Mrs. Martin had msgd me a few weeks ago to say that she'd been in town while her husband was on business in the city so we made plans to meet up. Originally I had intended to take her to Brooklyn to visit their art museum and botanical garden BUT that museum isn't open on Tuesday so she suggested visiting the USS Intrepid. I'd heard from a few people that it's definitely worth visiting, but somehow this WWII Essex -class Naval ship didn't make my "must see in NYC" list. I'm so glad she suggested it, as it truly is a gem of history/unique museum here in NYC. We joined one of the tour groups and our guide was very knowledgeable about the history of the ship throughout her years of service, but he didn't know one very important fact: Mrs. Martin's dad actually served on that ship back in the 60's! I think visiting the Intrepid, a.k.a. the Fighting "I", was all that more enjoyable because of her personal connection to the ship. We were even able tour an old submarine, which again was really special since her youngest son is currently serving on one. I can't imagine living in such tight quarters and I'm probably a foot shorter than the average Naval man! After listening to some really inspiring war stories and seeing where her dad, a meteorologist, would have worked we headed over a few blocks to restaurant row and found this great, slightly fancy, Jewish-Italian place called La Rivista Ristorante and took the opportunity to warm up, chat about her travels to Italy, how I want to travel to Italy, her sons, and her grandkids, etc. After some DELICIOUS food, we decided to head to the UES to visit the Frick Museum since they had a special exhibit on Renoir. Their collection had about 10 portraits, and we enjoyed walking through the rest of the house, however it was slightly embarrassing for me since I never had a basic art introduction class in high school or college, so I'm sorely lacking on appreciation for these works of art and who these artists are---and she's an art genius!
The wind had calmed down some so we decided to walk through CP while deciding what we should do next since her husband had a work dinner that evening. It was amazing to see how colorful CP was from the previous week when I was there with my Raleigh friends. Spring has sprung!!! The colors were so pretty and seeing these pretty blossoms can't help but put you in a good mood. We headed down 5th to catch the train at Grand Central, then stopped in SoHo for an errand and grabbed a late dinner at Spring Street Natural. If you're looking for a good salad this place was spot on! We both devoured ours and the service was great. I really think we had our food in less than 5 minutes after ordering!
I honestly had such a wonderful 10 hour visit with my schoolmate's mom/high school math teacher/ Godly woman role model/ family friend and was sad to see it end. We shared so many great new experiences together, and also a lot of memories of when we lived in MD and it was so interesting to see the perspective from student to teacher, and now adult to adult. Who would have thought that 10 years past Algebra class we'd be sitting in SoHo drinking a glass of wine and enjoying the journey that life has taken us on? Not me, but I love the unexpected.
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