Saturday, March 17th - St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Day is big in New York. Heading down to the parade this morning there were people everywhere all decked out in their St. Patrick's day gear. Really a day for wearing green and drinking! Decide to watch some of the parade up on 63rd area and get away from the crowds of Times Square. We found a good spot on 5th Avenue at 64th. What a nice area! Very close to Park Avenue.

The parade is all marching, no floats. We only stayed for a little bit. It starts at 11:00AM on 44th Ave and marches up 5th Ave to about 83rd and will end at about 4:00PM. We're all good to take in a parade but 5 hours?....not so much.

Park avenue....very lovely...mostly residential. Cool vine twisted through the balcony...

Quick stop in Times Squre to pick up a book Cole had on hold then back to the room to regroup. Our hotel has been great, on a fairly quiet street and close to Subway stations. In the day it is busy with wholesale and retail fresh and dried flower shops. At night they all close up and the street is quiet.

Craving another great deli sandwich. Decided Katz's in the Lower Eastside would be a great place for a late lunch. Back on the subway, maps ready to go...it was worth the trip. Food was delicious, however I still have to get used to paying $16 dollars for a sandwich. This deli is quite well known and has been around a very long time. When you enter you are given a ticket. You then have to line up at the counter and order what you want. The counter is crazy busy. They cut the meat and make the sandwich then mark your ticket with your total. You need to pay on the way out. If you don't have a ticket when you leave you will be charged $50. Every adult that comes in gets a ticket.

After lunch we finally found a bagel place where they sold the type of Bagel has been looking for. Very small little bakery that sold traditional Jewish sweets, spreads and lox.

Another beautiful sunny day, we decided to take advantage of the weather and do some more exploring. We ended up walking through Soho before moving into Little Italy. It is not as big as it apparently was in the past as Chinatown has been moving in more and more. It now mostly consists of restaurants, most of them with outdoor seating along Mott Street. Nonetheless, a very historic area with so much character. The old buildings are amazing, so much detail and history.

Little Italy becomes Chinatown along Mott street. Some interesting shops here but really a lot of shops selling cheap souvenirs. Thought maybe we might see a hanging duck or something...but nothing.

We hadn't walked enough today so thought walking across the Brooklyn Bridge would be a great idea. It was a good walk, we went to the middle and then came back as I had heard there isn't much directly on the other side other than a good pizza place. And we were stilled stuffed from lunch.

Making our way back to our hotel, we made another stop at Franklin to visit the Firehall again to buy the shirt Cole wanted.

They were there and we ended up staying for awhile and chatting. The fellow, Craig, we were speaking to was retired from this Firehall. He told us that he had seen many things in his career. The plane that went down in the Hudson river, a parachuter that got stuck in a building, the small plane that flew into a building and he was also there for Tower 1 and Tower 2 going down. He said that "who would have thought that in my career I would have seen Tower 1 and 2 come down." Also in this firehouse is a memorial to the Lieutenant that was one of the first responders. Quite an experince to meet someone and be in a place so connected to 9/11.

Got some great tips of what to do during our stay. Advice we got was to get off the island and visit other less expensive but beautiful parts of the city. Williamsborough, Astoria and taking the L train at 14th to Brooklyn to eat was recommended. It is always great talking to locals and maybe we can get to Brooklyn. Being our first trip we are doing the "touristy" things but we have balanced that with a lot of exploring. Another trip and we'll explore the other parts of NY.

Finished the day off with dinner at Mustang Harry's. Just around the corner from us on 7th. The front was a bar; full and loud with many people celebrating St. Patrick's Day. At the back the restaurant. Food was good. Had been wanting to try a vodka sauce as we had been seeing it on a lot of menus. So we had the "penne a la vodka". It was a tomato sauce with vodka and very good!

Kylar enjoying a lamb lollipop.

Mustang Harry's

 

Green for St. Patrick's Day: