Should we have taken a break?

Maybe.

It was 2pm on July 5^th. The sun blazed over us. Humidity thickened the air. In Italy, they would have all gone inside and rested until the heat of the day was gone. But we’re not Italian, so we marched off to see the NYC Library.

She was super excited. It was her only request for this visit.

Maybe they’d let her sort some books or put a few away or yell at people to be quiet.

It wasn’t a long walk, but long enough. I took pictures of The-Prettiest-Girl-in-the-World with the Lions in front of the building (which, sadly, did not animate and attack people like in the Ghostbuster movie).

Inside, it was cool and spectacular, like a pillared palace with stone stairs leading to the other floors and a beautiful arched ceiling of stone.

The-Prettiest-Girl-in-the-World had a lovely chat with the information person about what we could see and do and if they had any firemen nearby. It’s actually quite amazing to see how well she gets along with everyone, and with someone who shares the pain (she would say ‘shares the love,”) of working in a PUBLIC library. It was like they were long, lost friends.

There was a lot to see.

We first went into the old books display. I loved the illumined books from the medieval times and what I called the first comic book (a massive drawing of the 30 years war done in story-like panels).

The-Youngest found a first addition of one of the great philosophers of our time – Winnie the Pooh. The-Prettiest-Girl-in-the-World looked at old children’s books, ancient writing tablets and one book The-Oldest would have loved. It was written by John Cage (a composer famous for writing a piece without any sound).

Anyway, that book collection was impressive and fun to see. But we wanted to see the real library. The-Youngest wanted to touch every book and The-Prettiest-Girl-in-the-World wanted to glare at anyone making noise.

We found out we couldn’t get into the actual library. Those bookie areas were closed to the general public. You had to be doing “research” and have a pass to get in. Joe 1.0 would not have let that stop him, but Joe 1.0 could be a bit of an asshat sometimes so we contented ourselves to seeing what we could see.

The most surprising thing though was a statue of a little girl. Black marble. Elegant. Flowing. Beautiful.

However, The-Prettiest-Girl-in-the-World got a sick feeling being near to it. A powerful sick feeling.

She’s sensitive to the supernatural and this statue had a butt load of bad juju. She contacted a friend who told her to get away from it, now, fast, like real fast.

So we did.

And the feeling went away.

The-Prettiest-Girl-in-the-World got her good spirits back in the bookstore. If there is a heaven, hers is a library bookstore filled with books for sale (which I thought should be illegal since the purpose of a library is to loan books out for free). There were interesting library-themed knickknacks, shirts, bags, socks and jewelry. She had so much fun shopping for all her friends and family.

By the end, we were exhausted and hungry. The-Youngest found a well-regarded Italian restaurant in Hell’s Kitchen, not too far from where we had to get the boat for our night tour. It was a long, hot, sweaty walk, and it turned out the restaurant was not quite as close as The-Youngest thought.

No matter. Tavola was a perfect place with seats beside a shelf of Grosseria Italiana (which, if my Italian is right, means big, fat Italian things), super cool fans overhead that all ran off one cord, and a waiter who wore a long, white apron.

We filled our bellies with the best Italian food. Everything was made with care and love, the way it’s done in Italy, and no longer starving, our health/happiness bars zoomed back into the green.

We could have ended the day there and been happy, but we still had one last adventure. The Boat Tour of NYC at Night.

What a ride that would be.