A day date frolicking with Manhattan by foot!

 What's the best way to enjoy Manhattan? In my opinion, it is WALKING, STROLLING and PRANCING around town.

To get a little bit of exercise in our lives and to take advantage of a gorgeous hot sunny Sunday, we decided to walk downtown to uptown, from Chinatown to the Met museum to see the 'Schiarapelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations' exhibition. It was in our day's goal to walk more than 100 NY city blocks including zig zagging through avenues i.e. left to right (avenues) as well as up and town (streets). From Chinatown (Mott St) up to the Met (82nd) back down to Rockefeller (47th) ending in the West Village.

“A Conversation With A Great Friend“, a new mural from internationally-recognized graffiti writer RETNA at the Houston/Bowery wall in New York

Lots of "obstacles" were thrown at us (mostly me) during our walk. Typical of NY, lots of things and events were happening....

Our day started with a Mother's day family dim sum brunch down on Mott Street. I charged up by eating plates of shrimp rolls, shrimp dumplings, whole plate of chicken feet, buns, tofu skin ..you name it, I ate it. Feeling greased up (literally), drank some tea and water and began our walk at around 2 p.m. The hot sun was very discouraging but nothing my SPF 60 sunblock couldn't handle.

Pretty stores in Nolita were enticing me with sale signs and new Spring/Summer arrivals but we needed to get to the museum before closing time (around 5:15 p.m.). Passed Houston St., pretty things and buildings started to emerge...

New mural by Retna on Houston and Bowery

 Seeing a new mural by Retna  on Houston and Bowery. Garance Dore posted as her weekend inspiration on her blog.

Dave helping a guy turn the cube at Astor place.

We heard music by Union Square and saw an whole event dedicated to promoting Taiwan was taking place

Union Square 14th street/5th ave

A promotional event for Taiwan tourism was happening in Union Square which I was surprised not to have heard about cuz you know, Taiwanese girl should know everything Taiwanese going on. There was even a concert stage and lots of vendors. This deterred us for a dozen minutes as I quickly scanned the site out of curiosity but not for too long since you know, Taiwan is just much better in PERSON and so the shaved ice (they put mango jam on shaved ice) and oyster pancakes looked uninteresting to me *snob knob up.

Bubble tea, oyster pancake, shaved ice you name it!

My second favorite building in New York

Taking a break at Argo Tea beneath the Flatiron building on 23rd/5 ave to cool down and take a pee break.

Stumbling onto Madison Square Eats. I was still full from dim sum or else I wouldn't have minded trying a pizza from Roberta's or some focaccia from Eataly.

List of food vendors

A Rebekka Minkoff sample sale..taking a peak at the inventory

Walked by the Rebekka Minkoff sample sale on 5th ave between 28th/29th st and decided to take a peek to see what the big deal was about.

Ostrich skin

A nice blue bag for Spring

Walking by Bryant park/ NY library on 5th Ave/42nd stand, we realized that we had been walking for almost 2 hours and that we had to walk at least 1 minute per block to be able to get the Met (82nd street) on time. We decided to hop on a bus uptown to the Met so that we can have enough time to see the exhibition and planned to stay on track and finish our walk by walking back down to midtown from the Met!

'Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible conversations' exhibit at the Metropolitain museum of Art

Buddha head from Longmen grottoes in LuoYang which I visited during a recent trip to China

After the Met, we began our walk back down to midtown. The sun was less intense but it was still hot so a rainbow soft serve was necessary for survival.

$3 dollah

The Celine bag

Did some REAL window shopping on Madison Avenue since stores were actually closed by 5 or 6 p.m.

Pretty Ballerinas store in NY (Taken for Viv!)

Taking a break at the Apple store plaza

My first time at the Trump Tower...meh

My first time at Henri Bendel

Trump Tower, Henri Bendel and all the touristy things I haven't done yet.

Those movie extras are getting paid alot of money to wait around.

A new movie directed by and starring Ben Stiller was shooting by Radio City/Rockefeller Center and they blocked off an entire street. I find out later that Ben Stiller and Adam Scott were shooting this scene. More pics I took of the set here.

We attained our day's goal when we got to Rockefeller Center on 47th st. Hunger inevitably struck and so we hopped on a train all the way to the West Village by West 4th to have dinner at Tomoe sushi.

Sashimi salad apetizer

A good large portion to feed the hunger

Last stop: Washington Square Park

 With our full belly, we decided to stroll a little bit despite our tired legs around Washingston Square park before going home. Our day finally ended. My feet hated me but my heart and eyes were content. We got home a little past 9 pm ready for a nice shower and sleep.

Next time, LES to UWS..High Line to the Cloisters?!?

What are YOUR weekend plans?

xxx

Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations at the Metropolitain Museum of Art in NY

McQueen vs Prada

There is obviously no competition between the two exhibitions as they are certainly incomparable but I definitely know which exhibition I preferred...ahum Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty. If you have a shoe fetish than you should go to the Schiaparelli+ Prada because Prada shoes are gorgeee-ous.

I didn't really understand what the exhibition was trying to evoke and maybe nothing at all as like I said, it is not to be compared with last year's Savage Beauty. I just like what's pretty and chic. I would recommend one to read about the exhibition a little more beyond what is on the Met website prior to going to the exhibition so you can fully understand what the curators have envisioned and appreciate it a little more. Here's a nice article from the New York times giving a little background about Schiaparelli and Prada and their work.

If for any reason this post has been removed or taken down, it's probably because these pictures were taken ninja-style as pictures were not permitted. It did not stop me neither at last year at Savage Beauty , twice!

Sequin shoes

Schiarapelli head ornaments and Prada shoes

Shoe ornament sold at the Met store

I thought these shoes were a museum shop gimmick but they do exist as they were in the exhibition.

The shoes are from Spring/Summer 2012 collection.

Finally visited 'The Cloisters' in NY!

From time to time, it is nice to "escape" from the rumble of the city and escape into the wilderness. However, for those who do not own a car, it's rather difficult so Fort Tryon Park and The Cloisters are easy destinations to escape to and all you need to do is hop on the A train, take a short nap without getting pick pocketed, and get off on one of the last stops! Bring a picnic if it's super nice out.

A view of the George Washington bridge

Unicorn Tapestries

 

Stared at this little guy for 5 minutes

I didn't really LOVE the Cloisters museum because that Medieval stuff is freaky and too religious for me but Tryon Park and the gardens were definitely relaxing. It was nice to sit by one of the cloistered gardens and just stare at something for an hour...a bumblee bee perhaps which is a rare sighting in the city of NY!