More walking & eating

On Saturday night we met up with some friends in Chinatown for tea. The restaurant was on a cool little one way street that looked like a movie set.

After sampling some soup dumplings and other shared plates we walked a couple of blocks into Little Italy where the annual San Gennaro festival is on.
It was a thought to brave the crowds but after switching my wallet and phone into my front pockets we went for it.

It was kinda like a street fairground. As well as food stalls there were games to win cuddly toys and even a couple of freakshow things, like the amazing snake boy!
We resisted that and had some canolis and I tried a fried Oreo cookie. Much like anything sweet that is fried, it is tasty but as usual, one is more than enough.

The next day we were up early and burned it all off by doing the same upstate hike we did before but this time leading different friends. Apart from a missed turn and a slight double back it all went good and the lack of humidity compared to in the middle of summer made a massive difference in how we felt during and afterwards. The hike photos were obviously the same as before, but the one below from the car park at the end of our hike was a nice surprise!

Then on Sunday night during the American Football due to an injury to the regular San Diego Chargers player, Heather's cousin got more game time and only ended up scoring three touchdowns!!!

Update

Been a slightly frustrating time recently as I am still awaiting my work permit letter. The green card type thing will probably follow later but I need the work part of it in order to physically sign on at a job. As money is now tight I have been trying to time it perfectly by having something lined up as the letter drops through the mail.
I have applied for a couple of jobs and "unfortunately" got an interview and a quicker than expected offer of a job at the SoHo REI store which is a big outdoor style store. Would have been a great job for a large very well respected company (in a really nice building in a great location) but I had explained to them the situation and they couldn't hold the job open. The USCIS can't check up on my  case until 1st October, very annoying.

Maybe I shouldn't have spent money on buying tickets to gigs! I could've picked up a ticket for Andy Murray's US Open final victory especially after it was held over to the Monday but I couldn't justify spending the $100+ on one. At least I was able to watch it all on tv and didn't have to stay up to 2am!

Previous money was spent on upcoming concerts like Jay-Z in the new Barclays Centre in Brooklyn and Peter Gabriel away out at Jones Beach. But last week was Maximo Park at Webster Hall. They were big in Britain back in about 2005 but haven't been as popular since. It felt like a fan club show as there was probably only a couple of hundred people there and we were about seven from the front despite walking in literally as they walked on stage. Really good and plenty of English voices in the crowd!

©Heather Sina!

On 9/11 they had some memorial lighting at night after the remembrance ceremony. We could see it from our window but other people had better photos on Twitter.

Saturday walk and eat

Happy Birthday to me!
One of Heather's cousins is in New York for work and it was also her birthday during this time so we got a combined Fudgie the Whale ice cream cake, yum yum!

Plus we got to take her and her husband on a couple of guided tours during their stay. We went back to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and then had a long walk around Brooklyn.

 

Lunch was the amazing burgers at Shake Shack and then we had a late afternoon snack in the Brooklyn Farmacy, an old school ice cream parlour & soda fountain.

I'd read about this Italian bakery that sells something called Lard Bread so our last stop was to try that out. It was fantastic although it's just as well we don't live next door as I'd find it hard to resist. It is a loaf of bread with salami and cheese baked in.

Turned out we walked nearly 10 Miles from around 9am to 5pm. If you visit New York, be prepared to walk! At least it burned off a lot of the above calories that were ingested during the day.
Plus I'd definitely recommend visiting in September. The humidity has finally disappeared and there's not the need for a shower every time you step out the door.