Some Final NY Farewells

Right, so we don't live in New York anymore, but there were lots and lots of pictures on our camera from our last few days there, and we finally unpacked to the point that we found the cord that connects the camera to the computer. (There is no need to tell us about your amazing camera that doesn't even need a cord to connect to your fabulous computer. If the law school computer still works, and the law school loans are still in repayment, we're using the law school computer).

So here are a few memories of our last week in New York while Charlie stayed in Missouri with Marin's ever-charitable and long-suffering sister and her family.

Marin was spoiled to death during this week. New York is a pretty terrific place to tear around with a toddler (evidenced by the most of the last 150 blog posts or so). But it is an even better place to tear around without a toddler.

We had dozens of things in the city we still wanted to do in New York, and we realized that we wouldn't even make a dent in our New York bucket list. Still, we managed to put together a pretty good hodge-podge of sight-seeing odds and ends in our last few days.

Gil wanted to see El Museo del Barrio New York on the Upper East Side. It's a cool Latino art museum to spend an hour or two if you're up in that area of Central Park.

This little shrine was in the museum cafe. "Make Tacos, Not War."

One of the things Marin was most embarrassed about not having seen was the inside of Saint Patrick's cathedral. It is across the street from Rockefeller Center, and she had walked past it, literally, hundreds of times.

It is just beautiful inside, and the fact that it is a sanctuary in the middle of Midtown makes it even more so.

Highline is this really groovy park on the far west side of Chelsea. The city took an old elevated train track and turned it into an elevated park with cool views of the Hudson and the meatpacking district. A nice place for strolling without a stroller.

Marin's girlfriends took her to Landmarc for a goodbye dinner.


It was very chic, very delicious, and of course we did nothing but talk about our kids. Aren't New York moms the most beautiful women? They have big muscles too (all that yoga and stroller hefting up subway stairs). From the left: Kjerstina, Marne, Janelle, Ke-kee, Erin, Marin, Jaime, and Kirsten.

Marin didn't take a picture of what was probably the best goodbye to New York: a moonlit gondola ride on the Lake in Central Park, complete with a singing gondolier named Junior (his opera voice was a little more Backstreet Boys than Pavarotti, but New York is more New York than Venice, so...). The gondolier had this insane story about former passenger who smoked weed with his Russian mail-order bride while he talked to his real wife on his cell phone. The gondola at the boathouse is definitely the best kept tourist secret in the city. Millions and millions of thanks to Marin's friend Connie for this magical memory.

On our last night in the city, Marin had one more cub scout den meeting, which she wouldn't have missed for the world. We went swimming. They gave her goodbye presents. She cried all the way home.
After cub scouts, we went to the Metropolitan Opera for our last night on the town. We saw a really cool production of "The Damnation of Faust."



The sets were amazing, and the production incorporated dance and acrobatics on the huge stage in this magnificent space. We ran into our friend, an opera singer, at the opera, and we ran with her to her apartment in the pouring rain after the show to get her insider's opinion on the performance (she liked it too).

The next morning, we emptied the apartment and got on the airplane.