I am the Tourist, Goo Goo Ga Joob!

Last weekend, we had some special visitors from out of town. Reiko's long time friend from high school and college had got married on Valentine's Day, and set their honeymoon destinations for Lima, Peru, and New York City. We set out Sunday morning amidst cold rain to show them around town. Because let's face it: when you have two days to see as much as possible, you can't let that damn rain stop you!

The thing about having others from out of town to visit means that we also get to become the tourists, doing things we usually don't do. For example, the Water Taxi from Pier 17. The one hour tour took us from the financial district into the Hudson River, a pass by Jersey City, right past Ellis Island en route to temporarily park right in front of Lady Liberty. Several pictures later, we turned around, shot up a bit of the East River, then came back to the dock. Was the closest I had ever been to many of those sites, definitely neat to see. Also notably interesting was seeing Brooklyn from the water - I've never really seen the cityscape outline of the city I call home.

That afternoon, we also followed up on a couple of Sex and the City cites: most notably, Magnolia Bakery for their cupcakes and Carrie's brownstone (the actual film location, which is different from the address from the script.) Thing is, that much overrated cupcake was really not that great: the extra icing was all straight sugar with no flavoring, and the cake was a thick dry cake that couldn't have been much more than flour, egg, and sugar - skimping on essential oil / butter to give it the right fluff and moisture.

Monday night, amidst some cold, windy conditions, we made it down by Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park for the impressive view of downtown NYC. Words can't describe this site, which gives an incredible sprawling view from the financial district to midtown, revealing the beauty of the downtown city skyline. Too bad it was so cold, and I didn't have a tripod!