New York Day 3

We started today by taking the subway to the upper West Side and getting bagels at H&H Bagels, the first bagel place we've been to that I actually remember, and that some people think has the best bagels in New York. It's in a different place than I remember, and like almost everything else here, has transformed from a dirty hole in the wall where everyone was rude in a refreshing and familiar way, to a fancy upscale place where people are polite, there is a clean bathroom you can use, and the guy behind the counter offered to let my daughter come behind the counter and put cream cheese on her own bagel (she was not interested). But the bagels were delicious, the first I've had that tasted the way I remember them. Even the kids said they were the best they've had.

Then we took the subway up to Barnard, where I went to college. I showed the kids where I lived on 110th Street, the courtyard of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine (see picture below), where a wild peacock used to live when I was in college. I'm sure that peacock is long dead, and there do not appear to be any peacocks there anymore. On my way there, I saw the Hungarian Pastry Shop, which I had completely forgotten existed, but where I spent a lot of time in college. When I saw it all the memories came rushing back and I gasped so loud Lucy thought someone had gotten hurt. We went in, and it was exactly the way I remember it, with all the exact same pastries, except they said they had stopped making my favorite, the berliner. I got a chocolate raspberry hazelnut cake instead, which brought me even more joy than the H&H bagel, about on par with the Ollie's dumplings. I briefly showed the kids Tom's diner, and more places I used to live, before heading up to campus.

I had arranged to visit the Barnard physics department where I went to school, so we headed there next. Apparently now you need to scan your student ID card to enter every building on campus, and I obviously don't have one, so we just went in after a student scanned her ID. Lucy was horrified by this, because I was defying their security system, and she was sure I needed to sign in at the front office like at her high school. It was a very small department with only a few faculty and a few majors, so everyone knew everyone, and I spent a lot of time there. My advisor Tim, who I had originally contacted, was on sabbatical and out of town, and had put me in touch with Reshmi, another professor who had started teaching my last semester there (27 years ago). I couldn't tell from their emails if anyone there was actually excited to have a random alum visit on a Thursday afternoon, but when I arrived, it was clear that they were. Tim had a big framed picture filled with signatures of Barnard physics alums, filled with equations that he had commissioned an artist to draw, and he had taken it down and left it for me to sign, with a lot of very detailed handwritten instructions about exactly how to sign it. The admin there was very welcoming and knew all about me, and both Reshmi and Laura, the astronomy professor, remembered me and seemed genuinely excited to have me visit.

Then we went for an official tour of Barnard for prospective students. I signed up for it, not necessarily because I thought either of my kids should go to Barnard, but because I wanted them to see where I went to college, and I thought it would be good for them to go to a college tour somewhere to get a sense of what college can be like. Lucy loved the tour, and thought Barnard sounded great. The tour guide, a Barnard senior, really emphasized that they are a college of nerds, and this made her feel like she would fit in. She also said there was a room where they drank hot chocolate and stress-crocheted, and this sounded like heaven to Lucy. Sonya was bored and her feet hurt.

After that we met up with my friend Masha, who was a physics major with me at Barnard, and who I haven't seen for over a couple decades. We walked around upper Manhattan and caught up, and it was wonderful to see her. The kids and I were hungry, so I suggested getting pizza. Masha didn't approve of our pizza (or bagel) choices, and suggested better ones, so we went with her to Absolute Bagels, which she said were the best in New York, Mama's Pizza, and Sal & Carmine's Pizza. The Absolute bagel was good but too hard. Mama's Pizza was wonderful but not traditional New York pizza, and Sal & Carmine's was exactly the New York pizza I had been longing for.

After Masha left, we walked up Riverside Park back up to Barnard and stopped at the Hungarian Pastry Shop again to get more pastries for breakfast tomorrow. All week there has been so much food I want to eat, but there is only so much room in my stomach, so I am constantly stuffed and have to pass up so much good food. Food is really the main reason I am here.

Then we took the subway downtown and wandered around Greenwich Village, Soho, Little Italy, and Chinatown, until we finally made it back to our hotel. Here we are visiting Stonewall.

One more thing I forgot to mention that is very different about New York from the way I remember it is that now there are bicycles everywhere. When I first saw all the bikes you could rent, I was surprised, because Manhattan streets are so chaotic that the idea of riding a bicycle anywhere in Manhattan was absolutely terrifying. But there are now really nice bike lanes everywhere, and it actually seems like it would be nicer to bike here than in downtown Seattle. Building all these bike lanes must have been a huge infrastructure project, and it is super impressive that they managed to do it.

And Lucy finally saw a rat in the subway tonight. I had told her there were rats in the subway, and she was excited to see one because that sounded cute. The one tonight may have been the largest rat I’ve ever seen in a subway, and she thought it was very cute.