Today is our last full day in New York. It’s kind of sad to be leaving, and I’m also dreading the flight home which doesn’t really help.

I have my toes crossed I’ll have cast off my Cookie socks before the flight, but if worse comes to worst, I will just finish them on the flight, watch movies and try to sleep.

Today I took Damian to the Met museum of art. Up until this morning, I don’t think Damian got that it was as much a museum than an actual art gallery. Apparently I didn’t do a very good sell job on it to him and he almost missed out! He loved it and I got to see some Egyptian mummies that I didn’t see the first time. It was a museum that we both enjoyed.

We then headed back to the Guggenheim, I wasn’t going to miss out. It wasn’t going to be an ‘Ettamogah pub’ * experience all over again. I had to see the inside too, for it to count. The building itself is magnificent, unfortunately the current exhibition didn’t thrill me, or Damian. But that was fine, it was over pretty quickly and I could tick it off my list.

* on grade 5 camp (so we’re talking a long time ago), the teachers took us to the Ettamogah pub, a pub in the middle of nowhere on the way to NSW because it was built on a slant (Damian says they just wanted a beer). They took groups of us up to the top balcony to see how dizzy we would feel. I managed to be standing in the wrong spot and missed out on this little experience. Of course I was gutted, I was a kid. Years later Damian took me back and took me upstairs to this pub, to see that there really was no fuss. I also don’t like missing out on things.

Tonight we’re having our last hurrah at The Gentleman Farmer. A lovely French restaurant we ate at earlier in the week. Some red wine will be drunk.

See you on the other side.

Today I visited the MoMA, whilst Damian went off to the Intrepid air and space museum.

I loved the Moma. I saw and breathed in the same air of the best modern art. My uni art history lecturer would have been proud (and wondered what took me so long). Modern art has always caught my imagination over all other periods of art. Whilst the MoMA isn’t anywhere near as large as the Met, it is by far my favourite museum.

I thought I’d go to the Guggenheim next. It turns out it’s closed on Thursdays. That was a real bummer. I may go back tomorrow if there’s time.

I then met up with Damian at the Rockefeller centre for a late lunch and I showed him some of the gems I was shown on the art and architecture tour.

I managed to find the earmuffs people wear around here at a street vendor. $4 bargain! I’m looking forward to wearing these in Melbourne.

Like when JFK was assassinated, I’ll always remember where I was on 9/11. It’s hard to believe it has been almost 12 years.

I felt the memorial was thoughtful. Seeing all the names laser cut in the metal, it’s hard to imagine all these lives were lost in one morning as people were going about their business.

Far away, I woke to go to the toilet, Damian was working late on his laptop whilst the tv was on. We could hardly believe what we were seeing on the news update. And then the second plane. I don’t know when we got to bed.

Last night I had a bit of a crisis. I thought I was turning 37 this year. Thankfully after a bit of maths, i.e. counting on my fingers, I worked out I am in fact only turning 36. Phew. Sometimes I can plan things a little too far ahead.

Today was another cold-ish day, about 5 degrees Celsius in Aussie language. We visited the Natural history museum. We saw lots of dinosaur bones and the planetarium show. I was exhausted by the end of it. I soon perked up as we headed outside to Central Park. Whilst I would have liked to of had a photo of my sock in progress like the yarn harlot over John Lennon’s imagine mosaic in Strawberry fields, it was not to be, my sock was back at the hotel. Instead I got a snap of the mosaic and some flowers some homeless hippies placed on the memorial. I commented to Damian that these homeless guys were mooching off John Lennon. But as he was a hippy at heart, I don’t think he’d mind.

I’m nearing the heel on my second Newton sock. I’m hoping to be able to cast on a new sock before the flight. Perhaps the striped yarn I dyed at the Lion Brand Studio.

More sight seeing tomorrow, it’s going to be 8 degrees, woo hoo!

What started out as the coldest day ever, turned to flurry at about 3pm and actual real snow by the time we left from dinner. It is the first time I’ve seen snow, ever. Now I can say I’ve walked through snow in New York! Gosh my gloshers were awesome.

Today we boarded the Straten Island Ferry and made a round trip. I got a closer look at the statue of Liberty… in the freezing cold.

Next we visited the High line, which is an urban space created from the old elevated railways which ran alongside 10th avenue. It is a great looking walkway which has been tastefully upcycled from the ruins of an old railway bridge. By the time we were done here, it was super cold, and flurrying.

Here’s a pic of Damian heading back after dinner, we managed to not slip on the slush and to get back to our hotel in one piece, a fun and exciting night for us!

On Saturday, it snowed. Well I don’t know that it classifies as snow if the flurry melts before it hits the ground. But it’s the first time I’ve seen it, and I was very excited.

I did a bit of window shopping with Damian today when I came across this store and thought of Melanie 🙂

The city also (believe it or not) celebrates St. Patrick’s Day in a big way. Pub crawls, a parade, random bag pipe music in the street, and seriously drunk people.

Last night Damian took me out to a French restaurant for dinner called the ‘Gentleman Farmer’, it was out standing for service and food. I had French onion soup, rabbit cassoulet and creme brûlée for dessert. Sorry no photos, you’ll have to imagine the deliciousness.

Today, Sunday, was Damian’s first official day of sight-seeing and taking photos. I was his personal tour guide for getting around the city and I think I did a mighty fine job. You’ll have to check out Damian’s blog in a week or two, when he has his films developed back home. The main stops today were the Empire State Building, the New York Public Library and Grand Central station.

We’re having dinner at ‘the Lure’ tonight; Damian’s already been there this week with colleagues so I’m looking forward to another great meal.

My sock came sight-seeing today but it stayed in my bag; it is one well travelled sock so far.

Today I finally got to the top of the Empire State building and it was brilliant, even better than the Rockefeller centre… I was actually very excited to be at the top of such an iconic building, (Sleepless in Seattle, is one of my all time favourite movies).

I’ve recognised that I actually like to ascend to tall heights and I kind of attribute that, to well, something that happened on my grade 5 camp. Unfortunately I won’t be able to scale the Statue of Liberty this time around, the island has been closed for some time due to the hurricane. The audio tour for the Empire State helped bring the buildings to life. I didn’t stop at just the 86th observatory deck, I went all the way to 102.

After lunch, I headed off to the Lion Brand Studio to do a class in dyeing self-striping sock yarn. It was great fun, and I’ll have a great souvenir of my time here when I get around to knitting the dyed sock blank into socks.

Now that concludes my yarn tour of New York. There will be more sight seeing next, but probably not any more of the yarny kind.

I woke up this morning and saw this:

I know, from up here it looks like we’re staying in a slum, at over $300 a night, I assure you we are not. There’s a fair bit of construction going on around, not that noticeable when you’re on the ground, but clearly visible from our studio room.

Returning to what I meant to say: it was cold, the coldest morning so far. 5 degrees. Today was not a good day to go to the top of the Empire state building, tomorrow is going to be better, at least I think so.

I had to rearrange my schedule which included a little more discount clothes shopping and a few yarn stores for good measure.

I was disappointed by the first two stores I visited today. They happen to reside in the same building. In the first store, I wasn’t even acknowledged, the store people were out the back behind a curtain. I could hear them speak in a foreign language, I thought I had made enough noise for them to realise someone was there, but perhaps I’m mistaken. Regardless of this, their range seemed insignificant and wasn’t displayed so well for a company of this calibre. I’ve seen this yarn presented in a much better fashion in Melbourne, shame on them.

The second store, whilst it had some good quality yarn and some unbranded yarn from mills, the store owner didn’t make me feel welcome at all. Whilst I could have purchased, there wasn’t anything I ‘just had to have’, yes we are at that point with the yarn purchasing. I wasn’t sorry to leave these stores empty handed.

I visited ‘Gotta Knit’ next. Lovely store owner, small range of yarns, but boy oh boy did she have some beautiful hand-dyed sock yarn from Pagewood Farm. I couldn’t resist this skein, for $24 I thought it was a bargain. She explained it was part of their trunk show. She said all of her sock yarn she stocks was hand-dyed, because if you’re going to knit socks, it better be out of something amazing (or words to that effect). I liked her.

Then lastly for today, I visited the closest yarn store to our Hotel, Downtown Yarns. This is a very nice store. Beautiful yarn, displayed well and has a friendly store owner and assistant. I only just resisted buying more Koigu, let’s be serious. In return I chose a skein of Frog Tree sock.

I have a couple of fun things to do tomorrow, until then.

I’m finding my way around this city quite nicely now, the map reading and train catching is a piece of cake. What I am struggling with, is my internal compass. So far I’m finding I need to walk a block before I work out I’m going in the wrong direction. It’s very frustrating and I hope things will improve when I have my natural navigator with me come Saturday.

What can I say, I did some verified touristing this morning by taking the Rockefeller tour and a ride to the observation deck. The tour itself was the highlight. It’s always great when you have a tour guide who loves his job and loves his city. Today was his 39 year anniversary of living in the city, so his tour consisted of all his favourite art and architecture around the Rockefeller centre. The stories about the centre are so interesting, I’d highly recommend doing this if you ever go. The trip to the top of the building, was less so. I’m at the top, whoopee wow. Perhaps it’s more inspiring at night? The photos I took look cool, I just didn’t have an oh my gosh moment… Maybe the Empire State building will be better?

Once again I did some yarn store visiting. A girl’s gotta do, what a girl’s gotta do. Yarn and Co. was awesome! A light and bright studio with some fantastic yarn and yarn I haven’t seen at the other stores so far. Ooh shiny and new. There are unverified reports I lost my mind. The sales clerk commented on my good taste in yarn 🙂 I got two skeins of the Verdant Gryphon Bugga in green and turquoise, Miss babs in pink and three more colours of Koigu. I was mentally singing Happy Birthday to myself. Hmm…

And then because it’s in the neighbourhood (and I planned it that way), I visited Knitty City next. Once again a lovely store, jammed choco block full of yarn. I didn’t get a lot of attention, which I didn’t mind, carrying a great big bag of yarn from their competitor may have had something to do with it. I still managed to score some Koigu. ‘Score’, is probably the most accurate term to use here. I could have bought more, but I didn’t, I’d already exceeded my daily average of skeins purchased. How does one hide yarn from ones husband when on holiday?

I visited the American Folk Art Museum, I found this a little disappointing it’s quite small and the exhibitions (2) weren’t to my taste, the gift store was inspiring though and the staff were friendly.

Damian tells me it could be snowing on Friday, so I’m off the the Empire state tomorrow, wish me luck.