Art & Sugar

My last full day in New York City was certainly full of excitement!  The main event on our agenda was to take advantage of the two-for-one Metropolitan Museum of Art/The Cloisters admission and see them both.  We'd intended to see the Met first and then rush up to The Cloisters before they closed, but we accidentally got on an express train that changed our minds for us.

The Cloisters

When we got out of the subway, we walked through the beautiful Fort Tryon Park which boasts incredible views of the river and beautiful and well maintained flower gardens.  It would be a great picnic spot, just saying.  By the time we arrived at the medieval looking building, I was glad for the air conditioning.  We spent a few hours looking over the artwork and admiring the architecture, some of which was actual pieces of old monasteries and the like that had been shipped over from Europe.  I'm so glad to have a boyfriend that likes going to museums and engaging in thoughtful conversations about the work in them.  I was a very happy girl that day.

A chapel in The Cloisters

One of many lovely gardens

We knew we weren't going to have enough time to see all of the Met, so when we got there, we took a moment to grab some lunch (the Met cafeteria puts potato chips on their mac & cheese, just sayin') and pinpoint the galleries we wanted to see the most.  For The Writer, it was the Arms and Armor and I wanted to make sure we got to the Egyptian wing and temple.  We also managed to make it through some of the painting and photography before the guards decided it was time for us to go.  I'd wanted to see the McQueen exhibit, but we'd heard the wait was an hour and a half and we didn't have that much time there.  Unfortunately the exhibit will be closing a mere three days before I return to Manhattan.

Since we'd had a late lunch, we weren't quite hungry for dinner when the museum closed.  We were, we decidedly, quite ready for some ice cream.  On our way to the subway that would take us down to Lula's, I spotted a sign in the window of Purple Elephant Cake Boutique that said they had vegan cupcakes.  While neither of us are anywhere close to being vegan, The Writer's lactose intolerance keeps us on the hunt for dairy-free treats and vegan is always a safe choice.  We stopped in and got a few cupcakes, even though we were on our way to eat ice cream.  He had a vanilla cupcake with chocolate icing and I had a sweet-n-salty vanilla cupcake.  I used to never be a cake person, I preferred fruity treats like pies, but this trip ruined me. I officially like cake.

Not letting the fact that we'd just had super sweet cupcake deter us, we continued downtown to Lula's and enjoyed our vegan ice cream cones.  Dinner, at this point, was out of the question.  We were too full on cupcakes and ice cream.  We did feel quite kiddish, having had every kids' dream dinner, so we decided to go to FAO Schwartz because what kid doesn't want to go to a toy store after a sugar-filled meal?  Unfortunately, it had closed by the time we got there. Bedtime, I guess.  Plan B was to stroll casually through the lobby and shops of The Plaza hotel, just to check it out.  I wouldn't mind staying there sometime, that's for sure.

We walked around the park area for a bit before grabbing some groceries and heading to bed.  It seemed the sugar rush we'd ingested was no match for the mileage we'd covered that day.

*Photos by The Writer. I borrowed his camera for a few shots, but most (not obviously taken with a webcam or otherwise cited) are from his camera, as mine is broken : ( *