After we walked around the WTC site for a little while, we cabbed it back to Dylan's Candy Bar at the corner of 3rd Avenue and 60th Street. When we got in the cab, Jena told the cabbie to go there, but the driver said, "I don't know where that is!" Jena obviously knows her way around Manhattan more than most cabbies because she told him right away, and sure enough he dropped us off right in front of the entrance. On the way up, we used the FDR (East River) Drive highway, which took us under 3 of the most important suspension bridges in the city: the Manhattan Bridge, the Williamsburg Bridge, and of course, this one:
Yes, that is my photo and yes, that is the Brooklyn Bridge, which is also #5 on my list of the 10 best bridges in America. It is really an American icon, and still a vital link in the NYC transportation network, linking lower Manhattan to the residential areas of Brooklyn and the rest of Long Island. When it first opened, it was just a trolley bridge, but was retrofitted in the early 20th Century to accomodate automobile traffic. More information is available in my capsule on the top 10 list.
Back to the trip itself. Dylan's Candy Bar is not your average confectionery (Yes, I just used the word confectionery). Having been to Hershey, PA more times than I can remember, I've seen my fair share of sugar in my life, but this was rediculous. This place is 3 levels of a school-kid's paradise. There was everything from lollipops, chocolate bars, hard candies, and the list goes on and on. There were the name brands there of course, but Jena insisted that I try something that I had never tried before. So I tried a round, gooey, chocolate, and rice thing that tasted amazing...and the name of which escapes me. Having seen all that chocolate, we got hungry and decided that it was a good time for lunch, which took place in two parts. The first part happened right on the street corner outside of Dylan's. Nothing beats a good old fashioned curb-side dirty water dog! Having sufficiently carb-loaded, we had the right amount of energy to walk the next 14 blocks or so from Dylan's to where our ultimate lunch destination would be...right here!
For those of you who might be wondering what is going on here, no we did not go to outer space for lunch. What you are looking at is the ceiling of the main terminal at Grand Central Station. Grand Central is famous as a tourist destination for many reasons, but for a space nerd like myself, I can definitely appreciate looking at most of the Zodiac constellations all neatly outlined with Orion looking on too. When I am in Baltimore or DC, I can always spot the out-of-towners because I always catch them staring at something. That was me in Grand Central, looking at the sky. After my pseudo-star gazing session, we went to Jena's favorite place in Grand Central (and her favorite place in all of NYC for that matter) for lunch, Two Boots Pizza, another New York tradition. We tried 3 different slices of their specialty pizzas: "The Dude" (a cheeseburger pizza), "The Cleopatra" (sausage, onions, and peppers), and "The #6" (a meat pizza with roasted peppers). My personal favorite was the Cleopatra. Jena's was the #6. We both agreed that "The Dude" left something to be desired.
After lunch at Grand Central we walked right out onto the world-famous 5th Avenue, which would be the focus of our trip for pretty much the rest of the afternoon.........
....and that is what we call a tease :-). As you can see, we did quite a bit on this trip. Even 2 parts can't do this trip justice. Want to you know what happened on 5th Avenue? You will just have to come back later to find out, as will I.
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