As the sun went down on the "Big Fruit," we headed out to dinner. During this particular evening's foot-race I learned something about NYC that I may have known before, but had forgotten. As the world's largest metropolitan area, NYC is divided into five boroughs. They are Manhattan, Queens, The Bronx, Brooklyn and Staten Island. Each borough has within it different neighborhoods known as, "Villages." The most famous of these are Greenwich Village and The East Village.
On this Saturday night, we headed to a restaurant called, well, all I remember is that part of the name included the word, "Ditch." The "Ditch" was located in the West Village of Manhattan.
This was a trendy restaurant, with trendy entrees and trendy servers, where the trendy clientele sits in trendy booths, reading trendy menus, making trendy small talk, listening to trendy music, and drinking trendy ice water out of trendy glasses, while waiting for the trendy check.
Pretty surreal for a place called the, "Ditch - something-or-other."
Basically, all of this means that you pay a pretty hefty price for a hamburger and a handful of macaroni dogs and/or chili dogs.
That's how it played out - pretty much.
After dinner, we went back to the apartment and got a good night's sleep. We would need it.
The most important day of our trip was right in front of us.
On Sunday morning, we woke up early, got ready, and went to The Cafe Lalo for a croissant, a fruit cup and more coffee. The worship services we were set to visit that morning did not begin until 11:30 AM. Therefore, a stop by the world famous Cafe Lalo, which was right on the way, was a very easy thing to do.
The Lalo, or the "Lulu" as I called it, was where Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks starred in the filming of the chick flick, "You've Got Mail." I remember the movie. Not as good as, "The Sands of Iwo Jima," or "Full Metal Jacket." But, it did make a lot of money. All three of my girls know the movie VERY well.
Guys, I gotta' confess, if you are looking for deer heads on the wall, the beloved chords of vintage Lynyrd Skynyrd coming from the sound system, and thick, succulent NY Strip steaks on your plate, the Lalo is probably NOT gonna' peg your fun meter.
There are lots of girly pictures, girly flowers, girly tablecloths, girly paper napkins, and girly girls. They wait on you, they crowd in right next to you at the tiny tables for coffee, and they talk girly talk and giggle very loudly.
I have, personally, been to Ted Nugent concerts that were not as deafening as the ambient noise of the many girly conversations going on at once in the Cafe Lalo.
The main thing is, guys, that your girly girls will love Cafe Lalo. And, who knows, you might even score some girly brownie points for yourself.
So, it was well worth the effort to let the girls have their girly brunch. And, after all, the coffee WAS very good.
Next, it was on to the most important thing we did while in NYC.
The West Manhattan church of Christ meets in a rented hostel in the area where West Manhattan meets Harlem. The congregation is approximately one hundred in number. The members come from all corners of the world, and range in age from the smallest child to the most senior of senior saints.
Their preacher, ironically, served a congregation in Rockdale County, Georgia, for several years before he and his wife moved to NYC. He even sounded almost, "southern."
The worship that morning was uplifting, totally sound and scriptural, and every bit as much in line with the true biblical pattern as anything we are accustomed to in our native homeland of Georgia. It was great! If you are visiting Manhattan and are there on the Lord's Day, this congregation is where you need to be!
It was really good to worship with our daughter again. The only ones that were missing were Ashley and Josh. Their absence reminded this old man of how great heaven will be. There will never be another worship service in our eternal home where we will not be together with our spiritual family.
What a great day!
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