This weekend there was an International Food Festival on 9th Street…

Which promised to bring huge crowds…  It was a glorious day, so there’s no reason the people should stay away…. in fact, even bad weather doesn’t really keep the people away.

The feast fest spread from 42nd St all the way to 57th.  We started on 50th and headed south with a plan to walk down one side of the street and then up the other to the end.

We got about 3 blocks down and realised that the majority of the stalls were the same as the last Street Fair we went to, so as it was really hot in the sun, we about turned and headed north toward our predetermined final destination of 57th Street.

Passing a “Lobster Rollin'” truck

How cool would one of these be in Gero?

Then it was all about the balls…

We sampled some of the wares on offer – a German bratwurst, southern fried chicken, bbq’d corn on the cob and some fried mac & cheese balls and we drew the line at the deep friend ice-cream.

After 55th Street the fest turned into a kids carnival with jumping castles, etc.. so we high tailed it  up and out of there.

The heat of the day – 26 degrees, but feels like 30 called for a seat on the footpath to have a drink and stare at people.  We chose the first place we came across, a French cafe called Cognac.

We hadn’t been sitting long before this impromptu photo shoot happened….

You’re welcome ?

We had left the apartment this morning foolishly thinking that the temp might be similar to yesterday and dressed accordingly.  We were mistaken and way too hot, so we popped back to the apartment to rethink our wardrobe, drop off non essentials like umbrellas, coats & scarves and change into some shorter trousers.

We headed east along 51st and the plan was to wind our way up to 59th and 2nd Ave…  to cross over to Roosevelt Island.

Oh look Darl – Cartier!

Looking across the way to the funny shaped building.  I love that NY is so creative and different.  No two buildings are the same, so every direction you look is something new and interesting.

Like this lovely little one snuggled in between those two big ones.

Here’s that random building that I noticed from the top of the Empire State Building…

We passed Bloomingdales…

and the Magnolia Bakery (from the Sex and the City fame… (although this one is in a different area)

We were looking for a place to sit outside to have a drink and watch people… but they are few and far between which is why they are so popular.

Look at this gorgeous little puppy.  He was so well behaved just sitting and staring…. pretty much what we wanted to do!

On the way ML told me of a tip she had from her friend & neighbour, Jennie about a cafe called ‘Serendipity 3’, which Oprah herself also recommended.  It was right on the block we were walking to, so it seemed silly not to stop in and try something.

Their speciality is frozen hot chocolates.

Their decor is eclectic and fun.

ML ordered the peanut butter frozen hot chocolate and I went for the mint….. And this is what we got…. now don’t have a sugar fuelled aneurysm, I could only manage half of it before I felt sick.

They also sell random merchandise…

We rolled out of there and down the street.

So… Roosevelt Island.

Here’s what I know about Roosevelt Island….

It has been used as a prison, an lunatic asylum and a hospital.  Back in 1839, the New York City Lunatic Asylum opened, including the Octagon Tower, which is now a residential building.  The asylum at one point held 1,700 inmates, twice its designed capacity. It was known as Welfare Island when it was used principally for hospitals, from 1921 to 1971. It was renamed Roosevelt Island in 1971 after Franklin D. Roosevelt. Roosevelt Island is owned by the city but was leased to the state of New York’s Urban Development Corporation for 99 years in 1969.

You can get across by driving (or walking) across the Queensboro Bridge…

Or you can take the tram (cable car)…

We lined up to take the tram across, but then watched as about 50 people in front of us  pack in like sardines into this car and all of a sudden it didn’t look much like fun, so down the stairs we went and headed for the Manhattan side of the East River.

There is a walk way that runs most of the way up the river, but as a main road runs alongside that, there aren’t many places to cross over, so we walked a little way up and then crossed over the pedestrian bridge the first chance we had – otherwise we would have been adding another 16 blocks to our walk.

Along the path is this dog run where dogs are allowed off their leads.  There were a few canine arguments, but otherwise they all played nicely together.

This couple was taking their 5 dogs on leads and see that big pram?  That had another 5 little dogs in it.

We tried to take a route home that we hadn’t been before and came across some lovely buildings….

Do you think their name is actually Uniform?  And do they sell/clean/make uniforms?  How did they break into the shoe repair game?  So many questions!

It doesn’t take much to make your building look pretty….

… and check out this house – they’ve got a double garage!!! That’s not something you see every day in NYC.

Schmoozing past the Plaza and there was a wedding going on.  What a lucky couple to have such a wonderful day – yesterday it didn’t stop raining.

I don’t know if the city has a lost and found section, but I couldn’t bring myself to send this weave in…  I’m still trying to work out how it dropped out of somebody’s hair and it reminded me of this SNL clip:

Go to this link… scroll down to the video link… watch the whole thing if you like cause it’s hilarious – or cut straight to 5.50 for the bit about the weave.

http://msmagazine.com/blog/2010/11/12/we-heart-the-real-housewives-of-snl/ 

Speaking of lost and found, these little babies were abandoned next to the subway entrance… They looked a little small for me and I don’t quite understand the concept of a boot with an open toe…. so there they stayed.

By the time we got back to our apartment we had walked 11.6kms and ML was a tiny bit shattered… I think I may have broken her.  But not to worry cause she’s rubbed on some magic DoTerra oils and tomorrow she’ll be right as rain – I hope so because we’ve planned to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge.  Let’s see what happens.