Gluttony in September

This past weekend (plus a couple of days) my parents were in town which means that instead of updating this blog I was engaging in the equally important tasks of strolling through museums, attending Broadway musical productions (Anything Goes very much recommended!), and digesting rich, French foods. Taxing times, naturally, but as their only daughter on the East Coast these are the crosses I have to bare. I just turned in the first of two books today and am feeling a little light on language, so this post will mostly be photos of our trip, which were mostly taken by my dad (which should come as no great surprise to readers, who may wonder if I still even own a camera).

Our first stop of the trip was naturally the Met. And no matter how many photos you take of yourself on the steps of the Met, there is always room for one more. I think this is a more flattering photo than some of my previous Met steps poses, but I'm not so vain as to subject my readers to the entire series (as least not yet), so you'll just have to take my word for it.

Second only to Met steps photos are Met roof photos. I swapped parents in this one so that my father could make one of his rare appearances in family photos. Every so often, we like proof that he comes places with us.

Continuing the theme of photos of us on top of things, here we are at Top of the Rock, one of the few New York tourist attractions that I had never done.

For some reason, I always thought Top of the Rock would be lame and not worth the money, but it was gorgeous up there. Of course, going on a perfect, blue-sky day didn't hurt matters.

Those of you regular readers may remember my post on the exhibit of miniatures at the Museum of Design (a post that I am currently too lazy to look up the link for). I had sold it so highly that my parents wanted to go too, and I was happy to go back with a camera that is not predominantly a cell phone.

One of our weekend days was spent in Brooklyn and so we spent the morning at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. We took this picture with this cool brush sculpture thing. I realized I'd actually taken a similar picture when I was at the BBG a few months ago and was evening wearing the same shoes. Those of you who are friends with me on Google+ might even know the photo I mean! Unrelated, is anyone actually on Google+?

To counteract the Brooklyn day, we also spent one day in Queens (they were sadly not in town long enough for us to complete the five borough tour with days spent in the Bronx and Staten Island respectively). We drove out to the Unisphere, built for the World's Fair in 1964. Men in Black fans will note another familiar landmark from the fair to the right of the Unisphere.

You can't really see what this photo is of, but I think that's what I like about it. This photo is of the Panorama at the Queen's Museum of Art. It's a scale model of all five boroughs of New York City. Photos don't really do it justice anyway though, so I prefer this one that brings me to mind of an impressionist painting.

The best parts of the trip I didn't really get photos of (or rather my dad didn't). Those were the quiet times working the morning crossword or strolling around talking. Also, the food. We ate very well and at such nice places that it seemed gauche to try to photograph the dishes. Just as a quick recap, we enjoyed: Brooklyn bagels (weirdly, it's the name of an Astoria-exclusive chain), Belgium comfort food, a fabulous three-course meal at Le Bernadin, dinner at an Italian restaurant where the list of specials is a 20 minute recitation (Astorians: you really should try Trattoria L'incontro if you haven't already), brunch at Bareburger, and dinner at a New Zealand restaurant in Park Slope. You don't often get to enjoy traditional New Zealand fair, but it's quite tasty.

Thanks for coming to visit me, parents! And for continuing to read this blog post even though you experienced all of it.