J-Walking

the last time i was in New York was around 1997. i don’t remember much on that trip because for one thing, i didn’t have a cool place like this to journal my daily adventures. and also it was a trip of going here and there really fast. i think the only thing that i remember was visiting the Statue of Liberty, riding in the passenger seat of uncle Ron’s car (he used to be a taxi driver so it was quite exhilirating), and watching Princess Diana’s funeral event on TV. so today, after having dim sum at this pretty tasty Chinese vegetarian restaurant, my uncle, Jessica, and i headed into Manhattan to pound pavement. (i was interested to find out how many miles i would walk so i put on my pedometer before we left the house). there really wasn’t a plan to do or see anything in particular which was a good thing. i enjoyed walking around the city as an overview of sorts. in our meanderings, we went into a Disney Store to look for snow globes but Jessica didn’t find the kind she was hoping for, we stopped at Lincoln Center, checked out St. Patrick’s Cathedral, strolled through Central Park and then up the west side to meet up with my other cousin Jannine when she got off work. my uncle had some things to do so he headed back while Jessica and i continued till we got to the restaurant made famous by the sitcom Seinfeld. we thought it was this corner that Jannine was going to meet us but a phone call confirmed that it was on the opposite corner of the same block. Jannine took us through the campus of Columbia University and then we met up with Jessica’s friend Jennifer (this group is now an amazing connection of persons whose names start with “J”) and headed for dinner at Pisticci where i had the Rigatoni Melanzane followed by one of the best tiramisu i’ve ever had. yum! towards the end of our dining, there was a water situation so since Jannine’s apartment was right around the corner we bade Jennifer a goodbye and the three cousins headed to Jannine’s place where the water can be blow-dryed. we hung out for a bit, watched Scrub’s “My Half-Acre” episode from the DVR, and left shortly after Jannine’s boyfriend Nathan came over so that we won’t miss the train back to Long Island. all-in-all, it was a very walk-filled day.

total walked miles: 9.31