Saturday, July 14, 2007

A Lazy Couple of Days



Friday morning I got up early and met Charlotte at Battery Park for a trip to Ellis Island. I'd been to the island before, but it's been two years, and being a history major, I could always use a refresher course.

I enjoyed it, but I got the same impression as last time. The building has been restored, but it's also been modernized. The only room that's restored to look as it did when it was a functioning immigration center was the recieving room. I'm not a big fan of modernizing history. I think that's why I liked Edgar Allan Poe's house so much. It wasn't made to look like anything fake, it looked as much like it did when he lived there as possible.

We were going to go to the Guggenheim, but we stopped at church so Charlotte could make some qick phone calls. I took a nap. We decided to leave at about 4, and Charlotte called to see when they closed. Much to our dismay, they were closing at 5:45, so by the time we got there we'd only have about an hour to see everything. Not wanting to be rushed, we opted against going. Instead, we made the trip back to Queens, where we bought some watermelon and watched Ferris Bueller's Day Off with Kyle's family.

This time, I managed to get home at a decent hour. I went to bed around midnite, and set my alarm to wake up for eight. I hate even sleep that late, but I figured I'd give myself some rest since I didn't have anywhere to be. Imagine my horror when I woke up at 10:45!! I couldn't tell you the last time I slept that late. I lazed around for a while, brought some laundry to the basement, and then bummed a little more.

I decided to go to the Museum of Natural History, since it's in my neighborhood and I've been talking about going. I knew that it too closed at 5:45 so I wouldn't have excessive time to browse (seeing as how it was already three when I left my house), but nonetheless, I went, and enjoyed it. I bought a ticket to the planetarium show, which I thoroughly enjoyed. There were some exhibits I would have liked to take a closer look at, but at least I got to see them.

(by far, the Asian Peoples exhibit was my favorite, but maybe its because it was the only one I really took alot of time in)

For the walk home, I decided to take Columbus, which I never do, and I discovered a Jaques-imo's behind the museum on 78th!!! This one is owned by the same guy who owns the highly-reccomended one uptown in New Orleans. Despite it's high prices, I may have to make my way up there soon for a taste of home. They did have a side of jambalaya for six dollars...

All along I've been thinking Mara's Homeade in the East Village was my only option. It's amazing how I never realized how different our menus are down there than everywhere else. Things that are standard at just about any non-chain restaurant in Louisiana are rare gems found only at specialty places here! To those of you back home, TREASURE your easy access to things like crawfish etouffee and bread pudding. This is something I will never take for granted again!

I went to the cafe down the block, grabbed a sandwhich, came home and bummed around some more. Soon, I will go to bed. So good night!

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