Yer not from around here, are you?

Thomas and I went to New York City yesterday. (Please, imagine me saying that like the cowboys in the Pace Picante Sauce television commercial. It's much funnier that way.)

We rode the Big Apple Bus to the Big Apple. Ate lunch in a diner (food adequate, service really surly) and then spent several wonderful hours at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Looked at the Civil War photographic exhibit. Learned a new fact. During the Civil War, the Union used large cameras to take pictures of maps and reproduce them. The first "copying". It was a wonderful exhibit.

We also looked at shiny things and statues and purty paintings (again, COWBOYS) and finally left when the idea of walking one more foot on hard flooring made my back scream out in protest. I was also hungry so we went to a little Greek diner type place (really delicious Greek food and pleasant service). Then we took the bus back towards Time Square.

I went to a book tour launch and heard Jon Acuff talk about his new book. Enjoyed hearing him speak, he's really funny. Then I had to hustle back to catch the Big Apple Bus back to Charm City.

It was a fun day doing something really different from how we spend a usual weekend day. Two bus drivers in Noo Yawk City were very nice to us when we got on the wrong bus (ride uptown) and didn't have enough money on our Metro card (ride downtown). Those guys blew the stereotype of the rude city dweller apart, they could not have been kinder. 

New York is wonderful and terrifying and overwhelming. So many people, so much noise and action. It was lovely to be there, and lovelier to come home to my quiet little house and my rotten dogs, who were equally pleased to see me return.