The Goddess and Her SO Fall In Love In and With NY Again!
May 9th, 2008, 09:24 PM
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The Goddess and Her SO Fall In Love In and With NY Again!
What a great trip to New York! We’ve been many, many times but for some reason we always go in winter and usually for a long weekend. While the week before Christmas is my favourite time in NY, it was wonderful to be there in the spring and for a whole week. We did many new things this time and, thanks to the fodorites, everything went beautifully! So, day by day, here’s the scoop:
Getting There:
We decided to try Porter Air this time and I’m now the world’s biggest Porter fan. For those of you who don’t know it, Porter is a small airline that uses prop planes and flies from Toronto Island instead of Pearson Airport. Getting there was a cinch and we didn’t have to deal with thousands of other travelers trying to get where they were going. The service was excellent and friendly and the price was right ($105 for one way; some days are $95). There’s a very attractive lounge, free drinks, newspapers and snacks. Well, I don’t know about you, but I can’t afford to fly first-class and I hate feeling like a second-class citizen with cooties or something and not being allowed into posh lounge because I didn’t buy a first-class ticket. I did feel ‘first class’ with Porter. The flight was comfortable and pleasant and uneventful. Uneventful is good when it comes to airplane flights, right? We called Carmel Limos from Newark Airport and the ride into town ($55, I think, for the pricier car; the other would have been $49; I’d settle for the $49 car next time).
The Place:
We had rented the bigapplegetaway apartment at NeoPatrick’s suggestion and it was perfect for us. It’s a reasonably-sized one-bedroom with a small kitchen and bathroom. The fact that it was on the 33rd floor offered us quiet nights and a nice view of Manhattan – we had about two inches of Central Park in front of us and a good view of the Hudson to the left. The apartment is very clean and nicely outfitted, with enough kitchenware for us to have company for lunch later in the week. It’s not glamorous or charming but quite nice and has all the amenities we needed. Some of the furniture needs a bit of repair (e.g. the veneer is peeling off the bedside tables) but that’s not too bad. We paid $275 a night (for two of us) rather than the $350 to $400 a night we were finding at even mid-range hotels. The condo has a concierge and a doorman.
The neighbourhood (50th between 9th and 10th) is great. We stepped out the front door to go for a walk on our first evening. We’d walked about two steps to the east and I caught sight of Radio City Music Hall right in front of me, two avenues away, so I knew exactly where we were situated. We walked or subwayed everywhere during our visit, taking cabs only twice when we were going somewhere a bit fancier and I was wearing sittin’ shoes. We’re big walkers, though, so a 40-block walk is nothing for us and there’s always something interesting to see in NY.
There were two excellent markets nearby – the Food Emporium on 8th and the Amish Market on 9th, a Duane Reade drugstore at the corner of 50th and 8th. We lacked for nothing and I just LOVED the Amish Market. I’m ready to set up a tent outside and live there forever.
On our first night, we had no plans so we just went for a walk and stopped in for dinner at Thalia at 50th and 8th. We didn’t have a reservation but had no trouble getting a table though the place was quite full. Dinner was very good and the service was especially pleasant – I wanted my dinner ‘altered’ a bit and it was no problem at all. After dinner, we picked up a few groceries for the apartment – some breakfast things and, of course, coffee, and then it was off to beddy-bye.
More to come...
Getting There:
We decided to try Porter Air this time and I’m now the world’s biggest Porter fan. For those of you who don’t know it, Porter is a small airline that uses prop planes and flies from Toronto Island instead of Pearson Airport. Getting there was a cinch and we didn’t have to deal with thousands of other travelers trying to get where they were going. The service was excellent and friendly and the price was right ($105 for one way; some days are $95). There’s a very attractive lounge, free drinks, newspapers and snacks. Well, I don’t know about you, but I can’t afford to fly first-class and I hate feeling like a second-class citizen with cooties or something and not being allowed into posh lounge because I didn’t buy a first-class ticket. I did feel ‘first class’ with Porter. The flight was comfortable and pleasant and uneventful. Uneventful is good when it comes to airplane flights, right? We called Carmel Limos from Newark Airport and the ride into town ($55, I think, for the pricier car; the other would have been $49; I’d settle for the $49 car next time).
The Place:
We had rented the bigapplegetaway apartment at NeoPatrick’s suggestion and it was perfect for us. It’s a reasonably-sized one-bedroom with a small kitchen and bathroom. The fact that it was on the 33rd floor offered us quiet nights and a nice view of Manhattan – we had about two inches of Central Park in front of us and a good view of the Hudson to the left. The apartment is very clean and nicely outfitted, with enough kitchenware for us to have company for lunch later in the week. It’s not glamorous or charming but quite nice and has all the amenities we needed. Some of the furniture needs a bit of repair (e.g. the veneer is peeling off the bedside tables) but that’s not too bad. We paid $275 a night (for two of us) rather than the $350 to $400 a night we were finding at even mid-range hotels. The condo has a concierge and a doorman.
The neighbourhood (50th between 9th and 10th) is great. We stepped out the front door to go for a walk on our first evening. We’d walked about two steps to the east and I caught sight of Radio City Music Hall right in front of me, two avenues away, so I knew exactly where we were situated. We walked or subwayed everywhere during our visit, taking cabs only twice when we were going somewhere a bit fancier and I was wearing sittin’ shoes. We’re big walkers, though, so a 40-block walk is nothing for us and there’s always something interesting to see in NY.
There were two excellent markets nearby – the Food Emporium on 8th and the Amish Market on 9th, a Duane Reade drugstore at the corner of 50th and 8th. We lacked for nothing and I just LOVED the Amish Market. I’m ready to set up a tent outside and live there forever.
On our first night, we had no plans so we just went for a walk and stopped in for dinner at Thalia at 50th and 8th. We didn’t have a reservation but had no trouble getting a table though the place was quite full. Dinner was very good and the service was especially pleasant – I wanted my dinner ‘altered’ a bit and it was no problem at all. After dinner, we picked up a few groceries for the apartment – some breakfast things and, of course, coffee, and then it was off to beddy-bye.
More to come...
May 10th, 2008, 01:56 AM
#3
Oh, goody! I'm settling in for a great trip report.
My buddy lived there when she first moved to Manhattan and it's where I really fell in love with the city. I was there for a week - helping a country dog become a city dog while Mom started a new job and decorating a CITY apartment - and that was one of the most wonderful weeks of my life. I can't wait to read about your adventures.
Please tell me there's a video of your wanderings in NYC a la Dijon!
My buddy lived there when she first moved to Manhattan and it's where I really fell in love with the city. I was there for a week - helping a country dog become a city dog while Mom started a new job and decorating a CITY apartment - and that was one of the most wonderful weeks of my life. I can't wait to read about your adventures.
Please tell me there's a video of your wanderings in NYC a la Dijon!
May 10th, 2008, 12:32 PM
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...and here it is:
Day One:
The first thing we did was walk from ‘home’ down Broadway to about 23rd Street, to Worldtone Dance, where I finally bought my SO his Christmas present – swing dance shoes! This was a promise from home but I couldn’t get him the ones he liked there so since we were going to NY…well, I hear they have some dance shoes there! Turns out that this place supplies all the shoes for Dancing with the Stars and many B’way shows. We walked back uptown, stopping in to browse here and there, had lunch at Macy’s and went back up to 10th and 51st because we had tickets for the Daily Show. It was a fairly long wait in line, even for those of us with confirmed tickets, but we chatted up some nice people, drank coffee, etc. The taping was fun. Jimmy Carter was the guest, there to talk about his new book about his mother and also his recent talks with Hamas. The show ended by about 7:30 and we walked back to a cute little restaurant we’d passed, Il Melograno (51st & 9th). Once again, we had no trouble getting a table with no reservations but the place did fill up pretty quickly.
After dinner, we meandered back to B’way because we had tickets for the 10 pm show at the Iridium Jazz Club, where Les Paul still plays every Monday night. The place was packed with Les Paul fans – some even brought their guitars for him to sign. He’s still great at 93 (!) years old and his combo was good too. I’d heard that he would probably bring up some folks to jam with but we had a pretty eclectic selection that night – a Japanese tap dancer, an American tap dancer (who then did a duo), a great female jazz singer and a really good saxophonist. By the time the show ended we were pretty pooped but there’s something about NY that’s so energizing to me – even tired, I was full of energy.
Day Two:
This was the day we did the lower east side. We took the subway downtown, had lunch at the old Katz’s Deli (“Send a salami to your son in the Army”) where I had a great lox, eggs and onions omelette and SO had an enormous corned beef sandwich. We walked around the neighbourhood for a while and then went to take the tour at the Tenement Museum on Orchard Street. We ended up taking the Getting By tour which takes you into a couple of apartments in the tenement across from the museum building. It was fascinating and our tour guide was excellent – a little edgy and very knowledgeable. I had signed us up for the ‘Kitchen Table’ talk afterwards but I was sorry I did. The moderator for that was a little too ‘nice’ and didn’t seem to guide the conversation. One woman took over completely and really didn’t have anything to say. I think the others felt the same because when we got up and said we had to leave, pretty much everyone else did too.
We walked through Chinatown a bit then subwayed back uptown to change and meet a friend for drinks and dinner at Bond 45 just off B’way. We had a lovely visit and then parted ways – he went home and we went to the Theatre to see the David Mamet play, November, with Nathan Lane. Very funny! Also very short -- the play started at 7 and was over by about 8:45! Fortunately, I had scrounged up a list of bars and lounges before we left home and I invited my SO to the Carnagie Club, a cigar bar on 56th, right behind Carnagie Hall. Well, we’ve been to plenty of cigar bars so I knew just what to expect – smoke, drinks, smoke and more smoke. And that’s what we got. What I didn’t expect was the 14-piece swing band, complete with tuxedoes and a chanteuse! Seriously! And they were great! The bar was pretty full and the hostess walked us around for a bit looking for seats and then took us to the best seats in house – two big armchairs right at the side of the band! We are such lucky travelers! No kidding, we always seem to luck in to great stuff like this!
We sat through 2 sets, 4 drinks and a cigar and when the bill came (the bar was my treat) I was shocked at how low it was. I really expected it to be at least a third more. Anyway, we walked home reeking of cigar smoke and with our ears ringing with swing, tossed our stinking clothes in the laundry bag, never to be worn again, and fell into a dead sleep with big grins on our faces!
Day One:
The first thing we did was walk from ‘home’ down Broadway to about 23rd Street, to Worldtone Dance, where I finally bought my SO his Christmas present – swing dance shoes! This was a promise from home but I couldn’t get him the ones he liked there so since we were going to NY…well, I hear they have some dance shoes there! Turns out that this place supplies all the shoes for Dancing with the Stars and many B’way shows. We walked back uptown, stopping in to browse here and there, had lunch at Macy’s and went back up to 10th and 51st because we had tickets for the Daily Show. It was a fairly long wait in line, even for those of us with confirmed tickets, but we chatted up some nice people, drank coffee, etc. The taping was fun. Jimmy Carter was the guest, there to talk about his new book about his mother and also his recent talks with Hamas. The show ended by about 7:30 and we walked back to a cute little restaurant we’d passed, Il Melograno (51st & 9th). Once again, we had no trouble getting a table with no reservations but the place did fill up pretty quickly.
After dinner, we meandered back to B’way because we had tickets for the 10 pm show at the Iridium Jazz Club, where Les Paul still plays every Monday night. The place was packed with Les Paul fans – some even brought their guitars for him to sign. He’s still great at 93 (!) years old and his combo was good too. I’d heard that he would probably bring up some folks to jam with but we had a pretty eclectic selection that night – a Japanese tap dancer, an American tap dancer (who then did a duo), a great female jazz singer and a really good saxophonist. By the time the show ended we were pretty pooped but there’s something about NY that’s so energizing to me – even tired, I was full of energy.
Day Two:
This was the day we did the lower east side. We took the subway downtown, had lunch at the old Katz’s Deli (“Send a salami to your son in the Army”) where I had a great lox, eggs and onions omelette and SO had an enormous corned beef sandwich. We walked around the neighbourhood for a while and then went to take the tour at the Tenement Museum on Orchard Street. We ended up taking the Getting By tour which takes you into a couple of apartments in the tenement across from the museum building. It was fascinating and our tour guide was excellent – a little edgy and very knowledgeable. I had signed us up for the ‘Kitchen Table’ talk afterwards but I was sorry I did. The moderator for that was a little too ‘nice’ and didn’t seem to guide the conversation. One woman took over completely and really didn’t have anything to say. I think the others felt the same because when we got up and said we had to leave, pretty much everyone else did too.
We walked through Chinatown a bit then subwayed back uptown to change and meet a friend for drinks and dinner at Bond 45 just off B’way. We had a lovely visit and then parted ways – he went home and we went to the Theatre to see the David Mamet play, November, with Nathan Lane. Very funny! Also very short -- the play started at 7 and was over by about 8:45! Fortunately, I had scrounged up a list of bars and lounges before we left home and I invited my SO to the Carnagie Club, a cigar bar on 56th, right behind Carnagie Hall. Well, we’ve been to plenty of cigar bars so I knew just what to expect – smoke, drinks, smoke and more smoke. And that’s what we got. What I didn’t expect was the 14-piece swing band, complete with tuxedoes and a chanteuse! Seriously! And they were great! The bar was pretty full and the hostess walked us around for a bit looking for seats and then took us to the best seats in house – two big armchairs right at the side of the band! We are such lucky travelers! No kidding, we always seem to luck in to great stuff like this!
We sat through 2 sets, 4 drinks and a cigar and when the bill came (the bar was my treat) I was shocked at how low it was. I really expected it to be at least a third more. Anyway, we walked home reeking of cigar smoke and with our ears ringing with swing, tossed our stinking clothes in the laundry bag, never to be worn again, and fell into a dead sleep with big grins on our faces!
May 10th, 2008, 01:16 PM
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Great report. Goddess, did you like my friend, Michael Nichols, from our Naples Theatre as the Indian in November? I'm so looking forward to seeing it next month.
That Carnegie Club sounds great -- now if only they didn't allow smoking in the Cigar Bar. . . (only joking)
That Carnegie Club sounds great -- now if only they didn't allow smoking in the Cigar Bar. . . (only joking)
May 10th, 2008, 01:54 PM
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And then...
Day Three:
Even though we’ve spent considerable time in NY, our experience of Central Park was very limited. We’d driven through it. We’d walked around it. But we’d never actually walked around in it. Of course, during the years we lived in NJ, Central Park was a less than pleasant place to explore, but it’s absolutely gorgeous now. A friend had given us the name of a fellow who did 2 hour tours of the park but I never got around to making those plans. But I did look at the CP website and found out that members of the CP Conservancy gave 1 hour tours of the central part of the park and of the Ramble. We chose the central tour and it actually turned out to be almost an hour and a half and the tour guide was so knowledgeable. The park is just beautiful and so much money has been spent on renovations, environmental initiatives, plantings, etc. We started at the Samuel Morse statue at 5th and 79th and ended up at CP West and 72nd. We saw the sundial bench, the Alice statue, the Hans Christian Anderson statue, heard the story of the falcons, saw the lake, went to the Boathouse, and the beautiful Bethesda fountain and plaza, and finally Strawberry Field and the Imagine mosaic, with great stories and details to go along with everything. The guides (there were two) had very interesting pictures of pre-renovation sites so we could see the difference. Of course, you could never see all of CP in an hour or two, but next time we’ll take the Ramble tour.
After the tour, we walked down CP West and stopped for a very nice late lunch at Fiorello’s which, I think, was the first restaurant we ever ate at in NY about a million years ago. Across from Fiorello’s and just a little south of Lincoln Centre is an Indian Restaurant called Saphire. We didn’t eat hear this time, but last time we were in NY, we met friends there for lunch – a small but quite yummy Indian buffet.
It had been a long day of walking so we went home to rest our tooties before hopping on the subway to get to Yankee Stadium to see a Yankees/Detroit game. We had a great talk with some die-hard Yankees fans on the train who told us that they’d had season’s tickets for years but wouldn’t be able to afford them again when the new stadium was built. Too sad! Good guests that we are, we cheered our heads off for the home team but it just didn’t work that night and the Tigers won. We had a dinner of sorts at the game – beer, peanuts and pretzels, what else? Subwayed home again, along with the rest of the dejected Yankees fans and took ourselves to bed.
Day Four:
Are you exhausted yet? We are. But we keep going -- there’s still too much to see and do!
Today we walk up to CP South and over to Fifth to begin our long stroll down Fifth Avenue. We browse, we lunch, we chat, we stop for coffee, we gawk, we stop into the Public Library at 40th to look at the beautiful reading room and try to catch the tour but unfortunately we miss it so we browse in the gift shop a bit. Then we continue our walk all the way down to 19th Street where we meet our friend at a great tapas place called La Boqueria (53 W 19th Street). We shared some great little dishes and three fabulous desserts and talked, talked, talked! By the time we finished dinner it had started to rain so we shared a cab back uptown, past Port Authority Bus Station and the great statue of Ralph Kramden. Said our goodbyes to our friend, hugs and kisses, and off we go back to our home away from home on 50th.
More to come.
Day Three:
Even though we’ve spent considerable time in NY, our experience of Central Park was very limited. We’d driven through it. We’d walked around it. But we’d never actually walked around in it. Of course, during the years we lived in NJ, Central Park was a less than pleasant place to explore, but it’s absolutely gorgeous now. A friend had given us the name of a fellow who did 2 hour tours of the park but I never got around to making those plans. But I did look at the CP website and found out that members of the CP Conservancy gave 1 hour tours of the central part of the park and of the Ramble. We chose the central tour and it actually turned out to be almost an hour and a half and the tour guide was so knowledgeable. The park is just beautiful and so much money has been spent on renovations, environmental initiatives, plantings, etc. We started at the Samuel Morse statue at 5th and 79th and ended up at CP West and 72nd. We saw the sundial bench, the Alice statue, the Hans Christian Anderson statue, heard the story of the falcons, saw the lake, went to the Boathouse, and the beautiful Bethesda fountain and plaza, and finally Strawberry Field and the Imagine mosaic, with great stories and details to go along with everything. The guides (there were two) had very interesting pictures of pre-renovation sites so we could see the difference. Of course, you could never see all of CP in an hour or two, but next time we’ll take the Ramble tour.
After the tour, we walked down CP West and stopped for a very nice late lunch at Fiorello’s which, I think, was the first restaurant we ever ate at in NY about a million years ago. Across from Fiorello’s and just a little south of Lincoln Centre is an Indian Restaurant called Saphire. We didn’t eat hear this time, but last time we were in NY, we met friends there for lunch – a small but quite yummy Indian buffet.
It had been a long day of walking so we went home to rest our tooties before hopping on the subway to get to Yankee Stadium to see a Yankees/Detroit game. We had a great talk with some die-hard Yankees fans on the train who told us that they’d had season’s tickets for years but wouldn’t be able to afford them again when the new stadium was built. Too sad! Good guests that we are, we cheered our heads off for the home team but it just didn’t work that night and the Tigers won. We had a dinner of sorts at the game – beer, peanuts and pretzels, what else? Subwayed home again, along with the rest of the dejected Yankees fans and took ourselves to bed.
Day Four:
Are you exhausted yet? We are. But we keep going -- there’s still too much to see and do!
Today we walk up to CP South and over to Fifth to begin our long stroll down Fifth Avenue. We browse, we lunch, we chat, we stop for coffee, we gawk, we stop into the Public Library at 40th to look at the beautiful reading room and try to catch the tour but unfortunately we miss it so we browse in the gift shop a bit. Then we continue our walk all the way down to 19th Street where we meet our friend at a great tapas place called La Boqueria (53 W 19th Street). We shared some great little dishes and three fabulous desserts and talked, talked, talked! By the time we finished dinner it had started to rain so we shared a cab back uptown, past Port Authority Bus Station and the great statue of Ralph Kramden. Said our goodbyes to our friend, hugs and kisses, and off we go back to our home away from home on 50th.
More to come.
May 10th, 2008, 07:57 PM
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Day Five:
Today we take the subway down to Soho with the idea of having lunch and exploring the galleries. SO is very familiar with this part of town – his mentor during his PhD years was instrumental in saving the South Houston area from abandonment and destruction and, in fact, his partner was the person who coined the word Soho! SO has studied all the beautiful cast iron buildings and could point out all the gorgeous details to me. We were a little disappointed to see that most of the galleries had been replaced by stores but we did go into the few remaining galleries and saw some great art! We had a light lunch at Le Pain Quotidien (and hey, one is just about to open in our neighbourhood at home so that’s nice). Once again, we walked for miles, stopping for the occasional coffee mostly to give ourselves an excuse to sit down for a while and finally took the subway home to get ready for our evening plans.
This was the night I was taking SO out for his belated birthday dinner to our favourite NY restaurant, the River Café. We always feel treated well there, we enjoy the food, and we especially enjoy what I consider to be the best view of Manhattan from across the other side of the Brooklyn Bridge – the whole skyline of Manhattan lit up before us with the Statue of Liberty off to our left. We’ve always been lucky enough to get a window table and for us, it’s a very romantic place. Now if only it had a dance floor….
A cab home, and two tired little tykes are off to dreamland.
Day Six:
This is our last day in NY and we’re sad because of that but happy because a wonderful friend is coming over for lunch – the wife of the above-mentioned mentor is driving in from Princeton and we haven’t seen her in years. We spent the morning straightening up the apartment and buying lox, bagels and cream cheese and other yummy goodies at the Food Emporium and the Amish Market. It was wonderful to see her! She’s a remarkable woman – 86 years old and she’s just recently returned from a trip to Spain. I want to be her when I grow up! We spent hours drinking coffee, eating breakfast and catching up. She told us that it’s possible that a plaque will be placed on one of the Soho buildings in honour of her late husband and if that happens, we’ll likely go in for the event. This couple was our ‘family away from home’ during the years we lived in Princeton, and my SO has modeled much of his teaching and his relationships with his students on his mentor who was a wonderful and important man. Hugs, kisses and good-byes, with promises to keep in touch, and she was off home.
We spent a bit of time getting the apartment ship-shape as per the owner’s requests and then got ready for dinner. A friend had suggested Nice Matin at 79th and Amsterdam, so off we went. As soon as we walked in the door, I realized we’d been there before, a few years ago with our other friends. We liked it just as much this time too. We were hoping to walk home down Columbus after dinner but it was cold and drizzling so we hopped in a cab and had a nice ride instead. Came home, packed our bags, got sad, talked about when we’d come back. Then went to bed leaving the shades up so that we could see the beautiful lit up night-time NY as we drifted off to sleep.
Going home:
Since we had a full week in NY, we thought we might have a nice long train ride home instead of flying. Well, I have to admit it was my idea. I envisioned long hours of reading, playing bananagrams, dozing, having snacks, watching the scenery whiz by. Wrong, wrong, wrong. I’ll never take such a long train trip again, especially on Amtrak. The train car was not very clean and too hot. And the washrooms were filthy. I tried several and never did find one that had running water so I could wash my hands. (Just when you need a package of Wet Ones, you don’t have it, right?) And you really had to work at getting the toilet to flush so it seems a lot of people just didn’t bother. And finally, (and I know this isn’t Amtrak’s fault) the woman sitting across the aisle and one row back was the loudest snorer I’ve ever heard! Crossing the border seemed to take forever and by the time we got back to Toronto, we were exhausted. One good thing was that it dispelled our sadness in leaving NY because we were so happy to get back to our nice clean house, running water and flushing toilets!
All in all, though, it was a wonderful trip – a nice long visit in our favourite city, new adventures and old friends! And thanks to all the fodorites who gave us the benefit of their usual excellent advice!
And that's all, folks. Wow, I can't believe I did this -- this is the first trip report I've actually completed! Good for moi!
Today we take the subway down to Soho with the idea of having lunch and exploring the galleries. SO is very familiar with this part of town – his mentor during his PhD years was instrumental in saving the South Houston area from abandonment and destruction and, in fact, his partner was the person who coined the word Soho! SO has studied all the beautiful cast iron buildings and could point out all the gorgeous details to me. We were a little disappointed to see that most of the galleries had been replaced by stores but we did go into the few remaining galleries and saw some great art! We had a light lunch at Le Pain Quotidien (and hey, one is just about to open in our neighbourhood at home so that’s nice). Once again, we walked for miles, stopping for the occasional coffee mostly to give ourselves an excuse to sit down for a while and finally took the subway home to get ready for our evening plans.
This was the night I was taking SO out for his belated birthday dinner to our favourite NY restaurant, the River Café. We always feel treated well there, we enjoy the food, and we especially enjoy what I consider to be the best view of Manhattan from across the other side of the Brooklyn Bridge – the whole skyline of Manhattan lit up before us with the Statue of Liberty off to our left. We’ve always been lucky enough to get a window table and for us, it’s a very romantic place. Now if only it had a dance floor….
A cab home, and two tired little tykes are off to dreamland.
Day Six:
This is our last day in NY and we’re sad because of that but happy because a wonderful friend is coming over for lunch – the wife of the above-mentioned mentor is driving in from Princeton and we haven’t seen her in years. We spent the morning straightening up the apartment and buying lox, bagels and cream cheese and other yummy goodies at the Food Emporium and the Amish Market. It was wonderful to see her! She’s a remarkable woman – 86 years old and she’s just recently returned from a trip to Spain. I want to be her when I grow up! We spent hours drinking coffee, eating breakfast and catching up. She told us that it’s possible that a plaque will be placed on one of the Soho buildings in honour of her late husband and if that happens, we’ll likely go in for the event. This couple was our ‘family away from home’ during the years we lived in Princeton, and my SO has modeled much of his teaching and his relationships with his students on his mentor who was a wonderful and important man. Hugs, kisses and good-byes, with promises to keep in touch, and she was off home.
We spent a bit of time getting the apartment ship-shape as per the owner’s requests and then got ready for dinner. A friend had suggested Nice Matin at 79th and Amsterdam, so off we went. As soon as we walked in the door, I realized we’d been there before, a few years ago with our other friends. We liked it just as much this time too. We were hoping to walk home down Columbus after dinner but it was cold and drizzling so we hopped in a cab and had a nice ride instead. Came home, packed our bags, got sad, talked about when we’d come back. Then went to bed leaving the shades up so that we could see the beautiful lit up night-time NY as we drifted off to sleep.
Going home:
Since we had a full week in NY, we thought we might have a nice long train ride home instead of flying. Well, I have to admit it was my idea. I envisioned long hours of reading, playing bananagrams, dozing, having snacks, watching the scenery whiz by. Wrong, wrong, wrong. I’ll never take such a long train trip again, especially on Amtrak. The train car was not very clean and too hot. And the washrooms were filthy. I tried several and never did find one that had running water so I could wash my hands. (Just when you need a package of Wet Ones, you don’t have it, right?) And you really had to work at getting the toilet to flush so it seems a lot of people just didn’t bother. And finally, (and I know this isn’t Amtrak’s fault) the woman sitting across the aisle and one row back was the loudest snorer I’ve ever heard! Crossing the border seemed to take forever and by the time we got back to Toronto, we were exhausted. One good thing was that it dispelled our sadness in leaving NY because we were so happy to get back to our nice clean house, running water and flushing toilets!
All in all, though, it was a wonderful trip – a nice long visit in our favourite city, new adventures and old friends! And thanks to all the fodorites who gave us the benefit of their usual excellent advice!
And that's all, folks. Wow, I can't believe I did this -- this is the first trip report I've actually completed! Good for moi!
quot;> Thanks, Rich!
May 11th, 2008, 06:26 AM
#13
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Excellent trip and excellent report, goddess! It sounds like you had a wonderful time.
I was excited to learn about the Iridium Jazz Club, particularly Les Paul's monday evening performances. How cool that he's still out there performing. I think I just found the excuse for our next visit to one of our favorite cities, NYC. Thanks for the information.
BTW, I can't recall the number of times we've walked past and through the Port Authority, but somehow never saw the Ralph Kramden statue! I'll have to keep my eyes open for him next time we're in the area.
Robyn>-
I was excited to learn about the Iridium Jazz Club, particularly Les Paul's monday evening performances. How cool that he's still out there performing. I think I just found the excuse for our next visit to one of our favorite cities, NYC. Thanks for the information.
BTW, I can't recall the number of times we've walked past and through the Port Authority, but somehow never saw the Ralph Kramden statue! I'll have to keep my eyes open for him next time we're in the area.
Robyn
>-
May 11th, 2008, 12:43 PM
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Hi artstuff,
The Iridium was fun but it's not cheap. The tickets were $50pp with a $20pp drink minimun. (It says $10 on the website but that's old news, it seems). Still, it was a great night and I'm glad we went. At his age, I'm not sure we'll ever have a chance to see LP play again!
I'd love to hear about it if you do go!
The Iridium was fun but it's not cheap. The tickets were $50pp with a $20pp drink minimun. (It says $10 on the website but that's old news, it seems). Still, it was a great night and I'm glad we went. At his age, I'm not sure we'll ever have a chance to see LP play again!
I'd love to hear about it if you do go!
May 11th, 2008, 03:17 PM
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Sounds like you had a great trip!! I really enjoyed reading your report. And I'm really pleased to read about Porter Air. It sounds so much nicer than flying out of Pearson.
Your wonderful report makes me want to return to NYC for another visit.
Your wonderful report makes me want to return to NYC for another visit.
