Category: 2019: New York City

Summer travel

Day 17 in NYC: Final thoughts, home

Saturday, July 13. It’s funny. On Friday, I wasn’t ready for the trip to be over. Which is unusual at that stage, especially for a long trip. By the time I woke up on Saturday, I was. And when I’m ready to go, I’m ready to go and I’d rather just get moving.

I got the blog up about 8:45am and went over to The Franklin a few blocks away for breakfast again.

I sat at the same table as I did the other 2 times

French toast and sausage

I repeated the breakfast I got the prior Saturday and it was just as delicious. I was back to my room before 10am, packed and ready to go by 10:30. Not one to sit around, I arranged for a Lyft. Yes, Art, I left just after 10:30am for a 6pm flight :)

The ride to LaGuardia was about 45 minutes, with traffic really bad in Downton and some parts of Brooklyn. Made it through security fine and got to the lounge before Noon.

Initial corner I picked at the LaGuardia lounge

I’d originally picked this corner because of the view below, but could already feel the heat coming in through the windows. Decided I should find a cooler place since I was going to be here awhile.

View of Manhattan from that corner

The quiet area I stayed in for about 5 hours

It was a decent sized lounge and this was clear on the other side. Towards the end of my stay it got downright cold – I could’ve used a blanket!

The lounge WiFi had blocked WordPress, the platform I used for the blog, so I couldn’t work on this while I sat there for 5 hours, which was pretty annoying. I’ve blogged often from American Airlines lounges so not sure why the change, and of course the attendant I asked had no clue.

I still made good use of the time, getting caught up on personal emails, paying bills, etc. I also did the journaling I’d been wanting to do since the conference ended and was happy about that.

Flying through very fluffy clouds; looked cooler in real life :)

A thankfully uneventful flight to Dallas. I look these photos as we were in the final descent.

This looked pretty cool, too, I thought

This and the prior 2 shots were tall taken within a couple of minutes of each other

The DFW lounge was pretty empty so it was easy to find a quiet area. It was 9pm.

I was in the DFW lounge just about an hour before I had to board my final flight. My brain was kind of fried so I just played my game on my phone and browsed Facebook and Reddit. Another uneventful flight to Sacramento and another Lyft home, arriving about Midnight. And it was great to be home. I unpacked and just sat a little to unwind before finally going to bed a little before 2am. Up at 6:30am, today should be interesting :)

How do I wrap up what was an incredible trip on so many different levels?

Gay and Sober Men’s Conference: already registered for next year. I was impressed with the quality of the speakers and workshops and met many great guys from all over. And marching in the Pride parade was cathartic in ways I hadn’t anticipated, and in fact have probably never experienced. I got choked up talking about it to Art just a little while ago as we got caught up after my normal Sunday 8:30am AA meeting. The conference also gave me lots of ideas about how to focus my energy going forward, which is what I was journaling about yesterday. Lots of great things came out of this conference.

I’d done a total of 3 Broadway shows in two previous trips before this one, but this time was 7 over the course of 10 days. Everything about that was spectacular.

I always enjoy exploring neighborhoods when I travel but in NYC it is special, because there are so many references to them in pop culture. It changes it when you see them or hear about them later in movies, television, etc., and you know exactly what they’re talking about. More than any other trip here, and this was my 4th one, I really got that it’s probably a much more livable place than I’d imagined prior to this trip, especially in that swath of land covered by neighborhoods that have “village” in them, which is probably why I spent so much time there.

And as always, there was the blog. While sometimes I really feel the weight of the chore that it is – 2-4 hours a day and usually the longer side of that – it’s a great labor of love and I couldn’t imagine traveling without doing it. Thank you, Melanie :) It changes my experience of the trip in very meaningful ways because of how it influences how I go through my day and make a point to remember. And it becomes my souvenir, since I’m not a shopper or trinket person. And I’m my biggest fan: I re-read them often. That others enjoy them as well is just the icing on the cake, and I enjoy the interactions with you who are following along.

I received some feedback from a reader the other day that I wanted to address here, any case anyone else had similar concerns about one of my earlier entries. (I’ve already addressed it with them directly.) When talking about the show Book of Mormon, I’d written that “I tend to enjoy anything that pokes fun at religion.” I appreciated that this person was troubled by that, and realized I should have followed the instinct I had when I wrote it, thinking it might not go over well in some circles. But it’s my truth, I was in a time crunch to get the blog up (it would be devastating to miss a day – I would never catch up!) so I let it go, thinking the rest of the entry would explain the context.

So in case it concerned anyone else who read that, let me be clear I was referring to the institution of religion, not individuals who may practice any particular denomination. What might have been a simple way to fix it was to say instead: “I tend to enjoy things that poke fun at the contradictions, hypocrisy, and illogical thinking that can come from the institution of religion.” It’s only when religion does things like, for example, ignore science, that I lose my mind. Or ignore principles for political reasons. But I maintain that what Book of Mormon does so brilliantly, and why it might be my favorite show (although Defying Gravity in Wicked is life changing…) is point out those problems with religion where they exist, while absolutely respecting the people who have acquired a faith that works for them. I happen to be one of those people, I just choose to practice outside any particular religion. I used to have a button on my desk that said “my god is too big to fit inside one religion” which is very true for me. (The “Living in the Gray” side of my blog has some entries where I attempt to explain my spiritual worldview. This one is probably my favorite, providing a 100k foot view of how I got where I got.)

So apologies to anyone who was the least but troubled by any of that. I always feel privileged by those who are dedicated followers of my travel, and I know this to be true of the person who provided the feedback, and never want to say anything that feels hurtful or contradictory of my own principles. I appreciated the feedback and the opportunity to work it out, and I hope that has occurred.

Finally, I want to end with a poem that was the last display at the Auschwitz exhibit at the Museum of Jewish Heritage. It was fitting that I saw this on the final day of my trip, because it supported ideas that occurred during the conference and that I’ve been mulling over since. It was written an Auschwitz survivor Charlotte Delbo in 1971 (punctuation added by me):

You who are passing by, I beg you: Do something. Learn a dance step. Something to justify your existence. Something that gives you the right to be dressed in your skin, in your body, hair. Learn to walk and to laugh. Because it would be too senseless, after all, for so many to have died while you live, doing nothing with your life.

What’s next?

July 14, 2019
Day 16 in NYC: Museum of Jewish Heritage; Village wanderings

Friday, July 12. Thankfully the rain had passed overnight and there was no more in the forecast. I got the blog up around 9am and made my way out.

I took a bus to Journal Square PATH, only made a huge rookie mistake, and got on the bus from the wrong side of the street, therefore going in the wrong direction. And I wasn’t paying attention so didn’t figure it out until my only option was to enjoy the ride until it made the complete loop! Oh well, good thing I wasn’t on a tight schedule.

Good morning! The subway was pretty crowded still for being after 10:30am.

I love the hustle and bustle of people moving through public transportation centers

I was very excited that the World Trade Center line ended underneath Oculus (a major transportation hub which I’ve mentioned in prior entries).

I do love this building

My continued fascination with this building

I’d read somewhere that this was designed to look like a bird taking flight, which I can see from this angle.

It was 11am, I’d been up since 5am and hadn’t eaten anything. I picked up a pretzel from a street vendor and ate it on my way to the museum, which was about a 12 minute walk from the train.

You had to buy tickets for specific times for the Museum of Jewish Heritage; now I was glad I had picked 11am! I would only be a few minutes late.

Entrance to the Museum of Jewish Heritage, a Living Memorial to the Holocaust

A train car from Auschwitz at the museum entrance

This museum was a late addition to my itinerary. One of the (many) guys I met at the Gay and Sober Men’s conference told me about it (I wish I could remember who now!), specifically that there was a special exhibit on Auschwitz. For those of you who have been around for the earlier Europe blogs (2013-15), you know I’ve sought out a lot of material on WW2, so I didn’t want to miss this opportunity while I was here.

It happened, therefore it can happen again: this is the core of what we have to say. It can happen, and it can happen everywhere.” Auschwitz survivor Primo Levi

This was at the entrance to the exhibit.

Hmm.

The exhibit wasn’t just about Auschwitz, but the whole history of the Jewish struggle dating back to 70 CE. It also provided details of the creation of the Nazi party, starting after WW1 (which, as some of you have heard me say before, you can’t really talk about WW2 without talking about WW1). So it was an extensive, historical exhibit.

I decided early on not to take many photos. It was a crushing exhibit and I realized there was no way I could do it justice. If you have an opportunity, just go. What I did think about was how anyone can deny this happened in the face of overwhelming and soul sucking evidence.

Somehow these survived

This was one thing I wanted to remember for sure. These were photographs that people sent to Auschwitz had on them when they got there, even though everything else had been taken from them. These were somehow kept in administration files somewhere, and found years later when Auschwitz was being converted into a museum. It made me wonder: who kept them? A Nazi soldier who still had remnants of humanity left inside of him?

A patio from the 2nd level of the museum, Statue of Liberty in the background

I was there about 2 hours. It was more than enough. I decided to spend the rest of the afternoon wandering the Village (Greenwich and West) again so made my way there via subway.

I took a lot of photos of the World Trade Center that morning but decided to include just this one.

On my way to the subway.

Entrance to the Hugh Carey Tunnel from a pedestrian bridge

This used to be known as the Brooklyn-Battery bridge. It’s the longest span of underwater vehicular bridge in the country at just under two miles.

I got off the subway at 14th St and went in search of one last pizza stop for this trip.

Outside of Village Pizza

This was at 13th St and 8th Ave, in Google as a “small, nothing-fancy local pizzeria.” Perfect!

This was the whole place. 3 tables.

Pepperoni, bacon, ham. The pizza slice was $3. The diet coke was $3.75. That’s just wrong.

From here I really just wandered. I sort of made a point of going by every public park space I came across on the map as I did so.

Jackson Square, across 8th Ave from the pizza place

Entrance to the NYC LGBT Center on 13th St

I had walked by this before from the other direction sometime last week, but hadn’t noticed what it was until Jonathan took me here after the meeting on Monday. Note the tree is covered in a rainbow sweater. And that both the flag and the sweater include brown and black stripes, expanding the diversity representation of the flag.

Hibiscus iced tea and a fig coconut bar

This is an amazing center with over 20 different support groups meeting here each day. There’s also a nice coffee shop, with both indoor and outdoor seating. I didn’t feel comfortable taking photos of the inside or outside since there was so many people about and that might not go over well. That fig bar, by the way, was a thing of beauty.

Park at the center of NYC AIDS Memorial

This is a park in a triangle formed by 12th St, 7th Ave, and Greenwich Ave.

4 posters on the sidewalk outside of the memorial park: AIDS in the old LOVE format; Silence=Death; I have AIDS, please hug me; Stop AIDS

These run alongside the Greenwich Ave section of the Memorial.

A white sculptured canopy at the NYC AIDS Memorial

This is at the corner of Greenwich and 12th. This location was picked because it’s across from the old St. Vincent’s hospital, which was at the center of the early epidemic, as featured in “Angels in America”. That’s a lovely, soothing fountain in the middle. While not easy to see in this photo, the ground is fully inscribed with lines from Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself.”

Abingdon Square, surrounded by Hudson Street (which is 9th Ave a few blocks north), 12th St, 8th Ave. Bleecker St starts just below this.

This was erected in honor of those who died in “the world war.” Put up in 1921.

Bleecker Street starts just below Abingdon Square. Since I keep coming across it this trip, I decided to walk the whole thing. So glad I did. It might be the most interesting street I’ve come across in all of my travels. There was a wide variety of shops, many of them quirky, and incredible people watching opportunities as well. Just a few photos of the many I took.

This was in front of a jewelry store! So random.

This was a home decoration shop. Look closely at the writing on the right window.

In case you couldn’t make that out. I couldn’t resist.

On the window of a clothing store: Remember that you are a mother f#*%ing superstar.

Fountain in Father Demo Square

From nycgovparks.org: The popular West Village square is named for Father Antonio Demo, who was appointed the pastor of the nearby Our Lady of Pompeii church in 1900 and served the community for more than 30 years

I’d never seen so many restaurants on one block, anywhere. Possible exception of Amsterdam.

This is MacDougal street where it intersects Bleecker. I’d never seen so many different kinds of restaurants in one place before. In just one block you could have: burgers, Italian, Ethiopian, Indian, Egyptian, a Berlin Doner (which is really sort of Turkish), playa bowls (fresh fruit, smoothies, etc.), crepes, Mexican, Vietnamese, pizza, and Japanese. One block. And those were just the ones I noticed.

My favorite? Insomnia Cookies. “Warm, fresh cookies delivered until 3am.” You really can get just about anything you want at any time in NYC.

It was now about 5:30pm. I’d thought about doing a number of things – seeing another off Broadway show, going up to “the top of the Rock” at Rockefeller Center as examples. In the end I was more in the mood to wind down, and realized I’ve “lived” in Jersey City for 2 weeks and had never been downtown. So that’s where I headed.

I picked up the PATH train at 9th Street and got off at Grove St in Jersey City.

A street fair just outside the train station; the train exit was from under that green roof in the background.

A very lively scene in downtown Jersey City just as I exited the train station

That banner says “Groove on Grove” announcing a music event along Grove Street, which is filled with restaurants and bars, and is running across the intersection in this photo so you can’t really see it.

Pedestrian area of Jersey City

There were several blocks of “pedestrian plaza” which I always appreciate, filled with a wide variety of nightlife and food.

Rooftop lounge of Six 26

This is a gay focused restaurant/lounge on the rooftop of 128 Christopher Columbus Street, which intersects Grove at the center of downtown. It is named Six 26 in honor of June 26, 2015, when the US Supreme Court legalized gay marriage.

Small tables against glass wall at end of the rooftop with orange umbrellas, and rainbow flag draped over the outside of the glass

Fish and chips with cole slaw

Walking along Grove Street in Jersey City. Last selfie of the trip?

It was about 7:30pm and I was officially done. I took a Lyft back to the house because from this particular spot it would have taken 2 buses to get there. Luckily I had earned credits from prior Lyft rides and it only cost me the $2 tip!

I have to check out of here by Noon but my flight is at 6pm. What was I thinking? Good thing I will have lounge access. I will start – and hopefully finish! – my traditional “final thoughts” entry from there.

July 13, 2019
Day 15 in NYC: The Frick Collection, a lunch date, and Off Broadway Puffs

Thursday, July 11. I’d gone to bed late for me and slept in until almost 7am, which is really late for me. There wasn’t much to the blog entry from the day before so had it up before 8:30am. The first thing I had planned was a lunch date at 1pm so I had plenty of time to work something else in.

I decided on The Frick Collection. I had it on the list for this trip but things got moved around when I stayed in for most of Monday and wasn’t sure I could work it in. Now was the time. It’s in the Upper East Side which is where my lunch was so it all made sense.

I left around 10, took a bus to Port Authority Bus Terminal, then went into the 42nd St subway station. I’d have to take 2 trains to get where I was going.

I hadn’t noticed one of these before, but I had seen some posters about how MTA is trying to increase accessibility. Notice it’s in Braille, too.

When I got to my platform for the 7 train, I noticed this plaque. Had never seen one before, but glad they’re working on accessibility. See the Braille at the bottom? I notice constantly how inaccessible this city is from a disability perspective. Took the 7 to Grand Central then transferred to the 6 which goes up Lexington on the East Side.

Entrance to the Frick Collection from 70th Street

I almost didn’t go in once I got here. The fee was spendy as museums go – $22, and you couldn’t take photos. The Met, by comparison, is $25 for its 3 day pass to any of its 3 museums. But it was only 11:20am so what would I do otherwise? I bit the bullet and went in.

Glad I did.

Henry Clay Frick grew up with not a lot, never finished college. Started in the coke business (and in this context it’s carbon, relates to the steel industry) with his cousins and eventually got involved with Carnegie. Did well for himself overall, and in his mid-50’s he developed an interest in art and began a serious collection. It grew quickly and he had this mansion built for the purpose of having a place to display his collection. He constructed it with the intention that it would be turned into a museum upon his death. The mansion was completed in 1914. He died in 1919. His will stipulated that his wife would continue to live here until her death. It was turned into a museum in 1931.

And it’s quite the collection. Many names you wouldn’t recognize. Lots that you would: Rembrandt, Vermeer, Van Dyck, Degas, Monet, Manet, Frans Hals.

I was excited to see Frans Hals work here, there were several pieces. You don’t see him much but on my first trip to Europe Dan and I visited a museum dedicated to him in Haarlem, Netherlands, where he is from.

But my favorite find here was the work of Thomas Gainsborough. There was a room with many large portraits all around it that were beautifully done. One in particular caught my attention. It was of an elegant woman in a blue dress. The style reminded me of Blue Boy, but I couldn’t remember the painter’s name. I looked it up and sure enough: Thomas Gainsborough, and this entire room was all his work. There was more of his in other parts of the museum as well. I had never heard of him until Dan and I went to the Huntington Library in Pasadena at the end of 2017. It was there I was so excited to see Blue Boy, which we had as a print in the house I grew up in; it never occurred to me as a child that it was a real painting. Clueless back then.

In the men’s room. What’s wrong with this picture? I thought this only happened in England.

This was the only area you were allowed to photograph.

I really enjoyed this collection. I also watched a 15 minute film about Frick and the museum, which was where I got most of the above information.

The Frick Collection from across 5th Ave

I left around 12:20 and slowly made my way down 5th Ave along and through Central Park.

Just your random sitting spot against Central Park along 5th Ave

A beautiful day so far, although lots of rain in the forecast for the afternoon and evening

This was the area behind me from the prior photo

Skyscrapers from a hill in Central Park

More “I just like this way this looks” photos. Looking down 5th Ave with central Park on the right.

Entrance to Rotisserie Georgette on E 60th.

My friend, Meher, had made reservations here for 1pm. It was now just about 12:45.

Entrance to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, next door to the restaurant

This was across the street. I was early so browsed a little.

They still have their Pride stuff out

A quick photo inside; I was self-conscious of taking it for some reason

Meher arrived right at 1pm and we quickly dove into conversation. She’s an Employee Relations Manager for a law firm a few blocks from here. We met in – 2013? – when I hired her at Nationwide. When I was here last year she reminded me she’d left Nationwide (after I did) and was back in NY, and we’d met for breakfast then. It was great to see her again, then and now.

Cold corn soup

I love anything corn and this was lovely on a warm, humid day with a storm brewing outside.

Rotisserie chicken, fries, salad

Roasted cherry creme brulee

This might be the best bite of the trip. Those cherries in the custard just dissolved in your mouth. Amazing flavors and textures.

The waiter was happy to take a photo of us.

We were there close to 2 hours; I walked her back to her office after, on Madison Ave.

My next thing was a 4pm appointment for a pedicure and massage at a place in Chelsea I’d discovered in my wanderings the day before, and made the appointment then. I got to that neighborhood about 3:20 and found a place to sit with a bit for coffee just around the corner. It hard started to rain a little. The Weather Channel had been blasting flash flood warnings on my phone all day, starting about this time. I wasn’t looking forward to that but was glad to have the refuge of the spa coming up.

This was a place called Essen. Had a great variety of food, seemed reasonably healthy and reasonably priced.

Living Fresh Men’s Spa

Living Fresh Men’s Spa, on 22nd Street just off of 7th Ave I think. This was a classy joint with very reasonable prices.

My feet get really gross while traveling because I usually only wear sandals and do a ton of walking, as you know.

They offered me free wine, I took the bottled water instead :)

This was a nice, elegant place. Very classy.

The massage was really good, and there was a shower available in the massage room which was handy and I took advantage of before and after. While I didn’t know it when I took this photo, the room for my massage is the open door. That’s a mirror reflecting the table; it was pretty small!

I was done there just before 6pm. I had an 8pm show in the Theater District but had forgotten to make dinner reservations, so I decided to stay in this neighborhood for dinner. Per Yelp, the #1 place in the area was a dumpling place. Can’t go wrong with that.

Excellent Dumpling House on 23rd

It was prime time – 6pm – and had a decent crowd.

This is one of my favorite dumplings, shumai. The shrimp on top was a nice touch. They were pretty tasty.

Sizzling spicy beef chow fun: beef, noodles, onions, peppers, served on a hot skillet

From here it was a straight shot on the C train up 8th Avenue. It was So Crowded I almost didn’t get on the first one that arrived. And it was already 7:15pm.

New World Stages theater marquee from the sidewalk

This is on 50th Street, but “the other side” of 8th Ave from the theater district, which I guess is what qualifies it as “off Broadway”? Or perhaps that just references the quality of the show. (Actually – I just looked it up: off Broadway is any theater with seating capacity for 100-499; under 100 is “off-off-Broadway”. The More You Know :) )

This was a complex with 5 different theaters in it. I was here to see a Harry Potter themed show with a ridiculously long title – “Puffs: Or 7 Increasingly Eventful Years at a Certain School of Magic and Magic.” Yes, magic used twice.

This was sort of Harry Potter meets Monty Python. Silly, spoofy comedy, very physical, but engaging and fun nonetheless. I do believe you have to have a background in HP to not only appreciate but understand what’s happening. They seriously condense all 7 books into 90 minutes. So many inside jokes. A large ensemble cast, many who played multiple parts (which I finally realized on this trip happens a lot, I’d just never noticed before), and as I watched I appreciated how actually complex the staging was and can’t imagine what the rehearsals must’ve been like. Art had seen this last year and recommended it. I was glad it’s still running and just in time – it’s closing in August.

I was in first row balcony. It was a pretty small theater.

Cobweb looking decorations and paintings were slung around the balcony walls and railings – to my left

Cobweb looking decorations and paintings were slung around the balcony walls and railings – to my right; downstairs, too

The after-show cheesecake tradition. Strawberry.

Since this might be my last opportunity for cheesecake I couldn’t resist one final stop at Junior’s.

It wasn’t raining too too bad and I walked back to Port Authority Bus Terminal. I got back to my place around 11:45pm.

The big thing today is the Jewish Heritage museum. Will see what else I come up with as the day goes. Last full day in NYC! I’m surprisingly not ready for it to be over.

July 11, 2019
Day 14 in NYC: More neighborhood roaming; The Prom

Wednesday, July 10. I only had 2 things planned for this day: lunch with friends at the Empire State Building, and visiting Alphabet City, a neighborhood within the East Village. Mostly I walked – over 10 miles according to the step counter on my phone. And, as I review the photos, I realized my fascination with intersections continued! Not sure what that’s about other than my interest in understanding how things are laid out.

The lunch date was early, set for 11:15am due to some work meetings they had. I left the house about 9:30am, took a bus to the Hoboken train station, and picked up the PATH train. It ended at 33rd street which was right where I needed to be, but got off at 23rd St since I had time to kill and couldn’t remember spending much time in that area before.

This is both part of Penn Station and the main post office for NYC.

The first time I’d encountered Penn Station was on Sunday I think, approaching it from Midtown along 7th Ave. It looked nothing like this! With a lot of it underground, you can enter it from many places along 31st and 33rd Sts, and 7th and 9th Aves. The above intersection is 8th Ave at 31st St.

Madison Square Garden is entwined in the Pennsylvania Station complex

And this is across 8th Ave from the building in the prior photo.

My view as I turned onto 34th St from Eighth Ave.

Entrance to Macy’s at Herald Square from 34th St

This is the flagship Macy’s location, and the one from the movie Miracle on 34th Street.

A fun intersection. It’s amazing how many times up and down the island I’ve crossed Broadway on this trip. You can barely see the Macy’s entrance from the square bottom left. I went in to kill time and because I knew they’d have clean restrooms!

I can’t seem to get enough of this building: Empire State from Herald Square

I was meeting my friends Cory and Alysse who work at LinkedIn, and whose offices are in the Empire State Building. How fun is that? Art and I met Cory here last year and he took us up to the Observation deck; it was great fun. No need to do that again but we had a fun visit over lunch. Rather than the LinkedIn cafeteria – which is amazing and free to them and their guests and where we ate last year – they wanted to go out. Since it was on them (I’m a client) I certainly didn’t complain. We went to a restaurant that’s within the ESB although I didn’t catch the name – too caught up in conversation as we were walking. And too caught up to remember to take a photo of them!

I love getting burgers at higher end restaurants, this one with mushrooms. I didn’t disappoint.

We had a nice visit and said our goodbyes around 12:30. The ESB building is at the corner of 34th Street and 5th Ave. I’ve walked big portions of of 5th Ave in my collective visits, from where it starts at Washington Square, past Central Park in the 60’s. But I’ve spend very little time (or so I thought) on 6th and 7th in this part of town so decided to wander. And that’s really all I did for the next several hours. It was fun and interesting from a getting-to-know-the-city sort of way but not very photogenic. I had several moments where things “clicked” as I’d come across some place I’d been before, but approached from a completely different angle. Hard to explain, but I love it when that happens.

Inside of Elmo’s. I was sitting in the front corner by the street window; it was about 4pm so no crowd yet. The after work drinking crowd has started to flow in as I left.

Around 4pm I’d decided I needed a snack and stopped into this on 7th Ave around 19th St.

I had no idea this would be this big! This ended up being an early dinner.

It was an amazing amount of food for an appetizer and I decided it would just be my early dinner. Good thing lunch was early and I’d just eaten a little bit of leftovers (Korean and Cuban!) for breakfast so it all worked.

When planning my Broadway shows for this trip, I’d bought most of the tickets back in January for the things I knew I wanted to see. I’d decided then I would leave some room to see something randomly using the discount ticket services, of which there are several available. While sitting here I realized if I was going to do that, tonight was my last real opportunity: I have tickets to my last show on Thursday and (at the moment at least) want to leave Friday night open. I pulled up a ticket app recommended by Art and Mike, TodayTix, to see what was available that night. Surprisingly, there were orchestra seats available for The Prom for $99 for that night. I’d heard good things about it from several friends on Facebook, and it was nominated for 7 Tony’s (didn’t win any, sadly) so figured it was a worthwhile risk. I bought the tickets while I was sitting at Elmo’s. I knew nothing else about this show until I sat in my seat in the theater later and read some articles on it.

Originally I’d thought I’d go back to Jersey City early and have a quiet evening in. Not. Now what? I had about 3 hours to kill until showtime. I continued walking and found myself in the West Village again.

Another fun intersection. I didn’t realize these two streets intersected but it made sense that they did.

I had been on both of these streets on Monday but didn’t realize they intersected

This is a super charming neighborhood but I feel like I’ve included too many photos on this trip already of tree lined streets flanked by red brick buildings with fire escapes :) So I’ll spare you!

It was about this time that I realized I’d forgotten the original plan: Alphabet City, which was way across the island in the East Village, over a mile. Oh well, I had the time so started moving in that direction.

The arch in Washington Square. Certainly you’ve seen this before (especially if you’re an SVU fan…)

Cooper Union building at Cooper Square

This building has an interesting history. Built in 1859, it was the first to use I-steel beams, and also the first to be built with an elevator shaft, even though elevators hadn’t been invented yet. The builder, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper for whom the square and building is named, was sure they would be soon!

He had this built as a fully funded school, which included women students, quite progressive at the time: Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. It provided every student with a full scholarship until 2014.

This is also the site of a famous Abraham Lincoln address on slavery, given on February 27, 1860, and known as the Cooper Union speech.

Cooper Square is at 8th St and 3rd Ave. Alphabet City is past and below that, well over onto 1st Ave, and called so because it’s street names are letters, most famously Avenue C. It has a huge square called Tompkins Square Park where lots of people were about, including basketball courts in full use. It’s the neighborhood that the musical/movie Rent was set in, and was quite seedy back in the 90’s when that debuted. I will admit to secretly hoping some of that seediness was still around, but it’s all been quite gentrified. It looked like everything else I’ve been seeing. It is a diverse, lots of interesting ethnic restaurants around, especially Cuban.

I left this area around 7pm and took a subway uptown. The M train took me to Rockefeller Center at 49th and 6th Ave; my theater was at 48th between 7th and 8th.

Sidewalk marquee for The Prom

The TodayTix folks met you on the sidewalk to give you your ticket.

The theater was small to begin so any seat would have been good, but I was happy with my row M seats.

The Prom was super enjoyable, very funny, amazing performances, great costumes and staging. The premise is: 4 narcissistic and aging Broadway stars are looking for a “cause” to support that will help with their reputation. They pick a teenage lesbian in a small town Indiana (if they ever provided a city name, I missed it) whose high school is giving her a hard time about attending the prom with another girl. They descend upon this small town to help her and hilarity ensues. I was surprised how much I enjoyed it actually; it was very campy and that’s usually not my thing but the writing was great and the performances were amazing. The actress who played the high school lesbian, Caitlin Kinnunen, was my favorite. She earned her first Tony nomination for this role. While I’m still thinking about whether or not I need the soundtrack for Dear Evan Hansen, I will get this one for sure.

Times Square really is something at night, and this is the heart of it at Broadway around 46th St

The show ended about 10:30pm and I made my way back to Jersey City, but not before a dessert stop.

Carrot cake cheesecake

I took the bus back to the house and got home around 12:15pm.

Today is another light day, with a lunch date and my last show this evening: Puffs. There are also flash flood warnings in effect all day for NJ and NYC so we’ll see how all that goes.

July 11, 2019
Day 13 in NYC: Fort Tryon Park & The Cloisters; Harlem; Dear Evan Hansen

Tuesday, July 9. I did what I’d planned the day before and took advantage of The Met’s 3 day pass to visit another museum. Since I’d taken the prior day off I won’t have time for the other one. Oh well. I had a little bit of leftover Cuban food for breakfast!, and made my way out about 10am after getting the blog up.

The Cloisters museum is in Fort Tryon Park, in the north part of Manhattan on the Hudson River. The park was developed by John D. Rockefeller and presented to the city in 1935. The fort part has ties to the revolutionary war.

190th St subway station. I’d never been this far north in Manhattan before.

Entrance to Fort Tryon Park

George Washington Bridge through the trees

Hudson River

The view to my right of the above shot

It was a nice 10-15 minute walk into the park to get to the museum. Beautiful area with great views into the Hudson River valley. I wasn’t expecting it to be so hilly! That was a nice surprise.

Side view of the Cloisters Museum as I made my way up the hill

The entrance to the Cloisters

The Cloisters was not like any museum I’d ever been in. Here’s a description from The Met’s website: “Located in Fort Tryon Park in northern Manhattan, on a spectacular four-acre lot overlooking the Hudson River, the modern museum building is not a copy of any specific medieval structure but is rather an ensemble informed by a selection of historical precedents, with a deliberate combination of ecclesiastical and secular spaces arranged in chronological order.”

In some of the displays things were arranged to make a point, in other areas there were entire rooms of ruined abbeys redeveloped here, with actual remains or with materials used from the region. All of the art itself is authentic, including in some cases intricate doorways, but the building itself was constructed to house it all in.

All that said I took a ton of photos, but will be selective about what I include. As with many things of this nature, after awhile it all starts to look alike!

This was the first of several rooms in the museum, which are recreations of specific places or ensembles to serve as examples

The Resurrection, relief painted in gold and silver leaf. Spanish, circa 1500.

Lion trampling a dragon, circa 1200. Made me think of Lannisters and Targaryeans :)

Closeup of the crucifix in this room

This was the main room off the lobby area. There were several rooms off of this one. Notice the door at the end of it with the elaborate frame.

Medieval painting of a lion, Spanish, circa 1200. The monastery from which this came was abandoned in 1841. This was on the wall to the left of the shot above.

Closeup of the doorway at the far end of the room. From the Burgundy area of France, circa 1250. From the abbey of Moutiers-Saint-Jean, near Dijon.

The chapel seen in the back of that first room, up close

The courtyard view from the inside

In the courtyard; my attempt for a dramatic view of those columns failed, but I still liked it :)

See the people in the corner? The guy in the white shirt is about to head down a staircase – there’s another room down there

This is the chapel at the bottom of that staircase

Plates, painted and partially gilded enamel on copper, of 5 heroes: Julius Caesar, Roland, King Arthur, Alexander the Great, Godfroy de Bouillon

Closeup of the King Arthur plate

The Unicorn Defends Itself – a tapestry from the Netherlands, around 1500.

I probably spent about 90 minutes here. I’d eaten just a little bit of leftovers early on and was pretty hungry at this point. I went to the New Leaf restaurant in the park, which Jonathan had highly recommended. He wasn’t wrong.

Entrance to New Leaf restaurant in the park – lovely stone building amidst lots of trees

Grilled chicken sandwich with fries

The sandwich was very tasty, and the fries were perfect – a nice crispness and just the right amount of grease :)

Roasted brussel sprouts with bacon

Another thing I will always get when I see it on a menu, and happy that I’m seeing it more often.

It was probably approaching 2pm when I got back on the subway. Since I had to make my way back to Midtown, I decided to stop in Harlem on the way, and got off at the 125th St station.

Frederick Douglass Blvd at 125th St

Prior to today the farthest north I’d been was around 110th, when Jon and I visited the AA World Service Office in 2011.

The Apollo Theater

Home of “Showtime at the Apollo.” Many, MANY famous people go their start here, including Billie Holiday, Sammy Davis Jr, Diana Ross & The Supremes, Dionne Warwick, and the Jackson 5. The list goes on and on.

For the most part Harlem looked like lots of other neighborhoods I’ve seen. I think this was 127th St.

Harriet Tubman memorial in Harlem

Harriet Tubman escaped slavery in 1849 via The Underground Railroad, and spent the next 10 years helping others do the same.

back of Harriet Tubman statue

The artist is African-American sculptor Alison Saar. She depicted Tubman “not as the conductor of the Underground Railroad, but as the train itself, an unstoppable locomotive, the roots of slavery pulled up in her wake.” I love that.

I got back to Midtown around 3:30pm. Still having several hours to kill, but not enough time to get back to the house, I just walked. Oh, and stopped for dessert.

Key lime cheesecake

This is the Junior’s on 45th St. I hadn’t yet figured out where my show was this evening and in looking for it discovered it was right across the street from this! Convenient.

Statue of Christopher Columbus in Columbus Circle, SW corner of Central Park, 8th Ave and 58th St

I’d never actually been to Columbus Circle, another very famous landmark, so made my way up 8th Ave from there.

There are fountains on either side of the circle, with lots of people hanging about.

Closeup of a bronze relief done of ships from 1492, on the pedestal

I just liked the look of the sun setting behind these glass buildings, taken from Columbus Circle.

Entrance to the SW corner of Central Park

It sort of looks like they were put there just for the birds! “Come rest here”

From here I trekked over to Park Ave, where I hadn’t been since 2011. Came across Carnegie Hall along the way – didn’t know where it was until that moment.

Carnegie Hall, on 57th St around 7th Ave

Iconic view of Park Ave, with the Met Life building behind The Helmsley Building, which sits over Park Ave between 45th and 46th Sts.

Park Ave is the only one that has, well, park-like stuff in the middle of it!

I learned from my friend Pat via Facebook interactions that this was the home of Irving Berlin back in the day. Thanks, Pat!

I made it here about 6:30pm. Since I wasn’t really hungry at this point, I just snacked in the theater. (And thankfully not nearly as expensive as The Lyric was!)

I was in an aisle seat in the last row, proving once again that most Broadway theaters are small enough to guarantee that there are rarely bad seats

Final selfie of the day

Dear Evan Hansen was unlike anything I’d ever seen. The staging is very digital, very fresh and modern, and supports the storyline perfectly which has a big social media aspect running through it.

The title comes from a troubled teenager who is supposed to be writing positive letters to himself as an assignment from his therapist. One of those letters isn’t so positive. He prints it at the school computer lab and it gets picked up by a guy who’s bullied him and he takes the letter from Evan. A few days later, the bully kills himself, and his parents interpret the letter as a suicide letter written to his best friend, Evan Hansen, who they had never heard of before. They hadn’t even realized the bully had any friends; Evan begins lying to them about this supposed friendship and it gets more and more complicated from there.

I enjoyed it a lot and may buy the soundtrack. If it’s in your town, I would recommend it. Although the star here, Andrew Barth Feldman, was absolutely incredible in this lead role, and it was his Broadway debut. If you’re in NYC, you can buy tickets to Dear Evan Hansen here.

A very full and fun day overall.

Oh, and this happened.

And this happened today.

I don’t always announce it on Facebook but I did in the morning, and it made for fun and meaningful interactions with folks as I went through my day. None of the amazing life I have today would be possible if not for this.

July 10, 2019
Day 12 in NYC: A day off in the East Village & Greenwich Village

The weather this morning was as predicted: light rain on and off all morning. I used that as an excuse to stay in and get caught up on banking, personal emails, and some website maintenance I’d been putting off. All after I got the blog up, of course.

The only sure thing I had planned was to meet a new friend that I met at the conference for a 6:30pm meeting in Greenwich Village, and dinner after. Other plans were related to the 3 days of use I could get out of The Met ticket and it’s three museums, so all that will mean is one less museum on this trip. I’ll skip The Breuer, which is focused on modern art anyway which, if you’ve been following me for awhile, you know is not my favorite.

I finally headed out just before 1pm. I took a 10 minute bus ride to the Hoboken train terminal to get on PATH. Because of where I was headed in Manhattan – meaning lower – it was the first time Google had recommended PATH, which was good since I’d planned on doing that anyway. PATH trains all stop around 33rd St.

There it is again, the Empire State Building from the Hoboken train terminal.

I got off at 14th Street. My only plan was to wander the Villages: Greenwich and East. Between the two, they take up the swath of Manhattan that runs north of Houston and south of 14th Street, divided by Broadway. Depending on which definition you use, the West Village is either its own thing or a subset of Greenwich, but is everything west of Greenwich Ave in the same area.

I just love the way random intersections look in this city. You’ll see a few photos like this today. I believe this was crossing 6th Ave at 14th St.

Scaffolding made it impossible to get a good photo of the outside so this will have to do

I took a look at Yelp for possible lunch places. This was rated #1 for the area I was in and, conveniently, was across the street from where I got out of the subway. It’s a rule: if you have an opportunity to eat fresh Asian noodles (or Italian pasta for that matter), do it.

Amazingly fresh steamed dumplings, these were wonderful

A beef and noodle stir fry with bok choy and onions

After lunch I just wandered. This entire area was fun, very livable, somewhat affordable (for NYC that is), moreso the East Village, as seen below.

Map of Manhattan showing median rents for each neighborhood for a one bedroom apartment.

This is a dog run in Stuyvesant Square, on 15th St and 2nd Ave in the East Village

Another beautiful street crossing. This is Broadway at 13th St. That’s 14th St and Union Square in the background.

Just seemed wrong to walk on by without at least taking a peak, right?

Alright, if you insist….

This was in the entrance, just past a little retail area with all kinds of chocolate candy for sale.

I was surprised how big it was. This was a pretty random time, like 4pm, which might explain the emptiness. I can imagine it gets packed.

It is so rare to see tiramisu without alcohol on a menu I couldn’t resist. The lady fingers were soaked in espresso. With a little carafe of milk chocolate on the side in case it wasn’t rich enough for you. (I didn’t use it all :) )

Layers of yumminess.

It was now just about 5:15. I still had a good hour to kill before the meeting, and remembered that I was still in the market for a watch. Maybe I could find something in this neighborhood? Google to the rescue: a Swatch store on Broadway and Bleecker.

A Swatch – Swiss watch. It was the first thing that caught my eye when I walked in the store and there were Lots of choices, but I kept coming back to this.

Mission accomplished! And, it brought me to Bleecker Street, which I had been wanting to check out anyway as it’s one of the better known streets of this neighborhood, known for fun retail and nightlife.

Mostly I took this so I’d remember where I was. The brown signs indicate a historic district.

Looking north up LaGuardia where it intersects Bleecker St. Notice the little park on the right. I took a bunch of these but won’t bore you with all of them, in photos it all starts to look alike. But the whole neighborhood is incredibly charming in real life.

Looking south down LaGuardia where it intersects Bleecker St.

Another tree lined street that I loved the look of, off of Bleecker. I don’t recall what is was.

I don’t know why the name of this bar amused me so much but it did. It was on Cornelia St.

The meeting I was going to was in a medical office building on 13th St at 7th Ave. There was a Duane Reade (Walgreens) across the street so I stopped in for a bottled water and travel toothpaste. My friend, Jonathan, was there when I got to the 6th floor meeting space, which was very nice for an AA meeting! It was a gay men’s meeting targeting those “approaching and over 40”; I noticed that I was in the bottom quartile (if not beneath the 10th) by age in the room. The speaker was 43 and most likely the youngest as far as I could tell. But it was a good meeting and I’m glad I went. I rarely seek out meetings when I travel but on the heels of the conference and an anniversary coming up it seemed appropriate.

It was just an hour meeting, and the dinner place Jonathan had picked out was just around the corner. (I neglected to take a photo of him, but you’ll see one in the entry for Day 2 if you care.)

Coppella on 14th, Cuban with other Latin influences, open 24 hours.

This photo doesn’t reflect how crowded and loud it got. Somehow the noise didn’t bother me although it often does. I think because the noise was all from conversation, so it was just the energy of the people and just made it lively. If there was music playing, I don’t remember. It’s loud music where you can’t hear the conversation that I find annoying.

Two empanadas: one cheese and corn, the other beef picadillo. Both terrific.

Guacamole with traditional tortilla chips as well as fried plantains

Lomo Saltado: Peruvian stir-fry of beef short ribs, red onions, tomato, fries, light soy, ginger, sambal, over rice

I’ve without intention developed a Latin American food theme on this trip. No complaints! This was wonderful and I took half of it home – will probably be breakfast this morning.

I took this on the way out when the crowd had started to thin

From there Jonathan walked me to my subway entrance on 6th Ave and we said our goodbyes, perhaps until next year’s conference. I took PATH back to Journal Square in Jersey City and a Lyft from there back to the house. Home around 10:30pm.

The plan today is what I didn’t do yesterday: Fort Tryon, part of The Met 3 day ticket option, and today is the last day I can use it. We’ll see if that happens – it’s quite the ride up the Hudson River. Tonight is Dear Evan Hansen, which will most definitely happen.

July 9, 2019
Day 11 in NYC: Sun, 7/6 – The Metropolitan Museum of Art

I’d gotten a much needed 7 hours sleep, the most on this trip I think. I got the blog up around 9:30 and started making my way over to the only thing I had on the agenda for the day: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

AKA “The Met”, it is the largest museum in the US and 3rd largest in the world. (First is Louvre; 2nd is National Museum of China). It’s in Central Park on the Upper East Side. I haven’t been that far up Manhattan since I was here in 2011.

One of the things about staying in Jersey City that I’d rethink for a next time is how much longer it takes to get anywhere. From here, The Met is 5.3 miles per Google, yet takes over an hour to get there using public transportation. And the majority of the buses I’ve caught from Jersey City have been late. So I started rethinking some of this on this day, spurned, I’m sure, by how tired I am!

First world problems for sure.

The bus from Jersey City stopped of course at the Port Authority Bus Terminal near Times Square. I picked up the E line and got off at Madison Ave around 53rd to catch another bus up to the museum. The museum is on 5th Ave but that runs one way south, Madison is its north running counterpart.

On Madison Ave between 52nd and 53rd looking south

On Madison Ave between 52nd and 53rd looking north

Wide shot of the museum from across the street

From the corner of 5th Ave and 81st St.

Selfie in front of a fountain in front of the museum

As it’s commonly referred to: The Met

Grand Hall at the entrance of the Met

Deciding what to photograph and then what to include here is always the challenge. I tried to be pretty selective. What do I either really like, or what is different given how many museums I’ve written about? With that in mind, let’s get started. I’ll likely let the captions speak for themselves.

I first made my way to 19th century European paintings because I knew my favorite stuff would be there.

The Natchez, by Eugene Delacroix

I can honestly say I’d never seen anything like this. Probably because most of my museums have been in Europe; although this is a French painter, go figure.

The North Cape by Moonlight, by Peder Balke

I loved the use of lighting here.

By the Seashore, Auguste Renoir

Still Life with Peaches and Grapes, Auguste Renoir. I generally am “whatever” about still life but one of the things I love about Renoir is how he uses color.

Sunflowers, Vincent Van Gogh

Water Lilies, Claude Monet. He was nearly 80 years old when he painted this.

Lily pond in Giverny

Thought I’d throw this in from my trip last year for comparison. You can see more of my photos from Giverny here.

The Path through the Irises, Claude Monet

Wheat Field with Cypresses, Vincent Van Gogh. The clouds reminded me of Starry Night. I would have gone to MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) where Starry Night is on this trip except it’s closed until October.

Camille Monet, by Claude Monet. I loved this part of the description: flickering brushstrokes of brightly covered paint make the canvas appear to pulsate with light.

Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies, Claude Monet

The Boulevard Montmartre on a Winter Morning, Camille Pissarro, another favorite of mine.

Gray Weather, Grande Jatte; Georges Seurat. The style is called Pointillism, which grew out of Impressionism. It’s one of my favorite periods, but you don’t see a lot of them. This museum had one by my favorite artist from that period, Paul Signac, but it wasn’t memorable.

Believe it or not, that was restraint.

From here I wandered into the modern art section – yes, I know – but there was a special exhibit called Camp that I wanted to see. Unknown to me, camp as a style has been around for hundreds of years. “In the nineteenth century, the word ‘camp’ acquired distinctive homosexual connotations.” Camp was defined in many ways throughout the exhibit, but the simplest is probably an over-the-top, intentionally exaggerated style – could apply to art, fashion, language. It was a fun exhibit.

Oscar Wilde, patron saint of camp

Why not?

Again, why not? Once you’ve marched in the NYC Pride parade it takes a lot to get your attention. This looks kinda normal to me now.

How would you title this? I was fascinated by the second one. It just cracked me up. Pride parade next year, maybe? I do look great in purple….

Would be hard to walk in.

This reminded me of something out of The Grinch

The end of the exhibit ended with a huge splash of camp in one big room

I literally laughed out loud! I used to love to those TV dinners!

By the time I was done with Camp I’d been in the museum well over an hour. I typically get full pretty quickly – 2 hours is a good stay for me in any museum.

Crucifixion, Salvador Dali

Faberge eggs

I loved this room – reminded me of the Louvre where there is a similar rooms, also filled with sculptures

I do love these sun rooms

Another one, about twice the size of the first.

When I went to the Louvre the first time in 2014, one of the first areas we got to was Egyptian Antiquities. Dan says “let’s take a quick look.” It went on forever and we couldn’t find our way out of it when we were ready. Having seen much more than I ever intended then (all sarcophagi look the same to me now) , my reaction since whenever I encounter Egyptian anything is to run in the opposite direction. Here, it was on my way out and couldn’t easily be avoided. And I discovered something I hadn’t seen before: The Temple of Dendur.

An entire huge room dedicated to the ancient Temple of Dendur

The Temple of Dendur was built around 15 BC by a Roman governor. This exhibit was a gift from Egypt to the US for its contributions to the UNESCO campaign to save Egyptian monuments.

Entire room from the corner

You were allowed to enter the temple if you wanted. See the line of people going into very small spaces in the center? No, thank you.

That’s Central Park out there, with the Upper East Side off of 5th Ave in the background

The temple wall from the side

A small sphinx

By the time I exited I’d spent more than 2 hours and I was done on so many levels. I’d only eaten a street vendor hotdog before I went into the museum and decided it was time for real food. But I wanted to take advantage of the beautiful weather and walk through Central Park, so I crossed it to get to the Upper West Side.

A walk through Central Park after, heading to the Upper West Side

Osteria Cotta, an Italian restaurant on Columbus Ave between 84th and 85th Sts.

Packed house, lively crowd

Pizza with brussel sprouts and pancetta; that’s arancini at the top

From here I looked at my options for getting home and decided to do something different. I hadn’t experienced PATH yet and wanted to: Port Authority Trans Hudson, trains that run between NYC to NJ. I’d kept wondering why Google never gave me that option, but it just has to do with my specific location in Jersey City. So I mapped directly to the PATH station in Jersey City and would figure it out from there.

I took the 1 train down to Pennsylvania Station / Madison Square Garden, 32nd St at 7th Ave. I’d never been in this area before; completely forgot about photos probably because I was so overwhelmed by people. Penn Station is the 2nd busiest train station in the country (Grand Central being #1) and it showed here for sure. The PATH trains were a block east on 6th so I made my way over. From there, it was no different than any other subway ride.

Jackie Robinson, first black player to make it to Major League baseball, played his first minor league game in Jersey City

The Journal Square PATH station where I got out has subway and bus connections inside, but I didn’t know that at first. Long story short: I skipped the bus and took a Lyft back to the house. That was mostly a function of how tired I was. And I wanted to do laundry and make sure I had time for that. I rested a bit, put a load into each of the 2 washers that are here (for free, one of the reasons I picked this place), and went out again in search of dinner.

Noches de Colombia restaurant

This is a Colombian place about 5 blocks from the house. Somehow I’d never noticed it before but am super glad I stopped.

inside the restaurant

This was described as cheese bread. Sign me up.

Hollow inside; the cheese was baked into the bottom. It was wonderful.

This dish might be the best thing I’ve had all trip.

This was an appetizer. I took half of this and probably more than half of the next dish home, easily another meal. The round pieces are fried chorizo – crisp on the outside, a ton of flavor on the inside, not greasy at all, which was a nice surprise. The other meat is chicharrones – pork cracklings, or pork rinds. The meat part was crispy, the fatty part juicy, pretty amazing. The triangles are essentially fried corn meal. Tortilla chip or fried corn tortilla doesn’t quite cut it, this was somehow different than that – thicker than either of those, crispy on the outside, soft on the inside.

thinly cut grilled chicken, fried shrimp, friend plantains

This was not quite as good as the first dish, although the chicken with the avocado and onion in one bite was terrific.

After that I went back and finished laundry while working on the blog. I went to bed before 11pm, only one other night has been earlier.

The Met ticket is good for 3 days, and includes 2 other museums. We’ll see if I decide to take advantage of that today.

July 7, 2019
Day 10 in NYC: Sat, 7/6 – (some) Brooklyn and Book of Mormon

Yesterday was day 10 on the ground, 11 if you count the departure day which started as a red-eye flight. I was starting to feel the pace. Self-imposed as it is – and unlikely to change – I realized in most recent trips about this time I would be winding down, but I still have a full week to go. I reviewed my plans and decided to just make a weekend out of it – take a vacation from vacation if you will – and back off a little. (Somehow I still managed to walk 8.2 miles though. How does that happen!?)

I got the blog up around 9am and took my time getting ready, being lazy getting caught up on Facebook, Reddit, etc, as I do any other morning when I’m home. I made my way out for breakfast around 10:30 and went back to The Franklin where I had gone earlier in the week. It’s really the only place within a reasonable walking distance (like 5 blocks) and was good so why not.

French toast with strawberries, blueberries and mascarpone butter, and a side of sausage

Since I was in a lazy Saturday mood, I decided to try their French Toast. I hardly ever get sweet stuff for breakfast because it usually messes with my blood sugar and throws me off for the rest of the day. This didn’t, maybe because I didn’t use that much syrup. And boy was it good – what got my attention was the mascarpone butter which I’d never seen before. I love mascarpone and wanted to try it; glad I’m did, the whole dish was wonderful. Some protein on the side via the sausage to balance out all that sweet. A great start to the day.

Originally I was going to roam Brooklyn and Queens today but scratched the Queens idea. I took the bus from Jersey City back over to Port Authority Bus Terminal. Took the 7 subway into Queens, then dropped into Brooklyn from the G line which seems to be pretty new. When I was planning this trip back in January, I’d made notes about the Greenpoint and Williamsburg areas of Brooklyn being worth seeing from travel articles I’d read and that’s where I was headed.

First stop was Greenpoint, which is the first neighborhood below Queens, with Williamsburg just below that.

St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church – 160 years old

Greenpoint is a little grimy but not unsafe, definitely not touristy. Which works for me since the point of neighborhood hopping is to see where real people live. Lots of interesting shops up and down Manhattan Ave but not very photogenic.

Lite Bites in Greenpoint

I’d walked around for awhile and realized I would need something light to eat before my 6:30 dinner reservations; it was about 2:30pm now. This seemed like just the ticket.

Sort of normal size

Roast turkey wrap, chips and a pickle

This was the smallest thing I could find on the menu but it was still a ton of food, and for only $7. I liked this place quite a bit – an amazing array of sandwiches, wraps, salads, all pretty healthy, very reasonably priced. I only ate half the wrap, the pickle, and a few of the chips. Had the rest bagged up and gave the leftovers to a homeless woman sitting on the subway steps when I got off in Williamsburg.

One of the reasons you go to Greenpoint is to get views of NYC from the eastern banks of the East River, so I headed to Transmitter Park to get just that.

Mural in Transmitter Park

I love that she appears to be looking up at the clouds. I didn’t think to take a photo of it, but behind me was this little playground that included a wet section where water was spouting up in various places from the ground.

View of downtown NYC from a pier at Transmitter Park, Greenpoint, Brooklyn

Williamsburg bridge from the pier at Transmitter Park

Midtown from a pier in Transmitter Park

A bar on the river bank which extends onto a barge on the water

I loved the colors in this

I got back on the G subway line and went a few more stops into Williamsburg. This was actually a huge area. I had a travel article that outlined things to see which also literally mapped it out for you, but everything was very spread out, it was hard to know where to focus. So in the end I just wandered quite a bit.

Corner cafe in Williamburg

You’d have to look closely to see that garland crosses the street further down the block, too; this is to the left of the shot above

The opposite view from the shot above

Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Transfiguration of Our Lord

That’s a mouthful. This is across the street from McCarren Park, which sits between Greenpoint and Williamsburg.

Soccer field with an 8 lane race track around it

This is the first time since I’ve been here I’ve seen anything like this that I can recall. I call it a soccer field only because that’s what was being played in this moment, I’m sure it can have many uses. There were a fair number of people using the track for their jog, although you can’t tell that from this photo. It was warm – about 82 degrees – and humidity was pretty bad all day. Good for them; running is definitely not my thing.

I started making my way back to Manhattan around 5:30pm, going back exactly the way I came, getting off at 42nd St. The restaurant was on 44th between 8th and 9th Ave.

Gyu-Kaku restaurant entrance

Although I didn’t realize it when I made the reservation, this was a Japanese BBQ place. Mostly I’d found it on Open Table as one of the few things that had pre-show time slots available, yet it had good ratings. And was crowded, lots of Asians which I figured was a good sign. I’ve been to Korean restaurants like this – with the grill in the middle of the table – but not Japanese. It was essentially the same, sans the great side dishes you get with Korean food. I just had a couple of different cuts of steak; everything was very tasty, however I neglected to take photos.

Book of Mormon marquee from the sidewalk

The purpose of my first trip to New York in 2011 was set by Jon: he wanted to see Priscilla, Queen of the Desert on Broadway and did I want to join him? I’d never been to NYC and had always wanted to go so why not. Looking back, I realize now it was the start of my travel bug.

We had planned for 5 nights. I’d suggested we see another show since we’ll have time; he said, great, your pick. I was randomly watching Jon Stewart one night and the guests were Trey Parker and Matt Stone – aka the South Park guys – talking about a musical they’d written that just opened called The Book of Mormon. It sounded interesting enough so I ran it by Jon and he said go for it. I think the tickets were like $125.

Six weeks later it won 9 Tony awards, including Best Musical.

We had like 8th row orchestra seats; Jon (somewhat jokingly, maybe somewhat not) suggested we sell the tickets, which by then were going for like $600 a piece. I’m glad we didn’t. It was my very first Broadway experience – Priscilla was 2 nights later – so it will always be special to me. And it was still original cast. Add to it that I practically lost consciousness a couple of times I was laughing so hard. I tend to enjoy anything that pokes fun at religion and this was Over the Top.

Book of Mormon stage

The story is about Mormon missionaries assigned to Uganda. Coming from the South Park folks, much of the language is pretty hardcore and I can appreciate why some people would be offended at the language and/or some of the jokes. For a guy who has no room for religion yet has a very strong spiritual path, I find it brilliant. They completely trashed the concept of religion, while not only maintaining but encouraging the concept of faith – the importance of believing in something. it’s a nuanced trick which they pull off in a magnificently funny way.

So needless to say I enjoyed seeing it again. The cast was of course different. The leads were just as good if not better than original. It was interesting to see the different choices they made which I appreciated a lot. The original Elder Price was played by Andrew Rannels, and he played it appropriately earnest, as a true believer who then gets real. This was played by Davy Thomas Brown. Still earnest, he added this slight cheeky-used-car-salesman element that was so underplayed it worked and might have made it better. Elder Cunningham, originally played by Josh Gad who got pretty famous for this role, was played by Cody Jamison Strand. It’s a tougher role to pull off than Price in my opinion and he was amazing.

Quite the claim.

I saw this as I was leaving at the end. I haven’t seen enough musicals to have an opinion about that proclamation, but it probably is my favorite of what I have seen. I love smart comedy and this sets a high bar for that.

I got back about 11:30pm.

Today is The Met. I have a feeling that will be enough.

July 7, 2019
Day 9 in NYC: Fri, 7/5 – Hudson Yards, The High Line & The Vessel; Wicked

I slept well, got the blog up and made my way out about 10am. I was meeting a friend for lunch and wasn’t too hungry for some reason so just decided to wait until we were meeting about Noon to eat.

The New York Times building

I took the 119 bus from Jersey City into Midtown. It stops at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Times Square, and this is the first thing you see upon exiting. I think people forget “times” in Times Square refers to the newspaper.

Port Authority Bus Terminal

This is a huge building covering a large chunk between 40th and 42th Streets on 8th Ave; that’s 41st St there running underneath it. It has 223 departure gates and serves about 8000 buses a day. It’s six levels total, underneath linked to the huge subway station at 42nd St.

My goal for the morning was the New York Public Library. I’d stopped by it last year but it was too early in the morning – like about 9:30 when it opens at 10am – and I didn’t feel like waiting so figured I’d come back at some point. Now was the time; I headed towards it along 41st St.

The middle of Bryant Park as approached from 41st St, which stops here and picks up again on the other side of the Library, which is that building in the background

Bryant Park along 40th St

New York Public Library, 5th Ave at 42nd St

A nice surprise when I got here: an exhibit on the 50th anniversary of Stonewall. Also one on Walt Whitman, both free. I’m not big on poetry so skipped the latter but was very interested in the first.

Staircase to the right of the entrance at the library

As much of the lobby as I could fit in one shot; the staircase in the above photo is to my left and behind me in this one

The 3rd floor landing

The ceiling

One of the hallways of the exhibit, the other behind me

The exhibit was divided into 4 sections, one on each wall of 2 hallways across from each other: Resistance, Bars, In print, Love. All of it was very interesting, much of it from the library’s own archives; I decided to go easy on photos.

Pre-Stonewall protests

The Resistance section started with what it was like for those very brave activists pre-Stonewall who put themselves in danger just for being public about their sexuality. In order to appear as harmless and “normal” as possible, they intentionally dressed very conservatively, hiding “behind masks of propriety in order to critique their oppression.” After Stonewall, Pride marches attracted thousands who felt emboldened to express themselves more freely, encouraged also by the counterculture environment at the time which included a broader sexual revolution for everyone.

The Gay Liberation Front was the first activist organization to form after the riots

June 28, 1970, first anniversary of Stonewall, and the first Pride march

The Edna Barnes Salomon Room, off the door to the right of the 3rd floor landing

I left around 1pm. I was meeting my friend Del’Esa, who lived in Sacramento until January 2018 when she moved to Brooklyn. I met up with her when I was here last summer and was looking forward to seeing her again. We had originally planned on meeting at Noon. Her errands delayed her; she texted me while I was in the library that it would be closer to 1pm, which was fine since I didn’t know about the exhibit when I started out.

Intersection of Fifth Ave and 42nd St, with the Chrysler building in the background

Another iconic intersection that I love, at the northeast corner of the library. Del’Esa was delayed again and we didn’t meet up until closer to 2pm, so I hung out on 5th Ave until we met at a little place called Valerie that was quite charming.

Valerie on 45th St between 5th and 6th Aves

I forgot to take photos of the inside, we so quickly got caught up in conversation. It was a pretty classy place with a decent menu. Since it was so late and I had 6:30pm dinner reservations, we went with various small plates to share. But boy was I hungry by that time.

Roasted cauliflower, spinach and artichoke dip with tortilla chips, their version of pork steam buns, open faced

Flatbread with bacon, figs, I don’t remember what else!

From here we went back to 42nd Street and took the 7 subway line to it’s end at 34th St. Del’Esa had arranged for tickets for us to visit The Vessel, a unique piece of interactive art which is a centerpiece of a huge new development known as Hudson Yards. It’s free, but maximum capacity is 700 people so entrances are timed.

Sign at the start of the High Line

The start of the High Line is at Hudson Yards as well. I’d gone here briefly last year, but from the other side where it ends at 12th St. This was an elevated railroad track that had been out of use since the 80s. Nature had taken it’s course and a wide range of wild vegetation had taken over, creating a natural elevated park of sorts. Michael Bloomberg becomes mayor in 2002 and reverses previous policy which favored demolition of such areas over preseervation. This opened the door for other groups to get involved; the first section of this was opened in 2009 (very long story short). The Hudson Yards development is 26 acres; earliest sections completed in 2016.

That’s the Vessel surrounded by some of the buildings of Hudson Yards

This was an art installation on the High Line called The Garlands by Daniel Buren. Knitted polyester pennants in various Pantone colors; they went on for quite a while

I had never heard of Pantone colors but Del’Esa, being a fashionista, knew all about it. There’s a Color of the Year? No clue. Google it if you care :0

All of that vegetation is natural; it was the sidewalk that was added to the tracks

We asked someone to take a photo of us

There are new buildings mixed in with old as the High Line itself spawned new development. Signs on the buildings say things like “Luxury living on the High Line” and “Home on the High Line”

Reflection of the Vessel from the shopping center behind it; notice the Neiman Marcus sign at the top

The Hudson River in the background past the trains

This is called The Shed. It’s, among other things, a music venue that will only feature new artists. The portion on the left is actually a sleeve that opens and closes to change the size of the venue – notice how it would fit like a puzzle piece over the glass enclosed area into the section on the right

The design of the Vessel make for some cool views

This is about halfway up

Del’Esa was jealous of the swimming pool, apparently a rarity in these parts

Cool view looking down into it

Looking north into Hudson Yards from the top

From the top level of the Vessel

We left here about 5:30 and took the subway back to 42nd St.

The 34th Street station is pretty new and had very high escalators that reminded me of London

Del’Esa and I parted at the 42nd St subway station with loose plans to see each other again today. I was returning to Becco for dinner and had 6:30 reservations. I checked on early seating but no dice, which was not a surprise, so I hung out at a cute little place a block away on 47th.

Cute coffee shop called UT47, 47th St just off of 9th Ave

Seating area of the cafe

I had an iced ginger latte with a ton of fresh ginger at the bottom. Very original, very tasty.

3 pastas: bowtie in a spicy marinara; kale ravioli, crab linguine

I came back to try another round of the chef’s pasta specials. I was seated in a back section I hadn’t even noticed the other day, but had the same waiter. He remembered me!

The Wicked Marquee from 50th

I was excited to see Wicked again. I’d read the book back in 2002 and was fascinated by the story, being a huge fan of the Wizard of Oz. Written by Gregory Maguire, it’s subtitle is “The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West.” The book is very political, very dark, not an easy read. I was skeptical when I heard it was being made into a musical and for years had no interest in it. In May of 2010, Jon and I saw it at the Orpheum in San Francisco. This was just a few months after Michael died; I was a mess during “For Good.” I loved it outside of that and bought the soundtrack and have listened to it countless times since. I was listening to it driving back from the Bay Area a couple of months back and realized I should see it again while I’m here. When I really liked the show I get more out of it the 2nd time and this definitely qualified. (I’ve seen Les Miserables 4x, that’s how much I loved that!)

And I also knew that seeing it on Broadway is different. In general, the quality of the performers here are better than those on tour. And, the quality of the sets is different. Wicked has been playing at the Gershwin Theater on 51st St since it opened October 30, 2003. When that’s your home, you get to do things with the stage that wouldn’t translate well for a touring production.

Entrance into the Gershwin Theater from 51st St

The Wicked Stage

Let’s just say: I was not disappointed. When I opened the playbill and saw that the understudy was playing Elphaba I admit to being concerned. I needn’t be. If I hadn’t known, I would never have guessed she was the understudy. She pulled it off brilliantly.

And seeing the song Defying Gravity on the original stage was breathtaking. “Everyone deserves a chance to fly.” For a glimpse, check out this clip from the 2004 Tony Awards. That’s original cast Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenowith. Idina won the Best Actress in a Musical that year. It was nominated for Best Musical, but was beat out by Avenue Q. (Forgive the quality of Idina’s voice in the clip; I understand she had an asthma attack just a few minutes before this performance; given that, it’s awesome…)

Raspberry swirl cheesecake and pink lemonade from Junior’s

On my way out I came across the Junior’s on 49th. Fate I call that.

It was an 8pm show; with dessert and a delayed bus, I didn’t get back until almost 1am.

Today I leave Manhattan to do a little exploring in Queens and Brooklyn before my 8pm tickets for Book of Mormon. Beyond that, it’s pretty unstructured so will see what I come across.

July 6, 2019
Day 8 in NYC: Thu, 7/4 – Roaming Manhattan

I had zero plans for the day when I woke up, around 6am I guess. The blog was easy to put together since I’d only done Cursed Child the day before so not many photos or much to write. So what to do with a full unstructured day?

Making it up as I go along is one of my favorite things to do, which I somehow never allow enough of when I’m on vacation. I’ve learned the hard way if there are things you absolutely want to do, you better have a plan or you might miss it. Today was gloriously absent all that.

As is often the case, food comes into play. I wanted to return to Katz’s, a deli Jon and I had gone to in 2011. But that’s in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, I’m in New Jersey and I knew from signs I’d seen the day before that the buses I usually took – for commuters largely – were not running due to the July 4th holiday. The weather was going to be great so I decided to splurge and take the ferry.

But breakfast first. As I discovered on my first day here, Jersey City is not a great walking city, so I took a Lyft to a place called Sam A.M., which was close to the downtown area.

Sam A.M. is the name of this place, in a neighborhood that reminded me of Midtown in Sacramento

The front portion of the restaurant

The rest of the restaurant behind me

Breakfast sandwich and coleslaw

I had a simple breakfast sandwich of egg, bacon, cheddar cheese, tightly grilled. And coleslaw, because I love cabbage and you never see that on a breakfast menu so why not. All delicious.

I left the restaurant and made my way to Harborside Ferry.

I loved this view as I was walking towards the ferry

This ferry had no outside seating and the windows were horribly dirty so no photo opportunities going across. I got off at Battery Park and started making my way through downtown.

One pool of 9/11 Memorial, with Oculus in the background on the left and the 9/11 Memorial museum on the right

Oculus is a very cool transportation hub and mall, run by Westfield. The tall black building behind it is the Millennial Hilton, where Dan and I stayed in 2017. The 9/11 Museum was open and there was a long line of people in it. If you’ve never done I HIGHLY recommend it; but you only need to do it once.

Graveyard at the Trinity Church

I’m always fascinated by Trinity Church and stop at it whenever I’ve been through here. The nave was closed for restoration so I couldn’t go in, but I’d never roamed the graveyard before and did some of that. The oldest grave here is from the late 1600’s.

There’s something about this particular intersection that gets to me for some reason.

The intersection right in front of Trinity Church. If that rings a bell at all it may be because you’ve seen the movie National Treasure.

Fountain in Bowling Green Park

I don’t think I’d been in this park before, but I used the subway entrance behind it just the other day. The building behind it is National Archives of New York City.

The New York Stock Exchange, appropriately decorated for the day

I made a detour through here just because I knew I was close and hadn’t been here since 2011.

Buildings looking left from NYSE

Buildings looking right from the NYSE

This Asian family was interacting with this statue for the longest time!

The little boy was cute and was standing there for the longest time in various poses with the little girl statue until (I assume) his mother joined him. The statue looked familiar but somehow out of place, although I couldn’t figure out why. This article helped me out – the last time I saw it was in 2017 in front of the charging bull. Called “Fearless girl”, her purpose is to bring attention to the fact that there are so few women in leadership positions in America’s largest public companies.

Federal building around NYSE

Fountain in City Hall Park

I do love the public spaces in New York. This has always been one of my favorites for some reason, small but pretty and surrounded by older tall buildings with artisan architecture which you don’t see anymore, especially the one in the background which is a city administration building.

Federal Courthouse

Statue of Lin Zexu on the left; Kimlau Memorial Arch on the right, honoring those of Chinese ancestry who fought and died in the US

This was new to me, at the entrance to Chinatown. This is an intersection of 8 streets!

Katz’s has been around since 1888

This is at the corner of Houston – here they say “Howston” – and Ludlow, and has been at or around this intersection since 1888.

It was about 1:30pm and the line was actually not as bad as I expected

Inside. Madness.

You can order from the counter and seat yourself in an area to the rear right, but no guarantee you’ll get a seat in this crowd. I chose to wait and get table service. And I can’t believe I forgot to take a photo of the food! But it was as incredible as I remember it. I got a sandwich that was 1/2 knoblewurst – a garlic beef sausage that’s probably the best sausage I’ve ever had (and I Love sausage) and 1/2 pastrami. Served with a plate of pickled cucumbers and tomatoes that were amazing. Yes, I realize “pickled cucumber” sounds redundant, but on this tray some of them were so lightly pickled they were a bright green and still very much more cucumber. Super tasty and maybe even refreshing.

Front of the Stonewall Inn

From Katz’s I wandered through the Villages – East, then Greenwich, then West. Couldn’t resist a stop at the Stonewall on the way through and decided to go in, which I never have. Glad I did.

Just inside the Stonewall Inn

It’s a nice, cozy little bar but I felt weird taking photos of the patrons. On this 4th of July you’d never know it was anything special – just people hanging out at the neighborhood bar it looked to me, just as it should. Except for the framed signs and newspaper clippings on the wall as you enter.

How rude!

Selfie at the Hudson River Park

From there I walked to the end of Christoper Street to pick up the Hudson River Park, something I’d discovered when I stayed in this neighborhood last year. It’s a beautiful riverfront area that goes for a mile or more I’d bet. Behind me in the photo above is one of many piers converted into public play spaces of a wide variety.

I took this over to the end of the High Line on 12th, but decided I needed to rest and get something to drink. I stopped at Bubby’s, another place I’d discovered on last year’s trip (mostly by getting ice cream at the place next door!).

I was very thirsty and happy he brought a bottle of water. The drink is a hibiscus Arnold Palmer – 1/2 hibiscus tea, 1/2 lemonade

I knew I wasn’t eating so took the last open seat at the bar. I love hibiscus tea and loved they made it into an Arnold Palmer.

My original plan from here was to wander more of the High Line. I’ve been only on 2 small sections of it and it’s like 1.5 miles long. But I was getting pretty tired and still wanted to make my way over to Central Park. Realizing I would be back on the High Line the next day (today), I took the subway instead.

Central Park was Alive with people, moreso than usual, on this holiday with beautiful weather – about 86 degrees and humidity was low. Lots of street performers of every kind around – puppeteers, musicians, etc. I made my way over to the mall – a wide parkway lined with statues – to get to Bethesda Terrace and Fountain.

Selfie at Bethesda Fountain

I forgot to do a selfie the day before I figured I’d make up for it.

For you weirdos who prefer the raised eyebrow look. It really is difficult to do consciously! You’re welcome.

It was close to 7pm by this point and I was pretty beat and ready for dinner. Through Yelp I found a Korean place at the top of Hell’s Kitchen with 4.5 stars so made my way in that direction.

I passed this the first time – easy to miss

What a great little find this was, on 10th Ave close to 56th St.

98% of the customers were Korean, I assume locals

No tourists that I could tell, and the only other white guy I saw was with his Korean partner (I assume wife).

Sizzling Cheese Corn

When I saw Sizzling Cheese Corn on the menu I ordered it no questions asked – everything about that sounded amazing. And I was not disappointed. I love corn, I love cheese, it was smooth melted yumminess. I have no idea how authentic that is but it sure was good!

A Korean style deli sandwich

Another questionably authentic item, but it played well to my deli theme for the day: a grilled sandwich with (only sitting here writing this did I realize I had a sandwich for every meal) beef bulgogi, Swiss cheese, sauerkraut!, grilled crisp and tight in sourdough bread. Wow. And the french fries were pretty good too. That sauce is a spicy mayo I wasn’t thrilled with. But Wow, that sandwich was terrific.

After dinner I was beyond done and made my way over to the Midtown Ferry at 12th Ave and 41st Street.

The top of the Empire State Building was dancing in red, white and blue lights

It’s remarkable to me how prominent this building seems to be regardless where you are.

An appropriate final shot for the day, from the ferry going back to New Jersey

I hope you all had a great 4th of July. I certainly did.

July 4, 2019

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