Wednesday, May 31th New York City
Our last day in New York City before heading home tomorrow.
This morning I went with Sandra as she visited M&S Schmalberg Flowers on W 36th Street in the Garment District; they’ve been making custom pressed fabric flowers in New York since 1916. The place was amazing, from the small showroom to the extensive storeroom with hundreds of fabric flowers in all sizes, styles and colors. Adam Brand, the owner of the store gave us a personal tour of the fabrication area and even demonstrated how the fabric was cut and pressed into flower shapes, then he showed us how to go through all the drawers in the storeroom and pick out whatever we wanted. Sandra picked out a few beautiful flowers to attach to some of her ballgowns – I can’t wait to see them on our next cruise.
We’ve been to Juniper Bar a few times before, it’s on the next street south from M&S Schmalberg – so it was handy for a quick lunch. Juniper is a typical skinny and deep New York bar serving an array of appetizers, tacos and burgers along with great cocktails – we really like it.
Next stop, Mood Fabrics on W. 37th Street also in the Garment District – at one point this store used to be Sandra’s go-to place for high quality fabrics at a good price. Mood is on the 3rd floor and upon exiting the small elevator it feels like you are entering an Aladdin’s Cave of fabric, to me it seems very disorganized and chaotic with bolts of fabric piled sky high, lots of people scurrying around and a scarcity of shop assistants. I think it used to better a few years ago; Sandra left without buying anything.
We’d heard from someone on the world voyage that the Manhattan branch of the New York City Library was worth a visit – I know it sounds a bit weird, what’s to see in a place full of books? The library is on 5th Avenue and backs on to Bryant Park and as we made our way through the late afternoon crowds, I was beginning to drag a bit; it was hot, and my feet were sore – I needed a sit down. It turns out that there is an excellent display of historical artifacts in the library – in fact as we entered the magnificent building the kindly security guard automatically guided us to the Treasures Room. We found a quiet corner and sat down, I was able to remove my shoes and cool my feet on the marble floor – it was brilliant. The Treasures Room contains a fantastically diverse collection of artifacts everything from a lock of Beethoven’s hair to an original Winnie the Pooh teddy bear. I found a writing desk belonging to Charles Dickens, a first edition of the King James Bible, George Washington’s handwritten farewell address but for me the star of the show was the copy of the Declaration of Independence handwritten by Thomas Jefferson.
Tomorrow, we fly back to San Francisco and on to our home in Santa Rosa. It’s hard to believe this incredible adventure is at an end. We’ve enjoyed it immensely, but we are looking forward to returning to some form of normalcy, catching our breath and then hopefully heading off again.
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