even though it’s strange to be posting this a million years after the fact, i refuse to abandon my commitment to tedious vacation reportage.

in the morning, we traverse central park from the east to the west. it’s relatively quiet and the earth is moist. sadly, christina doesn’t get to see any of the big landmarks, except for like, some castle and the great lawn

after much deliberation the night before on where to have brunch in the upper west side, i settle on sarabeth’s, famous for their baked goods. here i am enjoying quiet possibly the best cream of tomato soup ever. velvety, indeed.

lemon ricotta pancakes (fragrant and sweet), and a boring farmer’s omelette. the ingredients are great, but they don’t coalesce. also, those are excellent homemade english muffins

excitement mounts as we enter the museum of natural history. this is one of the greatest places in the world. plus, it’s romantic, no? i am thrilled for my sister to experience it. we take about a million photos. it’s enough to warrant its own separate entry

scary how their eyes are closed, but they appear to be slightly smiling. a little too moribund

bats! i love bats! again, strange presentation, especially given how everything else is displayed. this is part of the “animals of new york” installation, in some small hallway connecting the galleries

FIERCE. christina loves owls

hilarious how all the lemurs have the meanest, nastiest faces! they’re about to scratch your eyes out

introducing the surinam toad, one of nature’s ugliest, most revolting inventions. i distinctly remember this creature from my first time here years ago. as much as its appearance will make your skin crawl, its brilliant reproductive engineering will also make you marvel. babymama’s eggs get embedded into her back. when the little dudes hatch they emerge from these pits on her back. disgusting. take a close look

god, who DOESN’T LOVE DINOSAURS?!

cynth asks, “why is his pelvis bone so huge?” guess you could say he’s a well-hung chap

cynthia says, “check out the toupee on that schmuck”

leaves….LEEEEEEEEAVES

move along. no sexual innuendo here, none whatsoever

the hall of biodiversity. basically the coolest thing ever constructed. don’t get me started

for all the shark lovers in the house

battle! i like the scars on the sperm whale

we leave the magical land of awesome and stop by zabar’s, a densely packed market / gourmet food shop. the cheese section is astounding. it’s a tiny space, almost impossible to navigate, so you can sense tensions flaring with all the shopping/foot traffic collisions

still on the west side, heading north toward harlem. channeling peter parker/tobey maguire on the steps of columbia university

something the yin sisters are quite adept at: the awkward self-portrait

taking a break in st. nicholas park

i like this

there’s neat architecture in harlem

here’s astor row. note the patios

taking a well-deserved break

we almost make it into amy ruth’s, our dinner destination, but the gravitational pull of a sneaker store (“training camp”) is too powerful. cynth buys two pairs for a great deal. i spy a pair of alifes — usually not my cup of tea — and fall in love. unfortunately, the $150 pricetag aborts all hope

shoe shopping works up a ravenous appetite, and we are ready to take on amy ruth’s

it does not disappoint. fried chicken with a honey glaze, zesty buttery mashed taters, and mac n cheese (good, but there’s a subtly sweet aftertaste that turns me off)

chicken n waffles with pan gravy on the side. the waffle could stand powerfully on its own. same goes for the flavorful crunchy chicken. PERFECT

at this point, we are ready to die happy and bloated from delicious gluttony

every metro station has its own look and feel. this one has a colorful mosaic mural of historical black figures. of course, christina takes a pic with billie holiday, her all-time fave

a handy legend

a scary ECU of me and ella

we end up back in the upper west side at this irish pub called parlour. cynthia’s friend is having a fundraiser in the basement. we meet some of them

i’d say that makes for a pretty eventful day

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 15th, 2008 at 3:43 pm and is filed under animals, family, food, travel. 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.