Friday in Manhattan

Another fabulous day. Again, the weather is hot and sunny- not humid which is great. We had a later start but eventually decided to explore the Lower East Side. This is an old historical district and the area where thousands of immigrants lived when they first arrived in NYC. It is still an area full of immigrants but the old tenements are now becomming very trendy places to live. Walked around many famous streets and had to stop at Katz's deli. This is the oldest deli in the city and is very popular. In the movie When Harry Met Sally it's the place where "I'll have what she's having" was filmed. It was very entertaining- very crowded lines snaking away from probably about twenty cutters making sandwiches, waiters serve the tables against the wall only, everyone else has to brave the lines- and you have to get in the correct one for specific menu items. One very old waiter was rushing through the place hollering "Hot soup, watch the baby" with a real New Yawk accent- even though he was carrying plates of sandwiches and no soup. I ordered a pastrami sandwich - at the counter- which was enormous. It came with at least half a bottle of dill pickles and was delicious. Had to take half home.

Then on to the Tenement Museum tour. It was fascinating and well worth seeing. It took us through two old apartments in a building that is being restored to show the actual living conditions of real families who lived there at various times. Ours were a German family from the 1830's and an Italian family from the 1930's- both periods where there was a depression. It was incredible to see the appalling conditions these people endured. It was also realistic as they told us the stories of these particular families. The one from the 1930's especially as the daughter of the family still lives in NYC and helped reconstruct the apartment to be exactly as it was when she was a child.

After that decided to stop at the Essex Market on the way home. It is a food market similar to Granville Island but not as big. Much better prices than in the little stores in our neighbourhood. Met a real character "Al" who served us at Jeffreys Meat when buying cheese. It was entertaining just to watch him interact with all the regulars walking by and buying stuff. Demanded a kiss from me and Gail- happy to oblige!

Then home for a break and to wait for Graeme and Ceci to arrive. So when they got here we headed over to 8th Avenue to find a restaurant and bar. Went into a little place called Flight 147 I think. It was fun lots of people cheering for a basketball game on the TV monitors- great atmosphere.

Oh forgot to mention that there are unique ways to park cars here. We see many parking lots that have "elevators" that are valet parked. Hilarious so I had to take a picture- no other way can explain it better!