New York Mann-style Part 2

On the 1st January the fam went off and did their own thing while Timon and I planned for his departure to Amsterdam the next day. From what I've heard they visited Lady Gaga land at Bloomingdales and the Guggenheim.

I said a teary goodbye to Timon at the airport on the 2nd after a disappointingly rubbish lunch at Lansky's. Everyone else visited the General's Tomb in Riverside Park.

On the 3rd we braved Siberian winds and went to the 9/11 Memorial Site at Ground Zero. The sun was shining but the air was like ice, not to mention the freezing off-spray from the water features. The Memorial Site is beautiful and poignant but slightly tarnished by the souvenir shop that sells 9/11 hoodies. Later that afternoon we rode the Roosevelt Island cable car (you know the one like from the Spiderman movie) and took the island's 25cent bus for a tour. I tell you, it is weird and cultish on that island. Very Wickerman.

 

The next morning Lucy and I took the long journey to Brooklyn's GreenWood cemetery which boasts a history of being the second most popular tourist attraction after Niagara Falls. A long time ago that is. We rode around on a trolley tour and saw some cool old graves and tombs. Mum, Dad and Lauren went on the Harlem Gospel Choir Tour and ended up on stage singing some tunes for the congregation. Only in America. Their tour finished at BB Kings bar in Times Square where they had so much fun and good food that we went back for dinner. After a side mission to the Waldorf Astoria to check out their lobby. We ate delicious food and heard some cray soul singing from Miss Georgia Brown, a terrifyingly obese woman who could sing like a diva and who shook her tatas like there was no tomorrow.

On the 5th Lauren and Dad went to an icehockey game at Madison Square Garden while Mum, Lucy and I went to 14th Street for Vanessa's Dumplings. We cruised a few shops and met up with the others around 9.30pm for a trip to Little Italy. I'm not sure if Lauren was disappointed by the Frank Sinatra Bar (it sounded fancier than it was) but it was ladies 1/2 price drinks night and there were some drunk mafia types and we had many, many, many laughs.

We wanted to go ice skating in Central Park on the 6th...or so we thought. Once we arrived it turned out that nobody reeeeeally wanted to break their leg or look like an idiot so we ditched that idea and went to Central Park Zoo. There were some really ace penguins, a sad polar bear and some super fun performing seals. On the last night before we all left the country we went out for Lucy's Birthday Dinner. There's a little place inside the Empire Hotel (from Gossip Girl) called Ed's Chowder House (I think) and we had a spectacular seafoody dinner in celebration of the last two weeks and of Lucy getting older.

I think that's about it. Thanks to Lauren for her immaculate photo diary that helped me remember everything we did.