M’s apartment looking north in the morning above, and south below:

Day five started off with a visit to the Burger King Whopper Bar just a few blocks north of M’s apartment.  I’d heard about the bar somewhere and wanted to check it out. When we looked at the menu we discovered that if you wanted any ingrediant above what comes on a regular whopper it would cost $1.50 EACH!  These “extra” ingredients were nothing special either (jalapenio peppers, chedder cheese, BBQ sauce, etc.).  We also saw that each “meal” had nearly 1400 calories before adding the “extra” toppings.

We kept on walking… past Bryant Park..

and Rockefeller Center

We decided to look for something healthier and found brunch at Café Jia in Little Brazil.  Café Jia is simply another hole-in-the wall hot and cold salad bar vendor.  This is something that we really liked about Manhattan as these little “whole foods-esque” salad bars were all over the place.  I really wish there were places like this by my office.

Our next stop was hot chocolate at La Maison Du Chocolat.  This had been on Sam’s list for a while.

(and yes, the chocolate was very good)

It turns out that it is right next to the famous “rainbow room” entrance to NBC studios.

On our last full day in NYC we decided to head straight to Pier 88 to see the mysterious ships that we’d been putting off visiting the entire trip.  It likely worked out in our favor to go on the last day as the crowd was probably much smaller on a Tuesday than the previous three “holiday weekend” days.

Our wait to board the USS Iwo Jima was about 45 minutes.

After which we were taken on board by a military man and given up close information by various military members about what they do with various pieces of heavy equipment on board including:

A howitzer

AAVs

RVs

ACVs (here Sam is driving one)

Tanks and their ammunition (Sam couldn’t lift it)

25 caliber (and up) machine guns

M16 assault rifles (yes, real – no, not loaded)

This was all so far inside the cargo area of the ship

We followed the tour to the flight deck to view some flying aircraft.

This included an Osprey (in which the enthusiastic tour guide’s description left out it’s questionable service record of accidental pilot deaths)

BlackOut was there but wouldn’t transform for us.    His nickname is a bit odd considering he wasn’t very funny in his movie cameo. (that was an inside joke for my Thai readers)

Harrier jet

The tour lasted about two hours, so we didn’t get out until almost 3pm.  We went to the Natural History Museum knowing that our time would be limited.

I tried so hard to get a clear version of the below shot -but due to the distance I had to back up and the extremely low lighting I was only able to get a few snaps off before families started pooling into the space.  Sadly – this is the best shot I got:

the Museum had some old wood for us

And some of the coolest looking rocks I’ve ever seen.

The human evolution exhibit (or as Texan republicans call it “nanananan – plugging my ears… I can’t hear you!”) was interesting.

We didn’t spend much time in the Asian exhibits.

We breezed through the less enthralling exhibits in order to see all the dinosaurs.

If you didn’t know already… Turtles (and their relatives) are always cute… even in death.

I wanted to see the big blue whale before we left, but our time was literally running out.  We ended up being the last people allowed in that giant room because it was already cordoned off but the guard told us we had five minutes.

After we were summarily expelled from the museum we hopped on the subway and met M for dinner at Republic, a Vietnamese fusion restaurant in Union Square.

After wading through the peanutty menu Sam and I found some entrées.  Sam had the curry duck and I had the grilled Salmon with raisin rice.  Both were actually really good.  After this experience Sam and I agreed that Manhattan’s approach to food is very anti-tourist.  What we mean by that is that if you know where to go you can get some amazing food.  If you end up at the other 90% of Manhattan restaurants get ready for some overpriced dishes with wilted produce and no flavor.  Never eat in Manhattan without a local as not even Yelp can be trusted.

After dinner we walked a few blocks and took the F Train so M could take us to her favorite gelato place: Il Laboratorio Del Gelato.  Laboratory Gelato is known for their unique flavors such as Basil, Carab and Olive Oil. M and Sam liked it so much that M bought 128 oz to bring home and eat.  The 128oz was made up of Basil, Olive Oil and Malt Chocolate.  I couldn’t complain as I knew that I’d get to eat a little more before we headed to the airport the next day.  Despite how it sounds, Basil and Olive Oil are actually quite delicious as gelato (olive oil more-so).  I also liked the Carab, but I think I was in the minority on that one.  We all tried the pumpkin as well at the shop, but we agreed it tasted too much like ACTUAL pumpkin and not pumpkin pie, ironically making it less palatable.

We then split up and Sam and I bought food for our plane ride at Whole Foods in Union Square.

Epilogue: This NYC experience was much better than my last (2007) as M’s apartment was only six blocks south of Times Square.  The location being so central, and sharing several days with residents much more acquainted with the city (my previous host was only there for a six month internship while completing his MFA). Also, she had air conditioning in her apartment – a necessity in late May.

While early weather reports indicated it would rain three or more days that we would be there, in the end, we didn’t see a single drop of rain until we were sitting on the runway at JFK (during a two hour flight delay).