Maggie has a guest up this weekend (her name is Kelli) to help celebrate Maggie’s B-Day (Happy Birthday dear!) . Kelli (and Maggie and I) wanted to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, so we made our first ever trek there. Of course, all the way there, I keep quoting Joey from Friends…”The METS!”

The museum was very nice. It is extremely large and has a great collection of Modern Art, although I could only find one Dali painting. There were a lot of Picasso’s though and those can be “interesting”.

We also quickly checked out Greek and Roman sculpture and then decided it was time to go eat, so Maggie and I still have a ton of museum to check out.

Then later that night Maggie wanted to go to Century 21 for some shopping and then to eat B-Day dinner in Chinatown, which as it turns out will always be a bit of an adventure for us.

On our way to Century 21 (which is a very popular NYC bargain shopping location, Zagat Rated #1!!!) there were a few, um, “merchants” making great deals on “Rolex” watches, “Louis Vuitton” handbags as well as “Burberry” handbags. Not to mention great DVDs such as “Team America: World Police”, “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow”, and “The Day After Tomorrow”. I just assume these are market test copies to make sure the DVD will do well in NYC. 😉

Well, Kelli went a bit crazy with the handbag guys and got them in a bit of a feeding frenzy and after some haggling, she got 3 bags for a great “deal”. All the time I kept getting pestered by the DVD test market guy and the guy with the “Rolex” watches. These guys do not take “No” for an answer.

After that, Century 21 was a bit of a rushed experience since we only had 30 minutes left until they closed, but I ended up getting some gloves (I hear I will need them). Finally, we made our way to Chinatown.

Once there, the sidewalks again had a few “merchants” selling a nice assortment of premium handbags and those market test DVDs. We tried to find the resturant Maggie and I ate at the last time we came to Chinatown, but failed. It was such a hole in the wall place, I’m not surprised we didn’t find it this time. So we wandered over to highly rated (the Zagat guide tells us so!) place also recommended by a co-worker and of course, the line is out the door. No chance getting in there before starvation sets in.

We settled on this little place called “Yeah Shanghi” which turned out to be quite nice…although at first we had our doubts. You see, we came in and told the greeter that we had a party of 3. This waiter comes back and says “You can sit now if you don’t mind a short table”. The 3 of us looked at each other and came to the conclusion we had no problems with a “short” table so long as we could eat soon. So I say sure, we’ll take the “short” table. Turns out I need to clean my ears out and get better at understanding a thick Asian accent. The waiter immediately turned around and asked the family ahead of us to come along and then motioned for us. We were all confused till it dawned on us he had said “share a table”. I thought “Oh my God, this is Maggie’s B-Day dinner and we are going to be sitting at a table with strangers and she’s going to kill me later”.

We ended up eating dinner with a very lovely family visiting the USA for the first time from the UK who were more than happy to answer the litany of questions from myself and Kelli. They were also amazed at how cheap “petrol” is here. We figured it to be about $15 a gallon for gas over there!!!! The dad told us he spends about $100 USD to fill up his car! No wonder they drive small, efficient cars over there. And we were a bit surprised to learn they drink their tea with milk in it. Hmm, I just don’t know if I can bring myself to try that. We bid them a good night and good visit and made our way over to a sweet shop in Little Italy. (Amazing, can’t find the Chinese place from before, but made a beeline to the sweet shop!) Got a nice chocolate strawberry tart for myself and a eclair for Maggie.

Finally, got home and put an end to a wonerful and exciting day of NYC adventures.