We had a lovely day celebrating Anthony's natal day. I slept late. We ate breakfast. He received a phone call and then we went downtown to the Tenement Museum, a fascinating place on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. The organization has taken a building constructed in 1863, which was a tenement until 1935 when the city declared it could no longer be a multiple family dwelling, and turned it into a museum.
We pickd up our tickets for the 1:20 tour and then had lunch at a very nice place down the street from TTM. I had a spinach salad with goat cheese, sun-dried tomatoes and carmelized onions. Anthony had a turky sandwich with avacado and quince paste on a baguette. We then walked back to the musuem and took a 2 hour tour focusing on two families that lived in the building at some point. One family from 1890 to about 1905 and another family from about 1906 to around 1941 (even though it couldn't be a multiple family dwelling one of the last tenants stayed in the building until 1941). It is/was a horribly hot day here in Manhattan but the tour was still wonderful and actually, the lack of air conditioning made it more realistic when we were in the tenement since they would not have had any kind of AC while living/working in their 2-room apartments. It was quite a wonderful experience. We then went back uptown to Fashion Institute of Technology and saw an exhibit in their museum called Arbiters of Taste. Another excellent tour. There was fashion from the late 1760s up to the present, all authentic and some pieces were really beautiful.
We then walked (in this heat) to one of our favorite restaurants, Wai Cafe, and had a dinner of gazpacho and I had a BLT and Anthony had tuna salad. After that we walked over to Books of Wonder, a children's bookstore in Chelsea. We went to the Cupcake Cafe portion of the store and had wonderful cupcakes for dessert. A perfect way to end the day out.
Anthony is watching his British mystery right now and after that he will open his cards and presents. Who knows what will happen after that.
That, by the way, is why I was away all day.
Later, gaters.
