Saturday morning I woke up pretty late, and I admit that it took me a while to get moving. Our hotel was comfy and I was still in recovery. But it was a very nice day, and Ez and I set off for brunch at the Galaxy Global Eatery near Union Square. I’d been there once before with a friend, and we didn’t have too much trouble finding it. The waitstaff were as cute and pleasant as I remembered, and I happily ordered a healthy vegan breakfast of scrambled tofu with tempeh bacon (which, incidentally, was deeelicious). We were seated in a booth by the window. They opened the windows and the front doors and we got a pretty hefty breeze blowing through. After the yucky heat and humidity of July and August, that breeze was bliss. The TV above the bar was playing TV Land.

Ezra at the Galaxy Global Eatery, being cosmic.

…and speaking of re-runs… Not too long after we arrived, Woody Harrelson came in with a group of people and sat in the booth right next to ours.

After our rejuvenating brunch we walked through Union Square a bit and stumbled upon the Union Square Farmer’s Market. It was such a pretty day… all of the fruits and vegetables and flowers looked so gorgeous and enticing! We wandered through a bit and found a woman selling vegetable dyed yarns (and lamb sausages, legs of lamb, etc.). The yarns were just calling my name… I spent probably too long gazing at them and mulling over which colors to get (I need a new scarf or two!). As I was perusing the bins of yarn, a woman came into the booth and mentioned something about a new yarn shop her friend was opening in… State College! I couldn’t help myself–I had to ask her about it. She couldn’t remember the name of it and said they were just getting started, but I was really excited! State College hasn’t, to my knowledge, had a good dedicated local yarn shop up until now. I’m anxious to check it out the next time I’m there!

Me checking out yarn in Union Square.

So… after buying a shade of mauvey pink and another of sort of teal-blue, we hopped on the train and headed uptown to the northernmost part of Central Park. We walked along the jogging road for a while, just taking it all in. At around 89th Street we stepped out of the park in search of something to drink. We walked past the Guggenheim, which is apparently undergoing some sort of exterior restoration, and ended up stopping at Cafe Sabarsky at the Neue Galerie, both of which I love. We shared a bit of Apple Strudel and just gawked at the loveliness. Before leaving, we had to duck into the gift shop, and Ezra picked up a really great book on the Wiener Werkstatte, which might easily have been something I would have purchased myself if he hadn’t done so first.

We had then hoped to go to the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum down the street, but as we’d had a late start it was closed. We did, however, take in the building itself.

We were both in need of a little recharge at that point, so we headed back to the hotel to gather ourselves before dinner. We ended up dining at a rather good Italian restaurant not that far from our hotel, Da Ciro on Lexington. After that feast, we returned to our hotel and headed to the roof bar that Ezra had enjoyed the night before. Unfortunately, we found it empty. We went downstairs to ask why it was closed and the man we asked told us it was too cold (!). I thought it was really nice–maybe a bit chilly, but in a good way. Anyway, the door wasn’t locked, so Ez and I raided our mini-bar, went out on the roof, and mixed our own drinks. It was really lovely up there. Even from that height (about 11 stories up), the view was something.

Me in Herald Square.

Sunday we managed to get up at a more reasonable hour. I’d noticed a great big newstand just down the street from our hotel, so that was our first stop. (As some of you know, I’ve lately been buying up a lot of foreign fashion magazines. This time I picked up a British magazine I’d never seen before called Wig. ) After that, it was back to The Strand bookstore via Herald Square and the Shake Shack, both of which Ezra really discovered on this particular New York trip. I do love The Strand (I’m a book-lady, so it’s only natural). Unfortunately, it seems like I’m in a big hurry every time I’m there. Next time, I vow to allot at least an hour to the Strand. This time we had to get back to Penn Station to catch our train home, where we found our two furry felines and a very comfy bed waiting for us.

Cool tree sculpture in Madison Square Park.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 24th, 2007 at 12:05 am and is filed under Blather, Pennsylvania, art, dining, knitting, wide world of vacation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.