Greenwich Village on my Walk to Molly’s Cupcakes

From the post title, you’re probably starting to wonder if I have a cupcake problem…

And I do. It feels good to get it out there.

I had already made an hour-long trip into the city on the bus, and even wandered around the Intrepid Air and Space Museum for a while.

Eventually, my stomach reminded me that lunch was our next priority.

I was still on the west side of Manhattan, around 11th Avenue. So I decided to just walk south until something edible caught my eye.

In hindsight, I wish that I would have had a better plan. I got so hungry that I settled for not the healthiest option!

Oh well. This church is pretty, so that helps.

They have actually chopped down some of the older living buildings, apparently to make room for new ones. Look how old this building in the left corner looks. Don’t you love it?

I was about to comment on how neat that old painted advertisement was towards the top…but it’s graffiti.

My bad.

I’m still not quite sure what a “Pork Shop” entails, but I wholeheartedly agree with it.

Whatever it is. Probably a butcher? Stamp of approval, guys.

Oh, Empire. I love you.

It was actually fun to walk on this side of town, since I had never visited this area before. I saw so many new and exciting things!

But seeing the Empire State Building reminded me of how happy I was to be in New York City today.

But remember…we’re on the hunt for a place to eat lunch!

I love love love Mexican food. In fact, in an emotional moment during a dinner of homemade steak tacos last night, I even told Hubby that tacos are my favorite food in the world.

So I totally considered this Lucy’s Tacos for lunch today.

And the menu looked pretty enticing, too. I was all over this place until I realized that it was a sit-down.

I just didn’t want to waste time at a sit-down today! I have too much to see!

But I probably would have gotten the tacos, just so you know. The Skirt Steak and the Carnitas.

Drool.

So I foolishly left Lucy’s behind to find something quick and healthy.

While walking, I passed Penn Station. I’ve never been here before!

And now I really regret not going in to take a peek around.

Dang you, hunger! You make all of my bad decisions!

I’ve never seen this before, either!

It’s Madison Square Garden, where concerts and sports and everything in between are played here in NYC.

It’s pretty small…

I was blown away at the massive size of the Post Office across the street. They should hold concerts and basketball games here instead!

Ooooo, this looks promising. And if I’m being indecisive today, I can have BBQ and burgers!

Bummer that this was a sit-down place as well. I decided to keep looking.

Much to the disappointment of my belly. I love BBQ!

I finally found a fast place for lunch. I didn’t even read the name of the pizza shop until afterwards.

But I thought that pizza could be healthy fun, considering that I was in New York City and all.

This sign confuses me, though. These pizzas are for display only? What do we eat?!

I would eat them. I’m just sayin’…

These tiny garlic knots looked heavenly (and they were!).

Especially because he threw them in tin foil and then into the oven to heat up.

I wish that I would have just ordered a few more of these for my lunch. They were that good!

And I could have skipped the calzone. It was not very good, and I only had a few bites.

What a waste, after wandering so long being hungry!

After some yummy bread, I was on my way back south. I had double-checked the distance and knew that my tired feet could make this next trek.

Cupcakes were at stake now. I only had 1.6 miles left to go, after already walking about a mile towards this place when looking for lunch.

By the way, cupcakes are totally justifiable if you walk more than three miles to get to one.

I wandered south and passed through so many quaint and cool neighborhoods. I think that at some point I crossed over into Greenwich Village, but I don’t know when it started.

I didn’t feel any different, is what I’m saying.

Little spots like this warm my heart because of the reminder of years gone by. It really puts things into perspective when you think about how long ago this tree was planted for it to just now be pushing up these ancient bricks surrounding it.

Maybe the Twenties? Thirties? I love imagining how old it is!

Google has quite a presence here in Manhattan. I had no idea, but the building was massive.

I guess that they are doing OK?

And this picture was fun because of all the fire escapes. That is one of the things often portrayed in movies based in this city, so it was nice to see so many in one shot.

And look at the cool gothic detail with the faces!

No doubt that this men’s spa costs a fortune for them to afford such a neat building.

But, as you can see, if used to belong to the New York County for something. I can’t make out the rest!

I walked down 8th Avenue until I turned onto Bleecher Street, which is where Molly’s Cupcakes is located. Even with the help of a phone, it was still hard to find!

But I passed this beautiful old entry to an apartment. Isn’t this fun? Could you imagine getting mail through that slot?

These workers were prepping the building surface for a new advertisement. It looks like Grand Theft Auto to me, but I can’t imagine that they would need or want to advertise for a video game like that!

Especially in this part of town!

This was a pleasant surprise…a view of the nearly-completed One World Trade Center in lower Manhattan.

They put the antenna on just this past week!

I sat in this park to rest my feet. I’ve probably already done about five miles today, and it’s only lunch time! It feels good to sit down for a while and watch some kids play.

I’m so tickled that the weather has cooperated for my two days in the city!

This place, The Garage, looked pretty cool. Anything transformed from an old car shop would make me happy, though.

And I have actually eaten at the sister company of this Jekyll and Hyde with my sister when I came to visit her in NYC about thirteen years ago. We ate at the Times Square location, and I am just now remembering it now after seeing this pub!

How fun!

At last, the bright yellow building came into view. My phone had thought that it was a block away still, so I was getting worried!

But how can you miss a bright yellow building like this?!

The shop was cute and had plenty of sweet offerings. This place is famous and has always been on my must-try list!

Today is my day!

Except how to choose when everything sounds so interesting!

This place filled up right behind me. Lots of people figured out that it’s a nice way to warm up…with a cupcake in-hand.

Aren’t these bar stools cool? I’ve never seen anything like that!

So I think that I ended up trying to Cake Batter Cupcake.

Maybe it was the frosting color that drew me in?

Either way, I was surprised when I found a filling inside. I think that it was vanilla pudding, but I’m still not sure. It was good, but it made the cupcake even sweeter.

I’m just sayin’…yet again, and with the most humility possible: my cupcakes are better.

The decorations were so creative and cute. They used ceiling medallions with homemade shelves to display antique lunch boxes.

The plastic bubble probably protects the precious lunch boxes from theft because, hey, it is New York City.

It’s been a nice walk so far today! Just a few more posts and our tour of NYC will be complete!

Happy Weekend!

West Manhattan and the Intrepid Air and Space Museum

It has been so much fun for me to relive this trip through these posts. Are you enjoying the New York City tour, from the view behind my camera?

We just finished Day One in the City. If you need to catch up, here are all of the posts.

Times Square, I Heart You
Magnolia Cupcakes and Central Park
The American Museum of Natural History
Grand Central Terminal and The New York City Library
Bryant Park and Nighttime Times Square

Today’s post begins Day Two. As you can see, I’m at the bus stop to catch the 163 into New York City. Once the bus arrives, it takes about fifty minutes to get to the city.

This bus stop sign just let’s me know that I’m not being nearly flamboyant enough when boarding a bus. I guess I’ll just have to work on that, huh?

Last night, this is where the bus dropped me off. I timed it perfectly with luck and caught the hotel shuttle loading a bunch of people who had also just arrived from NYC.

It was really chilly at night, so I was glad for the short wait to get back to my warm hotel room.

Speak of the devil! But he’s going the other way, so I will just have to wait for mine to come. And, while I’m waiting, I can practice my flamboyant arm-waving-while-boarding!

I’m getting better, that’s for dang sure.

Once on the bus, it was butterflies all over again. I was so tickled to have a whole two days in one of my favorite cities! Even though I didn’t pay for the New York City Pass this time around (I did last September), I still managed to really enjoy my time in Manhattan.

I was saving money for Disneyland the next week, remember?

Eek, more butterflies!

I had a great first view of the city through the bus window. Unfortunately, it didn’t really translate into a great view in this picture!

Use your imagination, OK?

And we are here again! I got to talk about the gospel on the bus ride in, though I think that she was more interested in trying to convince me that I was wrong than listening to what I had to offer to our conversation.

Here I am facing east on 8th Avenue and 41st Street. Welcome to New York!

I love love love the older buildings with the water tanks on top. And I particularly love this one because of the old painted advertising on it. Sea Air Tours? How cool is that?!

NYC is such a wonderful mix of old and new.

And, of course, right across from the Port Authority Bus Terminal is the headquarters for The New York Times.

Just like every newspaper in these moderns days, these guys are really struggling to make it in a digital world.

At least we know that they could always move to a cheaper location…

I decided to walk west today towards the Hudson River. Though I didn’t have time to spend exploring inside the museum, I wanted to see the new Enterprise Space Shuttle on the Intrepid Aircraft Carrier Air Museum.

Well, it sounds like fun to me! Why not drag you all along with me?

I had just been on that overpass coming out of the Lincoln Tunnel on the bus.

The lighting is slightly better out here. So is the smell!

Once again, a peek of the old through the new. Modern glass buildings are seen in the distance, while the old housing buildings are right in front of me.

I still think that it would be fun to live in a high-rise for a while. But you know that about me by now…

I personally wouldn’t choose these particular colors to decorate, but someone made some good effort on this lovely little graffiti-adorned door.

I think that the yellow “X” means to, “Come on in!”

Another thing of the millions that I love about New York City is the American flags everywhere to remember 9-11.

We will never forget.

Oh my goodness. We are here! Can you see it?

No? You can’t see the giant space shuttle on the deck of the giant Intrepid Aircraft Carrier?

That’s OK. You probably just need to get your eyes checked. I did!

Crossing the last street until we get a closer view of the Intrepid.

Once at the pier, I waved to this New York Water Taxi. I rode this down to Battery Park last September when visiting NYC for work.

Isn’t this job rough?!

We have arrived at the Intrepid!

Someday, when I have a ton of time in this wonderful city, I will spend an entire day exploring the Intrepid. I just want to give it the attention that it deserves and not feel rushed to get on to other things.

Someday, Intrepid. Just you wait!

The museum originally opened in 1982 after being saved from scrapping by a local philanthropist. I’m glad that he saved it, personally. Just a few years ago, from 2006-2008, the Intrepid was tug-boated to New Jersey, then Staten Island for major renovations.

This also made room on the top deck for the Concorde, which had been on a shipping barge previously.

The USS Intrepid itself was quite a ship in the day! It was commissioned in 1943 and served in the Pacific during World War II. It was renovated a few times and was even brought back into service to aid during the Vietnam War twenty years later.

Apparently, it was also a maintenance hog, earning the nickname “The Dry 1” because it spent so much time in dry dock for repairs.

The Intrepid was also used as a recovery vessel for the Mercury and Gemini space programs. How cool is it that a shuttle now sits on these decks? That only happened a year ago when the Enterprise flew to JFK and was then tug-boated to the Intrepid.

Speaking of the Enterprise, she is massive!

I had no idea how huge space shuttles were until I saw one in person at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington DC.

You can see a few guys standing next to it, if that helps you gauge the size. Massive!

Holy smokes, this is awesome. Just awesome!

They have a nice tribute to Intrepid’s role in the space program by having a space capsule in floats attached to the carrier.

And this is the view of New Jersey that the Enterprise enjoys all day, every day.

Who could ask for better weather in March?!

Another view looking back at Manhattan from the pier across from the Intrepid.

You know what’s crazy? This ship is pretty small compared to our modern-day aircraft carriers!

Can you see the Chrysler Building peeking through?

It’s almost like it’s following me, or something…

Those are some pretty big anchors. And also some markings to help them know how heavily-loaded the ship is.

And apparently, moss loves the Intrepid, too.

With so many neat airplanes on-deck, I wish that I had time to spend here today! Maybe on my next trip to the city, I will dedicate an entire day just to this museum.

I did that at the Midway in San Diego last summer. Remember?

They do not mess around when building these things. Look how big this ship is!

Oh man. Now I really want to pay the $18 to see it! Those are the tailfins to a SR-71 Blackbird, designed by Kelley Johnson of the Skunk Works fame.

It’s one of my favorite airplanes, that’s all…

I took this sky bridge to cross back over the street towards New York City. They created all of this entrance stuff brand-new just a few years ago during museum renovation. It’s so nice!

And they apparently don’t want anyone or anything getting down to the street below.

Let’s head back towards the City to find something to eat, shall we? It’s lunch time!