Upper West Sunday

It was a day of firsts.
I had a breakfast sandwich from Gray's Papaya (1st time). I used to always make a stop at Gray's whenever I found myself on the UWS. I loved getting two 50 cent hot dogs w/onions and walking over to browse at the HMV on the Northwest corner of 72nd and Broadway. Then walking up to the temporary Tower Records location on 73rd in the now-empty Gristede's supermarket. I don't even remember what used to be at the site of the current Barnes & Noble megastore on 66th.

So I had breakfast on the benches near the North entrance to the 72nd St subway (how old is that now, two years?) Up to the AMNH for the volunteer gig of the day, teaching museum visitors some origami. Stuck with simple models like the swan and butterfly. As is usually the case, most of the kids were cool, while the parents were overbearing and horrid.

After my two hours were up, met CS for brunch. Sunday brunch on the UWS is about the closest thing to mortal combat I'll ever see in my life (either that or dodging all the Maclaren carriages on a weekend). Good Enough to Eat was celebrating its 25th anniversary, so it was definitely a no go that morning. We ended up at Cafe La Fortuna, self-proclaimed oldest cafe in the neighborhood. It's CS's new spot and was a haunt of John Lennon's. The layout of the cafe reminds me of Yaffa Cafe down in the East Village.

The best part of the day was spent with CS's King Charles Spaniels, Emma & Hugo, in the park. Such a relaxing day and it was the 1st time I'd ever held a dog on a leash!