Fernando and family came for a visit over the weekend and those few hours that we didn’t spend eating or drinking, we whiled away at FAO Schwartz. For the kids, of course.

Since it was Sunday, they had a few extra demonstrations of games and toys going on and also two guys who played the Big piano.

Afterwards, quite by chance, we stumbled upon the annual Polish parade. For this, 5th Ave had been shut down for about 20 blocks.

The actual parade was a bit disappointing since it consisted mainly of very small groups of people walking very far apart from each other followed by ear-drum shattering Polish rock musicians on sadly decorated floats. And what these guys where doing there in kilts we never figured out.

But at least Miss Polonia Manhattan got a smokin’ hot ride:

Afterwards we had to gather strength again and stopped by Eataly, the ginormous food empire Mario Batali has built in the Flatiron district.

Downstairs is a huge market where everything from fruit and veggies to meat, fish and wine is sold. Most of it Italian in some form or other.

Upstairs is the somewhat secret Birreria restaurant which isn’t really secret at all, they just make it tricky to get to. The food was excellent though and one of the house beers (Gina) was pretty tasty too.