Great day in NYC

Good day with my son, the Pope, and my book. I got an early train to NYC and took a little spin to get the lay of the land for the Pope visit then headed to Bryant Park and called my son. He picked me up there but not before I got a good start on my May Book Club book - it got me and I woke up at 4:30 a.m. this morning and finished it! Good book.

But back to yesterday. From Bryant Park we went to Central Park South and 5th Avenue (right across from the Apple store on 5th Avenue) and waited for the Pope mobile. I was not sure my son would see the adventure of it, but we waited. The mobile was not quite high enough for me to see anything but the top of the Pope's head, but the crowd was very interesting. Then off to Brooklyn to walk my son's new neighborhood. See the park where he does his "pool party" work in the summer. Found this on the web:

"Since lots of people have asked, yes, there WILL be concerts in 2008. Enjoy them while they last.

Via Curbed:
McCarren Pool will get a $50 million overhaul starting at the end of the year. "Preliminary designs" were presented by Rogers Marvel. Here is a summary: the new pool will cover almost 70 percent of the space of the old one--significantly more than had been expected. The pool will be able to handle about 1,500 people. It will wrap around a concrete area that will just into the middle of the space in a U-shape. Architects are calling this area "the beach," as it will have water on three sides. The diving pool, which has been filled in, will be rebuilt. (There is also a long-term plan to rebuild the wading pool.) In the winter, some of the space will be used as an ice skating rink. One of the big existing structures to the right of the entrance will be converted to community space. The building on the left will be turned into a gym. There's also talk of putting a cafe atop the main entrance building. The rebuild means the end of big concerts at the pool, although the space could be used for some performances in the spring and fall when the pool and/or ice rink are closed. Come the end of summer '08, it will be time to kiss concerts at McCarren Pool goodbye."

And here is the review of the place we went for the "birthday dinner" - but I liked it!

VILLAGE VOICE SAYS: Miss school lunch? Were you one of those kids who sat in morning math class dreaming of steam tables longer than the Queen Mary, behind which stood women clad in white waving giant spoons? Do you prefer your veggies on the mushy side? When you go to Vegas, do you only pretend to gamble, then run off to the buffets? If you can answer 'Yes" to any of these questions, then Peter's is your place. Located on the quintessential block of Bedford just above the first stop on the L, Peter's Since 1969 is the restaurant's proper name, emblazoned across the front in large block letters. It refers, somewhat mournfully, to a butcher shop named Peter's that flourished on this spot for 38 years, which the new restaurant has usurped. The old Peter's was one of two competing butcher shops on the block—one Ukrainian, one Polish—that epitomized the old Williamsburg....Gleaming white tiles and hooks that once suspended kielbasas like giant curving phalluses are the only vestiges of the original shop. Peter himself hung up his apron late last year: According to a friend who's a longtime resident of the block, he decided to take the $8,000 per month he'd been offered as rent and retire to Long Island. His picture smiles down benevolently from a frame by the front counter, one of the neighborhood's secular saints. Behind that counter, one now sees a giant rotisserie churning behind a smeary pane of glass. The chickens are the best part of the new Peter's—big, shambling creatures rubbed with herbs and sloughing moist flesh. You won't need a knife, or even a fork. The price is right, too—one quarter bird plus two sides and "corn bread"is $8.95. A half-chicken is only a dollar more. Peter's calls them French-rotisserie chickens, but there's really nothing French about them except the word "rotisserie." The supposed Frenchness is only one of the culinary mysteries of Peter's Since 1969, which should really be called Peter's Since 2007. Jumbled on the counter, a collection of pretty red Le Creuset casseroles holds the restaurant's other offerings, constituting a steam table in disguise. As the multiply pierced clerk raises the lids in succession, you'll discover decent mashed potatoes and mashed sweet potatoes, leathery sautéed corn, green beans and broccoli oddly cooked together, chopped spinach en casserole, pallid mac and cheese, yellowish stewed okra, and bread-crumbed cauliflower. The selection varies, but most of the sides are united by two qualities, overcooking and underseasoning—perfect pap for invalids and hungry schoolchildren.

Continue reading "Peter's Since 1969" »

It was fun to be moving from subway to subway and having people stop to say hi to my son, same happened in Park. I love it when my son turns the big city into a small town. I got to walk by where he lives. I don't go inside. My son got me back on the subway back to Times Square and Grand Central. I love Times Square at night - overload on lights and advertising. I was going to stop at Juan Valdez Coffee Shop for a cup of decaf to take on the train ride home, but too expensive and too crowded. I moved up 42nd St and found a hole in the wall shop and got it there.

I loved the stories of my son about seeing Heath Ledger (sp) DJ'ing at a bar near his house during what turned out to be close to his last days. Also that he bumped (figuratively and literally) into Lance Armstrong at a art opening he was at. I love his celebrity sightings!

The weather was perfect. The day was good. I do worry a bit about how hard my son's life if and I wish I had the means to make it better/easier - but I don't know what that would look like since only he knows what he wants his life to look like. As to what he looks like - the beard is gone, but the hair is getting longer. He is talking about a possible haircut, regular job talk. We will see.

As to today. Off to church, parents, walk - see what else the day presents. I have something written on my calendar, but I did not right enough detail...what did I think I was going to do today if I did not stay over in NYC? Oh well. We will see.

Have a good week.