After pounding the pavement all day yesterday, what better thing than doing it all over again? Today was the day I figured was perfect for showing Steven around midtown Manhattan, but for the first time this trip so far, we had no appointments in the morning. So we took a bit of a respite and checked out some of the amazing Asian restaurants around Flushing. One of my superpowers is finding great places to eat, and just across the street from our hotel was this amazing place called Nan Xiang that specialized in soup dumplings (Xiao Long Bao). Now this is what I call an awesome breakfast!
After getting fueled up, we took the Flushing train to Grand Central Station, where I showed Steven the main floor of the terminal, pointed out the huge windows that I used to walk through in the early 70s, and totally forgot to take pictures. Then we began a slow back-and-forth trek through midtown, going a few blocks crosstown when necessary to hit all the high spots, such as the memorial to Nathan Hale around the corner from where I once worked at Camera Barn, through 47th Street to see the diamond merchants, up 6th to point out the McGraw-Hill building and some nitrogen bottles and Radio City Music Hall, and back towards Fifth Avenue so we could check out Rockefeller Center, and St. Patrick’s Cathedral (which they finally seem to have sandblasted).
Next it was time to head across 53rd Street, passing sadly by MOMA (no time), but stopping for a rest at Paley Park and an important visit to 527 Madison Avenue where I used to work as a bicycle/motorcycle messenger, then back to Fifth Avenue and up to FAO Schwarz before it closed forever.
After that, we just had enough time to hustle over to 59th and Lexington to catch the local train down to Astor Place so we could meet up with my Cooper Union buddies at McSorley’s.