loving the lower east side

Because we try to be glass-is-half-full kind of people, we took the "50% chance of rain" weather report to mean "50% chance it won't rain" and, along with our friends, Emily and Adam, decided to do some exploring in the city. I told Blake that I was all over a President's Day Weekend excursion -- so long as we visited some place we hadn't seen yet. And so today we all tackled the Lower East Side.

And because we're apparently not only optimists but kids-at-heart as well, our first stop was to a 70-year-old candy store called Economy Candy.

This place was amazing! We're talking a sugar-filled paradise of wall-to-wall candy, with everything from vintage varieties to upscale imports. So cool.

Armed with some Swedish Fish and Sixlets, we next trekked along the Bowery, saw the entrance to the Williamsburg Bridge, and walked in and around Chinatown in search of Little Italy:

You should all know, too, that Chinatown smells strongly of fresh fish and spices, while Little Italy smells like fresh mozzarella and marinara sauce. Also, you know you're in Little Italy if you start spotting parking meters, street signs and fire hydrants painted green, white, and red, just like the Italian flag:

We walked along Orchard Street, which was fun and a great place for bargains, even though it wasn't the Sunday Market, and past the Tenement Museum (which I will one day tour, so stay tuned). The buildings in this part were old and definitely reminiscent of the fact that this was the settlement destination for countless scores of fresh-from-Ellis-Island immigrants. We also walked by the impressive old Police Headquarters, and just before we did, bumped into a group of guys I knew from my days living at Southridge. Small world? Yes, indeed. But it didn't hurt that Blake was wearing a BYU sweatshirt. (For the handful of you who are on the edge of your seats, wondering who it was we saw, I will tell you that the only guy we saw whose name I remembered was Joe Dixon. And yes, he seems to be doing well.)

We will have to go back to the Lower East Side again sometime because even though we stopped for a by-the-slice pizza in Little Italy, we still need to try Katz's Deli and maybe also find a delicious Jewish bagel shop because ohmygoodness: New York bagels (which were brought here by Jewish immigrants) are to. Die. For. But this was a good trip to whet our palates.

(And by the way: though it came awfully close a time or two, it didn't rain. The day was instead an incredibly pleasant 50ish degrees. So I guess the glass-is-half-full is the way to go.)