5: Chinatown

On our fifth walk we had five (5!!) special guests: my beloved sister Melanie, her husband Frank, their super cute boys, Josh and Sam, and the Marvelous Mitzi. Mitzi wore the official honorary member hat.

Here I am trying to rally the troops as we got off the subway. It was my sister's family's first time to the city, so we ran all over town for the whole weekend. You can read about it at her blog.
This is Josh, one of the cuter honorary members. He did not want to come to Chinatown, but once he was there, he thought it was pretty neat. Except for the time Frank threatened to send him to Chinatown jail for almost walking off with shop merchandise.

Mitzi looks especially good in the hat. We think she should come every week.

In Chinatown, you can buy a whole roasted duck (head and all). For a special treat, you can buy just the duck feet.
Meg and Mitz at one of the many seafood markets. If she could, Meg would eat seafood for breakfast, lunch and dinner!

This crab would not stop bubbling. It was disgusting. Josh and Sam said they catch crabs like this all the time at their beach in Virginia. Lucky!

Meg feels especially sexy while wearing the purple hat. In fact, we all do.

Meg and Mitz happy to be in Chinatown ... reminiscing on the year 2002.

Here we are looking kind of serious in front of a Buddist temple.

Meg and Mitz are SHOCKED to see a Chinese lantern.

In Chinatown, you can do all sorts of fun things ...

Like try on cool hats...

Or point to funny signs!

Megan found the best one of the day: Wing On Wo & Co.

Mitz was attracted to the Ho Fun sign.

Here we are looking stoic with Lin Ze Xu. Did you know he was a pioneer on the war agaist drugs?

Megan is just on drugs.

This photo is a bit dark, but Josh just wanted to be in one with the girls. He really loved Megan and Mitzi.

Poor Sam about froze to death - it was bitterly cold. This is where we split ways with my family for the morning. They needed to head indoors to thaw out.

There were not many landmarks documented on this week's tour card - it mostly suggested that we "explore the side streets of Chinatown." It did, however, tell us to visit this Mariner's Temple Baptist Church. I don't remember why.

Megan fell in love with the "girls" sign above these doors. I just loved the red doors. Someday I will live in a house with a red door.

Remember "crazy money eye" from the Wall Street walk? Here, Megan displays it once again. She loves money almost as much as this money-hugging child.

Megan and Mitzi were able to achieve Enlightenment at this statue of Confucius.

This structure was not on the card, so we don't know what it is - pretty though, right?

We ended the walk with a short detour to the Doughnut Plant. If you are ever in the lower east side or Tokyo, I highly recommended it. I like to consider myself a doughnut connoisseur (being a former Krispy Kreme employee and all), and I have to say, this is the BEST doughnut you will ever eat! Get the tres leche doughnut. You'll die, it's so good.

This fine gentleman would agree. We bought an obscene amount of doughnuts and sat to chat with him while we ate. He LOVES the Doughnut Plant. He stands behind their products 100%. I have two regrets about our visit to DP. 1) We did not find out this man's name. 2) We did not request a photo of him wearing the purple hat.

mmm ... doughnuts

It is time for Christmas break, so no NYC walk for the next two Saturdays! :( Get excited though, because Megan and I are planning a very special Christmas Eve walk in St. Charles, Missouri.