AYCJ Day 8 - The Met, The Park and the Market on Manhattan

If it weren't for our alarm clock chirping at 10:00 AM, we probably would have slept until noon. But we had much to do, so we were off to the Met(ropolitan Museum of Art). On our way we stopped by a Dean and Deluca's just to ogle the food. It's like porn for me--only food. Food porn. All the legit fruit sodas and baguettes and cheeses and fruits and wild condiments make me hot. Did you ever wonder where the REAL fancy ketchup is kept? Dean and Deluca's. We saw a mushroom ketchup that I would have purchased if not for the whole 3.4 ounce carry-on thing. We vowed to go back for lunch.

Strolling through the posh neighborhoods near Central Park, we contemplated the vastness of the museum and decided not to even attempt to do it all. So we made a list of priorities which featured the modern art and instruments collection. Our list Distinctly did not include the Egyptian exhibit. But that's where the bathroom was, so I saw more of it than I ever intended.

After getting lost in Egypt, Logan and I got lost again, only this time we were pleasantly lost. We wandered into an extensive exhibit on furniture of the French Renaissance. Furniture is my absolute favorite thing to see in art museums (and had I known the exhibit was there, it would have made my list in the first place). Paintings are fine, but furniture serves a purpose and a function aside from looking pretty. The collection was of original rooms in various homes or hotels in France and Austria including the original ornate paneling of the rooms. It was incredible.

But we were there for the modern art and instruments and so we left only to get stuck in a room of Greek sculpture. At which point we realized we were starving. We would have eaten at the museum, but we felt it would be better not to put a second mortgage on the house. After 10 minutes of navigating the labyrinth to the exit, we finally got some food. Not really directly after, but it took so long, I'm just going to skip to the more entertaining parts of our day...

Like Central Park, par example. We wandered for hours in Central park. There's just so freaking much of it. We people-watched. Little, child-people for the most part. They giggled their heads off and ran amok while their foreign nannies watched. It was an interesting dynamic. I don't think I saw a single mother and child together, only young foreign speaking nannies and their well-dressed wards.

As we continued our walk, I heard this amazing female voice singing the blues. When we got close enough to the band, I was stunned to find that it was a white girl. She was that good. We bought her CD (Julia Haltgran) and decided to return to the Met for our unfinished business.

Taking the same labyrinthine route as before, we sought out the modern art, but instead found ourselves on the elevator to the rooftop garden. We had no idea what we'd find up there, but it was so cool that we basically said 'screw modern art! For we have found this...Thing! Yes! This fort/treehouse of bamboo on a roof in the middle of New York!' (And in our minds we sounded very much like Eddie Izzard telling a story).

Oh yeah. Check it out: The Big Bambu.

The Big Bambu is a living sculpture/fun fort. At the time we visited, it was 50 feet high, but it's being added to every day (apparently the Met has an open building permit). The entire fort is made out of bamboo and rope. No nails or tools were used, but it can hold at least 17,000 lbs. It's built by rock climbers and designed by the Starn Brothers. And it was so fantastically awesome, we spent the rest of the day there.

When the museum closed, we decided to head elsewhere. We didn't know where, we just got on the subway and went. We ended up at Grand Central Station to appreciate the architecture (Logan) and lust after foods in the Grand Central Market (me). When the man behind the meat section asked if Logan and I wanted anything, we confessed that we were just admiring his sausage. He told us he had some nice breasts too, if we wanted to check those out. The meat-themed humor topped out at "thighs" and we proceeded to clothing shop near the station. I got a sassy braided belt that the Tornows would applaud.

Finally on our way back to the hotel (in an Asian ghetto) we went shopping at the Hong Kong Market to buy Hi-Chews and mango gummies--favorite candies that we can't find anywhere else. The Hong Kong Market smelled exactly like Hong Kong: awful. Seriously awful. The stink of fish was so powerful it smelled more like raw sewage than low tide. Nevertheless, we braved the stink and got our candies and some fruit for breakfast.

Exhausted, we collapsed on the bed and watched bad cable TV. And enough about us. How was your day?