Running Around Midtown East (Manhattan, of course!)

Well so much for sitting on my butt and getting errands done today! Another busy day with Kingsley. Today we headed into New York City again, but to Manhattan this time, for a very special errand! My best friend from work just quit and is moving to China for a year to teach English to children in the Hunan province. So today I was taking her out for one last brunch in NYC before she leaves the country. We went to Bar Americain, which is kind of an upper-crusty restaurant owned by celeb chef Bobby Flay. Kingsley joined us for brunch. While I chowed down on a cracked wheat waffle with apple cinnamon butter and fresh blueberry syrup, Kingsley supped on some yummy apple-raspberry jelly:



After breakfast, we snapped a quick shot of Kingsley outside the restaurant:



Then, since we were in the neighborhood of a couple well known NYC sites, my friend agreed to help me show Kingsley around and take some pics. First, we walked east a few blocks to the famous Radio City Music Hall. Radio City has held countless concerts throughout the years, many of them featuring famous incidents, unusual pairings, or memorable special happenings. It's also home to the famous Rockettes. Here's Kingsley from across the street:



Just a hop over from Radio City is the famous Rockefeller Center. This has a lot of famous things associated with it - a huge annual Christmas tree, a skating rink during winter, the building "30 Rock" where the eponymous show is set, at one time (no longer) the famous Diego Rivera mural Man at the Crossroads (discussed at length in the movie Frida), an underground concourse, and great views of the city. Here are some of our pictures from there (sadly none of the ice rink, because it's the middle of summer!!!):









Right around the corner from Rock Center is Saint Patrick's Cathedral - a gothic cathedral built in NYC in 1878. Not old for most countries, but fairly old for New York! It takes up an entire city block! It's been featured in several movies. Here's a shot outside:



At this point our feet were getting sore (as we were wearing cute sunday brunch shoes not 'walk-around-the-city' shoes!) so we headed back to the car but went one block out of our way to take a picture in front of the Museum of Modern Art. The MoMA is home to several priceless works such as van Gough's Starry Night and Dali's The Persistence of Memory, as well as several Rousseaus and Picassos.



After such a busy weekend, we will probably have a quiet week! But we'll be back soon with more updates.