The second day of our trip began with breakfast at Yura on Madison, a little pastry cafe near our B&B. We each ordered a blueberry muffin, which turned out to be the best blueberry muffin I've ever had, and I also got an apple turnover and some tea. Dave went for an egg sandwich. You can tell already that we were getting ready for another day of heavy walking.
First stop: Metropolitan Museum of Art!
First stop was the Egyptian room, of course, with Dave's interest in the history of this area. They had heiroglyphs and large statues, although I was really impressed with the turquoise jewelry.
The sculpture rooms for Rome and Greece reminded me a bit of the British Museum. The paintings and modern art were truly amazing - they had TWO Chuck Closes, as well as some interesting paper, sculpture, and mirror works.
I loved the American blown glass, too. We caught some of the large-scale rooms, such as the Japanese house and some Spanish balconies that made us feel like we were in the Aragon Ballroom. There was also the underside of a beautiful carved wood Indian dome. (Many of these photos are now available at our photo website, if anyone is interested.)
Unfortunately, we didn't get to see the Frank Lloyd Wright room, which would have been really cool. This museum is truly overwhelming and has to be on our list the next time we visit NYC!
For lunch, we went to a little diner that reminded me of a Seinfeld episode, EJ's Luncheonette. We both got burgers: mine was topped with copious amounts of bleu cheese and Dave chose avocado and mushrooms.
On the way back up to the Guggenheim, we also made another stop - Maison du Chocolat! We hit a Paris location in 2009, and the banana truffle was so good that I knew we had to get some more. I picked up two of each truffle: vanilla, cinnamon, mocha, and dark. Oh, and a bag of champagne truffles. And a hot chocolate that cost more than our pizza last night. Oh well.
Next, the Guggenheim!
If the Chrysler Building is my favorite piece of architecture in Manhattan, this one has to be a close second. Unfortunately the rotunda (the big round structure) was closed on the inside, so even though there were exhibitions, you couldn't see the spiral. That was a major bummer, especially since the exhibits weren't that spectacular. Oh well!
Next was a pre-show dinner at Brasserie 8 1/2, featured in an episode of Sex and the City and allegedly showcasing some delicious French fare.
We each sprung for the prix fixe menu. I got a kir, a lentil salad paired with a Cote du Rhone, skate paired with a pinot noir, and a chocolate bombe. Dave had French onion soup, a Chimay Tripel, duck confit, and waffles! I thought the desserts were very whimsical. I wish I had been more hungry for this, because hunger truly is the best sauce. But it was a good meal nonetheless!
And a good buildup for: The Book of Mormon!!
Dave's Uncle John was so amazingly generous as to buy us tickets for this hilarious show, and we did get some great laughs. Someone next to me brought their grandma, who didn't appear to approve of all the jokes about religion, frog sex, AIDS, etc. I thought the songs were really catchy and the message was good, although I don't think they were hard enough on the Mormons.
Since we were so close, I figured we might as well stop by Times Square at night:
We walked over to Fifth Avenue and then all the way back up to our B&B, about 30 (small) blocks. We got to stop by Tiffany's, although it was obviously closed by this time. They had cute little window displays, though. We also visited the Fifth Avenue Apple store, which was amazingly crowded for 11 p.m. I guess it's a 24-hour store, which is pretty cool.
On to day 3!
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