Movie Tuesday

Mom and I had doctor appointments this morning so we caught a later movie. Luckily the movie was good, so I stayed awake. The movie was The Longest Ride, starring Clint Eastwood's son, a real hunk. There was some girl in it too. Anyway, it was a love story in the tradition of Nicholas Sparks, the author of the book. It may not be great literature, but the movie was sweet and we enjoyed it.

New York Revisited

While visiting NYC for a week, I made several observations. Granted we were staying in Manhattan, so I only can speak to that part of the city. We know nothing about Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, or Staten Island. There just wasn't enough time to explore all the boroughs. 

As for Manhatten, there are too many people there, both residents and tourists. It's probably good we are leaving. Everywhere you go you are among crowds of people. For everything you want to do, you must stand in line and wait, wait, wait. I can see how the city would be energizing for the young people. There's so much to see and do. Thousands of restaurants and many theaters and clubs. On the other hand, I found the hoards of people stifling. I yearn for my ranch and animals, which I will see soon if all goes well on the trip home.

And the diversity! We took taxi cabs most of the time (the subway only once) and each time our driver was from some other country. We had a driver from Senegal who only wanted to earn enough money so he could go back home to his farm. He said he bought the equipment he needed for his farm here in the states because it wasn't available in his country. 

Another driver was from Romania who had been driving a taxi in New York for 15 years. And another driver from Ecuador was more well versed in international concerns than any American we know, including me. We encountered no American born taxi drivers. Even the limo driver who took us from the hotel to the airport had some kind of accent. We didn't ask. He was very concerned about immigration at the Mexican border. These taxi drivers hear and participate in a lot of conversations. They know a lot. If you are in New York, just ask your driver whatever you want to know.

You can't walk down the street without encountering people of many different cultures and races. It's good, I think. Fairly soon you get used to the different language sounds and looks of people different from you. 

One thing that crossed our minds was how most people could afford to live in the city. On the subway, we talked to one girl who was in her 20s. Dennis asked her how she could afford her apartment. She told us her boyfriend's family owned their apartment and he inherited it. Otherwise the high cost of housing would be a problem. 

Everything in the city is expensive. You have transportation costs if you drive, ride the subway, take a taxi, or ride a bus. Maybe that's why you see so many people walking. Food is expensive. One of our taxi drivers was telling us that the people he knew ate Mac & cheese every night and paid the rent. That's all the money they had.

But if you have enough money, like millions, You can live across from Central Park and never go out. Then life could be good. As foe me, California here I come.

Going Home

This morning we packed our bags then went out to have breakfast at Smith's Bar & Restaurant. Then back to the hotel to wait for the car to take us to the airport. It looks good for traveling today. We stop in Dallas for a 2-hour layover. Unless something out of the ordinary happens, this blog of our travel to New York is over. Ta da.

It's Only a Play

Friday night we got a bite to eat at Mom's Kitchen, a deli near the hotel

Then we went to the Bernard G Jacobs theatre to see It's Only a Play starring Nathen Lane. The comedy turned out to be better than we first thought. We had a good time at the theatre then picked out a few pastries to eat in our room. It was about 11:30 or so when we got back to our hotel, so we only felt like trying what we thought was sfinge but turned out to be something else not as good. We went to bed knowing we would have to get up early to pack for our trip home.

Little Italy

Friday morning we set off in a cab to 12th St. to pick up New York's famous Highline. "The High Line is a 1.45-mile-long New York City linear park built in Manhattan on an elevated section of a disused New York Central Railroad spur called the West Side Line." (Wikipedia) We walked the whole line on a cold and blustery morning and yet we saw many other walkers despite the cold. There was even a school class of tiny kids and their teacher on a field trip apparently.

We caught a cab and headed toward Little Italy, but I needed a bathroom desperately so we got out in Greenwich and stopped for breakfast at a small, cute restaurant called Le Pain Quotidien, which I think is French for "bathroom available." 

After breakfast we hailed another cab and continued our quest for Little Italy. We stopped a little short and walked through Chinatown, which is creeping into Little Italy. There are only a couple blocks left in the Italian section and the Chinese have infiltrated those. We walked up and down the blocks past souvenir shops and Italian restaurants. We bought a couple of things in the Christmas in Little Italy store and had dessert in one of the more promising bakeries. No cannoli because I'm sure ours are better.

Then we cabbed back to our hotel for a little rest before we go to the theatre tonight. 

Thursday with the Perrys

This morning we took the subway to the American Museum of Natural History. We got it wrong the first time and had to double back because we were on the F or Blue line going to Jamaica instead of the C or Orange line to the museum. Anyway, we got there eventually, stood in line for tickets, and entered the museum. (Everywhere you go in NYC, you wait in line for whatever you want. It's like China.)

Our goal was to see the Hayden Planetarium. We found it and were herded, along with a bazillion 5- and 6-year-olds, into a domed theatre to watch the movie "Dark Matter" explaining how the universe was formed and the discovery of dark matter. You'll have to ask Neil deGrasse Tyson to explain. 

After the show, we did a little shopping in the museum gift shop and then went outside to wait for Haim and Nettie Perry to pick us up. Haim and Nettie live in New Jersy but come into the city often so they know what's going on there. They took us to the Museum of Art and Design, where we looked at the exhibits and had a light lunch at a very nice restaurant there. 

Then we all went to a place called Eatily, which was like an Italian whole foods market and eatery. After browsing the market goods, we went up to the roof restaurant for dinner. We didn't stay, though, because there was nothing, and I mean nothing, on the menu I would eat. All they had were body parts...pigs ears, veal sweetbreads, and I forget what else but it was other similar bits of animals. 

So then we got into the car again and went to SoHo to see the Casper bed that we saw on the Fareed Zakaria show. They said we could take a nap on it to try it out. We did lie on it for a few minutes but Haim and Nettie were waiting in the car so we didn't stay long. It seemed like a nice mattress though.

We had one more errand to run: I promised my hair stylist, Kim, that I would send her a New York cheesecake so we went to a bakery recommended by Baruck and ordered a 6-inch cheesecake to be delivered to Alpine, CA. The cheesecake cost $16 and the shipping was $54. Oh well, what the heck.

Haim and Nettie had heard about a pizza restaurant, Keste Pizza, and wanted to try it, so we went there for dinner. The pizzas were very good and had no weird stuff on them so I was happy, 

Finally, after a very full day, we returned to our hotel and said goodbye to our friends. We will probably see them again in San Diego.

Book of Mormon

Yesterday after our bus tour of Central Park, we caught a cab and met our friend Baruch at a Turkish restaurant for lunch. After lunch he drove us to a bakery restaurant for dessert. Baruch told us the restaurant was the one used in the movie When Harry Met Sally. We engulfed in a chocolate fondue of fresh fruit and marshmallows.

After lunch we went back to our hotel to rest for the evening performance of Book of Mormon. The play was everything we thought it would be...funny, rowdy and irreverent. It was a lot of fun and over much too soon.

Hop On & Off

This morning we took the Hop On, Hop Off bus for a tour around NY City. It was a bit cool & windy, but we were dressed warmly so it was ok. I took a few photos on the trip.

Beautiful

Last night we had dinner at Bond 45 then went to the theatre to see Beautiful, the story of writer/singer Carole King. We really enjoyed both the true story and the wonderful music. It was a very enjoyable event.

Tuesday, Our First Day in NYC

We are staying at The Muse hotel in Times Square, a vey nice hotel. Thankfully, they held our reservation since we never made it in on Monday. We have a suite on the 19th floor. Our view, though is only the buildings across the street. Views are hard to come by in NY. 

The first thing we did was take a nap. Boy were we tired. Afterwards, we set off walking toward Central Park, some 10 blocks away. At one corner we were accosted by a middle eastern bicycle cab driver who talked us into taking his cab on a tour of Central Park. But first he drove us to our restaurant for lunch. After lunch, we called him and he picked us up for the tour. He told us he left Turkey when he was 5, grew up in London, and has lived in the NY area for 20 years. Still, his accent was thick and we only caught parts of what he was saying. He was a funny guy, though, and we enjoyed the tour.

Inauspicious beginning

We left San Diego at 7:30 a.m. for New York with a change of planes in Atlanta. On the way to Atlanta we watched one of the movies I downloaded on my new IPad Air 2. The movie was Big Eyes, about Margaret Greene, the painter of the Big Eyes paintings--children with huge, sad eyes. Anyway, the flight was smooth and uneventful all the way to Atlanta. 

That's when all the trouble started. There was a half-hour delay before we got on the plane at Atlanta. Then when we got settled on the plane, they announced there would be a 2-hour delay because of bad weather in NY. They said we could disembark or stay on the plane. If we chose to get off, we would have to get new boarding passes to get back on. Most of us left the plane. Dennis and I got off the plane and checked in at the desk for new boarding passes. Of course there would be a delay before the boarding passes could be printed. 

It was about 5:30 p.m. by then and we thought we'd better get something to eat so we split a subway sandwich. We also had time to have a gelato. We finally were allowed back on the plane and flew off to our destination of La Guardia Airport. We watched another movie: Kill the Messenger, about the reporter who broke the Iran-Contra story during the Reagan administration. A thriller.

We had finished the movie and we thought we were ready to land when they announced they were circling the airport because of built-up traffic and bad weather. After going around and around for awhile, the pilot announced that La Guardia was closed and we were being diverted to Baltimore. As we were getting off the plane, they told us to check with the customer service desk to see about options for getting us to NY.

Because we were in the back of the plane, we ended up at the end of a long line of tired and disgruntled passengers. It was about 10 o'clock by then. People kept coming back from the customer service desk saying Southwest was telling everyone that there were no connections from Baltimore to any NY airport--ever. You can't  get from Baltimore to NY on Southwest Airlines. Eventually, we gave up and went to get our luggage and find a hotel for the night. We waited another hour for our luggage, which couldn't be unloaded because the containers were metal and there was lightning all around. 

Dennis got on the phone and made a reservation at the Microtel hotel near the airport. He also made reservations for the train to get us to NY in the morning. We finally got our luggage and went outside to meet the hotel shuttle. After 3 calls and nearly another hour we finally got loaded on the shuttle and taken to the hotel. By then it was after midnight EST.

We got about 4-5 hours of sleep then hopped on the shuttle, destination train station. The train ride was soothing after all yesterday's trauma. I wrote most of this blog on the train until it pulled into Penn Station. We rolled our bags off the train into the underground station, following most of the people up the stairs. 

Dennis said, "Everyone seems to be going that way, so we should probably go, too." I said, "Ok" and started going toward the stairs. I dragged my suitcase up the stairs with some difficulty and when I got to the top, I turned around and Dennis was nowhere to be found. Uh oh. I called him and he eventually found me. He went up the escalator on the other side of the stairs and I didn't know it. He thought it was all my fault because I didn't follow him and I thought it was all his fault because he was behind me and should have noticed I was going the wrong way. Oh, brother!

We eventually got over that and stood in another long line for the taxi. The taxi deposited us in front of our hotel and the situation started to improve.

Movie Tuesday

Movie Tuesday was a pleasure today. Woman in Gold is a fine film and Helen Mirren is wonderful in it. Of course, she always is.  Helen Mirren plays Maria Altmann, a Jewish refugee who enlists a young lawyer to help her recover a painting of her aunt stolen by the Nazis in WWII. The story is based on a Tacoma man's family history. This is one of the few good movie out there and worth seeing.