Off to Bigger and Newer Things

I'm sure many of my regular readers have noticed that I've been posting with a bit more frequency. I'm sure you've all thought this was me catching up for the time I was studying or trying to close the gap between my blog posts and present days, but I have different news.

Over the last few weeks, I've done some thinking about this blog. I have really loved keeping track of my adventures on here. When I started this blog I was heartbroken and lost. I needed to get out in the world, but I needed some sort of motivation. By setting a goal for myself and using the blog to keep me accountable, I ended up vastly exceeding what I set out to accomplish.

Even though I've gone on many adventures in the time gap between the last post and present day, I think at this point I'm moving backwards instead of forwards by posting them. Closing up the blog after 1 year's worth of adventures seemed like a great stopping point. The way I see it, the trips I took in July of 2011 were a big start to building who I am today. I wasn't afraid to explore on my own and take off on personal adventures. It was a big lesson in independence. If you want to do something, do it. You don't need anyone to go with you or hold your hand.

But on the contrary - I've also seen a lot of my friendships grow over the 2 years since I started the blog. I made sure to carve out time to spend with friends on more of an individual basis instead of only at parties. The quality of my friendships improved. That's where lesson number 2 came in: even if you can do things alone, you don't always have to. It's nice to be able to ask some friends if they would like to join you, but also being able to go it alone if you need to or even if you just want some time to yourself is important.

It's funny to think about my life and see where I've come from and where I've gone. A few years ago, one of my friends called me "relationship girl" and I was absolutely taken aback. "No, that's not me" I thought, but then I realized - as long as she'd known me, I had always had a boyfriend. From my perspective, I'd only had boyfriends for a few years. Thinking back from middle school to high school, I was always the friend that was going on adventures, exploring on my own, and being fairly independent. I thought I was still that person but I realized that even though I felt that way, maybe I didn't act that way anymore. You know you have a problem when the way you see you isn't the way that other people see you.

As I pointed out, I didn't realized that I would find all of that through this blog - I just thought that I was finding a way to systematically explore San Francisco more. Explore I did and even though I found a lot of cool things to do in this fantastic city, I also found myself.

The second year of my adventure, the one you won't get to read about, is probably where I grew the most but not really through the new adventures so much. At first I made the shift from "One New Thing a Week" to "New Things" in general just to accommodate changes in my schedule. Some weeks I could do 5 things, sometimes none. I thought it would even it out more. What I found though is that I didn't need any more motivation to do new things - they just happened. Going to new restaurants and cafes became second nature. I also realized an important lesson - just because you can do something new, doesn't mean you have to. That's when came upon a new dilemma, I wanted to go back and further explore some of my previous "New Things." I found parks and coffee shops and restaurants that I loved. Doing new things is important but it's nice to also have places and spaces that you love. The important thing was that I was getting out more and even in a familiar space, there are always new corners to explore, new exhibits to check out, or a new dish on the menu.

Through all of this, it became evident that while I loved the blog, it was a crutch I didn't need anymore. I had my life in a good place where I was able to explore, read books, have better friendships, and as of lately, find closure.

This blog started with a walk. I wanted to walk across the Golden Gate Bridge and no one could or wanted to go with me so I had to go it alone. I ended up spending the whole walk deep in thought and that's when I thought of the new-thing-a-week challenge and then later realized that a blog would be a good way to keep track of it. Recently, I was visiting my family in Southern California, I went with my mom to the beach and took another walk. I was originally looking for tide pools since a sign had indicated there were some nearby, but it ended up being another really good chance to think. I walked down the beach for miles at my own speed and stop to take pictures of star fish. It made me realize how much I love being able to do things on my own and I needed to be able to learn how to do that. Now that I have, I'm ready for something more.

Thanks to everyone for reading and supporting my blog. I am very guilty of checking my stats and it's really surprised me how many visitors I get and the geographic scope of my blog. Whoever you are in China, Russia, Malaysia, or Germany - thank you for finding my blog! In it's lifetime, I've seen almost 20,000 page views. That's way more than I ever anticipated.

It's time for me to stop looking backward, and start looking forward. I know I've said about 20 times how much I love this blog, and I do! The hardest part was figuring out what I would do with my pent up need to write about myself. I think the best move for me is start a new blog that is a little less personal. One of the biggest things for me in the past few years was to really come into my own and figure out what my own interests were outside of a relationship. So my new blog, is a collaboration with a few friends called Cinnamon Geek. It's basically going to be us geeking out over all the things we love in life. There may be some carry over from this blog but obviously from a different perspective. So sorry if my proliferation of posts gave you the impression that I was gearing up this blog - I was actually just eager to get started on my new project. There are too many geeky things going on in the world and it was a good time to move on.

To new beginnings!

P.S. I plan on carrying over my "Resolutions" so if you want to know how those went, be sure to check on Cinnamon Geek at the end of December.


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Week of July 25th 2011: The National Archives

On my second day in DC, Mike insisted that I check out the National Archives. This is where many of the country's founding documents are stored. What would a trip to D.C. be without a visit to the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights?

Even though I started my day relatively early, there was still a line to get into the National Archives. It moved quickly enough and the day wasn't too hot and soon I was inside. The security was understandably intense and it felt almost like going through an airport.

The first thing I did was watch a video describing the history and importance of the National Archives. It showed stories of several people who went to research their family's histories and were able to discover that that they had important ancestors. I found this really interesting since I have a pretty famous last name but I don't know if I'm related to the person that made my name important. I definitely want to see if I can do some research on it next time I'm in D.C. (Actually, while doing some refresher work on their website, I learned that they have satellite offices around the country so I might be able to achieve this more locally...)

After that, I wanted to go see the famous documents. I knew that would have a line as well and it would only be getting longer. Of course there was some wait, but they made it better by putting little informational signs around the line. Eventually, I was in the room with all of the documents. It was really cool to see them. They were much larger than I expected and of course relatively faded. The Archives did a good job of putting signs and posters around that pointed out what time had done to them and give some interesting background stories. I always love when there is extra background information. The Smithsonian was good about this as well.

The National Archives are provide the "National Archives Experience" which serves as more of a museum to the public. The experience gives visitors a glimpse into historical documents and their importance throughout the years. This may sound boring but think about patents or letters and how these have shaped history? A document can be so much more than a piece of paper and this exhibit lets you discover this.

I had a lot of fun in the National Archives. It was a further reminder of how important even the details in our history could be. It was also a good reflection on the importance of letters in history. Letter writing used to be so common and the Archives apparently have a large collection of significant letters. On my lists of books to read are John Steinbeck and Einstein's letters... but letter writing has long since fallen by the wayside and replaced by emails. I wonder what kind of effect this will have on our history. Maybe the future of the archives will be in emails, tweets, blog posts and Facebook statuses. It would be interesting to see what history does with everything we've put out into the world now that letter writing is less common. 

Week of July 25th 2011: The Smithsonian Museums and the National Portrait Gallery

I was originally going to do a post for every museum I visited, but I think it may get a little tiring if there are 30 posts from this trip. I'm going to do a lot of condensing so even though I could write a book on the Smithsonian museums, I'm going to try to limit it to a blog post... you may need to read this one in a few goes. I am also including the National Portrait Gallery.
(I also apologize for the poor picture quality - this is the camera that fell down some rocks and went swimming when I was in Los Angeles and it never quite recovered)

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My first stop on the Smithsonian tour was the American History museum. I knew next to nothing about the museum and wasn't really looking forward to it but it was the closest to where I was and I was dying to get out of the heat. Well, to say the museum surpassed my expectations would be an understatement.

I may be biased though... I decided to explore the museum in order and of course the first exhibit I wandered into explored Los Angeles in the early 90's. For those not aware, this was basically my childhood. It was fun to see an exhibit that explored the place I lived as a kid especially when there was one board specifically on the San Fernando Valley.

The American history museum is also where you can find a lot of really cool American relics. In one extremely dark and chilled room, the original Star Spangled banner can be seen. It's basically in shreds after all of these years so the museum is doing it's best to preserve it (and of course that means no photography so you will have to go check it out for yourself).

After that, I decided to check out the Hall of First Ladies. I think many people may be familiar with this exhibit, but as I had said, I knew next to nothing about this museum before visiting it. The first hallway that I walked down had beautiful sketches of many historical First Lady Inauguration dresses. I was so excited, I decided to start snapping photos of all of them, especially those before I was born. I thought it was so cool that I could see what they all looked like.... until I went into the next room and they were all on the display. The actual dresses. I'm not very big into fashion, but that was cool. Of course the more recent dresses were in the center of the room, including Michelle's dress from 2008. I really enjoy seeing things in person that I had seen on TV. There is something fascinating about being able to get a close up on those little details that just don't get caught on the camera.

The last exhibit that really caught my eye was the one on Film and Television. This is where you can find some more fun artifacts from our country's great entertainment industry such as Dorothy's ruby red slippers and some of the original Muppets. My favorite piece though of course was the 70's Batman TV show Catwoman costume. I found it very entertaining that a few weeks earlier I was able to see the Michelle Pfeiffer Catwoman suit when I was at the Tim Burton exhibit. This means I only have one more Catwoman suit to track down and that movie isn't even out yet. 


The best part of the whole museum though was seeing a picture of one of my friends in the robotic section. It turns out, his contributions to that field earned him and his team a spot in the Smithsonian which was really cool to see. I was so proud of him and also felt like I knew a celebrity. When anyone else walked by, I wanted to brag that I knew that guy. 

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Extra in Independence Day

After the American History Museum, I went next door to the Natural History Museum. Typically, I don't get excited about natural history museums because to me, they are just a collection of stuffed animals. However, after being thoroughly impressed with the American History Museum, I decided to give it a shot. 

 There definitely were a lot of collections of stuffed animals, but it was way more than that. The facts and displays they had were really interesting. I think I'd just gotten turned off from them because I had seen a really boring exhibit on mammals a year earlier. The ocean exhibits were particularly cool since they had a fun exhibit of Giant Squid - which I've decided are the inspiration for quite a few movies about aliens. It was also cool to see the Paleontology exhibits. I hadn't really been to a museum with nearly that many fossils (even though these were just copies, of course). 


But I'm sure it's easy to guess what I liked the best.... the Hope Diamond! I also wasn't expecting to see this on my museum excursion, but I really should have known it was there since it was a big plot point on one of my favorite South Park episodes. The Hope Diamond and all of the other jewels are extremely beautiful. I really enjoy seeing diamonds of different colors. It's also fun to see something different. 

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Maybe he'll catch the road runner?

The next day, Mike had to work in the morning so I was on my own again. After visiting the National Archives (which we'll get to later), I decided to visit the National Portrait Gallery and its Sculpture Gardens. I thought on a lovely July day, a midday walk through the sculpture garden would be nice - well, I really overestimated my ability to handle heat. 8 years in the Bay Area has left me really incapable of handling seasons. Plus, even though I grew up in Los Angeles, the dry heat was much more bearable than the stifling humidity of the East Coast. I quickly took my walk through the garden and ended up spending a long time sitting with my feet in the fountain. 


As you can imagine, I was eager to get into the air conditioned Portrait Gallery. The portrait gallery is really large and broken up into two museums. The first wing has more classical art. Since I had several hours to kill and didn't feel the need to go outside again, I was able to explore both thoroughly. I think a lot of the classical pieces are similar to a lot of posts I've written about before so I'm going to brush over that pretty quickly. The only thing that really stood out to me was that once again, this museum had a Degas Ballerina. Since I had just seen another in New York the week before, I finally came to the conclusion that there were several of them. I also went in search of the Dutch wing to see if they had the Girl with the Pearl Earring. Still no luck so I finally broke down and looked it up. It's in the Hague of course but I'm excited to report that it's coming to SF in a few months and I can't wait to see it in person.

The second part of the museum has more modern and contemporary art. The two wings are connected by a space like tunnel that really reminds me of Space Mountain at Disneyland. When I got to the other side, there was a great contemporary art exhibit. The floor space for it was very open with a split level so when you walk up to it, the first thing you see is a display made up of dozens of hands saying things in sign language. I wish I had been able to translate!

Across from that was another cool piece of art - a giant black and white portrait of an older lady. It didn't seem that crazy... until I looked closely and saw that it was made up of thumbprints! I love how contemporary art has different angles like that. Something can seem so normal until you get up close and see that it's far more complicated.

The wing had several other standout pieces but then you always have the "I could have done that" stuff. For me, it was a wall that looked like it had been scribbled on with crayon. I actually used to that as a kid and got into a ton of trouble for it. Turns out I could have been an artistic genius who was suppressed before her full potential was reached.

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The last museum I went to visit was the Air and Space Museum. Even though this was one of the ones I was looking the most forward to, I was pretty beat by the time I'd gotten here. Two straight days of looking at Museums, Memorials, Archives, and the Political System (you have many fun posts to look forward to) had me a little museum'd out.


This time I wasn't alone though. My friends Nate and Mike joined me. Mike had been working all day so we literally left him to take a nap while we explored. The biggest thing I remember was that we spent a lot of time in the Wright Brothers exhibit. I was really interested in just how these guys finally pulled off the mechanics of flight. Nate was similarly interested so we both were really engrossed in all of the mechanisms they had in the room. 


I wish I'd been able to explore the museum more but at least there was one more highlight that is really neat. Along the sidewalk, they have all of the planets in our solar system, proportionally spaced from each other. In front of the museum, there is Pluto (I know, I know, but the Smithsonian website also says nine planets so I feel comfortable with this) and the rest of the planets, some comets and the sun are placed at one ten billionth of their actual scale. It was a cool thing to see and something to keep us entertained on our walk back to the Metro station.

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The Smithsonian museums are amazing. I could have spent weeks in there and I hope some day I get to go back and see more of the exhibits in detail, as well as the museums I missed. I'm really jealous of my D.C. friends who get to see these fantastic learning centers on a regular basis. 

Week of July 25th 2011: Welcome to Washington D.C. and the Corcoran Gallery of Art

The day after the Broadway show, I went to work for a little bit and then I was off on a bus to D.C. (Tangent - if you want to city hop, I recommend the bus system. My bus ticket was about $25 and I got two seats to myself because it wasn't full. It only takes a little longer than the train which was much more expensive.) 

In D.C., I would be staying with my friend Mike who works for congress. Since Mike would be working the first day I was there, I had a chance to explore on my own. If you haven't caught on yet, exploring on my own is one of my favorite things. Company is nice but so is being able to take in as much or as little as you like.

I took the Metro to the National Mall and figured I would just walk from there. I was really excited to check out the museums because they're all free. I thought I would walk around about since it was earlier in the day and the sun wasn't at full force yet. I went on a nice stroll past the White House and the National Christmas Tree before coming to the Corcoran Gallery of Art. I was a little taken aback when I was charged admission... yup, plenty of free, public museums and I stroll into one of the few private ones. I was a little embarrassed by the mistake so I paid the admission and went in.

The Corcoran Museum focuses on American Art but while I was there, many of the exhibits featured contemporary works. If you remember from my LACMA post, contemporary art was really growing on my radar so it was a fun museum to explore. As with any of the more modern types, there was some "How is this art? I made this in 3rd grade?" mixed in with some really cool plays on pop culture. I think you can imagine which was my preference.

One of my favorites though, was an exhibit that had a bunch of little glowing squares of different colors. It seemed cool but I couldn't figure it out so I read the sign and was excited when it said that this was an interactive exhibit. Guests could move around the little squares and if you touch them, they change color. I knew I had to leave my mark somehow and it didn't take me long to figure out exactly what I wanted to create. My contribution to the museum only lasted until the first group of kids appeared but at least I immortalized it in film.

Like many of the museum posts you'll see, I'm not going to go through gallery by gallery but I'll scatter some pretty pictures through the post. However, there was one more exhibit that stands out in my head. The featured exhibit was another modern artist who creates giant pieces while working outside. This one piece he did in a park and let birds walk all over it as part of the work. It was cool to see how it changed with little bird prints in it.

I guess that's the thing about modern art... maybe it wasn't the most skilled piece I've ever seen but there is a "I've never thought about that" quality to it as well. A few months earlier, I would have been pretty annoyed about being in a museum with primarily modern and contemporary pieces but a lot of it is really growing on me. That's a huge take away from this blog... maybe you assume you don't like something but you really just need to try it. There is still a lot of modern art that I really think is stupid but there are just as many that are so talented or creative. I'm glad I've had to chance to discover this side of it as well.

Week of July 25th 2011: See a Broadway Show

Even though I spent a few days wandering around the city and checking out Times Square, Rockefeller Center and the World Trade Center, I didn't feel like I really had enough on each one to write a story about it.
Instead, we are going to fast forward to my last night in New York City. Elissa wanted to get me a belated birthday gift so she decided to take me out to my first Broadway Show. Before my trip, I had given her a few options and since Book of Mormon was sold out forever, she went with my second choice - How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. I'm not going to lie, all I knew about the show going into it were that Daniel Radcliffe was starring and the name sounded kind of familiar.
Good enough for me!
Elissa and I had a lot of fun dressing up and going to see the show - which was also hilarious. The plot is pretty straight forward from the name - it's about a young guy who uses a book called "How to Succeed" to quickly climb the corporate ladder. I would say that it's good for anyone in business but really, it's probably entertaining for anyone who has ever had any job ever.
We both thought it was very entertaining that there were many kids in the audience. The show, while very comical, still has a lot of adult themes so we figured they were basically there because of the leading man. It makes me wonder what kind of audience there is now that a Jonas Brother has the part. I also hope these parents didn't take their kids to see Daniel's first play...
Elissa's gift was so fantastic and I'm glad we got to spend my last night doing something so memorable. Elissa and I used to go to shows together in SF so it was also just a great to do one of our favorite things together.

Week of July 18th 2011: Social Eatz

There was one more Top Chef restaurant that I had to check out and that was Angelo Sosa's Social Eatz. His food always looked so good on TV and on the show they had said he worked in a sandwich shop so that felt very accessible. However, just before going to New York, I found out that the sandwich shop closed. Luckily, worry turned to excitement when I found out that instead he had opened up his own wider menu (but still relatively affordable and accessible) Asian-fusion type shop.

I know Asian fusion sounds a little played out but Angelo really attacked it in a new way. Almost of all the dishes seemed like American comfort food on the surface (burgers, hot dogs, etc) but it was easy to see that they were layered with unique Asian flavors. I got tacos and chicken wings and they were very tasty. I can't remember what Elissa ordered or which drinks we got (they have an extensive, original cocktail menu) but I do remember that we were both raving about it. She was trying to find out if they delivered to her neighborhood or office. It turned out that both were just out of their delivery radius and yes, she considered a few wacky, Seinfeld-esque ways to work around that.

The most important thing you should know about Social Eatz though - neither of us mentioned that it was my first time in New York and guess how much free stuff we got? None.

I actually got to meet Angelo a few weeks ago when he was in SF for a book signing. I literally chased him about half a block down a busy SF touristy area before I caught up and was able to ask him for a picture. Even though I seemed like a crazy stalker, him and his wife were very nice and understanding. It's also really nice to be able to tell a chef to his face that you liked his food.

Week of July 18th 2011: Boating in the Park

The famous Boat House

Before I even got to New York, Elissa had been asking me if we could go boating. She explained that a few blocks from her apartment, in Central Park, there was a place you could go boating. Even though I had never been to New York before, I'd of course, seen several movies that took place there (even the night before we had seen a post dinner showing of Friends with Benefits) so of course I had heard of the infamous Boat House. Somehow I did not put two and two together.

stopping for some noms

Once I figured that one out, my excitement escalated. It's always fun to see something in person that you'd only seen in a movie or TV show or read about in a book. Since we didn't have a small fortune or a reservation, we didn't have lunch at the Boat House (maybe next time) and instead got a some park-esque food and cookies before our boat ride.

Can you see our turtle friend?

Elissa and I were so excited about our adventure. She kept telling me how romantic it was and that I would have to row for her since I was stronger. This led to many jokes along the way about how I would be such a good boyfriend for her and that I should propose to her in the boat because it would be the most romantic thing ever.

We rowed to the edge of what we thought was the whole lake rather quickly and began to wonder what we would do for the rest of the hour that we had rented... until we got closer and saw that the lake kept going... and going... and going. Maybe we should have gotten two hours? (this map hopefully illustrates how you can't see most of the lake from when you start out and it's actually about 10x bigger than you initially think)

Our little spin around the lake was so fun. You get to see parks of the park that are otherwise a little hidden. There was a person who had set up a little easel and was painting the scene, people bouldering, lake turtles popping their heads up occasionally, and of course the other-boat-people-watching.

Others enjoying a lake picnic

Eventually we got to the far end of the lake and Elissa insisted on rowing. I'm not going to comment except to say that apparently, the boat doesn't move if you get stuck on the rocks... I may have had to pry us loose a couple of times.

We eventually were getting close to our hour time limit so I took the paddles back and rowed us quickly back to the shore. Sadly, our romantic boat ride had come to an end but I will never forget my fantastic date with Elissa.

On a side note - I mentioned seeing Friends with Benefits for a reason. There is one scene where they are at a really pretty part of the park with a lovely steps and a fountain. Elissa had been wondering where that could possibly be and suggested we look for it. So - a little cell phone googling and we saw that the nearest street was the one we were near... it had been several hundred feet from us the whole time... we had rowed past it. Either way, we had fun taking some pictures there and then walking through a lot of the rest of the park.

Beautiful view of the Upper West Side

Week of January 23rd 2012: Bottle Cap

For my 3rd Dine About Town experience - I really wanted to go to Bottle Cap. My favorite source for blog ideas - 7x7 - had recently recommended it as a great date spot. So, I decided it would be a great place to go on a girl date with my friend Sheena.

As soon as we got the menus, we knew we had made a good choice. After long work days, we were both quick to order a fun cocktail. We both got the Bondly named Dr. No which the waiter referred to as a fancy mai tai. It was delicious.

For appetizers, Sheena got a beef stew that was hearty and delicious. I got a smoked rainbow trout salad. Unfortunately, my dish wasn't quite what I imagined but still interesting and I managed to finish my plate. I had been torn between the trout and some some fried chicken thighs, and I sadly chose poorly.

We both chose the Wagyu steak for on entrees. Wagyu steak is a marbly type of beef that tends to be higher in flavor. It is similar to Kobe in a lot of ways. I've seen it appear on many a cooking show so I was excited to be able to order it at a reasonable price. The portions did not disappoint either - the restaurant gave us hefty portions as well as tasty sides of broccoli rabe, mushrooms, potato/squash gratin. A couple had just sat down next to us when we got our plates, and their eyes nearly popped out of their heads. "What is that??" "Is it good??" Yes, yes it is.

When our dessert courses came, our neighbors again asked what we'd gotten. Sheena got a chocolate brioche cake topped with torched whipped cream. I, only the other hand, have slowly been becoming less and less interested in super sweet desserts and was very happy that they had a fried goat cheese option.

As we enjoyed our dessert, we began striking up a conversation with our neighbors. They asked how many Dine About Town restaurants we had gone to. Then, they mentioned that they were only in town visiting from Chicago. For those of you who don't know, Chicago is very high on my list of cities to visit. It is an ultimate foodie town meriting both unique styles of food (ask any Chicagoan about hot dogs or pizza) and a variety of renowned chefs. I began asking them about all of the Chicago restaurants that I've wanted to go to, and they gave me their reviews. We talked about Restaurant Week (Chicago and NY's version of Dine About Town) and I shared my stories of the freebies I got on my trip to the Big Apple. The couple then said "Oh yes, we have a similar story.." and proceeded to tell us about how Wolfgang Puck sat down and had dessert with them when they were at Spago in Los Angeles. My jaw dropped - what an amazing story!

My favorite part of the night was when, mid-conversation, the wife stopped her sentence and said "Is the band playing Paparazzi?" Sure enough, the classic instrumental band was playing the hit Lady Gaga song.

I don't imagine that everyone will make such entertaining friends at Bottle Cap but the restaurant still had amazing food and a great atmosphere. The quaint decorating options give the feel of a French bistro while the classical ensemble playing pop music, gave a quirky, fun vibe to the meal. Bottle Cap is definitely going on my list of places to go to often.

Week of July 18th 2011: Les Halles

I'm not going to lie - I basically came into New York with a list of restaurants I had to go to. While I didn't make all of them, I'm very glad I got to try Les Halles.

After reading, Anthony Bourdain's first book, Kitchen Confidential, I felt like I knew Les Halles intimately. It felt odd that I was so familiar with the inner workings of this New York restaurant without having ever tried it's food. So, after my trip to the Met, Elissa and I got all dressed up for our French bistro style dinner. 


Although Les Halles also had a restaurant week special, we decided to order off the regular menu. I got the waiter's suggestion of the pepper steak frites while Elissa got a lovely salmon dish. It was so great. I'm not the biggest fan of a ton of pepper so I probably should have gotten the regular steak but it was still incredibly tasty. I definitely have a French food crush on steak frites after reading a travel book before my first visit to Paris so it was nice to have some again. 


I forget how it happened, but somehow the two of us fell into conversation with our waiter and, of course, I dropped the "this is my first time in New York line." So he asked me about San Francisco and insisted that I make him a list of restaurants that he should eat at next time he travels here. He also gave me a business card that told me which episodes of No Reservations he was on. He was also helpful with wine pairings... so helpful that he gave us a full glass "taste" of something he had recommended. 


As we were finishing our dinner, he surprised us with a bowl of different sorbets. I swear to you - if it is your first time in a new city tell people!!! I think if you're a nice person who is generally interested in the place you are visiting, the worst thing is that people will be nice back to you and the best is that they may leave you a few treats with your dinner. 


I loved the food at Les Halles and even though Mr. Bourdain doesn't work there anymore, the food is still fantastic. I highly recommend it to everyone. 

Week of July 18th 2011: The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The next day, I finally got to explore some of New York City. Elissa had to wait for some couches to be delivered to her apartment (she had only moved in a couple of weeks earlier after all) so we got lunch and then she left me to explore the Met on  my own.

To be honest, I kind of like exploring museums like this on my own. It's such a big museum with so many varieties of art that it's nice to just get lost and figure out what kind of things I like best. I quickly found a few things that I really loved about the Met. Since this trip was a while ago, my memory is a little fragmented so this post is going to jump around a little bit.

The thing I love most - was just the age of the building. One of my favorite things in the old European museums are the worn down steps that show just how many people have traversed over them though out the years. Another thing that I really loved about the Met were the buildings inside the building. Apparently when the Met was built, it was significantly smaller than it is now. In order to expand, they just continued to build around it, leaving the original pieces intact. This makes for a really cool aesthetic where you can often see parts of the original. I was so fascinated by this. It is so fun to see history as part of your surroundings - it's why I love the Paris museums so much as well.


I continued to wander around the museum in no particular order. The photography wing had a highlight that the nerd in me went crazy for. There was a wall that was covered in identical photos of the Lincoln side of a penny at different stages of oxidation. I was so amused by how different the penny could look depending on how far along it was. I think the exhibit itself focused on those kinds of intricacies in every day life.

I was excited to see Degas' ballerina statue though. I had learned about it in art class years ago and saw it at the Musee D'Orsay the first time I went. I knew the museum was under renovation so I figured this was where the original was hanging out until the renovation was done. I would soon find out how wrong I was.

Near the end of my trip to The Met I just wandered around the contemporary and modern art wings. Like I had mentioned before, contemporary art has really been growing on me. It definitely made my day to see a statue of a man crouched against a wall. It had a very fun Nightcrawler vibe to it and even though it's missing the tail, I decided to think of it as the Nightcrawler statue.


I really wish I had taken more notes about the museum when I went because I'm at a huge loss for things to say even though I know I really loved it. I guess I'll just scatter some pretty pictures through this post and call it a day.