
New York, New York!
September 28, 2014 11:41 am“A New York Minute”
A New York minute is an instant. Or as Johnny Carson once said, it’s the interval between a Manhattan traffic light turning green and the guy behind you honking his horn.
(this so true – they love to honk their horns here!)
Friday Quote:
Friday, Sept 19
Saw our first subway rodent today – a RAT scurrying on the tracks below us. Eekk! The woman beside me tried to put me at ease by telling me it could be worse, they could be up here on the platform. Double EEKK!
Our main destination for the day was Little Italy. We had heard great things about it and how can you go wrong with Italian culture and food? We found the cross streets for the area and the first thing we noticed on a side street was a Christmas decoration over the road. Found it odd and considered perhaps it wasn’t removed from last year? But once we were on Mulberry Street, oh my Lord! Christmas decorations adorned multiple sections of every street for blocks and blocks! Little did we know Little Italy was in the final weekend of ‘The Feast of San Gennaro’. In short, a feast to celebrate a Patron Saint Naples – and feast it was! Oh the delicious smells that waffled down the streets. So many food and beverage vendors and also carnival games. We each had a piece of pizza and tried some cannoli (which I thought was a kind of pasta) – delicious! Our first and only dessert this trip. This area was a great experience for us!
Saturday, Sept 20
This morning our Walk to Central Park included ‘Strawberry Fields’, a park dedicated to the memory of John Lennon. There were guitar players lined up for their turn to play Lennon songs while people paid their respects. Some of the musians were very good!
A few blocks out of the park was the home of John and Yoko; and sadly the place where he has murdered. The building is called the Dakota. Apartments sell for between $4 – $30 million here. Apparently Yoko still owns a couple.
After breakfast we went to the Brooklyn Bridge; it was very crowded so we just walked a little ways on it. Never did make it into Brooklyn. Next we visited the September 11 Memorial grounds. Very sad to imagine what those people went through during that horrific period. The paper today said three 9-11 firefighters died all on the same day with illnesses caused from 9-11 chemicals on the ground. That brings the Ground Zero related deaths to 92.
Later we walked over to Battery Park and had a well deserved beer; a lot of walking this day. We could see the Statue of Liberty way off in the distance.
At dinner tonight we had the most amazing mushroom / French onion soup – both delicious separately but fantastic together!!
Sunday, Sept 21
Walked to Central Park where they were preparing for the Climate Change March. By ‘they’ we mean 350,000 people. They were just gathering when we walked through but it was interesting – every group offered you a sign to carry for their cause and there were many causes unrelated to Climate Change.
Manhattan was a little crazy / busy for the rest of the week because of the UN Summit.
Monday, Sept 22
Today, on the suggestion of My Friend Suzi, we walked along The High Line. The High Line is a public park built on a historic freight rail line elevated above the streets of Manhattans West Side. It is very artsy with awesome views of the surrounding area. We really enjoyed this walk. The expansion to the line had just opened the day before so Suzi and Tom, you will have to visit again!
After walking the line, we purchased our first food cart item as suggested by Jordan and Amy – a Halaal dish of chicken and rice, smothered in a delicious sauce. These carts are very popular and you see them everywhere in NYC. We had our lunch on the steps of a church while we did some people watching.
After lunch we realized we were very close to the Empire State Building so up we went. The prices for these tours are very reasonable and the lineup wasn’t too bad either. Incredible view of the city from up there – Manhattan is massive!
Tuesday, Sept 23
We are lucky that our apartment is not only close to Cemtral Park, but also Museum Mile. Today we decided to tour the Guggenheim Museum.
Much of the Museum was closed off for renovations, but we were able to view several exhibits. We enjoyed the modern art and some of the contemporary, however it was a struggle to appreciate some of the pieces. Two fans, one blowing left to right, the other up and down. OK…..Or the huge room filled with slide projectors, all with blank slides flashing nothing on the walls. Perhaps we will develop an appreciation for it over the next year but that is questionable. We did also enjoy the Frank Lloyd Wright exhibit of his masterpiece home – pretty futuristic back then!
We stopped for lunch – beer and burger – along Madison Avenue. As we were strolling home, the kids got out of school. Not your ordinary kids. Madison Avenue Private School kids; all in their various school uniforms. The few Moms we saw were dressed to the nines of course and there were many black cars parked along the streets to pick the little darlings up. Lots of money here.
Wednesday, Sept 24
Today we ventured back to Times Square to try and score 50% Off tickets to the Broadway production “Motown – The Musical”. We are both huge Motwn fans so it was our first choice and we had the tickets in no time flat. We had time for a nice lunch in a charming French Bistro first; lobster bisque (we can’t get enough of that) and salads; mine duck and Joe’s beet. Very yummy.
Motown was fantastic!! The performers all played the parts very well. Michael Jackson as a child could dance just like Michael but no one can sing like him. Diana Ross was portrayed as the Diva she is. Oh Marvin, Marvin….what a fox. The characters changed as did the years and the music was amazing. A couple of songs the audience just starting singing along – Motown had a lot of hits! It was 3 hours of enjoyment for us and worth every penny.
Thursday, Sept 25
I was excited about today because we were going to Wall Street! And it lived up to my expectation. Just being there and seeing the New York Stock Exchange, Trump Center and all the Financial and Federal Reserve buildings was thrilling. Lots of the streets were closed off and police were everywhere. Someone even asked US why there were so many police around. Still effects from the UN Summit we supposed.
Friday, Sept 26
We tried to go to the Statue of Liberty today but most of the tours were sold out by the time we got there and the waits were 2-3 hours. We had already had a nice lunch so decided to go to Grand Central Station and explore. We are Subway Pros now LOL. What an incredible building! And filled with people rushing here and there. We discovered a lower level, under the main terminal, that was all restaurants.
We ended the day with a very nice French dinner in a small restaurant.
Friday night in NYC from our balcony:
Watched the Red Wedding episode of Game of Thrones – OMG!!!
Saturday, Sep 27 (Happy Birthday Jordan!)
Our last full day in New York so we decided to have a look around the Metropolitan Museum of Art. What an expansive gallery! This museum has a suggested admittance price but you can pay whatever you want to pay. Interesting concept and I’m sure it makes it affordable for all to enjoy. We saw different works here – Asian, Egyptian, a nice variety. We think we have expanded our artsy sides enough for awhile (aka no more museums).
Photo Shopping ci. 1400:
This dog looks like Salsa!
Other works including a beautiful kimono display:
Nice apartment on the walk home; typical for Madison Avenue area:
Went for a great sushi dinner for our last night in Manhattan. Such a beautiful evening – still no jackets required.
We really got lucky on the weather here; one rainy morning and the rest were warm and sunny days. We loved our stay in New York and are sure to return one day – when I can do some shopping!! We never left Manhattan and would like to explore some of the other boroughs. The people here are lucky to have so much at their finger tips. So much culture, diversity, entertainment, great restaurants. We will miss Central Park! We always felt safe. Thank you New York!
Sunday, Sept 28
Today we Depart for Martha’s Vineyard!
Rough itenary for the next few weeks:
Martha’s Vineyard (3 days)
Boston (4 days)
Roadtrip up the coast of Maine (14 days)
Montreal (7 days) meeting our friends the Yandon’s here and possibly daughter-in-law Lindsay!
Quebec City (7 days)
Atlanta to Savana and beyond…
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See you soon!
2 Comments
Great job on capturing the experience of NYC! You guys really covered a lot of ground:) We’ll definitely have to get back there to check out the Highline.
What a spectacular job you’re doing with “going Mobile”. If any travel magazine is following, you may get a call to do some paid writing.
Are you keeping track of the distance you’ve covered walking?
Enjoy Martha’s!!