First, a lunch at Shake Shack. We visited the Battery Park City location since this was close to where I was staying (T’s apartment on a high floor also offers a dramatic view of New Jersey and sunset, and around the corner we can admire  the Statue of Liberty). We both passed on the shakes but splurged on cheese fries to go with our cheeseburgers. Those cheeseburgers went down WAY too easy, and I liked how the cheese fries had a little stick with a fry icon sticking out of it that we could stab some of those cheese-coasted morsels with.

We worked off those calories by walking from Battery Park through Chinatown and Greenwich Village where we didn’t have any (the line was longer then our patience) but admired the frosting of cupcakes by hand in the window of Magnolia Bakery. With sore feet we took the subway back for a Chardonnay and brie and manchego cheeses at T’s apartment. Both cheeses were wonderful with the Sonoma chardonnay which had a great round and slightly buttery profile that was enhanced by the cheeses. Then we were off to a ladies night dinner at Morso and drinking at a speakeasy out of teacups.

At Morso we shared small plates. We started with my favorite dish of the dinner, Gorgonzola fritters, roasted pears, endives,frisée, spiced walnuts, apple cider vinaigrette. Next, a little side dish of Butternut squash gratin, and a full dish we split of the Pappardelle, homemade pasta with brisket pot roast, porcini sauce. Also in the back you can see the other ladies’ side dish of roasted brussels sprouts they shared as they enjoyed their entrees, Cannelloni fresh pasta rolls with spinach,ricotta, light tomato sauce, and an order of Spaghetti carbonara, guanciale, onions, eggs, pecorino cheese. Both upon my small sampling were really fresh pastas and delicious as well.

The next day, we put our names for a table for brunch at Sarabeth’s Central Park South location and took a wonderful autumn walk in Central Park.

When we returned to eat at Sarabeth’s Central Park South , we started with their pickled Bloody Mary for me and a Bellini for T. After our disappointment that a large party had already taken up all their muffins so we couldn’t share a basket (their jams are renowned), we were only (hah only) left with the entrees we wanted. She had the Lemon and Ricotta Pancakes with Fresh Berries that had a nice little lightness and bit of tartness to them to balance the softness of those sponges for butter and syrup.

I had the Smoked Salmon Eggs Benedict with Irish smoked salmon and Hollandaise sauce, and the homemade muffins they used were so doughy and wonderful I found myself cleaning off the plate even though I was full halfway through. We also split a side of pork & apricot sausage- I kept mopping up the marmalade those sausages were so casually rolling in.

We then carried our heavy tummies to the Museum of Modarn Art (MOMA). We had the specific  exhibit Talk to Me in mind, which explores how design communicates and how the dialogue is designed and the interaction proceeds between objects/technology and people. As designers ourselves, T and I were a bit more drawn to the technology ones and communication of information rather then just communication for more artistic purposes such as games or shared emotion: we were practically purposeful.

Not that we weren’t amused by the concepts- “Tweenbot” the robot with a little flag that relied on passerbys to assist it into reaching its goal destination, “Hi: the Real Human Interface” the man in a little box who acted like a computer, “Animal Superpowers” which were VR boxes put on small children so they could see how animals or adults perceive the world. But they didn’t resonate quite as much as for instance ways to provide information for use for people such as interaction design for a manual with cutouts (reminiscent of a pop up book) to help instruct how to put together and use a mobile device in which the device is literally put into the book, annotating the space around you in 3-d as you walk in a city to provide contextual information, adding a chip in a pot that warns you that the plant is very thirsty or that the garbage can is upset you are using it so much instead of the recycling/compost bin, or enabling a paralyzed artist to still create art only using his eye movement.

For some of these other ones, I liked the irony in how the descriptions on some of the pieces sometimes used ridiculous adjectives and phrases that barely communicated and I had to filter through them to even figure out what those plaques were trying to explain the piece even was. I also found it astute that every single of those plaques had a QR code. On the other hand, I couldn’t tell you how many times I saw people touch the various screens that were playing videos demonstrating the exhibit- really no one thought to make an interactive exhibit?

Thanks T for being such a fabulous hostess, it was wonderful to not have to think about anything or research or plan anything and just be taken care of. Even though it’s been some time since we’ve seen each other, we fell into the same easy comfortable routine and banter we had back when we saw each other daily at our previous jobs, despite all the events and now physical distance in between- like time had barely passed. Hopefully though we won’t have as much time in between the next face to face.

Next: Seattle Visits