NEW YORK: DAY TWO

Wednesday was our rainy day, and for once I managed to stay in bed as late as John, so we went in search of breakfast together.  John was drawn, as if by magnet, to the huge chocolate-dipped croissants in the window of a bistro-like cafe called Ben Ash.  I had a pretty good bagel and some hot chocolate, while John enjoyed a beautiful fruit and yogurt plate with the aforementioned croissant.  Only hitch?  With tax and tip, this breakfast cost us right at 50 bucks!

After a bit of exploring, we met up with young Kevin -- our son's best friend since first grade in Indonesia.

Kevin's a writer by night, editor for an NBC blog called Dvice by day, and has lived in NY for about four years now, so he led us down into the subway, and whisked us away from the midtown area for a bit of an adventure.  Destination?  Ippudo -- a Japanese ramen brasserie, not too far from Union Square.  Oh, my my!

Poor Kev had to go back to work afterwards, but not us!  Union Square is a great area to explore, even on a cold, drizzly day.  There's the farmers' market...

and Max Brenner, "chocolates from the bald guy"...

The chocolate syringe, for the serious chocoholic!

and of course, lots of fun shops to explore, like ABC Home and Fish's Eddy (more about that one tomorrow).  Before we knew it, we were plum out of time for dinner, and just had to get cleaned up and head straight to the theater.  Wednesday's performance?  The Book of Mormon.  Not for the faint of heart, nor the easily offended, but OMG, did we ever laugh!

We finished off the evening with a late night snack at Angelo's Pizza, right next to David Letterman's theatre, again thinking this had to have been the best day of our vacation.  Again, we were wrong!