Neuva York

Before heading to Iceland, we had an extended layover in New York.

While in New York, we stayed in the luxurious Waldorf Astoria, thanks to a generous gift from Uncle George and Auntie Mary Anne. While planning our time in New York, amidst the chaos of wedding preparation/planning, we decided New York would be a time for rest/relaxation amidst the insane old money opulence of the Waldorf...

Until we realized that rest/relaxation is nearly impossible to find among the incredibly many things there are to do in the big apple. We walked from morning till night every day we were there, taking in as much as we could....Although we are not fans of TV in general, Obscura is pretty awesome.

So, we decided to pay homage and check out their vast bounty.

We left Manhattan only one of the days to check out the City Reliquary, in Brooklyn.

We took in its collection of collections

made some connections...

and went horizontal in the back yard

After a long conversation with the lady who runs the reliquary, she pointed us in the direction of the original City Reliquary a few blocks away.

We spent an evening adventuring around with Sir John Kittrell, quite the scholar and gentleman. Just look at that cab hailing style! He bought us dinner and then took us to see the endless groove of some Brazilian jammers at a nondescript venue on the lower east side (sorry! forget where it was or who the band was. Such is the way with remembering these things bloggishly a few months after the fact).

Per Mr. Kittrell's advice, we spent the next afternoon on the High Line

We tracked down a piece of the Kcymaerxthaere

and an Os Gemeos mural 

inside a school yard

that happened to be having an event that day.
We got to dodge waterbaloons and children while trying to snap pictures of the mural.

We popped into the American Folk Art Museum

They were having a seminar on some of our favorite artists, including the work of Augustin Lesage, pictured below. So awesome to see his work up close. 

Some Darger we hadn't seen before

Weaving death!

Some Traylor as well...

Ted risked his life

to document the ever allusive 

Toynbee Tiles

The one below he ducked under a truck that was stopped at a red light to capture it. (If you haven't already seen it, we highly recommend watching Resurrect Dead to learn more) 

We ate many

many

many

delicious foods

Thanks to a little guidance, we ate at fine establishments, such as Souen

Caracas 

Franchia

Ted points to his favorite, black sesame porridge.

Ess A Bagel

Knish!

Tofu cream cheese!

Lula's Sweet Apothecary

(Cake Batter Soft Serve?!)

Dunwell Doughnuts

(Thanks for the tip, Stacy)

and our favorite, Hangawi

All in all, it was an incredible, overwhelming, and incredibly overwhelming trip to New York.

On the way out of town, in a subway elevator, we were accosted by some heavy urine smells. Twas a fitting goodbye from a city of urine smells.

And then around 11pm, we were informed that our 1130 pm flight to Reykjavik was postponed until two in the morning. Melissa found some rest and reflected upon NYC adventure times.