MoMA!

Ladies and Gentlemen, hold on to your hats… today we woke up before noon! At 10:30 in fact. It is really remarkable, I know. Please, don’t expect this to be a recurring thing here on this vacation.

So we were going to ride the free Staten Island Ferry to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, but it was kind of breezy and overcast and we decided that it would be way too freezing on a boat for the outfits we had chosen. Yes, we changed our plans based on our clothing. So sue me!

We ended up looking up a Mexican Restaurant on the Upper East Side called Zócalo. Unfortunately, I planned out the subway route while half-asleep (we did get up at 10:30 after all), so we got a bunch of our stops all muddled today. Let’s just say we got a LOT of exercise and sightseeing in while walking the streets of Uptown.

Zócalo was pretty good. Unfortunately we got there at 4:15 and were told they don’t open until 4:30. So we waited outside, then came in again, only to be told, to our dismay, that they don’t open for dinner until 5:30! What? What is this “restaurant-that-aren’t-open-all-day-like-in-California” thing?! Well, once they saw how sad we were (we had just needlessly walked 14 blocks to get there after all and had been craving Mexican like mad for the past week), we were informed that we could “have some drinks and guacamole and quesadillas.” We agreed and sat down, the only customers. Luckily the guac and quesadillas were absolutely delicious and we were stuffed for $10 each when we left.

And off to The Museum of Modern Art (MOMA)! On Fridays it’s free from 4-8 so we totally hit that up. Unfortunately we didn’t even get there until 6:30 so we kind of swept through photography and these weird light exhibit things that made no sense and confused all visitors, then spent the most time in the paintings. There were some gems, but also way too many “wtf” works of “art.” Meh. At least we got to see Van Gogh, Picasso, and Monet. But I guess I’d rather see Renaissance style paintings and Roman sculptures. Or something.

After we had our fill of modern art we hit up the MOMA store, where they had lots of weird and expensive modern kitchen appliances, strange toys you might find in a Science Museum, and way-too-expensive postcards and recycled notebooks. They were cute, but not that cute. Needless to say, we left empty handed.

Caught the train home, laid around (I accidentally fell asleep for at least 15 minutes), watched the end of Cast Away, and are now exhausted and planning to be asleep by 12:30 (a record).

Tomorrow is another early day. We plan to be up by 9 (that’s 6 AM for you, kiddos.) and off to the Housing Works Used Book Café. Yes, this is the same place we were at yesterday. But they are having a book fair! Books, movies, and music for $1 a piece! We could NOT pass that up.

But we may need to buy an extra suitcase to take all these books and souvenirs and crap home. Oh la la.

Dunno what we’re gonna do after the Book Fair. Ferry? Central Park? SoHo?

Only time will tell, my friends. Only time will tell.