9: Lower East Side part II

The Lower East Side was broken up into 2 walks - I'm not sure why we didn't do them both on the same day. We were bitterly disappointed when the route took us along streets we already walked last time, but somehow managed to have a ridiculously good time anyway, and found new and exciting things to share with you.

First up, we came across this fenced in area. Megan said, "What is this, the acropolis of New York?"

I looked up the sign on the black wall, which says "Irreplaceable Artifacts." Apparently, it is a company that preserves architectural history by rescuing and reselling vintage building elements. Neat!


Here is Megan at the historic Landmark Sunshine Theater, which was formerly a Yiddish vaudeville house. Just the sight of it inspired spirit fingers.


While I stopped to admire the Hebrew writing on this fence, a stranger (the man on the right) tried to jump in for a photo op. Megan thought he was just stopping on the sidewalk to avoid walking through our picture and attempted to shoo him along. Instead, he tried posing in our picture (twice) before walking away. Megan is reenacting his pose below. Now that I think about it, we really should have just let him be in the picture.

This is about the scariest day care center we have seen in NY.

While we weren't happy to walk the same LES streets, we were glad to see our old friends, the garden gnomes, again.


Megan was appalled when I started wandering down into this doorway. It was a little creepy, but I liked the graffiti.

The stoop next door was equally graffiti-ed, but Meg wasn't as much of a fan (and it smelled like pee).

A street light with a collection of hanging shoes.

This is the Sugar Sweet Sunshine Bakery on Rivington Street. We stopped in for blueberry muffins (straight from the oven, still warm) and banana pudding.

I liked seeing all the historic-looking Jewish buildings in the LES.

Have you ever wondered how they clean all the windows on tall buildings in NY? We stumbled across these window-washers and were impressed with their squeegees.

Meg looked into the very windows they were washing and was entertained to find cases of He'Brew, "The Chosen Beer."

At this point, we are leaving the Lower East Side and heading over to SOHO. On our way, we had a couple of fun finds. First, we stopped in Chef Restaurant Supply Co., and I fell in love with all the cooking equipment. I wish I was in this picture, so you could get an accurate idea of how HUGE these pots are. The biggest one was easily waist-high on me. We left with a bamboo steamer, cheesecloth, and a funnel. You know, the essentials.


Then we came across Billy's Antiques & Props, a real NY gem - definitely one of the most bizarre places I have been to.

It had the usual weird stuff you would find at a flea market.

Meg loved the deer head (it reminds her of home). Doesn't this deer look absolutely shocked?!

The weirdest part about it was the actual "structure." This is a permanent flea market, but there is no real building. It is a fenced in area, covered by a tarp. I felt like we might not get out alive.

See you later, lower east side. It's been real.