(Backup) New York, New York!

Sail in was at 6:30 and I was actually up to see it! They played our Northwest Passage theme song as we passed the Statue of Liberty, it was very emotional. There is nothing like sailing into NY harbor!

We were off the ship at about 9:30. We called an Uber since the subway was quite far from the pier. It was my first, it was pretty efficient! We had him drop us at St Patrick's Cathedral. It has just been renovated so I wanted to see it. Last year it was covered with scaffolding. This year it was beautiful. We then walked up 5th Avenue toward the park. We stopped at the Cartier store. We both have Cartier glasses so wanted to check out the new models. Of course we looked at everything else also. The diamonds had an amazing sparkle. I found an emerald cut one that was what I had thought I wanted when we got married. This one was a bit larger though, at 4 kts. The gal asked if I wanted to try it on, why not. It was $375,000!!! She asked if we had been in since the renovation. I had forgotten that they were closed when we were here last year. All the sales staff was excited about reopening even though it had happened almost a year ago. They bought the brownstone next door so expanded considerably. It is a beautiful space with the original staircase from the original home still being used. They have sofas and chairs set around in many areas almost making it feel like a home. 

Next stop was Tiffany's. Fun to just browse these iconic stores. We were headed to a button shop further north. I had read about it from someone's post on Facebook. It was a tiny store but totally full off buttons. They had some pretty amazing ones. Mel had to take a call so it was good timing to just look at everything. 

Our next stop was the American Folk Museum. It was on the other side of Central Park. The most direct route was the 65th Street Transverse Road. I did not realize that once in, we would be trapped, no exit into the park. So our lovely stroll thru Central Park ended up being full of traffic, exhaust and noise! It was direct though!!

It seems like when I see an article or ad about some special exhibit in some other city, we are never there at the right time. I saw that there was to be a quilt exhibit at the American Folk Art Museum and it was at the right time for us!!! It is a small museum with no permanent exhibits, only temporary. This one is titled War and Pieced with quilts made of military uniform fabrics. They were unbelievably beautiful. Most were made in the 1800's, a few as early as the 1700's. Most were made by men. Mel enjoyed it as much as I did, so glad that we were able to see it. 

We headed back in the direction of the pier. I remembered reading about an ice cream place that I wanted to try. It was in the right direction so we headed there. It is called Milk Bar and they serve soft serve flavored like the milk after you finish a bowl of corn flakes. They also had cinnamon. The server suggested swirl as it takes the bite out of the cinnamon. It was ok. Not sure who thought ice cream flavored like cereal milk would be a good idea. From there we took Uber back to the pier. 

We still had some to pack and had to do it in the afternoon since we had an evening excursion. We went to dinner but told our server that we had to be out of there by 6:40. He was great and served us an appetizer, main course and dessert in 40 min! We went to meet up for our shore excursion. 

We boarded a bus to go to a theater. For so,e reason the driver thought it would be a good idea to,drive right thru Times Square. It was a zoo! We sat at one light thru 3 greens before we moved. Cars and people were blocking the intersection. We arrived at the theater and were led to a room downstairs. We were served champagne, then went up into the theater. The show was "The Play that went Wrong". It was very slapstick and hilarious. I would have enjoyed it more with out a migraine. After, several of,the cast came out to talk to us and answer questions. It was a very nice evening. 

Back on the ship Mel said he would like to see about getting something to eat in the Bistro. I told him it would be closed and it was. I said there must be somewhere to get food. To,our surprise, in our cabin were 2 plates with sandwiches, fruit and cookies. I think we have been Crystalized.