We arranged last night to meet Mallory around 10 this morning. I woke up early and went downstairs to the lobby to drink coffee, work on the blog, and people watch. A couple around my age sat down next to me and we struck up a conversation. They were from Cape Cod, and when I told them I was from Tulsa, the man said there’s a large hospital in Tulsa – St. Francis. Several years ago, he spent some time there installing heart monitoring equipment. Oh Yes, I know St. Francis – all three of my kids and my wife were born there!
The man now works for his son’s pest control business – Pilgrim Pest Professionals. And it’s pretty obvious they have the best logo in Massachusetts.
We met Mallory down the street at the DeKalb subway station. Together again!
Mallory was waiting for us at the station because Stephanie and I had to turn back once and return to the hotel to put on more layers. We have learned how to keep warm, and it’s not by leaving your layers back in the room.
Our first order of business was to have brunch in Williamsburg, at a spot Mallory has wanted to try for a while – Win Son Bakery. This was a small, casual spot that serves Taiwanese food with a twist. That’s Williamsburg for ya.
It was getting close to Noon when we arrived and the place was busy. We ordered 3 items and hovered around waiting for a table large enough for 3 people to open up. As luck would have it, we did snag spots at the largest table in the place, and had plenty of room to share our dishes amongst each other.
After lunch, we had just a vague idea of our afternoon plans. We meandered our way on foot through Williamsburg to the Center for Brooklyn History. This was a museum & library founded in1863, and the building was custom built in 1878 for the museum. The building itself was a work of art, with a lavishly decorated exterior in terra cotta.
The museum itself is fairly small, but they had a limited number of very large paintings of early Brooklyn which were interesting to gaze at. We only spent a minimal amount of time there, but it was worth the stop.
After the museum, we somehow managed to end up at the Brooklyn Running Company, which has turned into a required stop on our visits to see Mallory. Love this store, their clothes, and their logo.
The day flew by and as we continued our walk, we visited the Black Star Bakery, and grabbed coffee and a pastry. Sometimes it just feels good to sit down, and that’s how we felt.
While relaxing over coffee, I shared with Stephanie that unbeknownst to her, there was a contest between her children to see who could guess how many bags she would buy in Iceland. Stephanie Loves Bags. Small bags, medium bags, anything that you can stuff a few specific things in and throw in your suitcase. Miles was the sole winner with a guess of “1”. I’ll admit I was surprised it was only one. In hindsight, Stephanie remarked how odd it was that I was always pointing out the bags in the tourist shops!
We made a visit back to our hotel to drop off bags and refresh. We got to meet one of Mallory’s co-workers that we have never met before. Nothing makes you feel better than hearing a stranger say wonderful things about your child!
Our next order of business was to head to Manhattan to see an off-Broadway musical, “The Office! The Musical Parody”. Nobody can say that we are not high society!
We exited the subway at Times Square for the sole purpose of taking in some of the environment and ambiance of NYC. On our visits to see Mallory, of which we determined this was Trip # 7, we rarely end up at Times Square, so it still has an impact on me when we visit.
Once we located our theatre, we began our search for dinner. We decided on a small pizza place – Don Antonio, just a block or so from our theatre.
We had to wait for a table, but we could tell by the action that things moved fast here. We got seated in short order and picked out a salad, pizza and calzone to split. It was more food than we could eat, and it was all pretty amazing. (The calzone was best.)
On to the main event! Mallory’s roommate, Ellen, has seen The Office musical and gave it high marks. Ellen had plans to meet us for dinner, but it didn’t work out, but as a consolation prize, she sent a two minute audio message to Stephanie and I that we listened to in the lobby of the theatre. Ellen expressed joy that she will not be the only person she knows who has seen this musical. And also the seats are very low to the ground, and she is worried about Mr. King and his legs! Haha.
Our seats were on the front row. It was a very small theatre, and not well attended, but the production was hilarious and all of us thoroughly enjoyed it – even Stephanie who was not even in on all the jokes.
Several of the musical numbers were titled “Assistant to the Regional Manager”, “Such a Hot and Sexy Temp”, and “That’s What She Said”. Well done, Office Musical!
We walked out of the theatre, found our subway and made it back to the hotel around 10:30. Day 1 in New York City is done. That’s a wrap!