New York New York

New York City broke out with swine flu while we were there. Also, that low-flying plane like 3 feet from the World Trade Center site (WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?) situation happened the day after we left. (I do not believe I would have handled that very well had it happened when I was there. Those poor people.) So, it lives up to it's reputation as an exciting place to be. Marinka will be proud to know that I did not at all mistake the streets of NYC for a meadow. Except this one time.

But they sort of provide a little concrete meadow in the middle of Times Square, so I stopped. We went to Wall Street and saw the sites there: German Shepherd dogs and men with machine guns.

(That moustache is not real. I just don't want him to hunt me down and have to kill me for posting his photo. Y'all, that's a mighty large weapon he's got there.)

The first thing I saw on the first day in Manhattan when I emerged from the Path station at the WTC was a large group of Amish men drinking Starbucks.

See? I could never make that up.

Where else can you see Amish people and men with automatic weapons at the same time, just blocks from each other? NYC.

We went to Tavern on the Green in Central Park. It is sooooo pretty. We sat on the patio and spent $120 (!) on lunch (which was yummy, including the Bellinis, made with Prosecco, Peach Puree, St. Germain Elderflower Liqueur) and when you look up at the beautiful blue sky you see this:

There are beautiful tulips all over the city right now.

The sight of her is always a thrill. (It's a thrill of a different sort when she's being buzzed by fighter jets, I suspect.)

I will do another NYC edition post about seeing Matthew Broderick, more about food (we ate a lot), and about the one thing I cannot seem to learn about travel to A Big City.