New York and Baltimore

Well I spent 20 hours straight with Krista yesterday, and I think she's still my friend. :) We left Salisbury at 5am and returned at midnight. Math, you see, is not my strong suit, and was a common theme throughout the day.

I have no idea how much we walked, but it was almost non stop from arriving in NYC at 9:30am to the bus picking us up at 7pm. The first thing we did was walk 20 or so blocks to Time Square, in torrential pouring down rain. But I was in my perky, someone gave me coffee and put me in a foreign city, happy-go-lucky, skipping mood, so I laughed at how drenched my pants were and thanked Krista/Wade for lending me their extra umbrella. Then we haphazardly bounced around from block to block. We saw Radio City Music Hall, but missed Rockefeller Sq and the NYPL by a few blocks. We went up and down 5th and Madison. We shopped in Crate & Barrel, H&M (fell in love with this one dress. Sigh. No online store I can find), Bloomingdale's, the M&M store, FAO Swartz, the Mac Store, and spent lots of time staring at the window displays of Jimmy Choo's. We ate Italian food all day, not on purpose but it did fit with the Michelangelo exhibit theme of the day. We ate at a little place called Terramare that only took American Express. Then a little cafe that only took cash. And finally a lovely restaurant, Serafina, that wouldn't take Krista's card, but that's another story. Krista lost her wallet. She was way more calm about this than I would have been (see Walmart adventures of a few weeks ago). At this point, we'd been in a dozen stores and all over Central Park. She calls her husband to cancel the cards. I remember we went to the bathroom in Crate & Barrel, and on a whim we went back there to see if someone turned it in. And indeed they had! Thank you good people of New York!

We spent nearly 2 hours in Central Park. I forgot (from ten years ago when I was last here) how HUGE it is. I got completely lost. Thank goodness Krista has a natural sense of direction. It was gorgeous. I posted a few pics on FB/MySp/Flickr but Krista took the bulk of the pictures (with me included!) so I'll snag those later on.

The Michelangelo exhibit was awesome! It was very small, but had a bronze cast replica of the Pieta. I have to ask my Mom if she saw the original when she went to the World's Fair that was in NY. That was the one time the original marble statue traveled, and I'm pretty sure she was there. The exhibit also had a copy of the work order for the Pieta in the old style Italian with all it's loops and S-shapes. It's a gorgeous script, and practically a language to decipher in and of itself. There was a large portrait of Michelangelo with haunting eyes that glowed. Also some of his poetry, which was also beautiful. We got a tour by the Director of the gallery who walked us through a painting/map of Florence from Michelangelo's day, and where he lived, what the buildings meant, and the culture of growing up a budding artist, being taken in by the Medici family, and eventually moving to Rome. The Director also talked a lot about the rumors and myths M. established about himself, which was very amusing that someone would be so concerned about their image, even back then. He had so many projects and sketches for works that were unfinished. He worked up until his death at 89.

All in all, an awesome trip. Krista and I both agree though, you could come back a million times and never see everything or even the same things. By the end of the day though, I was exhausted and overwhelmed. I could not walk another step, not for love or coffee.

I realize I didn't talk much about the Baltimore trip. But I got a very different feeling from being in Baltimore than I did from being in NYC or Philly. I didn't realize the difference until I had something else to compare it to. Philly felt like a welcoming host that was glad you came, but also glad you're leaving them in peace. NY was a roller coaster. It's possible I've just never seen a calm side to NY. Krista mentioned at one point trying to find a bookstore for her to look for pilates videos, but she had me at "find a bookstore." Baltimore, despite being super busy, touristy, and unsafe, was also very homey. I loved the buildings and the water (sailing!). It's the closest to feeling like I was back in Ath/Atl I've felt. I kept wandering off from James/Angela, but I never felt lost. In NY, I knew if I blinked and lost Krista, I'd just have to find a Starbucks and wait it out :)