The Kao roams to Midtown, Flushing, Governors Island, AND Brooklyn all in one long weekend

In case you were worried that I was merely sitting in my 216 sq ft room twiddling my thumbs and pining for the stuff I left behind in Los Angeles, I actually left the room and covered a lot of ground in the past four days!

Friday's uptown bus tour allowed me to see a lot of negative signage (there is a lot of don't do this don't do that around here):


And a lot of rooftop water towers:


The cleanest public spot in all of New York City I've ever seen:


And, a small reminder of UCLA...Duke Ellington statue:



Rigatoni bolognese and limoncello mousse at Basso56 in midtown




On Saturday, I made it all the way out to Flushing!
Some amazing hot pot at Udu Cafe


And walked into a Hong Kong Supermarket like it could be anywhere in the world (which was somewhat comforting). They all look and smell exactly the same!


Sunday was an 8-hour excursion to Governors Island for a food truck event (because yes, they are trendy here too!). Not because it's that far. But because it took THAT long to get on the island, get food, eat it, and get off the island. And stop by Mickey D's along the way back.

There is a free, short ride to Governors Island which used to be a military base. Now it's just used to hold events and people walk or bike around the island. Walking around the island may have been a better use of my time than to stand in line for an hour and 40 minutes for quite possibly the worst Indian food I've ever eaten. Kept wanting to give up waiting but felt like I already committed time...didn't even get to try the "locally crafted beer" they kept boasting about. There was a line for that too.

At least there was a nice view of the Manhattan skyline.

Lots of people. Lots of people waiting to ferry out.

Monday, Labor Day, sure was laborious (har har). A simple trip to IKEA - granted, even back home a trip to IKEA couldn't be simple (they suck you in!) - took 6 hours round trip! I feel like I can really only do one thing per day here. Have not yet learned to multi-task. Well, first off IKEA is kind of far from where I am. We had to ride the subway (with one transfer) for about 40 minutes. Then we took the water taxi (yes, water taxi!) to Brooklyn. You have to buy a ticket for $5 but when you buy $10 worth of stuff at IKEA the cashier credits 5 bucks back to you. Then you get back to the water taxi and show your receipt and they let you on for free.

And so of course we had to have IKEA FOOD. The restaurant has a nice view of the Statue of Liberty, so I got prime window dining! (Can sort of see it in the distance in my photo). Then I had to lug my bags of IKEA wares and a rolled up rug all the way back uptown. I feel like I accomplished a major physical feat. The rug is not great but it was only 20 bucks and now my feet won't get cold when I step out of bed, and at least you guys will have a rug to sleep on when you come to visit (haha!).



It was also somewhat comforting to be inside IKEA (the warehouse/checkout area looks exactly like the one in Burbank) and eating Swedish meatballs with lingonberry sauce (with a better view!)

And thus, concludes my whirlwind long weekend in NYC.
Photos of my newly IKEA-fied room to come.