My mission before our crew (Jim) arrived was to head back into the city to check out my favourite food emporium, Zabar's. We took the PATH train then transferred to the subway, standing like locals. Before you knew it we were at Broadway and 79th.
I demonstrated great restraint by walking right past DSW and not even breaking a sweat. We did agree that I would head to Marshall's while Ken went to scout out the pizza place we had enjoyed on our last visit for our lunch stop. Regrettably, the pizza place must have met its demise and we ended up dining al fresco at Serafina's, Ken enjoying a wood oven spicy sausage pizza and I noshing on a bagel with cream cheese and smoked salmon.
Fortified, we headed down to Trader Joe's so that I could see what there was to see. We bought a few prepared food items and headed for Zabar's...Mecca.
It was everything I remembered. The cheese section alone is ecstasy, featuring a huge selection at prices so much more reasonable than any at home. I actually purchased an extra old Canadian Cheddar for peanuts! They have a wonderful bakery with breads and pastries of all descriptions, deli counters brimming with all manner of prepared foods. I was in heaven but even heaven has its limits. There was all this food and I had so little place to tote it and store it...we had to carry everything back on the train and store it in the small fridge and freezer of the boat.
Ken was delighted to see that they had a whole warm ham that they were carving from the bone to order. Even better, they always give you a taste of whatever you order. He was however a bit disappointed when we cut into the apple strudel he had requested to discover that it was cherry cheese. Not disappointed enough to not eat every flaky morsel.
Beef Bourguignon, chicken pot pie, fresh Orange Juice, Kale salad, prosciutto, bread and olive oil also made the cut. Once outside the store, we organized the purchases into a cooler bag and non-perishables and headed back to the subway.
Due to my anxious inexperience, I asked a rider if the train in the station went to 33rd and got an affirmative so jumped on with poor Ken in tow. We ended up at the wrong stop to transfer back to the PATH train and had to walk blocks and blocks to find the information booth for the PATH train then back to the station where we belonged.
After the trek and ride, back at the boat we stowed our booty and waited dinner for Jim to arrive from the airport. A quick text message from Jim indicated he had made it more or less on time and was en route in a cab to the marina.
A few adult beverages and late dinner of grilled steak and scallops and we were ready to hit the sack. The next day we would start the beginning of the end of our journey. We would start back up the Hudson to Hop-o-Nose where we would remove the mast in preparation for the canal and locks.