Hello New York City, Part 2

After three lovely nights at Modernhaus, for a change of pace we moved to Sohotel, the oldest operating hotel in the city with quirky industrial and Victorian gothic furnishings. (You can read “Hello New York City, Part 1 here.) For some reason the hotel made me think of Harry Potter. It looks very “light and bright” in this photo, but in reality the hotel usually looked dark and brooding!

The view outside our 4th floor room with its one window was vastly different too. Very “city gritty.”

Now that my husband was done working we had time to do a few things together! One of our first stops was the Museum of Modern Art. We barely made it through 10% of their vast collection, but what we did see was fabulous.

We also perused Olde Good Things Antique Store on Bowery Street–a fun stop featuring architectural salvage. If I lived locally this would be a dangerous store for me! This oak table for $895 was perfection.

And my husband wanted the world’s largest slide rule! Perfect for his home office.

Lots of great antique and vintage lighting.

While the store had some smalls, there was nothing that immediately grabbed me.

Lunch was at nearby Katz’s Deli–a NYC culinary institution. The place was a madhouse. By the time we finished there was a long line of customers standing in the rain waiting to get in. But the sandwich had some of the tenderest pastrami I’ve ever eaten and the cheese blintzes were divine.

Sadly one of my oldest and dearest friends was going to take the train in from Pennsylvania so we could see each other for a few hours but had to cancel at the last minute because of prolonged exposure to someone with Covid. We were both heartbroken. We had plans to go to the Chelsea Flea Market which would have tickled us both. [Another time dear friend! XOXO]

Still I had a lot of fun on this trip, ate some insanely good food and people-watched with abandon. I got out of my world and routine for a few days and came back even more appreciative of my home and little garden with its lavenders, salvias and euphorbia.

From a thrifting and antiquing perspective, it was a bust. Of course I could have pounded it harder. Gone further a field. But I chose not to wear myself out doing that. I have a number of good sourcing opportunities coming up at home, including our citywide garage sale day with over 100 households participating and some flea markets. So more good stuff is on the horizon.

I’ll close for now wishing you happy travels and hunting,

Karen