Last day for this trip

Oh my. Last day in New York City for this trip. Well, no need to pout, because I need to get back to my job. And I need that job or my trips to NYC would be done with! Kaputt. Finito. And I’m fortunate to work a wonderful job upon my return.

Made my morning run down to another Starbucks on 8th Ave. OK OK – I did not run, but I did walk with great purpose 🙂

Drank my coffee sitting on the bed, read morning news and got together some walking directions via the Internet. Packed my backpack and took it to the hotel lobby so they could keep it for me until my train leaves this evening. And off I go for another grand day in this even grander city!

I strolled a bit and ended up at Rockefeller Center. By golly I’m even giving more directions to other visitors by this time! Anyway, here is a photo I took of the folks getting the dining area ready for the day.

Back in 1980, my father and I took a train trip up here for a few days. I was taking a long-distance interior design course and was allowed several free in-person lectures at the NY School of Interior Design. So I attended three that trip. We were both working in our family retail furniture store, so we spent most of our time in design studios (not all were freely available to us since we were not actual “official” designers, but we were able to grab a few) and major stores with large furniture and design departments. And bakeries. Yes, we enjoyed the many bakeries. Anyway, we treated ourselves to one really nice dinner, and here at Rockefeller Center we sat. It was early fall and the weather was perfect. Smiling as I remember just one of the many wonderful adventures we shared while my daddy walked on this earth.

So as I leave Rockefeller Center, I pass the International Building at 25 W 50th St. Isn’t the stone art work (picture below) at this entrance absolutely gorgeous?? Egyptian designs standing out among all the other architecture.

If you want to read more about it, read here

I next walk up to Bergdorf Goodman with a visit to the men’s and the women’s stores. Somehow, with all my visits here, I never before noticed the Art Deco Design on the men’s building. Oh my gosh it is beautiful!

In Bergdorf’s I spend most of my time on the floors with top designer wear, couture, and shoes. I enjoyed watching two young women each trying to decide on which pair of Christian Louboutins to purchase while I stand there browsing and softly practicing the correct way to pronounce Christian Louboutin. Seriously, though, sometimes I end up in situations talking with people who love fashion and color and design as much as I do, and I really do want to be able to use the correct pronunciations. Maybe that is the educator in me? Or the nerd part?

I ended up staying in the women’s store almost two hours, so I didn’t get to the men’s store this time 😦

Walked downtown and stopped in several jewelry supply stores and bought a few wonderful items. One particular purple agate will be beautiful with some black and lavender glass beads I also purchased, and I will practice my wire wrapping on this piece.

I also bought some ribbon at M&J Trimming. At Bergdorf Goodman I saw a lovely little Oscar De La Renta bolo jacket with colorful fabric woven through the black fabric at the end of the short sleeves. I won’t be able to duplicate it, but this ribbon added to a small J.C. Penny bolo jacket I bought a few years ago will certainly mimic the “look” a bit. And I was able to choose the exact rust color I wanted.

Then there was a visit to Mood Fabrics, where I bought a piece of soft brownish/rusty colored fabric. At one time that color was often called “tobacco”. But at Bergdorf’s I flipped over a two-piece outfit, in this tobacco color, designed by Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen for their clothing line The Row. No way could I duplicate their gorgeous fabric at this time. I’m still such a novice with my sewing skills I would not risk messing up on anything but the less expensive fabrics.

But I found the color, so sometime I will find a pattern. Again, for the “look”. The Row focuses a lot on a Bohemian style, and I’m drawn to that, even though it doesn’t make up as much of my wardrobe as it once did.

Over to Chelsea now for a late lunch. Delicious simple nachos with less than half the normal cheese. Pico and jalopeños. Came with sour cream, but I moved it off my plate and did not eat any of that.

Headed over to the Chelsea Market for a quick walk-through and a bakery purchase to enjoy on the train. Subway up to my hotel to grab my backpack and back on the subway to Penn Station. About a 20 minute wait to board the train, then home back to my kitty!

Sunday Kimba and I did the same thing – only he rested on the balcony and I enjoyed the sofa. Resting up for my world to return to its more normal state and my daily routine to appear!

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My day in NYC continues ….

After that delicious vegan falafal meal, I was feeling pretty full and very satisfied. So I walked toward Madison Square Park to see an apartment building where two “celebrities” recently bought condominiums. Neither is an actor or musician or artist, and each has a career in a field different than the other, but they often happen to be in the news. And I just plain ol’ wanted to see where they lived!

The green in the park was particularly lovely, so I took a few pictures to show my hubby. He likes flowers just fine, but he really enjoys a variety of multiple green plants.

Had to take a few pictures of this building nearby. It was definitely a judiciary building of some kind but no signage anywhere. I took a picture of the top where there were two engravings, “Lex Scripta” and “Lex Tradita”. My plan was to go back to my hotel room that night to Google and perform one of my master Librarian searches 🙂 and figure out the function and history of this beautiful building. However, a young Asian man walked up on my left as I was taking pictures to ask me if I knew anything about the building. I told him that I knew nothing and was taking pictures for a Google search later. He whipped out his phone (which was much smarter than mine) to get the information right then and there!

While he was searching we discussed various carvings and sculptures of the building. A young woman with a shaved head and tattoos came up to me on my right side to ask us about the building. So we stood together for about two minutes discussing the beauty of this building, which thanks to Mr. Smart Phone, we discovered it was the NY Appellate Court building. Three people that most likely lived our lives in totally different ways shared a few minutes together in that busy city. Just one of the great joys of NYC !!

So the little signs at the top (Thank you Google!) mean “written law” and “customary or traditional law”. And if you want to read further, here is a terrific PDF document with color pictures and history about this particular court house.

This picture is fun because of the contrast between the older and more recent architecture.

Then there was The Mo Math museum. A math museum?? Who knew? Well, obviously I did not. I didn’t go inside this time, but I will explore inside during another adventure trip.

After that it was “catch the subway time” up to one of my fav stores to browse the variety of various top apparel designers. The Designer floor and Couture floor (third and fourth) are my two favorites

There is more, but I’ll tell later. So, here is a vegan meal I prepared recently at home, corn and okra, rice, and an abbreviated version of ratatouille with tender eggplant, the last of my basil from my balcony plant, and lots of onion!

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