GREAT PLACES FOR DESERT LOVERS

1. The Buttercup Bake Shop, 973 Second Avenue (between 51^st and 52^nd Streets) – (212) 350-4144. This delightful addition to the famed Turtle Bay neighborhood features old-fashioned desserts like grandmother used to make. They offer a wide variety of delectable cupcakes in every flavor from Chocolate to Red Velvet (their most requested.) Their scrumptious cakes, and other desserts will satisfy every taste bud. They have a small seating area; however, you are only a short walk from the United Nations Park which is the perfect place to devour any of these sweets.

2. Once Upon a Tart, 135 Sullivan Street (between Houston and Prince Streets) – (212) 387-8869. After an afternoon of boutique-hopping in SoHo enjoy this cozy café for tasty tarts, Madeleines, gourmet sandwiches and other baked goodies and savory fare.

3. Serendipity, 225 East 60^th Street (between 2^nd and 3^rd Avenues) – (212) 838-3531. Only one block from Bloomingdales is this wonderful restaurant catering to the young at heart. When you come through their inviting entrance you can browse their toy store/sweetshop and then sit down for a real sweet lover’s treat. Order a colossal dessert or try their "elixir of life", aka "Frozen hot chocolate."

4. Payard Patisserie & Bistro, 1032 Lexington Avenue (between 73^rd and 74^th Streets) – (212) 717-5252. The perfect place for a Parisian-style rendezvous, this lovely restaurant is the dreamchild of pastry chef Francois Payard. Up front is the patisserie, the display cases filled with exquisite handmade chocolates, pastries, ice creams, sandwiches and quiches. Best of all you are only three blocks from Central Park and all of their goodies make a great picnic.

5. Four Seasons, 99 E 52^nd (between Park and Lexington Avenues) – 212-754-9494. As you sit in New York City’s most famous power-lunch restaurant, the last dish you expect to see floating by is a foot-high mound of cotton candy. And yet the Four Seasons has been serving this fluffy treat since the late 1970’s. What’s more, it’s always free after having one of their superb meals. The catch is it is not listed on the menu. You have to know to ask for it. Just ask for a sugar cloud, which is white in the fall and winter and pink in the warm months adorned with candied violets imported from France. This is just a fun way to end a serious cuisine experience

SUMMER MUSEUMS EXHIBITS

Until August 19, 2001 "Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Chinese Paintings" is a captivating portrayal of Chinese culture during the period of clashing social visions and dramatic political change that marked China’s entry into the modern world. In the arts, it was a time when the tensions between tradition and innovation, native and foreign styles reached an unprecedented level of intensity. This exhibition encompasses nearly all the traditional masters working during this period.

Until September 30, 2001 the museum exhibition "Looking at You" will take you into the world of twenty prominent artists of the 20^th Century as they reveal themselves in their self- portraits. This small, but impressive exhibit will allow you to gaze directly into the eyes of these amazing artists and see them as they saw themselves.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is located at 1000 Fifth Avenue and 82^nd Street. For information, please call (212) 570-3756 or go to their Web Site at www.metmuseum.org

2.The Jewish Museum presents "Marc Chagall: Early works from Russian Collections" - April 28, 2001 - October 14, 2001. The exhibition is a collection of paintings, drawings and murals done for the State Jewish Chamber Theatre in Moscow. Many of the works have never before been seen in the Western Hemisphere. The Jewish Museum is located at 1109 Fifth Avenue at 92^nd Street. For information, please call the museum at (212) 423-3200.

3.The Frick Collection houses an internationally celebrated collection of old master paintings, sculptures, and decorative artworks in the elegant "Gilded Age" residence of steel magnate Henry Clay Frick (1849-1919.) The museum is an insider’s favorite in New York City and well worth a visit. Artists represented include Vermeer, Remebrandt, Titian, Renoir, Manet, Fragonard, Goya, El Greco, and Holbein.

June 19 - August 12, 2001 the Frick museum presents "Master Drawings from the Smith College Museum of Art." The exhibition will feature 68 drawings which are all examples of superior draftsmanship and will allow visitors to view drawings ranging in time from the Old Masters to the most recent work, Mark Tobey’s Echo of 1954. Among those masterpieces included will be drawings by Bartolomeo, Boucher, Cezanne, Degas, De Kooning, Fragonard, Gainsborough, Grunewald, Ingres, Matisse, Tiepolo, and Van Gogh.

The Frick Museum is located at 1 East 70^th Street at Fifth Avenue. For information, please call the museum at (212) 288-0700 or go to their Web-site www.Frick.org

4.The National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution presents:

Until October 7, 2001 - "Painting the Dakota: Seth Eastman at Fort Snelling." This exhibition features 56 watercolor paintings from the Duncan MacMillan collection, some of which have never been seen before on public display. The works are considered to be some of the most important visual records of everyday Dakota life in Minnesota during the mid-19th Century. Eastman was the leading pictorial historian of Native Americans in the 19^th Century and a career army officer assigned to frontier duty at Fort Snelling.

Until November 4, 2001 - "Beauty, Honor, and Tradition: The Legacy of Plains Indian Shirts." This exhibit features 48 visually stunning and spiritually powerful Plains Indian shirts from the museum's collection; the show explores the beauty, power, history, iconography, construction and materials of Plains Indian shirts from the 19th and 20th centuries.

The National Museum of the American Indian is located at One Bowling Green in an historic building which once served as the U.S. Customs House. For information, please call the museum at (212) 514-3700 or go to their web-site at www.conexus.si.edu

OUTDOOR IN CENTRAL PARK