Another Year, Another Adventure

Our journey this summer began with a week in New York together.

Peter had a music conference to go to and present a poster, so I tagged along J Most days He would leave early in the morning and then we’d meet up for lunch and then again after his afternoon sessions. My mornings were spent waiting in ticket lines for Broadway, wandering the streets in Brooklyn and Manhattan or sleeping in (ok, it tended to be more of the latter…) It was a fun week overall, though we both confirmed that big cities are not for us; I for one don’t know how people can live based on subway and bus schedules or having to plan so much time just getting from one place to another even if it’s a few miles away (alright, done ranting). But visiting was fun, we stayed in an apartment through Airbnb which turned out super well and a very nice (and cheap) option. It turned out to be in a heavily Jewish area in Brooklyn, so that was fun. And it turned out that we were right across the street from a famous, and delicious, donut store (Dough) that made huge, fresh donuts with delicious flavors. It was an exciting find J

We got in early Sunday morning (6am) after a long overnight flight and eventually made it to our apartment. We took a nap for a couple hours and then headed out to find the closest ward. Adjusting to the whole bus system thing, we ended up walking to church, figuring it wouldn’t be so bad. We did make it, right in time for sacrament, but after a rather long, hot, and humid walk through Brooklyn. The branch met in some rooms of a random building and was rather small, but it was very nice. We really enjoyed the branch and the people there. It was a fun mix of young hipster families and older Brooklynites.

One thing I knew about, but hadn’t really prepared myself for, was the humidity. Oh my, the first couple days were the worst when it was so hot, but really humid and rainy. We didn’t have an air conditioner where we were, just a fan which we blasted on us as soon as we got home. Later in the week, it did get a little more bearable.

With only a week, we couldn’t do everything there is to do in New York, but we fit in a good number. Peter’s conference was at the Lincoln Center and Julliard School, so we were in the area a lot. I enjoyed hanging out in Central Park sometimes as I waited for him to come out. I discovered the Balto statue and the Strand street bookstore (it was so hard not to buy anything!). I also watched the seals at the zoo (it was the only thing visible from outside the park).

It was also fun getting to meet up with my good friend, Dina, who lives there now as a hotshot graphic designer. We had dinner with her our first evening in Little Italy. I hadn’t seen her in over a year, so it was a good reunion and fun to have her and Peter meet. She also knew all the good dessert places to eat at, so we got a good list to go off of.

On Tuesday we went to see the American Ballet perform Swan Lake at the Met Opera House. That was fun, and luckily not too expensive with student tickets. I only fell asleep once, though it was only during a really long dance number with soft music, and I wasn’t the only one struggling… cough*peter*. It was very nice, though, and not just because I got to rest my feet.

Met Opera House

Wednesday, after three tries, I finally got us cheap-ish tickets to Broadway for that night. We went to see Les Miserable at the Imperial Theater. That was exciting. The theater was smaller than we expected, but it was a very cool layout and background. There is just something about a Broadway production that makes the show that much more impactful and exciting. It was a fun experience. Then we walked around and explored Times Square a little.

Lincoln Center

 Earlier that afternoon we went on a tour with Peter’s conference people (I tagged along) on Mahler’s New York. It involved a whole lot of walking and looking at buildings that stood on ground where the actual buildings Mahler had been in had been long ago destroyed. But we did learn some cool history about the city and the composer.

We were going to go to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island on Thursday, but it turns out that if you want to climb in the statue, you have to book it months in advance; the next available ticket was for October! So since we didn’t want to pay just to go stand on the islands and look, we opted for the cheapskate version and rode on the Staten Island ferry across the Hudson and got our views of both Islands J 

Ground Zero

That evening we made it (after a very, very long bus ride and quick detour into a TJ Max) to Brighton Beach. This area is also known as Little Odessa or Little Russia. And it was so great. It really did feel like a little piece of Russia, and I think we both felt a little more at home there than in much of the other areas in New York. We had a delicious Russian dinner and got some treats at a bakery and spent time in a Russian bookstore and only restricted ourselves to buying one book. We got to speak Russian and hear Russian spoken all around us.

Friday was our last day in New York, and last day together. We were able to go and do a session at the Manhattan Temple, which was actually right across the street from his conference, so it was very convenient. It was a beautiful and unique temple, we enjoyed being there and being in a quiet place among all the bustle of the city. 

We made our way from there (with a detour to the Shake Shack for dinner, as suggested by Erica) to the Metropolitan Museum. It was huge! Towards the end we practically had to run through to get to the areas we wanted, though unfortunately still missed the Near Eastern collection. I could just see the huge wall and winged lions from the Assyrian Mesopotamia, but that was it L We’ll just have to go back someday. We did go, though, through the Egyptian collection, which was wonderful and huge and very exciting, there were even a few good mummies. We tried to divide it evenly so Peter and I both saw the exhibits we each wanted. So we wandered through some Medieval Halls and European art and then through a whole exhibit on musical instruments. That was pretty cool, there were some really crazy designs and styles of instruments.

Then Saturday we both left, Peter for North Carolina and me for Israel. I still don't know why I ever thought it was a good idea to leave my husband for a whole month 5 days before we even hit our 2nd month mark, but I'm here. And it is good to be back, to be with friends again and prepare to dig and have fun in the dirt :)

I will put up more pics tomorrow. And I promise I will not write posts quite so long in the future.