Even if one aims for a slow, leisurely day in New York a full day will still be had. After a late, late night my cousin Amie (who is visiting from Texas) and I were a bit in the clouds on this lovely Friday. We started out at the High Line Park which runs along the West side from the Meatpacking District up to Chelsea. This is a newly created green space (it opened last June and I had the pleasure of walking through the week it opened) that was created on old elevated train tracks that had long been abandoned. This is reclaiming at its finest. A beautiful, peaceful park that can make you feel like you are on the outside of the city looking in.

Near the High Line is Chelsea Market which is housed in an old cookie factory and contains dozens of food shops, a bakery, wine store, a great market, Buon Italia for all things Italian, and several little restaurants among other things (like the Food Network studios). We sat down for lunch at Friedman's Lunch, one of my favorite spots for sweet potato fries. They make the best sweet potato fries. I dream of them. In addition they also have a great lunch menu: the vegetable sandwich with hummus is delightful and Amie had tilapia tacos which looked quite nice. But honestly, for me, its all about those sweet potato fries. Did I mention they are served with blue cheese aioli? Yes, they are.

   

Once we were sufficiently lunched and foodied out, we headed up to midtown to check out Rockefeller Center. All I can say about that is -- the tourists have arrived. Avoid Rockefeller Center until school starts again in the Fall. Maybe it was the previous late night or simply the crowds but by late afternoon we were ready for dinner and relaxation. So, we ran up to Zabar's and filled our baskets with cheese, bread, olives, salmon, chocolate and such and jumped in a cab back to my apartment for dinner and movies. It was just what we needed.