Walk On Up To The Square - NYC Part 2

Our trip to NYC last weekend was fun filled and packed, from our Friday night viewing of the city from across the river, to our morning enjoying the Seaport, and walk up to Little Italy.  As we were leaving Mulberry Street in Little Italy, this man was rolling cigars in front of the Mulberry Street Cigar Company. Every once in awhile Gar will enjoy one, but couldn't get him to bite that day. 

When I say we walked and walked and walked, I mean it. So easy to do in the city. Since the Bates of Clontarf hadn't been up to The Village yet, we headed up to Washington Square Park, one of our old haunts.

One thing I love about New York is that there is always beautiful architectural details to see all around.

Lovely scroll work detail on the way to the square.

Washing Square Park is getting a face lift, so the the older gents weren't out playing dominoes as their corner is still under construction.  Of course, there are always several live performances to enjoy.  Gar and I really liked this band, The Big Nasty.

Conor, Fiona and Rachel listened to them from afar while resting on the 'hot' marble benches. 

I love the Square in the summertime. You can always count on kids playing in the fountain to cool off. 

A close up of the top of the arch at the entrance to Washing Square Park. Something I never noticed before, the Ws decorating the arch (can you find them? look hard..............in between the laurel circles).

After the day of walking we were all getting a little peckish and thirsty. Thankfully we were just around the corner from Panchitos on MacDougal Street, another favorite spot for their Strawberry Daiquiris. I was so sad when the waitress told me that the daiquiri machine was broken. It was a brief sadness, as she followed that statement up with, 'The Margarita machine is working!"

Gar chose to practice his impersonation of The Most Interesting Man In The World, and went for a Dos Equis.

The funny thing about Panchitos is, #1. we've been going there longer than our waitresses have been alive now and #2. there is always some sort of excitement and action whenever we're there. This time, a fire across the street that was quickly dealt with by NYC's firemen from the Bowery Station.

Then it was onto Chinatown Brasserie, thankfully another short walk. We'd had a very nice meal here before and it didn't disappoint. We all got into the spirit of things with our chopsticks.  The boys did it Beatles style..."I am the Walrus."



We had a lovely server who was nice enough to get this picture of all of us.

We all agreed that the Crispy Orange Beef was our favorite dish, though everything was delicious.  

To top it all off, our waiter brought us these yummy warm custard rolls just because we were the only group that didn't ask to be moved away from the air conditioning.

How can you beat that?

We were going to take the subway, but decided it really wasn't 'that' far to where we were going. In case we were confused along the way, there was a sign that let us know where we were.

All in all, a great day in the city.

Sunday we headed up to Yonkers to see my Godparents again and luckily we finally caught up with my cousin Gina too. My Goomba- that's Italian slang for Godfather- is lurking on the right.

We had to cut our visit short as the weather was awful, and we thought we might be able to drive out of it. That didn't happen quickly. There was lots and lots of really weird, scary clouds along the way.

I don't think these pictures really captured how weird these clouds were.

We finally got ahead of the storm when we hit the Massachusetts' border.  Then it caught back up with us after we got home. It rained and rained and rained from Sunday night to Monday night. Today, just gray and damp.

Here's hoping it's nicer in your part of the world on this Tuesday.