New York, New York -- June 2002: Day 2

The next morning, we decided to start our day with bagels.  Since we were trying to catch the bus downtown to the Circle Line to Ellis Island and Liberty Island (one of our two excursions in our package), we figured the Dunkin Donuts in Times Square would bring us close to the bus stop and get us fed.  Ugh, what a mistake.  They were probably the worst bagels in NYC.  You're better off stopping at any old corner shop instead.  The day was already sweltering, in the 90s, but Times Square was a ghost town, so different than the night before.  After a speedy bus ride and a short walk, we arrived at Battery Park.

Battery Park was absolutely beautiful, an oasis in the middle of the city.  The breeze from the river was cool and refreshing.  Being immediately post 9/11, security to get onto the ferry was super-tight, but the line through a large tent moved rather fast.  Onlookers must have wondered what was going on as all the men exited the tent buckling their belts up!  The boat seemed to take forever to get moving and the top deck was painfully hot yet windy.  Finally, we arrived at Liberty Island.  It was surreal to see the Statue of Liberty looming large in front of us.  Because of the tight security, we weren't allowed to go inside, but we did by some tacky souvenirs.  This was probably the birth of our Tacky Souvenir Collection.  In this case, we got a small Statue of Liberty magnet.

The next stop on our little cruise was Ellis Island.  There was much more to explore here as we could walk the same steps as the immigrants that were processed here a hundred years ago.  Parts were emotional as well as I realized how many people once stood in the same spot we were and I think I might have found a relative in their database.  The island turned out to be way more interesting than I would have thought.

Somehow, after the boat docked back in Battery Park, we quickly hopped on a bus and made our way uptown to the American Museum of Natural History.  It was so huge, we could have spent a whole day there.  We saw all the large "stuffed" animals, which were really cool in a classic museum kind-of-way.  The squid and the whale, an epic battle in fiberglass, kind of freaked me out, though.  We enjoyed the "Culture Hall."  It was a mini Epcot Center with little rooms featuring the cultures of different countries (clothing, food, art, etc.).  No surprise, we really like the Asian exhibits.  We tried to look at everything in the Gem Hall, but it took forever.  The Star of India was also a little disappointing because it was so small.  We had a quick snack and made our way back to the hotel so we could change for our big dinner.

On the menu for that evening was Nobu.  I'm still not sure how I was able to get reservations, but it was a Sunday and before 7 p.m., so I think that helped.  We unfortunately didn't realize how bad the traffic would be trying to go anywhere downtown, on account of the Gay Pride Parade that afternoon.  So, we were about an hour late and I fully expected them to tell us to take a hike, but they were very nice and held the reservation for us.  Inside the restaurant, it was a lot smaller than I figured it would be.  We were seated towards the front, which was nice because we could watch everyone walk in.  Seated across the doorway from us was a rather peculiar woman.  She had giant hair and was nervously inhaling edamame.  I kept staring, which probably made her more nervous.  I then realized it was Beyoncé .  Wow, our first celebrity sighting!

After we ordered cold sake cocktails (of course) and the Omakase menu, which is basically a prix fixe menu, chef's choice, which is the only way to go when you're at Nobu. We worked our way through around eight courses.  First, was the melt-in-your-mouth velvety tuna tartare.  It was the best quality tuna I had ever tasted.  It was finely minced with onions, garlic, topped with caviar, and topped with a tiny Asian peach.  Next was a sashimi salad.  It had thin slices of seared tuna over mixed greens.  It was very delicate and somehow different from the first course.  Third was New Style sashimi: paper thin slices of fluke drizzled in grapeseed oil.  It was dynamite.  My favorite dish came next -- rock shrimp.  It was amazing.  Lightly fried and breaded, like a fancy popcorn shrimp, but so much better.  Broiled sea bass with miso was fifth.  It was a big hunk of fish, in counterbalance from all the thin sashimi.  The miso was sweet and flavorful.  Sixth, it was time for miso soup.  This soup had salty hot clams.  Our seventh and main course was sushi.  We each got five simple and pure pieces of nigiri.  It was nothing fancy or overly seasoned; just incredible fresh.  Last was dessert -- a delicious almond cake with green sour cherries.  It burst with flavor and was one of the best desserts I've ever had.

To cap our typical crazy day, we went to Flute for champagne.  It was a very tiny bar, draped in red velvet.  I was so tired I fell asleep just a little bit, on our cozy velvet booth, but no one noticed as we were the only ones there.  After one more drink back at the hotel bar, we were sound asleep, dreaming of woolly mammoths and lots of sushi.