Dhammerica – Day Two

Day two began the way day one ended – a run along the boardwalk.
Runners everywhere we went in the US (Boardwalk NJ, Brooklyn Bridge NY, Golden Gate Bridge SFO, Navy Pier Chicago, etc) greet each other while passing, regardless of whether you are a stranger or not. And what better to nurse your bachelor ego than getting a fair-maiden greet you in the morning. Heart Rate Monitors get tested really well under these conditions.

And then began the assault on cereals. And then we set off on our first day of sightseeing in the company of a fair maiden. First Stop – Soho. We walked through most of the area known as the Village (to New Yorkers), doing mostly a lot of window shopping, being unable to take our eyes off witty one-liners on t-shirts, bumper stickers and their ilk. Also managed to sneak into Strand for about an hour to look at the books on show – ranging from a few cents for used books, to a few thousand dollars for tomes on art and architecture, amongst other things.

Second Stop - The Museum of Modern Art, MoMA for short. It is an outstanding experience for anyone making their first visit to an art gallery of this magnitude. MoMA is so rich that one could spend a full week atleast, taking it in. While we were at MoMA, assorted delights included various artforms in sculptures, paintings, furniture, objects of everyday use, etc.

The famous Warhol depiction of Campbell soup cans, as well as various works by the masters from various periods were consumed by our breathless self. We can now claim to be able to identify a Monet from a Manet. (Actually we can identify Monet and the other one must then be a Manet!)

Once out of MoMA, we went to a café and ordered some hot chocolate and midway thru our drink realized that our bag was still in the MoMA baggage counter and it was past closing time. Considering that we had a flight to Chicago and our passport was our main means of identification, we realized that our personal best for a mile had to be broken. We did and a helpful member of the staff, took our token, ascended a floor and returned with our baggage.

Back to the aforementioned café to discover that our coffees had been moved to trash. When we explained to the stern hostess at the café that we had barely sampled them, she chided her waiter and we got 2 free coffees.

And then, it was time for the third stop – Our first ever visit to Broadway (Well, considering that this was our first visit to the USA, it must be the first visit to all places in the USA, right? Boo, you stickler. Stop paying so much attention!)
The play on show was “Avenue Q” which is the story of Princeton, a bright-eyed college grad who comes to New York City with big dreams and a tiny bank account. The dialogues and sometimes the acts on stage, despite the use of puppets were quite risqué. The play was amusing and the experience was mostly worth the high entrance fee. The average audience member was about a decade or so older than us, which was not surprising the steep ticket price. You really need to make some money to be able to afford watching plays regularly on Broadway.

Phew!

Day Two ends on an equally active note as day one. Next Stop – Chicago to meet bade bhaiyya.