New York 2019: Friday: bright lights, big city: arrival & Midtown

Eeeeeeeaaaarrrrrlly (ish) in the morning, we met up at the airport and checked into our flight. (Because we had no checked bags, we were required to check in at the airport and not online.) The flight was uneventful other than a new procedure in security: we had to walk three abreast at a steady pace, matching our assigned compatriots' speed, for a portion of the line. This was probably for a trained scent dog that was milling about this area of the line. (A week and a half later, in the other terminal of this airport, this was not a thing.) Although we'd said on our way in that Times Square was overrated and to be avoided, we decided to walk up Fifth Avenue from Penn Station (34th St) to redeem a Groupon from Rental Bike NYC (55th St) near Central Park. So we marched directly through Times Square, passing behind the Naked Cowboy (no pictures, sorry), as well as other various costumed people posing in pictures for money (or gum, as in the case of one Luigi...), in front of Trump Tower (#boo) and past the Jerry Orbach Theater (yay!). We (okay, I) also discovered that despite this bustle of activity, people will still stare at you if you belt out a song walking down the sidewalk. (#itakevenmo) Probably tourists, right?

Finally, with some help from an employee holding a sign on the corner, we found the Rental Bike NYC office after walking right past it. We redeemed our Groupons and accepted a free lock with our bikes, then schlepped them up Fifth Avenue. Once we arrived at the park, we wandered around for a long time, but after help from a pedicab driver and an official Central Park Volunteer (and about 30 minutes), we found the road where bikes are allowed to drive and cars, mostly, are not. Then we (finally) had a pleasant ride through about half of the park. It was very nice to have the breeze, even if Sarah's bike had a tendency to complain and we discovered that neither of us really understand how you're supposed to use bike gears.
Tip: if you're using a Groupon, call ahead to see if you can redeem it at their booth at Central Park (not their office a few blocks south) and get directions on how to get to the bike path. 

Cooooookies

Nestled in their box

We ended up on the west side of the park and ventured out onto the streets (gasp!) in dedicated bike lanes (less gasp) to find Levain Bakery. We opted to eat real food first and went to Chopt for salad. At Levain, Sarah had a spiritual experience with the oatmeal raisin cookie and I was quite partial to the double chocolate. We had a hard time comparing them to the oversized cookies so popular in Utah, however. Levain cookies are much taller and are baked to create more of a difference in texture between the crunchy crisp exterior and the tender inside. Apples and oranges.

Living our best life

Once we'd eaten, we biked back to Central Park and got lost trying to find the bike road again. Even with a map (from the aforementioned volunteer), we couldn't figure out how to get back. Somehow, this also involved biking on one of the streets that crosses the park that is intended for cars... including through narrow tunnels. And despite taking our lives in our hands to do this, the road never met up with the bike road. So. Don't do that. We did manage to find the bike road again and made our way back to the bike rental office, biking down 5th Ave even after we lost the dedicated bike lane (until road construction forced us onto the sidewalk half a block before our street). We returned the bikes with four minutes to spare!

Sarah and Jordan at the Met

 Next, we walked back up 5th to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. A salesman/panhandler on the street said "You have a nice physique," which we decided is a pretty weak compliment, although we had just been talking about gaining a few extra pounds recently.

Little did we know that the following year, we'd be cowriting a historical romance series set in the Revolutionary era. I even wrote a story set during the crossing of the Delaware and the battle of Trenton. It didn't look like this.

Alexander Hamilton. His name is Alexander Hamilton.

Just as we began to despair of ever reaching the museum, we arrived. We had to gorge on a few final bites of our Levain favorites before we sacrificed the rest for the sake of art preservation and went in. (Yay to be out of the heat!) We explored the European galleries, American modern artists, Egyptian artifacts, visible storage and more, but we were unsuccessful in our quest to find a certain unknown young man in a yellow waistcoat (AKA our boyfriend). We did, however, get the closest we got to seeing Hamilton.

Afterwards, we wandered around Central Park some more, enjoying the weather and taking pictures of the park and the skyline. Also overheard on the street: someone walking toward us, talking on the phone, said, "D—, Jordan, you're just throwin up colors." Once he was past, I murmured, "Sorry...?"

Finally brave enough for the subway

We felt that getting up before 4 AM was not conducive to staying awake through an 8 PM show, so we decided to pack it in early--but first, we wanted to hit one of the few savory choices on our must-do list: Joe's Pizza for an authentic New York slice. We found a location on our way back to Penn Station and finally braved the Metro. At Joe's, I got a regular old cheese pizza and Sarah got a slice of white pizza and margherita. The flavors were excellent, and the crust was the perfect balance between crisp and chewy. Unfortunately, a hot tomato burned Sarah's tongue, so be careful.

Eat at Joe's