Day 17 in New York

Today, Wednesday, we headed to The Strand bookshop to find me a signed copy of Dash & Lily's Book of Dares, which was launched there last night (which I couldn't attend due to being in Niagara Falls). Here I spent quite some time going through the shelves and reviewing my (currently) two-page list of books I want to buy while in the US. I was very good and only bought six books on the list. The best thing about these books, which are not released in Australia, is that they were so cheap! Hardcover books for only $8.50! I also managed to get another of David Levithan's older titles which he also signed the night before. Yay! For my book posse, there will be more details up soon on The Tales Compendium. Christie finally managed to drag me away from the shelves, only to get stuck looking at all the fabulous Strand merchandise! Oh I am in love with this store!

My new books!

My merchandise :)

My signed copy of Dash & Lily!

After finally departing (sigh), we ducked across the road to a chocolate shop called Max Brenner. The tag line is Chocolate By The Bald Man. It smelt so fantastic in there and if we hadn't had plans to meet Christie's friend Dan for lunch, we would have stayed and had something at the cafe there. But, if you were wondering, we still bought a little something from the gift store.

Max Brenner chocolate

Next we headed into Chinatown to meet Dan at his office for lunch. He then took us for Chinese (what else do you eat in Chinatown!) at this place around the corner from his office. We let him choose the food since he seemed to be a regular there. For someone who never eats Chinese, I was pretty impressed. The soup dumplings were really good, although Christie had some difficulty eating them. We then went back to his office and Christie borrowed a computer to fill out her green card application. We then left so Dan could get back to work and we wandered through Chinatown and then headed home.

Christie and Dan with soup pork dumplings

Tonight we met up with Lauryl for dinner at Vapiano (the pasta place we found in DC) and had a lovely night there with her. As a side note, today was the worst weather we have had the whole trip. A wave of humidity hit Manhattan and it was seriously disgusting. That, mixed with a drizzle of rain, and we felt sick and light headed all day. No amount of water could make us feel better. The only relief the whole day was when we were in the highly air-conditioned Vapiano. Fingers crossed it isn't as bad tomorrow.

Lauryl and Christie at Vapiano