I forgot to mention earlier that I did actually have a pretty interesting lunch break...although it's raining and cold here today, I walked around the neighborhood, gawking like a tourist at all the historical spots -- the Bull (whose balls I rubbed, just like I said I would), the ticker-tape parade honorees' sidewalk placards, Pearl Street, Standard & Poor's, and even found an amazing little hole-in-the-wall pizza place on Battery Place, I think, called New York Pizza Factory, that had the best New York pizza I've had in a long, long time -- maybe ever. It was a nice crispy brick-oven style in a historical building. So despite the weather, I had a lovely lunch.
Only DH Noel will know what this is: somewhere near the Fraunces Tavern is a modern building that was built over the site of an old colonial governor's tavern. The architect of this building preserved the stone foundation and part of the walls of the tavern: in the plaza in front of the building, as you walk on the ground you see that part of the ground is a set of glass panes, through which you can see the stones and some of the artifacts they found while excavating. They also preserved, in much the same way, an old cistern a few feet away. Fascinating.
