NYC Day 2 Part 2

Continued from NYC Day 2 Part 1.

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This was so cool.

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Business end.

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RL loves Egyptian artifacts.

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Too bad they had drained the water feature recently for some reason.

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I want my water pond!!

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Selfie in front of drained water feature.

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OK, we are museumed out. It’s almost 1pm, we visited maybe 1/20 of the Met and we are done.

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Let’s see, how do we get to the subway.

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Would be cool to live across the street from The Met.

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We elected to take the subway line on the other side of Central Park, so now we can take another nice park stroll.

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Apparently Newpapers means general trash. People suck, actually, I bet it’s mostly the terrible tourists here that do this. NYC has been pushing hard on recycling. We even had to sign a little something when we checked into our hotel that we would recycle our trash in our room.

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The Great Lawn.

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Crossed the park, and found our subway.

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What does all that even mean. Why does one of the busiest subway systems in the world have to be the most user unfriendly?

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Add some more money to our MTA subway card.

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Whole Foods is the only grocery store I’ve seen. Where are all the other grocery stores? Where do NYers shop for groceries? Why don’t I see more people walking around holding bags of groceries? Do they only eat out every meal? I have so many questions!

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Empire State Building peeking out.

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Bryant Park and the Public Library.

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Quick visit to CVS for bandaids. We’ve been walking tons, and RL has developed an ouchie on her heel.

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Back at our hotel, waiting for the elevator, again.

It’s only 2pm, but we’ve been out and about for 5 hours already. Time for a nap, then after that head out late afternoon for our 6:15pm dinner reservation.

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It’s a little past 5pm, time to head out to East Village. My wife looks hot.

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Here we go.

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Cool fox tattoo.

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This being around 5pm on a Friday, the subway was super packed. Feels like Japan.

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That guy has a man bun, but on the front of his head.

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Reached East Village. I love how the feel of Manhattan changes so much across the different neighborhoods…But I guess you could say that about almost any big city.

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Smells good.

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NYC and their trash on the curb pickup.

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Tucked in a small alley is our dinner spot for the night, Momofuku Ko. Michelin 2 star, and no dress code. It’s perfect for us. We’ve been watching Ugly Delicious on Netflix, so we became fans of David Chang. Had to make these reservations a full month ahead to guarantee us seats.

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We are a little early, so we decided to take a lap around a few blocks to kill some time.

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Bowery Mural.

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Did they get that chicken from Central Texas? They sell those things back in Central Texas.

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Right after I took this photo, I was offered a sample of Matcha softserve.

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Yum. Too bad I’m about to have dinner right after this, or else I’d buy a full order.

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So exciting. This is the area with a la carte menu. We are headed to the back for their tasting menu at their counter. There are only 12 seats at the counter, hence making the reservation a month ahead.

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So excited.

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Ah yes, I’ve been looking for a place that carries the “La Tache” 2002. Not really…But fuck, $7950 for a bottle of wine…

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Mural by David Choi.

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Dry aging meat.

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RL is pregnant, so she has a slightly different menu from their usual menu. They’ve excluded the raw items and made her alternate dishes.

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Cave aged butter, it was the shit. I want some more now!

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Swamp soup, at least that’s what we call it. It seems to be a common theme amongst fancy Japanese cuisine restaurants. And without fail, it’s always our least favorite dish.

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Most amazing cabbage we’ve ever had.

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Duck, so good. I asked our server how they serve this dish for a single diner. The answer was that they serve it the exact same way, so a single diner actually gets twice as much duck breast!! What! You mean I could have made two single reservations and gotten more food?

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Still some meat left, but so stuffed already. Unlike almost every other tasting menu I’ve ever had, Momofuku Ko gives you nice portions. We are both really full by now, but there’s still more dishes to come. Definitely getting our money’s worth.

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Happy 4 year anniversary, with controlled decaying animals for backdrop.

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The shavings on top is foie gras.

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I’ve never been a huge fan of foie gras, but foie gras on a sweet tart was amazingly delicious.

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So much food. Finally last dish…

Incredible meal, incredible experience. Took us over 2 hours to have dinner, it was awesome.

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At the end of our meal, they gave us a menu of what we had to eat. That’s nice, since now I can take a photo of it and reference it to all the food photos now.df

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Worth it…but that’s an expensive meal.

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Such an unassuming front entrance. No large signage anywhere, you just need to know about it.

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Oh, city parking. This has got to be super annoying.

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This area is quite the happening spot.

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Located conveniently a few short blocks from dinner, our entertainment for the night. RL has been wanting to see a burlesque show forever, so here we are.

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I don’t know why I am getting a drink. I’m so full from dinner.

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Starting to get crowded. We got here early so waited about 45min before start.

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I guess time for another beer.

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MC for the night.

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LOL. He was pretty funny.

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RL thought this guy was the best. He had impeccable timing.

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LOL.

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This girl I felt like was a bonafide stripper moonlighting here.

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Dancing for tips at intermission. It’s May 4th, hence the Star Wars theme.

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It’s almost 11. We are exhausted, so we decided to leave during intermission. Been a long day. Good thing the show was only $20 a person, so relatively cheap for a show in NYC.

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Late night subway.

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Waiting, and waiting.

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Waiting some more.

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It took almost 20min for this train to arrive. We just want to go back to our hotel and get to bed.

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Hahaha. Saw these ads inside this subway train.

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Then of course, at the stop before our stop, the train stops here for 10min for some unknown reason. Sigh.

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Time to go to bed, exhausted from our long but good day.

To be continued at NYC Day 3.