At one of the museum gift shops we visited, I bought the book, "New York: The Big City and Its Little Neighborhoods." It pictured and described 20 ethnic neighborhoods in the boroughs of New York City--Little Senegal, Little West Indies, Little Poland, and on and on. Dave and I visited Borough Park, or "Little Jerusalem," in Brooklyn.
The neighborhood was unassuming from the metro station, but as I peered off the overpass, I immediately saw an Orthodox Jew in his black hat and coat walking along the sidewalk.
There were Hebrew signs up and down the street.
How many hat stores do you see these days?
This sign intrigued me--"The Office of Mosdos Viznitz in Israel." What, exactly, does Mosdos Viznitz do?
The grocery stores were full of kosher salt, canned sauerkraut and beets, and many varieties of sour cream. Dave is holding date paste, used as filling for cookies.
We stopped at a deli for a bagel and some "Israeli salad"--chopped sweet peppers and tomatoes.
Even the school buses had Hebrew lettering.
Dave and I never mastered the knack of transferring by shuttle at Grand Central Station from the West Side to the East Side of Upper Manhattan. Instead, we cut across snowy Central Park on foot.
The Museum of the City of New York was a gem we had never visited before. We loved its movie about the history of NYC, as well as its exhibits on Hurricane Sandy, graffiti on NYC streets, and the Gilded Age. I love the books of Edith Wharton, such as "Age of Innocence," which portray that time and place.
We then walked ten blocks south to the Guggenheim Museum.
I am interested in the Italian futurists, who portrayed speed and war. This is one of the most famous sculptures from the movement, by Boccioni.
We then hiked back across Central Park to catch our subway to the TKTS booth at Times Square.
After securing good seats at "Beautiful," a show about songwriter Carol King, we walked to 53rd street to see another favorite museum--MOMA, or the Museum of Modern Art.
Some of my favorite paintings were by Van Gogh, Matisse, and Leger.
I also loved the paintings by Frida Kahlo and the Mexican muralists such as Diego Rivera.
I had more trouble with the special exhibit by a very contemporary artist....
Dave and I recognized many of Carol King's songs, such as "Locomotion" and "Natural Woman."
On Wednesday morning, we visited the Morris-Jumel mansion. George Washington used it as his headquarters for fighting the Battle of Harlem. After the war, when NYC was America's capital city, Washington hosted a party at the mansion for such Revolutionary War Leaders as Thomas Jefferson and John Adams.
We took the subway back to Lower Manhattan for our noon walking tour. We passed mini-storage centers, where people could rent spaces as small as a closet!
Space is at a premium in NYC, and parking lots often stack the cars.
We were early for our tour, so we spent a few minutes in the New York City Fire Museum, with its picturesque fire engines from the 1800s, when being a volunteer fireman was like being in a good club, and was also a way into politics.
Boss Tweed, NYC's corrupt mayor from the 1800s, began his political career as a volunteer fireman
Dave posed by the "jaws of life," the big scissors that pry open cars and slice through metal to free people caught in car accidents.
There was a display of firemen who lost their lives during the blazes of 9/11.
We joined a tour of Soho, Little Italy, and Chinatown with a cute singer/dancer/actress who had just finished three years appearing in "Phantom of the Opera."
The skyscrapers towered over this former farmhouse, but this was the type of building that used to predominate in Soho.
Now the streets are filled with brick, multi-story buildings with wrought iron fire escapes.
Little Italy is shrinking, as Chinatown expands. There are still some wonderful restaurants left in Little Italy, such as Leonardo's Pizza.
For the Feast of San Gennaro, this statue is carried through the streets.
Our guide said NYC's Chinatown is the largest Chinatown in the country. Reply, San Francisco!
We stopped for fried pork dumplings at a Mom and Pop shop.
We passed a park almost completely filled with Chinese-Americans, as well as a colorful Chinese house.
After the tour, and a stop at the Soho Room and Board shop to see our new furniture, Dave headed back to our hotel. I shopped on, looking for Chinese and Asian furniture. I loved the pieces at Far Eastern Antiques on Broadway.
Our final show was Newsies, about the newsboys strike of the early 1900s.
