Off Broadway

This morning, Cas and I started out a little earlier than necessary.  We had timed entry tickets to The Met for 10 am.  We headed to Tal Bagels.  We actually talked to a native New Yorker while we were in Boston, and got his bagel recommendation.  He gave us a pro tip- don’t get it toasted- the bagels are super fresh, and asking for them to toast one marks you as a tourist. We followed directions- the bagels were perfect.  We got two everything bagels, one with cream cheese, the other with lox spread.  Wow.  Those things were amazing. 

From there, we headed to The Met.  We had tickets when they opened for the day.  We made it a little way through the first exhibit when an idea occurred to me- if you walk in at opening time, you should go to the last spot people usually see on a walk through.  You see fewer crowds at the outset by going backwards.  Best.  Strategy.  Ever.  We took more photos of empty rooms today than we had any right to take.  It was like a private event on the second floor of The Met for just me, Cas and a half dozen other folks who had it all figured out.  

The Met is amazing.  They have whole spaces where Egyptian temples are reassembled. There are rooms so big that building facades are on one wall.  They have tapestries from palaces in ancient Persia just hanging on walls one room away from something else amazing.  If you have six or seven days in New York, you could conceivably spend all of them in The Met.  Heck, part of me wants to do that.  I mean, Rodin was heavily featured in the museum, and the place itself is so old that Rodin himself donated some of his own work to them.  How cool is that?  If a brilliant artist donates to you while he still breathes in and out, and you still have that stuff over a century later, you win.  Well done, Met.  Well done.  

The Met is on Fifth Avenue.  We walked across Park Avenue on the way there.  We also drank a few beers and conducted some great people watching on Lexington and 84th.  That was at a great bar called Carlow East.  I was an Irish pub with an actual Irishman behind the bar, accent and all.  They were very welcoming.  We wanted a snack, but they don’t have a kitchen.  They said we could bring in food from anywhere nearby.  The waitress even said our last round was on the house.  It was pretty great.  We started out sitting inside but the air conditioning was a little intense and the outdoor space was pretty inviting.  I’m pretty sure anyone who had access to hammers, saws and skills to build outdoor seating areas made all of the money during the Covid lockdown.  It seems that every food or beverage establishment in this city has a propped up plywood space on the street outside.  I wonder what happens in the future for those who would have parked in those spaces that are now restaurant seating.  I don’t know if the bars and restaurants give that back. 

But, I digress.  We went from Park Avenue to Lexington and 84th to our hotel on 50th street to a decidedly off Broadway event.  We attended a production of Macbeth by the good folks at Drunk Shakespeare.  If you have an opportunity, and you are good with silliness and wildly inappropriate humor, I can recommend it in the strongest of terms,  If you get a little twitchy about off color jokes, skip this one.  Needless to say, Cas and I thought it was hysterical.  Ooh- also, never bring children to this.  Just trust me.  Having said that, it was the thing that made us laugh more than any other thing on this trip.  What they do is pick one actor, and feed that actor a whole lot of alcohol, then they do the play.  This time around, it was the guy who played about a half dozen supporting roles in the show.  Beyond that, they stayed to the plot, but not the script.  A sword battle switched over to a dance battle.  A sad soliloquy became an acoustic guitar performance.  It was spectacularly silly.  It was everything we hoped it would be.  It was actually the very first thing we booked for this trip after flights and lodging.  We really liked it.  

But, that is it for today.  We headed back to the room and had a little wine and wind down.  Tomorrow is the Natural Historuy Museum and a sunset river cruise.  We will probably employ our new start-at-the-end tactic at the museum, but for the cruise, we’re on our own.  

Either way, here are today’s photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/2sYnZaQSheDb6sfJ6