On Friday, we traveled from food place to food place. It started in Brooklyn with Berit, Rowan, Bennett and I heading out for bagels and coffee first thing. We hung around with Patty, Drew and Fiona the rest of the morning until it was time for them to head to Fiona’s dentist appointment. Our family headed into Manhattan to catch lunch at Ellen’s Stardust Diner, a restaurant in the theater district where wait staff, presumably comprised of performers, sings to the diners. This is what Berit really wants to do. Unfortunately, when we arrive there is a line around the block, just like when we tried to go there last time. The problem is that our family is just not willing to wait that long for anything, and it doesn’t look like Ellen’s Stardust Diner ever doesn’t have a line like that.
We’re at a loss as to what to do now. We wander around aimlessly a bit, and we get Ray’s pizza to help ward off the hunger and rising frustration. Patty texts and wants to come in to meet us, so we arrange to meet at Union Square to walk around the East Village. Griffin plays a game of chess with one of the chess guys (“I felt like Dad - taking too long for each move.”), we walk through the farmer’s market before inexorably finding ourselves in Dylan’s candy. The trip to the candy store becomes a quest for the ice cream store. Rowan had showed us a video of Thai rolled ice cream Thursday night and there’s evidently a place nearby. Remember in the previous paragraph when I said our family is just not willing to wait for anything. That doesn’t apply to Thai rolled ice cream. We waited entirely too long in what appeared to be a short line - probably 45 minutes. The kids took videos of their ice cream being made, and Griffin split his with me. Rowan wasn’t entirely pleased with her matcha and strawberry choice, but there you have it. The rains came. We ran through SoHo or NoHo or whatever it was through Astor Place and the three rhinos (The Last Three), Griffin’s favorite statue ever, back to the subway and Brooklyn.
Friday night found us at Patty and Drew’s playing phone games with each other.
We had a better plan on Saturday. I made a solo trip to the Bagel Hole before gathering Bennett and Berit to head down to the meeting (on Presidents Street between 6th and 7th avenues). We talked to Joyce’s friend Gail there, but we headed back quickly after, stopping only briefly at the tiny flea market to buy a King Crimson album. Back home we gathered the others and headed off on a sojourn into Bushwick, a Brooklyn warehouse district populated by artists who have turned the area into a graffiti city.
The day was perfect - sunny and just a bit chilly. We exited the subway at a little vintage shoppe called “Friends” (fry-ends), where Griffin marveled at the inanity of small sticks wrapped in pieces of ribbon for $10. Some of us quickly left the building and stood outside watching a dad chase his two leopard skin-clad boys up and down the sidewalk (their names were Freedom and Panther) before the others joined us and we ambled our way happily up to Roberta’s, a pizza joint thcraftat has been lauded by some as the best pizza in New York. We managed to snag a picnic table in the bustling outdoor area where customers of their takeout side can enjoy their pizza with libations. We enjoyed our pizza and libations in the sun and then spilled out onto the sidewalk to begin our Drew-guided graffiti tour.
We were all pretty awed by the quality and the variety of graffiti up and down the streets of Bushwick. I would be hard-pressed to describe them to you in any meaningful way or even tell you which were my favorites. We walked around the city for maybe an hour or two, stopping in the mid-late part of the tour for coffee drinks. Done with the graffiti, Griffin nicely asked if it was ok if he stayed at the coffee shop, and Berit, also tour-tired, turned around and joined him when she found that he had been allowed to drop out. The rest of us continued down a few more streets, one of which included an amazing optical illusion resembling the shifting bricks of Diagon Alley, and then we too decided that we’d filled our heads with enough street art for one day. We were all pretty tired, and when we arrived back home after six, Rowan and I sequestered ourselves in the small front room to read and nap (respectively) before we all ordered burgers, fries, shakes, salads and delicious Brussels sprouts from Bareburger.
Today is Easter. I’ve been out here doing my morning meditation and stretching while Fiona watches bad YouTube videos on the K
