Day 10 & 11 -- IN to NJ/NYC

Day 10

We made it to Newark and then my brother drove us around the city. We wandered around Brooklyn Heights for a couple of hours, and it was great.
We saw all of the Watchtower and Bible Tract Society's buildings, which house all the volunteers that run Brooklyn Bethel.

The Watchtower Society bought all this property back in the early twentieth century, and restored all the buildings and hotels.
They've been selling some of the buildings, since so much of the opertaion has been relocated to Walkhill. It's a great feeling, when you see how much these buildings and their maticulous upkeep contributed to the community.

We drove around Times Square and saw Madison Square Gardens.


More later!

Day 11

We sleeeeept in. We slept until around 12 noon, and then milled around and left for the city at around four in the afternoon.

We got on the train in Jersey City, which is near an old theater called the Stanley Theater, which opened in 1923, closed in 1978, and then was purchased by Jehovah's Witnesses in 1983. We restored the theater, and we use it as an assembly hall. Our 2007 District Convention is going on now world wide, so the theme, Follow the Christ!, was on the marquee. I haven't been in it yet; maybe next time (they do tours when there isn't a program going on). It has this incredible copper detailing on the marquee that just takes your breath away. That's what makes me so grateful -- my people don't just buy property and go, okay, now we're going to make this cheesy converted building that takes away all of the original coolness (like what happened to so many of the cool theaters in downtown L.A. at one point, and in a lot of classical theaters nationwide), but they actually preserve the historical integrity of the architecture and artistic intention. It makes a girl in a religious minority group get a little shiny eyed.

There was also a Loew's theater nearby, which they use for a farmer's market, I think. Rediculous to let a theater go like that. Grrrrrr....

We went to the city, popping up near Grey's Papaya, to get hotdogs. Yum!

We then went to Crumbs cupcakery. Crisco frosting! Gross.

We walked through Central Park, ad it was glorious! It was such a great day -- gorgeous weather. My brother took us on my favorite walk through the Park: starting at Strawberry Fields, heading over to the Angel Fountain, across to the Boat House, onward to Alice in Wonderland, and finally, through the Central Park Zoo, past the portrait artists, and exiting by where all the horse carriages end up -- by the Plaza Hotel.

Todd wanted to go see the iPhone, so we went to the Apple store, and I was so glad to sit down. The store is underground, and it has this cool Apple structure above ground. He ended up getting the iPhone, and when he called his brother to tell him he found out that his brother had waited in some line last Friday, only to be told that they didn't have any, that he had to be on some list, and that while in transit, that list had changed to "backorder" status. Todd's brother is highly competitive, so Todd felt victorious!

We walked past all the high end shops on fifth -- Louis Vuitton, pine, pine,
and then took a cab to Greenwich Village.

I love the Village.

We went to Magnolia Bakery for more cupcakes (we're on a mission from God), and the line was crayzay, yo! But it went fast and I got to window shop the Marc Jacobs shop. I really loved the vibe in the Village. It's mellow and arty and hipster. But I likes it!

We headed back to Jersey, becuase this actually took several hours to accomplish. The walk through Central Park took a while.

We stopped at White Castle, where I came across this sign, then came home and watched the end of the Titans, the movie, with my sister-in-law and her mom, and we were all dying, because we are a family of the clever joke and the sarcastic wit, and we crack eachother up until someone involuntarily passes gas. Yeah, so it was me. So what. We ate the cupcakes. Not bad, but Frosted in Long Beach is still the best cupcake I've ever tasted. Consistently good.

Tomorrow we're just lying low with the fam, and we're going to dinner at a friend's house, the Walls. They're Jersey style through and through. Good people. 'Till then.