Saturday, July 11

Picked up Danielle at Penn Station. She had been in Fredericksburg, Va., for the week and was dying to get back to NYC. I'd like to think that I was the priority, but she was more concerned with taking Revolutionary War tours in Brooklyn. No matter, it was nice to see her. Intended to go to a good cheesesteak place but the one listed on the Internet had closed and even though I had been to the place's new location, I forgot the address. We ended up at Spuntino, on the recommendation of a guy we met in a nearby bar. It wasn't bad as we got calamari, sheep cheese and arugula salad, which was just enough for the both of us. We also imbibed a bit, as it was happy hour. I tried the Brooklyn Lager and it was tasty, and D had a sangria. But it had already been a long day -- I had gotten autographs of the Cincinnati Reds at their Manhattan hotel in the morning and Danielle had been on a train for five hours -- so one drink was enough for each of us. After dinner, I was intent on looking at books at the Strand, which I think might be the best bookstore in the world. But Danielle wanted to first listen to a jazz band that had set up an impromptu jam session in Union Square. They played but one song before they were shooed away by one of New York City's finest. I wanted to stay at the bookstore a while longer but Danielle was exhausted so we left after only a few minutes.