My training ran late yesterday so I didn’t get a chance to do much exploring. I took the subway downtown to Greenwich Village and took a walk through Washington Square Park.

Washington Square Park Arch.

I’ve never been to the Village before but it had a great energy to it and it was also really nice to see so many gay and lesbian couples out together, which is a rare sight in Ohio.

I continued walking east and made my way to the East Village. About a year ago Andy featured a restaurant called S’MAC on his blog. The restaurant serves nothing but a variety a macaroni and cheese dishes. Each meal is served in a cast iron pan and you get your choice of having breadcrumbs baked on top or not. I thought the restaurant sounded interesting so I headed over there for dinner. I had the All-American with breadcrumbs and it was delicious! I’d definitely recommend that anyone else who’s visiting NYC check it out.

Afterwards I made my way to Times Square and back to the hotel.

Times Square.

During my lunch break today I headed out of the hotel and into Times Square to get a salad. As I was walking down 42nd Street I did a double take to make sure I actually saw what I thought I saw. There was a young women, maybe 25, standing on the street completely in the nude with cans of paint and paint brushes around her. Anyone walking down the sidewalk could pick up a brush and paint whatever they wanted on her. There were a number of people who took her up on the offer! Is this normal in NYC?

Human Canvas in Times Square.

After my training ended for the day I headed down to Canal Street and Chinatown to check out all of the notorious street vendors. I didn’t buy anything. I only went into a couple shops, but it didn’t seem like their prices were all that great considering every thing is a knockoff.

Canal Street Vendors.

Tomorrow morning I’m going to do a little more exploring and then I have to catch my flight back to Cleveland in the afternoon. It’s been a great trip so far and I will miss the constant excitement of NYC.