We slept ok all things considered and woke up far too early – but that’s ok because delicious coffee and pastries await us in the cafe of our hotel. We have been dreaming about these pastries since we were last here in 2024. Steve had the chocolate croissant and I had the spinach burek. They really are so incredibly tasty. And the coffee here is mighty fine too.

We sat around for quite a while just chilling. Nice slow morning – just what we needed really.

Then we headed off for a bit of a wander around the Lower East Side.

First stop – Sweet Pickle Books. They sell books and pickles. Yep.

I bought some stickers and magnets but no books.

Our next stop was another bookshop – Pillowcat Books. They have books too and a store cat who was sleeping in the window.

By now it was nearing lunch time so we went to a place called Sunday to Sunday. We *almost* got tricked when the menu said the sandwich we were going to order came with chips. But we cleverly remembered- Chips = potato crisps. Fries = chips. Ok? Got it? So we ordered a Turkey Club with a side of fries just so we could get chips and chips. Or chips and fries. Or Crisps and chips. Or something. Anyway, it was all good.

After lunch we headed back to our hotel but not before stopping by the Grillo’s Pickles Pop Up store. It’s conveniently located right next to our hotel. But today was its last day of operation – and it was going off! We lined up and bought a small tub of pickles – even though we wanted more but there is only so many pickles you can eat in a 6 day stay.

Back at the hotel I had a bit of a nap and Steve hung out in the hotel cafe and made friends.

After a nap it was time to snack on a pickles.

By now the afternoon was marching on and we had a gig to get too. Yes, a bonus Wilco show – with the added bonus of another fave band of ours Yo La Tengo in support. The venue was a bit of a trek out of town in Queens – so we *almost* considered not going to this show for some crazy reason – but then figured we only had to sit in a subway for 40 minutes- how hard can it be?

The subway line left from quite near our hotel and it actually couldn’t have been any simpler. We got there and found all the Wilco fans excitedly hanging around and telling each other “Wilco facts”.

We walked to the stadium and went in. I was starving by now, the food vendors looked ok but we ended up getting Cheeseburgers and oh my lord they were DREADFUL. It made me a little angry for a while, but who can get too angry when they are just about to see Wilco?

Forest Hills stadium is super cool though.

We got our seats (and some fruity beverages) and settled in the watch Yo La Tengo who were playing in the blazing sunlight.

They were great – but the sound was a little low so we had continuous talkers behind us. I just don’t get it, why go to a concert to talk about random shit? These seats weren’t cheap! We also had all the dudes standing up just in front of us.

After a short break, Wilco walked out on to stage. So great as always to see them! Everyone stood up, which was cool but of course then my view was compromised. But what can you do?

It was an awesome Wilco show. They are in fine form at the moment. Lots of different arrangements of old songs and little added bits. They played for a good 2 1/2 hours and then for the encore they were joined by Yo La Tengo on stage. Just magic!! Fantastic stuff! And what a great venue. During California Stars everyone in the stadium held up their lights on their phones and it just looked so magical.

And then before we knew it, it was over, we headed back to the subway and got straight on a train and were home before we knew it. Wasn’t difficult at all – I can’t believe we considered not going!