Tag: New York City

Kickoff to Travel Season

On By SusanIn Travel2 Comments

We mentioned that we were going to New York for Steven’s 40th (plus 20) birthday. Well, things didn’t turn out exactly the way we planned, but do they ever?

We took the long way to New York, via Mechanicsburg, PA, because my amazing, wonderful mother-in-law (OMG! She is such a suck up!) was in Maryland for Steven’s family birthday dinner. We were excited she was able to make it and didn’t mind the extra leg at all.

Now, let’s get to the weather. Memorial Day weekend? It was more like Thanksgiving weekend. Rain, drizzle, damp, cold and guess who forgot her raincoat. Sigh. When we are in NY, we tend to wander. Overprepared Steven had two warm jackets (and a raincoat that he gallantly gave to his wife), so I borrowed one and we braved the weather.

We stayed in Chinatown at Hotel 50 Bowery (I will leave the hotel review for another day) at the base of the Manhattan Bridge, so Friday night we ate at Shanghai Asian Cuisine. You have to have soup dumplings at least once or Steven does since they are meat-filled. Like most restaurants in Chinatown, don’t expect fancy, but do expect delicious, plentiful food. We were not disappointed. Everyone in Chinatown is still wearing masks. Restaurants have set up outdoor booths in the street (yes in the street, which if you know anything about Chinatown, you know are barely wide enough for cars as it is), some conveniently covered, and they take your temperature before you sit. There is plexiglass, plastic or a shower curtain between every table.

After dinner, we went to the Basement, which bills itself as a carnival-themed speakeasy, but was really just a bar with a nice atmosphere and delicious cocktails. We definitely skewed the age curve (most people were younger than my clothes). No temperature-taking, no separations between tables, just masks while walking around.

Saturday we wandered to REI to rectify my lack of rainwear. As luck would have it, they were having their annual sale. Rain jacket 30% off. Perfect. Steven got a couple of shirts and we may have purchased a stuffed bear for a certain small someone. Next, pizza for lunch, of course, followed by more wandering. That night, we had a wonderful Italian dinner with Uncle David and Aunt Marcella, who are always gracious when we are in town. We always enjoy the evening with them.

Citi Field. We will get there some day

Sunday, we hit another Chinatown spot for lunch, Deluxe Green Bo. Steven’s favorite part was that when we checked our temperatures, the results were spoken in an Australian accent. Afer lunch we went to the Guggenheim. Maybe we are old and cranky (and we were soaked because it was still raining), but they had an exhibit that was basically a long podcast, which we felt we didn’t have to shlep up- and crosstown to hear. We did mostly enjoy it, however. It’s just a pleasure to be able to go to a museum at all (masks required). All day we checked and rechecked the weather because we had tickets to the Mets-Braves game. Neither of us have never been to Citifield. I know, crazy, right! Alas, it wasn’t to be. We had pretty much decided not to go since it was cold and rainy, but at least we lucked out in that the game was postponed so we didn’t waste money on the tickets. Instead, we had a birthday dinner for Steven at The Warren in the West Village. The food and drink were spot-on. It’s clear that restaurants are still trying to adjust to people being able to go out as the service was a bit slow, but we were enjoying ourselves and in no hurry. I would recommend it. (Best part…the dessert arrived before the hostess could arrange for a candle, so she brought the candle separately lit it and held it while I blew it out.)

Happily for Steven, Monday’s weather was beautiful. Sadly for me, that meant I had to go to a Yankees game. I know I am biased, but the stadium did not impress and the food was typical 1970s stadium fare. Boooooo! BTW, the Yankees lost to Tampa 3-1 and I wore my Mets hat the whole time. Steven took the loss in stride as always. What a good sport. The game was over by 4 and we hit the road for the 3 1/2 hour uneventful drive home.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention: On Friday, I got an email from my friend (the one who got us thinking about our crazy adventures by telling us it was cheap to live in Burgundy) saying that she has a friend who needs an apartment-sitter for August in Paris. Um, YES! So, instead of leaving for France on August 30, we are leaving on July 27 and spending a month in the 16th arrondissement and environs. Paris nous voilà!

I will leave the verdict on the birthday weekend up to Steven, but I think it was a smashing success! (I absolutely agree, especially since I did not have to endure the Mets game!)

Imposing on Family

On By SusanIn Travel1 Comment

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Bye bye New York. Hope to see you soon.

Our last night in New York, I surprised Steven with tickets to Stephen Colbert. We weren’t sure we would get in because we got general admission tickets, not the priority ones, but after luckily standing outside under the overhang for “West Side Story,” since it was raining, we got the coveted wristband. So did a man who had been waiting with us—an actor who plays Vincent Van Gogh in a one-man play by Leonard Nimoy (who also lives right near my daughter in LA). Yes, he did look like him, but no, he was not missing an ear.  A bomb-sniffing dog and metal detector later (How is it that I always manage to be in the line where the person in front of me doesn’t understand how a metal detector works and so needs 4-5 tries to get through it??), we were in the last row at the Ed Sullivan Theater waiting for Colbert.

Aside from the warm-up comedian, Paul Mercurio, who was funny in a get-the-audience-jazzed way, and a round of “Tequila” from John Batiste and Stay Human (who, btw, are really good as far as my untrained ear can tell), the man himself appeared. The show featured Anthony Mackie and Susan Glasser. Mackie was fun and interesting (although he and Colbert spent some time talking in the foreign language of fishing), and Glasser (who writes for the New Yorker about the Washington political scene if you were too lazy to follow the hyperlink) had thoughtful ideas about politics, which we try to not to mention here lest this blog becomes a rant.

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Introducing? I thought NYC was ahead the curve on everything.

After the show, it felt really late. We are used to watching the monologue and Meanwhile and then going to sleep, old people that we are. But, it was really not even 7 p.m. So we walked back toward the hotel and decided that since it was taco Tuesday,  we would indulge. We went to Dos Caminos, because it was around the corner from the hotel. We didn’t realize it is part of a huge restaurant chain (which we tend to try and avoid so we can have a local experience), but it was good and the tequila list was extensive.

We said goodbye to New York on Wednesday and took the Amtrak train up to Boston. I figure with the airport transportation to and from and the waiting etc., the train is an even swap for a flight and it’s more comfortable. (free wifi and more space between the seats made it easy for me to work during the trip- YAY?)

Our lovely niece picked us up at the train and we just hung out with Steven’s brother and caught up.

Steven was working all day Thursday (remember, this is a working vacation) so I worked, too. (I did manage to have lunch with an old friend who lives here and I made sure that we went to a restaurant where I had my choice of MEAT as my brother, his family and Sue are all vegetarians so I am terribly outnumbered.) I did get in a long walk along a path nearby. I forgot the New England look so it a nostalgic few miles for me as I looked at the grand houses, pine trees, and stream. Oh, plus the high school kids practicing lacrosse.

The hiatus was longer than I expected

On By StevenIn Relationships, Travel, Uncategorized1 Comment

We apologize, we truly meant to restart the blog as soon as the wedding was over, but the next week or so was a bit of a whirlwind and so here we are, married for 18 days and still haven’t updated the blog.  We are slackers.  In our defense, we are also honeymooners, so there are other things occupying our–or at least my–mind(s).

For those of you who missed the cliff hanger at the end of last season; here is a quick recap….During our trip to Hawaii, Sue was foolish enough to agree to marry me.  We spent much of the summer planning the wedding.

We did the deed and got hitched on October 5th. Put the date in your calendar–yes, we expect cards every year.  The following week, we took a four-day weekend and went to New York.  The trip was planned well before the wedding, as we were allocated

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Gratuitous Bruce pic

Springsteen on Broadway tickets.  Once again, for those of you who did not watch last season….these were the second set of seats we bought as we went to see the show last December.

We flew out on Thursday morning.  When we arrived it was a bit chilly, overcast with a little rain.  We grabbed an Lyft to our hotel, the Hilton Garden Inn/Tribeca.  Once we had checked in, we began wandering.  Our first ramble took us south to the Financial District.  We stopped on the way for lunch at Picasso’s Pizza.  Nothing special just great pizza–Yum!  After lunch we walked down to a store called 21st Century.  Someone Sue knows recommended it, and since we didn’t have any real destination in mind, we went there.  Sue perused and tried on a few things, but nothing caught her fancy.  We wandered out towards City Hall (a bit accidentally, as we were trying to go back up town).  When we got near Pace University, it started to rain pretty hard, so we hopped onto the subway and took it back to our hotel.  We had a quick rest then got ready for dinner with my uncle who lives in Midtown.  After dinner, we were still wide awake, so we caught a late night set at Smalls jazz club.

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The piano at Smalls

Our tickets for Springsteen were for Friday night.  We planned to spend the day wandering in Central Park, then perhaps visit the Frick Collection.  However, fate, greed, or good luck intervened. At some point early in September we discussed the price of Springsteen tickets on StubHub.  I asked Sue at what price she would be willing to part with ours.  She gave me an unreasonably high number and said let’s try and sell them for that.  We listed them for sale and lo and behold while waiting for the subway on the way to Central Park, the tickets sold!  Sue did a magnificent happy dance on the platform, and then we hopped the train. We spent the next few hours giggly about our good fortune and looking for something to do that night.  We had walked through Central Park, bought tickets to a Broadway play called “The Nap“, and decided to grab lunch (by the way it was now about 3 p.m.).  We got back on the subway and went back downtown to Sweet Chick, a chicken and waffle place we had visited last December.  Lunch was fabulous, but we were stuffed, so we decided to walk back to Midtown to see the play–a quick, 3-mile wander.  The show was a farce set in Sheffield, England, about a snooker match that someone is trying to fix. It was very funny, and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

Saturday we had no fixed plan.  We woke up, and started with a long wander south.  Then we turned uptown and visited the future showroom of one of my clients.  As we were walking down the street, voila!, we found a national park.  On E. 20th is the birthplace of Teddy Roosevelt.   Of course we had to visit.  It was pretty cool.  They have a guided tour through the main rooms and the ranger gives a really informative talk about Teddy and his family.   We had dinner with one of Sue’s friends at a very nice Italian place. After dinner, Sue and I decided to go to Cocoa Bar for dessert.  After some really yummy desserts, we walked back to the hotel.

Sunday was our last day in New York.  Once again, we did not really have a plan, other than to continue our wanders.  We saw a notice for a pickle festival.  For no other reason than it seemed funny, we walked over to it.  It was  pickle stand next to pickle stand for 4 blocks (and person jammed up aimg_20181013_182109250_hdrgainst person for said blocks).  I had a sour pickle on a stick….Yum, but somewhat interesting for a late breakfast.  From there we visited the New Museum and then International Center for Photography.  Both were interesting, but I preferred the photography.  By now, we were hungry so we headed back into Chinatown and found a nice little noodle place.  It was great, but I do not recall its name.  We walked back to the hotel to grab our bags and head to the airport when we received a notice that our flight was delayed a couple of hours.  So, we relaxed in the hotel lobby, went for a little walk, had a drink and then it was time go.  We grabbed a Lyft to the airport and flew home.

Great weekend, great honeymoon.