east coast road trip, take 2

First up in part two of our road trip is a trip to the uber-famous Katz's deli, located in the lower east side of Manhattan.  Oh my.  It was so good.  So good that Dan and I lamented for hours about the fact that we couldn't afford to bring home any pastrami with us ($27/lb).  I actually could not believe how good it was.  See, sometimes I am a bit of a skeptic when it comes to places that are so talked up.  It's kind of funny, because I was really excited for Grimaldi's pizza, but was nervous about Katz's being a let down.   I think it's just because I had heard of Grimaldi's only recently, so I figured it was my secret find (even though when I heard about it, I also heard about hour long lines to get in).  Obviously Grimaldi's is no secret; I'm just weird.  Katz's on the other hand, has been a landmark for decades (over a century even!).  Why I ever even dared to doubt its phenomenal-ness? I don't know.  To be able to stand the test of time in NYC, well, you've gotta be pretty amazing. 

Um yeah, so we went a little picture happy at Katz's.  While on this trip, we took shockingly few pictures, especially given how many we take here on a daily basis.  I think we were afraid of looking too much like tourists (although such sentiments were never voiced aloud).  But for some reason at Katz's, those fears dissipated into a frenzy of needing to document our insanely delicious feast.  As you can see from the pictures above, we had a pretty awesome spread in front of us.  And every last bite of it was oh, so good. 

We actually went to Katz's with my friend Annie, but unfortunately don't have a picture of her to share. Next, she led us to the Tenement Museum, which was right up my alley.  No pun intended, seriously. Seriously.  Ever since I was little I have loved this type of museum.  When my mom first took me to the Longfellow House in Portland back in elementary school, we finished our tour, stepped outside, and I promptly asked if we could go back in.  I don't know what it is, but I just love seeing how people used to live. I love it. 

The Tenement Museum is in a real tenement building that was constructed in the 1860s and condemned as inhabitable in 1935.   When the museum purchased the property, it had been uninhabited since that date (although the first two floors had been used as a store front for awhile).  Different apartments on the different floors have been transformed into replicas (more or less) of the actual apartments of actual families living in the building throught its existence as a tenement.  It was fascinating to learn how the definition of what was deemed safe/good living evolved over the decades.  Unfortunately, you're not allowed to take pictures inside the museum.  Not even without a flash.  Devastating.

This is a view of Manhattan from the Brooklyn Promenade.  We went to dinner with our friends Sara and Andy at a great restaurant called Noodle Pudding in Brooklyn Heights.  Looking at the menu does not do this restaurant justice.  The food is prepared simply, but it is utterly delicious.  We all pretty much scraped our plates clean, except for Dan, who in a heretofore unknown act of self-restraint saved half of his lasagna for the next day.  I think he was able to do this because it was just so good that he would prefer to leave the restaurant a bit hungry than to face not having such amazing lasagna ever again.  

Then we met up with Dan's sister Lauren and their cousin Katy at a jazz bar in Manhattan to celebrate Katy's 25th birthday!  That's Lauren, Katy, Sara and me from left to right, in case you were wondering. And in the picture below, are the jazz musicians:

A little late night early morning pizza rounded out our trip to New York quite nicely. 

Unfortunately we took even fewer pictures in Boston, but we did take a couple at the Vampire Weekend concert we attended Sunday night:

Yup.  And there you have it.  A whirlwind 6 days on the road.  It's crazy: most people go on vacation to relax.  Coming from our slow-paced life in Camden, we were so overwhelmed/over-stimulated by all of the people to see and things to do (and eat!) that we're still recovering.  It was so great to see everyone and experience some new things, but it is also great to be back and relaxed again.