6/27/04 City Island; Central Park; and Home Cooking w/Natalie:
...or, how to spend an ENTIRE weekend with Natalie, part two: Sunday

Natalie and I were excited to spend the weekend together. Yesterday was a wonderful day with the bike ride, the picnic with Peter, and the concert with Sean.

Today, we continued our enjoyment of each other's company ad nauseum with a day trip by subway to City Island, more time in Central Park, and cooking an elaborate meal in her Astoria Kitchen.

When our uptown #6 train got close enough to Pelham Park (near the end of the line), our car emptied out, allowing Natalie to use it as a jungle gym.

Then we sprayed each other with a bottle of spray-on sun tan that I had acquired from a Duane Reade earlier this morning. I prefer the evaporative properties of the suntan gel, but this was all they carried. Duane Reade routinely SUCKS.

A monument in Pelham Park.

We walked much of the way from the subway to City Island. Then we took a bus.

When we got to City Island, I realized that my butt felt sticky and wet. That was curious at first, until I realized that in fact my butt WAS sticky and wet. Apparently I had put the sun tan lotion spray bottle in my back pocket, sat on my back pocket and therefore the bottle on the bus, broken off the cap and spray mechanism, and spilled much of the lotion onto my pant butt.

Just think of me, standing here, smiling, with the lovely view of the Sound... with a wet sticky butt. Just one.

We carried on. Walking down the main street, we appreciated some of the architecture... or... lack thereof. Shouldn't the front door be centered here?

Ice cream shoppe.

Old RECORD store. For real.

The two seafood places at the southern tip of the island were jammed in with people.

That doesn't mean it's good, though. And each time I come here, though I intend on getting something, the smell and the sight of their offerings leaves me wanting out.

So we got a pina collada and a water.

We took a bus to Arthur Avenue in the Bronx, but it was mostly shut down. So we walked to the Fordham Road subway station (D train) and took it to 59th street, from which we walked into Central Park with a street vendor Toasted Almond.

We played some cards and plotted out our evening.

We decided to buy some groceries at Whole Foods at the AOL/Time Warner building in Columbus Circle, and then go to Astoria and cook!

Natalie made her stuffed Mushrooms.

I diced.

I made my puttanesca sauce.

It was a feast! We had a wonderful time working together in the kitchen, watching food network, and eating the fruits of our labors. Real good relationship time, too.

I was beat, and she caught me here half-blinking, but it was a fun day and I nice end to a lovely weekend.