, we had decided to take a 1:15 PM train, which gave us the opportunity on Wednesday morning to go to the comic book store, the post office, and the library in preparation for our trip. That accomplished, we went home, finished our packing, and hied ourselves to the train station.
We'd decided to travel First Class on the Acela Express to NYC (we've been taking the Acela Express almost exclusively for a while now; the comfort and quickness of the trip definitely makes up for the extra cost), so lunch was included with the price of our ticket. And - because we've had problems in the past - we verified more than once that our kosher meals had been loaded onto the train. So the trip was lovely, with us sharing the ride with two men from San Francisco who had been touristing in Boston and were now going to New York for the holiday. We shmoozed with them on and off through Connecticut until we all disembarked at Penn Station. And I got some knitting done and spent the rest of the trip untangling the mess that crazy woman made of my yarn (
farwing, you may remember the crazy woman in question.) But I finished untangling the mess and reballing my yarn just as we were pulling into NYC, so all was well.The trip to MAB's mom's place in Queens was uneventful. We arrived in NYC right around 5 PM on Christmas Eve, so I was somewhat surprised at how crowded the subways were with people obviously coming from work (business suits, briefcases, and the like), but other than that, the trip was unremarkable.
On arrival in Queens, I was too tired to want to go out seeking dinner food, but - thankfully - the kosher pizza place not horribly far from MAB's mother's place was delivering, so food came to us. All good. We ate dinner, we shmoozed, I alternated knitting and embroidering, and eventually we went to bed.
On Thursday morning, we got up earlyish-for-vacation to go on Big Onion Tours' 13th Annual Christmas Day Jewish Lower East Side Tour at 10:30. We got to the meeting place for the tour at around 10, and MAB and I asked the guide where we might be able to pick up breakfast prior to the start of the tour. He sent us to Kossar's Bialys, where we acquired breakfast. We then went back for the tour itself, which for two hours wandered us around the Jewish sites in the Lower East Side.
After the tour, we were meeting friends for Chinese food and a movie (traditional NYC Jewish Christmas), but we had half an hour to kill. So we went first to get pickles from The Pickle Guys and then back to Kossar's for a dozen bialys for breakfast for the week. Eventually, we met up with our friends and went up to her parents' in Westchester where, after lunch (and seeing her father's amazing model train setup), we went to see Paycheck, which we seemed to like more than most of the critics did. Following the movie (and the retrieval of our friends' son from her parents' house), we returned to Manhattan, from where we caught the subway back to Queens.
On Friday, MAB and I again got up and out early, this time to meet up with his uncle for a trip to Brooks Brothers and then out to Queens for MAB's uncle to meet our neice (who he hadn't met yet, seeing as he lives in California and the baby is in New York). We met up with the uncle, procured for MAB a new sports jacket, and then headed for Queens and MAB's brother's place. We visited there for a while (though were unable to see our sister-in-law, as she was ill) and then headed back to MAB's mother's house. Once there, we quickly repacked some of our stuff and then dashed out to head to Manhattan and the home of friends of ours in Washington Heights for shabbat. We stopped for lunch at Kosher Deluxe, getting there right before their closing time. And even after they were officially closed, they let us (and others) stay and eat, which greatly pleased us.
From lunch, since we were headed to the A train (and, thus, down a couple of blocks and over an avenue or 2), we walked to the new location of Coliseum Books, where we bought and shipped home some books about New York that we haven't been able to find at home. We then headed up to Washington Heights for shabbat.
Stay tuned for more exciting adventures!
*As we were called by a friend on Monday...but I'll get to that story.
