Have you heard about the pillow menu?  The link is actually to the catalog and one of these days, I'm going to order one (or two) up!  We stayed at The Benjamin at 50th & Lexington.  It was, perhaps, a bit extravagant, but it was so very nice -- and how often do I get to New York?  Exactly!  On our first night, I ordered two down pillows (one for DH and one for me -- good ol' basic pillow), an upper body pillow (I couldn't wait to try that one), and a gelly neckroll pillow.  The second night, a buckwheat, satin beauty, and a magnetic therapy contributed to this pile o' pillows that made me giggle every time we entered the room!  For the record, my favorites were the upper body, buckwheat (surprisingly!), and gelly neckroll.

Also, for the record (there are people interested in this, trust me), there was no top sheet.  There was a comforter in a duvet cover!  How do you like that?

I could have gone hog wild at The Benjamin -- I averted my eyes from the room service menu, the spa delights, the honor bar (with the $5 package of microwave popcorn and $4 Terra Chips) -- but I was content to wallow in the pillows!

I had to snap these shoe pics for Kt!  I don't remember the maker of these shoes -- they're Italian, Testa- or Testo-something.  I didn't go into a single major store.  The window shopping was a lot of fun, though.  Brooks Brothers is not quite DH's style -- especially the yellow pants.

After an Everything Bagel at Ess-a-Bagel (and a stop at the hotel to get everything out of my teeth and make an attempt to thwart everything breath), we took the subway to Ground Zero, Battery Park, Wall Street and spent a few hours with all the other tourists.  We watched the Staten Island Ferry and snapped pics of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island -- it was noon-ish, I think, and they were already announcing that they'd sold out of ferry tickets for the day.  51st Street is for you, Elizabeth!  I thought of you every time I rode the subway -- the mosaics were so cool!  I wish I would have photographed more of them.

Cara picked me up about mid-afternoon and I ran an errand with her -- in Manhattan -- in her car!  She hardly swore at all.  I've lately been working on my traffic zen, and this was great!  I was really quite humored by the dance.  Then, it was off to Purl where we ran into Cassie, Cari, Jackie, Iris, and Aison.  They had just come from The Point, which is where we were headed next.  I was a total midwest geek and gave them all the mini Sharpie and cheesehead eraser and the book to sign -- and most of them didn't know me from Koigu.  They might have a wee recollection now.  I took no pictures there, but I did buy yarn.

At The Point (above left), we met up with Colleen, Anne, and Cassie.  There may have been other bloggers there.  I liked the shop and the atmosphere, enjoyed the company quite a bit, as well as my iced coffee -- and I found much-sought-after yarn there!  More on all that tomorrow.

Cara dropped me off at the Andrew Kreps Gallery where DH was participating in an event and that marked the end of the knitblogger/yarn portion of my NYC trip.  Boohoohoo.  And I mean that.  I keep wondering when I'll be able to rub elbows (or whatever) with y'all again!!!