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As of the end of the day April 17, we had seen almost everything we wanted to see in Washington, and we were ready to move on to New York. What follows is the epic story of that journey.
Day 13 (April 18)
We didn’t actually leave until after 11 am. We spent the morning (after sleeping in) doing laundry, cleaning up the apartment, and packing the car so that everything we wouldn’t need in New York was in the trunk. Then we drove to Baltimore—actually, Ellicott City—to meet Sandy’s friend Mike, as well as his wife and kids. We spent a couple of enjoyable hours with him and his family, and then got on the road again.
We got through to the far side of New Jersey around 9 pm, which was pretty good time to that point, but bogged down when we got close to the Holland Tunnel. The traffic leading up to that tunnel took us two hours to get through—meaning that people were still coming into the city (probably to party) at 11 pm. Coming from sleepy Sacramento, most of which closes down by 11 even on weekends, we were astounded by this. Once we got through the tunnel, we saw where those partiers were going: everywhere. The entire city was alive with people, in the streets and on the sidewalks and inside the clubs and restaurants. The late hours weren’t restricted to young partiers; there were also more subdued people out, including older people and dog-walkers.
Driving in that atmosphere was entertaining. The traffic was no more frenetic than in parts of Los Angeles, but the narrow streets, the constant honking of horns, and the sheer number of taxicabs (which don’t exist in California in the numbers they do in New York) zooming around with reckless abandon made it feel crazier. It was enough like Los Angeles that Zahid wasn’t scared to drive there, but enough like Delhi that he wasn’t completely comfortable doing it. Sandy, on the other hand, immediately announced she would not be driving in New York.
We finally got to Zainab’s apartment around 11:30, and were lucky enough to find parking nearby. She had a prior engagement (we hadn’t given her much notice that we were coming that night—the original plan had been pretty vague) so she’d left the keys with the doorman. We carried our bags up to her studio apartment, and Zahid went out to get pizza. That’s right, by the slice at 12:30 am. We’re pretty sure that’s not possible in Sacramento. Zahid immediately formed the impression that New Yorkers get a bad rap for being unfriendly. It was very easy to strike up conversations with random people, and he did!
Zainab showed up soon after we ate. After we caught up for a while, and a quick intervention to get Zainab’s wireless working, we went to sleep with the satisfaction of having resolved another technical hurdle.
Day 14 (April 19)
We woke up mid-morning, and Zainab immediately went into her “tour guide” role—a mode in which she stayed for the rest of our trip, and believe me, she is fantastic at it. She made sure we understood the general layout of Manhattan, including how public transportation works, so we’d be able to get around when she was at work. She then took us to a breakfast of bagels (which were the same as anywhere else, but we had to get them in New York to say we had done so) and then on a brief tour. We walked through Central Park, including brief stops at the Dakota apartments (where John Lennon was shot and where Yoko still lives) and at Strawberry Fields, the monument to Lennon. We then picked up cookies at Levain Bakery and headed for Grand Central Terminal.
Grand Central Terminal (often, as our tour
book snarkily points out, referred to
incorrectly as Grand Central Station). If you
look real close, you can spot Sandy and Zainab.
We boarded a train to White Plains to visit Zahid’s aunt, Tyema. Hasan and Aliya, and Mustafa, met up with us on the train, and we spent some time catching up. Upon arrival, we were glad to find that Tyema’s son Amir had joined us too; we didn’t think he’d be able to make it. Sadiq was also in town, with Nawal and Najma, and we all spent a wonderful afternoon (including excellent Indian food from our hostess and yummy cookies from Levain) chatting about all manner of things including Mustafa’s career in advertising and Hasan and Aliya’s upcoming trip to Morocco. Zahid got to spend a good long time learning about Amir’s music, which Amir classified as “a really expensive hobby.” It was cool learning how Amir applies his creativity not just to making music, but also to gathering samples to use in making the music.
With Amir at Tyema’s
What a lively bunch! Clockwise: Nawal (with Najma
hiding), Sadiq, Hasan, Tyema, and Aliya.
Najma with one bowl for chocolate and another for vanilla
That didn’t end the day; Hasan and Aliya invited us over to their place in Manhattan afterward, and we spent the evening listening to Dylan and some jazz, and talking about what sights we should see in New York. Finally, it was back to the Upper East Side for bedtime.
Day 15 (April 20)
Monday morning started with doing some laundry, as well as what must be a ritual for Manhattan natives—moving the car for street-cleaning time. On the block where Zainab lives, street-cleaners come on Monday and Thursday, so there’s an hour-and-a-half window during which your car can’t be in the street. Zahid babysat the car during that window. Once that was taken care of, the car was safe where it was for the next three days—again, we really lucked out with parking. Then Zahid went for a haircut while Sandy napped—his hair was getting really really long, probably 3/8” long.
We finally left the apartment to head to the Guggenheim, stopping along the way to pick up real-life New York hot dogs at Papaya King. They tasted like, well, hot dogs. The Guggenheim was fantastic, except that most of the floors were closed so the museum staff could rotate in some new exhibits. We next stopped at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, a Smithsonian museum that we were really looking forward to. Unfortunately, that museum is undergoing a substantial remodel, so only one room of the permanent exhibit was open. That didn’t stop them from charging us the full price of admission, unlike the Guggenheim, which had cut its rate substantially due to the closed exhibits. We were actually surprised to be paying at all, as we’d thought all Smithsonian Institution sites were free to the public.
After we got back to the apartment, we spent some time planning our drive back home. We’d earlier determined that our trip east had been too hurried. We also wanted to add a stop in Minneapolis on the way home. We addressed these two concerns by deciding to leave New York on Thursday (April 23) rather than Friday, and by removing one of our planned destinations—Yellowstone National Park. We plotted out our return trip as follows:
- Thursday, 4/24 – Drive from New York city to Pittsburgh
- Friday, 4/25 - stay in Pittsburgh to visit with Zahid’s brother, aunt and uncle, cousin Ahmed, and Ahmed’s family
- Saturday, 4/26 - Breakfast in Pittsburgh, drive to Cleveland to visit with Zahid’s uncle Saadath and aunt Cheryl, Drive to Joliet, Illinois
- Sunday, 4/27 - Drive to Wayzata, Minnesota
- Monday, 4/28 - Stay in Wayzata to visit with Zahid’s uncle Akbar and aunt Srilata
- Tuesday, 4/29 - Drive to Rapid City, South Dakota
- Wednesday, 4/30 - See Mount Rushmore, and then drive to Cheyenne
- Thursday, 5/1 - drive to Elko, Nevada
- Friday, 5/2 - drive to Sacramento
[Author’s note: Stay tuned to find out if we actually stuck to this plan!]
After we had plotted out our trip, and contacted our various relatives to update them of our plans, we headed out with Zainab to a great restaurant called Stanton Social. This restaurant serves great meals of “small dishes,” almost like appetizers, so you order several dishes per table and share them amongst the whole group. We particularly liked the Kobe beef sliders and the red snapper tacos). We were too full for dessert, so we headed to an Italian bakery called Veniero's, where we ordered four desserts and shared them between the three of us.
Day 16 (April 21)
Today, based on our experiences in Washington DC, we decided to take an all-day tour of the city. Also based on our experiences there, we went with the same tour company. We had a good time and got to see much of the city (although it was overcast).
Really? Even the NYPD needs neon lights?
Dakota Apartments
Our tour guide, Tyler. We’re not certain
he didn’t embellish some of the narrative,
but he was a great tour guide regardless
The Empire State Building is so tall,
you can’t even see the top of it!
Some French thing
Maybe the economy would recover if
these guys would take fewer smoking breaks
Ground Zero
After the tour, on the advice both of Zainab and our tour guide, we grabbed an early dinner at the Burger Joint at Le Parker Meridien. Despite the uninspiring name of the place, these were excellent burgers, well worth the stereotypically brusque service (think “Soup Nazi” here). Since we’d had such a nutritious dinner, we stopped at the Magnolia Bakery for a cupcake before heading to the Lunt-Fontanne theater to see the Broadway production of The Little Mermaid. We enjoyed the show, particularly the staging and effects, which were great. Musically and dramatically, we were not quite as impressed—the production seemed more like a trial run than a show that had been running a while. After the show, it was back to the apartment for bedtime after a long day.
Day 17 (April 22)
As with our visit to Washington, we had several things to squeeze into our last day in New York City. We started out with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which was fantastic. This is a museum you can spend several days in, even if you’re not a runaway teenager. We paid the closest attention to the 19th and 20th century art (reflecting Sandy’s preference for impressionist and post-impressionist artwork) and the photography exhibits.
After we left the Met, we took a bus to Serafina Fabulous Grill on E 61st St ...
We now interrupt this blog post for a rant from Zahid: have I mentioned how much I hate Flash-based websites? They aren’t bookmarkable and most break the conventions and keyboard shortcuts of the web browser. The vast majority of Flash-based websites not only suck, but use Flash in unnecessary ways. Do we really need restaurant menus to be animated?
And now back to your already-in-progress blog post.
... to meet up with Zahid’s cousin Ali. Ali is currently in Singapore for three weeks out of each month, so we were lucky to be able to meet up with him this week. We got to catch up with him about his job, his new apartment, and parenthood, which will be a reality for Ali later this year. It was a fun conversation, and the fact that the food truly was fabulous was an added bonus.
Next up was the Museum of Modern Art, which was absolutely fantastic. In addition to the permanent collection, we spent a significant amount of time at an exhibit on design, which delivered what we’d hoped to see at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum.
We left MOMA when it closed, and headed to Starbucks to wait for Zainab. We picked the Starbucks in Rockefeller Plaza, based on our assumption that Tina Fey would show up there. She did not. Once Zainab was off work, we headed with her to the Shake Shack via the subway. Shake Shack is a good hamburger place with even better milkshakes and a crappy Flash-based website. Enough said.
At the subway station
Zainab and Sandy
The next step in the evening was Zainab’s brainstorm—karaoke—which we eagerly agreed to. (Actually, Zahid eagerly agreed; Sandy begrudgingly agreed.) Joined by Zainab’s friends Siddharth and Sita, and later by Zahid’s cousin Mustafa, we went to a place called Duet, which was a little different from our past experience with karaoke. Duet features private rooms that parties can rent. In effect, you’re singing to one another—not a room full of strangers. Everyone participated—even Sandy, though she refused to sing into a microphone—and much fun was had by all. Except anyone who could hear us through the walls.
Sita and Siddharth
Mustafa and Zainab
Finally, karaoke was over. For most people, that would mean time to go home, but we first took a cab to The Kati Roll Company for a midnight snack. Finally, we headed back to the apartment for our last night in New York.
Chilling with Kati Rolls at the end of a tough night of singing
What we missed in NYC
You probably will be surprised to know that, despite having seen so many people in New York, we still didn’t see all of Zahid’s relatives. We did not get to see Funda, Zahir, Akeel and Carol, or Gautam chacha, which disappointed us, but everyone had things going on and we didn’t give them much advance notice.
Besides the relatives, we wished we had had more time to stroll about Grenwich Village and other neighborhoods. We also would have liked to see Union Square and Columbia University. Lastly, it might have been nice to eat at a “celebrity chef” restaurant like Bobby Flay’s or Nobu. All in all, though, we had a magnificent time in New York, and we will be back!
