Two Sides of New York

In October 2013, we took our second trip to the exciting Big Apple; the first one-day visit was in 2004. Back then we did the real touristy tour of the city—arrived in Grand Central Station, saw the Statue of Liberty, Central Park, Times Square, Wall Street, New York Harbor, Ellis Island, and Brooklyn Bridge; climbed the Chrysler building; ate at an authentic Italian dive in the Bronx and in a fancy Brazilian restaurant in Manhattan; and saw Phantom of the Opera on Broadway. Then almost 10 years later we were back, but our one-day visit in the big city was much more low key. Hooking up with my awesome relatives, we took the bus and subway from New Jersey, and spent a good few hours at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

Had our lunch from the classic hot dog vendors on the steps of the Met. Being fans of Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and the 60s folk explosion, we decided to visit Greenwich Village and Washington Square—to catch a glimpse of one of the remaining music clubs or coffee houses from that era such as the Bitter End—but mostly to just walk around and take in the local scene. There is still live music in the park, and we stopped to watch a band featuring a saxophonist in a slick gray suit and a tuba player. Then with all the hipster coffee houses on every street, I went on a mission searching out a soy decaf latté, which was surprisingly difficult to find. When I did hit the jackpot at Porto Rico Importing Company on Bleecker Street, I paid only 47 cents, and we walked out with bags of gourmet coffee to bring back to Jersey and California. For dinner we went for authentic New York “pie” at John’s Pizzeria, also on Bleecker Street, probably dining amongst NYC’s bohemian artists and celebs. Then we headed back to Port Authority, where we had to experience Carvel ice cream before returning to Jersey. 

Band in Washington Square Park

Pie from John's Pizzeria

Washington Square

After a day trip to Long Island to visit another awesome cousin, where we dined on authentic Jewish food at the Bellcrest Kosher Deli in Merrick and braved the traffic of the George Washington Bridge, we took a journey away from the Big City to see the other side of New York. That is the natural upstate, small-town New York--where the fall colors of the deciduous forests displayed all the beauty and glory portrayed by the paintings and photographs we see out west, with picturesque small towns rich with character and history. We traveled north towards the Adirondacks to visit friends in the beautiful mountain community of Madison. It would have normally been about a 6-hour drive, but we decided to avoid major freeways and toll roads and take the exploration route through the Catskills. We mostly followed Route 17, had a delicious pasta lunch in Harriman at Marina Restaurant and Pizza on 17M, and took the scenic route through Harriman State Park. Then we stopped for a little gift shopping at the Beaverkill Angler in the classic Catskills town of Roscoe, walking out of there with a little bag of locally homemade fudge. From there we took Route 206 northwest until we wound up on a variety of small and smaller county roads (thanks to Google Maps’ bizarre directions). After quite a few wrong turns and a whole lot of farmland and countryside, we made our way to Route 12N and to our friends in the vicinity of the colorful hamlet of Hamilton. There we made burritos, popped open quite a few beers, and chilled in the trees for a couple of days.

Catskills

Hamlet of Hamilton

Our route back to New Jersey was meant to be a bit more straightforward. We took I-20 east and had a classic lunch at the historic Duanesburg Diner. We picked up the New York State Thruway (Interstate 87) in Albany, and thought we’d fly down that awhile, until we decided to do a “small” detour to the artsy town of Woodstock. Being 60s music fans we were just aching to walk around the town where that all happened. Except Woodstock is not where it happened. The "Woodstock" music festival was actually in the town of Bethel, in a field that is now the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts. So after getting gifts and coffees from the new rich hippies of Woodstock, my husband with his not-so-great sense of distance and direction suggested we do another “small” detour to Bethel on our “way back” to Jersey. He took us hours out of our way winding through the Catskills on state and county roads. We finally gave up in the town of Grahamsville, never found Bethel, but experienced a beautiful ride through the mountains. We were late for dinner at our cousins’ in Jersey and missed turning in our rental car on time. A small price to pay for all that we saw, right through the very heart of it, New York, New York.

Woodstock