New York 2014

NEW YORK 2014

This fabulous trip was brought to us courtesy of the International Learner Conference, and Weber State being generous enough to send us to the conference. We added a few days before and after the trip for sightseeing. We had an amazing time.To our tremendous surprise and relief, the weather was fine. We were expecting humid, hot and miserable, but it was mostly in the low '80's and cloudy.

Saturday, July 12, 2014

I was born in NYC and lived there until I was 6. The first thing I noticed when we arrived was that the taxis were different. I don't remember them at all from the 1960's but I know they've changed. We took a shuttle from the airport to our hotel (The Comfort Inn on 71st near Central Park), the scary thing was that we could tell the driver was going out of his way to be very careful and law abiding--but we were still terrified. He had no problem merging into a lane whether or not a car was already there.

But we made it safely to our hotel and discovered that not everything in NYC is big.

We were on the 10th floor and our room was hilariously tiny.  Note the width of Catherine's bed as opposed to the width of the door.

As you can see, it would be no problem to sit on the toilet, brush your teeth and rinse your feet off in the shower all at the same time.

The bed was smaller than a queen. Here you can see the closet which was too shallow to contain the hangars, blocking the only lamp. His back is to the bathroom you can just see the edge of the dresser. On the plus side, this room made us be tidy guests. There was no place to put anything. We opened suitcases, got what we needed and closed everything back up.

The view from the window at the foot of Catherine's bed. Another funny quirk was that their room key system was so rickety that they recommended we check to see if our keys worked every single time we left the room. Most of the time they did not, so we more or less made a habit of having the front desk re-program our keys every time we left.

The elevator wasn't exactly high tech or large either. We met another family who had a boy who wanted to take the stairs. He had no problem beating his parents to the 9th floor.

The hotel was on this beautiful street, which had a real sense of familiarity about it for me. 

Once we unpacked, which didn't take long because we really couldn't unpack. We headed for the nearest subway and Times Square.

We were amused by this church which had this rather unfortunate giant mattress logo above it.

We were hungry and wanted to eat at Ellen's Stardust diner where Broadway wannabe's sing while they wait tables. On the way we found a flea market.

This was great because here's the line for Ellen's--

We took turns waiting in line and exploring the market. Dave found a tie.

 This picture doesn't begin to do the performers justice. They had amazing voices. They had us all sing Happy Birthday New Yorker style, "Happy Birthday dear you'se guys...".  Loved it.

Right nearby was M&;M world.

Our favorite M&M souvenir

Right across the street is Hershey's chocolate world. Looks great on the outside, but is disappointing on the inside. It's not nearly as big as the sign would suggest and there's nothing there that we can't get at home.

However, Catherine got this spiffy free hat to put in her scrapbook.

Right in the middle of Times Square were red steps. It looked like people were gathering for a concert or something. Nope. It's just a place to sit down and enjoy the sights.

This was my favorite sight. Now I don't need to feel badly anymore that my name never appears on coffee cups or keychains. Catherine made sure I appeared in one of the most famous places in the world.

There is a huge Disney Store there...

With very cool Rapunzel lanterns going to the second floor. Here is Dave doing an imitation of our favorite "Keep your hands and arms inside the vehicle" sign that is everywhere at anything Disney.

Lastly we went to the world's largest Toys R Us.

We didn't have time then to see much, but we did take a ride on the famous ferris wheel inside. We got the Fisher Price Car.

Which was almost as cute as the little red car. 

By now it was 11:00 pm. And we had to be up early the next day. So it was back to the subway via the really tacky Mickey and Minnies that were everywhere,

The NYPD Police Station

And some pretty decent street musicians.

The only subway rat that we saw

Sunday, July 13

We were up at 6:30 (trying hard not to remember that our bodies thought it was actually 4:30 a.m.) to catch the subway to Battery Park where we'd catch the first ferry to the Statue of Liberty. Battery Park had some neat things in it's own right such as this sign--

And this sphere, which used to be in the plaza at the World Trade Center but is now in Battery Park as a temporary memorial.

The ferry was a lot of fun. It's surprisingly large and you could even buy snacks. We thought we had great seats right out on the deck, but one of the employees directed us to the other side of the boat so we would be able to see the statue as we went. I thought the guidebooks and internet made taking the ferry seem difficult. It isn't. It goes from dock to the statue to Ellis Island and back in a circle all day long. Get on and off as you please. Sad, but not surprising, was the security. Other than not having to remove our shoes, we had to pass through airport style security before we were allowed on the boat.

Here is the lady herself. Why people feel obligated to take a thousand pictures of her I can't imagine. Does anyone really think they are going to get a better shot than the zillions of professional photographers that have photographed her? But there is no suppressing the impulse. I took at least 20.

And here's the standard photo of the Manhattan skyline

Liberty Island is a beautiful place. Seeing the Statue of Liberty was the only thing we had planned that day that had a specific time attached to it, so once we got on the ferry we had made it and we could relax and take as much time as we wanted to really see the Statue and Ellis Island. 

We had heard horror stories about long lines (the reason we were there early), so we went directly to the statue, through more security, and up to the pedestal (crown tickets were sold out). Here's a random view you don't see too often.

There was neat stuff to see on the way in.

This shot is from the inside of the Statue looking up toward the crown.

Her face is a little creepy taken out of context.

But not as creepy as this mask!! We spent quite a bit of time in the gift shop due to a cloudburst.

When the rain cleared up we were able to walk around the whole island. The weather was cool and I thought the clouds looked dramatic.

The next stop was Ellis Island. The buildings were much bigger than I imagined. Many of the exhibits were still closed because of damage from hurricane Sandy, but it was still beautifully done. I was impressed that Ellis Island not only preserved the history of what we typically think of as immigrants, but also told the story of the slaves that came here unwillingly, and also the Indians who were forced to migrate west.

Nifty tree sculpture with words america has adopted from other languages.

The great hall. This used to be filled with benches and people waiting to be processed.

After we saw everything, we followed the signs outside pointing to food.

My cheese pannini was surprisingly good, and the view was spectacular!

A neat sculpture at Battery Park

One thing Dave really wanted to see was the USTA Tennis center. Here's where the US open is played. Getting there we had our only real subway problem--the doors closed before Catherine could get on. Luckily, she's a very capable and independent person. She hopped on the next train and met us there.

I think he needs this couch.

Dreaming.

ooooooo. Standing on a real court.

DecoTurf? I suppose they need to surface with something, but DecoTurf sounds funny.

This place is gigantic.

The sphere behind them was from the 1964 world's fair, but as I was only about 5 months old, I don't remember it.

The ball is OUT!

Flushing Meadows Park. So pretty!

Perfect Climbing trees.

We call these "Taxi Trees" because they are black and yellow.

Random mosiacs from the world's fair.

We went back to the times square area and ate at what turned out to be my favorite restaurant of all time--The Jekyll and Hyde Club.

One enters through the "secret" telephone booth entrance.

And await admittance in the creepy room.

The werewolf guards the entrance to the bathrooms.

Everything talks and moves.

Dr. Jeykll's portrait was at our table.

Poe and Jules Verne were having an argument.

The local mad scientists did a demonstration for us.

LiiiiiiiiiiiFE!!!!!!!

Oh dear. Now our portrait has become the dread Dr. Hyde.

A mermaid sang her song to capture our souls.

Just a friendly shark.

What else would be in a display case?

Trying to find the bathrooms. First one passes through a brick wall. And then you can either try to find the secret passageway. Or, just wait for someone to come OUT, because the restrooms are unmarked. When I looked in the mirror while washing my hands, I found that there was already another lady inside the mirror.

On the way home,  of course there was another street performer on the subway. By this time we were pretty well exhausted, NYC has a LOT of stairs. We tried to take a slightly faster way back to the hotel. Bad idea. Instead of a short walk outside, we took a long walk inside, got on an express train which didn't stop where we needed it too, and so wound up on the original train anyway.

Monday 14th

This was the first day of the conference--the reason we were all here. Our hotel was about a mile away from the college, and we were already footsore, but it was a wonderful walk. 

Famous signs

The temple! We nearly missed it because at the bottom it looks like any skyscraper, but we saw the name of the church then realized that this was a very fancy church and took another look.

The Lincoln Center. I never got over how small and cramped everything was. Sure, the center itself was large, but in Utah anything this famous would have extensive grounds as well.

It did, however, have these really cool stairs that lit up in turn.

The famed Julliard was also on the way but for some reason I didn't take a picture.
I liked the old fashioned bath house near the college.

And here at last--Lander College for Women.

The conference was an international one, which was by far the best thing about it. Each session had four speakers who each were given only 20 minutes. Sorry to say that most of the presenters were excruciatingly boring to listen to.  The first speaker spoke on technology and spent his 20 minutes defining terms. What is a computer? What is technology? The second read her entire powerpoint. But the third was comparitivley good, but only comparitivley. My favorite was the speaker who let everyone introduce themselves. In that one room were people from Thailand, Sweden, France, South Africa, Canada, China, Australia, Israel, Bahamas and more. Talking to them after the session was much more rewarding than the session itself.  

The most valuable insight from the whole conference came from a pair of Austrailian teachers who studied the messages that first year students absorb. 61% of what students hear that first year has something to do with assessment.  They recorded this terrific quote from a freshman, "You have to think outside the box, but not outside the tutor's box or they will fail you."  I like how the presenters mentioned that it might not be a bad idea to make sure students hear messages about the value of education and the joy of learning. 

After 8 speakers, which believe me, felt more like 80. I tried to meet up with Catherine for lunch. Dave bravely stayed on for another set of sessions. 

She had spent her morning much more entertainingly at the museum of Natural History. We were supposed to meet at the hotel, but she sent me a text that she was on her way, so I responded to just meet at the subway entrance instead of walking all the way back to the hotel.

As I was walking toward the subway, I came across these four kids who were singing as they walked. They were so good I asked if I could take their picture.

I waited at this subway stop for a long time. Catherine didn't get my text and went to the hotel, but we met up eventually and went to....

Gray's Papaya which was across the street from the hotel. Gray's Papaya is in all the travel books. It's a hotdog place boasting all beef hotdogs. It was by far the cheapest meal we ate. We got 4 hotdogs, and two smoothies for under $10. I guess the hotdogs are an acquired taste. The onion sauce (which is famous) was messy and I thought the hotdogs were scrawny and not that special. We ate them on the way back to the hotel to meet Dave and had plenty left to share.

On the way we stopped briefly at this beautiful cathedral that was right near our hotel. We didn't go very far in, as we didn't want to be disrespectful eating hotdogs in the church.

Now that we were all together again, we went back downtown to explore 5th avenue on the way to Madame Tussads.  I like these old-fashioned newsstands that are everywhere.

The New York Library. I'd kill to have a card here.

Bryant Park was great.  I fell in love with all the NYC parks, but this one was an especially good little park. Nifty statues--here's Goethe.

Pretty Carousel--we didn't ride this one.

But we did stop for Gelato. $16.50.

They even had a croquet lawn.

You can see the bottom of the Tussad's sign behind the Las Vegas style McDonalds.

I loved the wax museum. We got a VIP pass. Because any tourist who isn't deaf and blind will pick up a pamplet somewhere with a VIP pass and discount. The museum is huge. Everybody was there.  It's no secret that Dave would dump me in a heartbeat if Marilyn showed up, but it doesn't look as though his chances are very good.

My passion is for Harrison Ford. But I got distracted

My favorite pic--Catherine being interviewed by Oprah. Catherine would be so great.

Catherine's heartthrob was here too. Blocking out Kate is deliberate.

Madame Tussad

Commander and Chief Catherine. Vote her in!

Dave and Whitney

HELP!!!

We found a fun antique shop. They wouldn't let us take pictures inside. Too bad, a picture was all we could afford.

Forget the wonders of NYC. This is the real attraction for Dave and Catherine. Catherine bought very cute "taxi slippers."

There really are a lot of taxis. We bought the subway pass though, and so never needed to take one.
_____________________

At last! It was time to see Wicked. We bought our tickets months in advance. There is no getting a good picture of the theater.

But I took this illegal picture of the set inside before the play started. Dave had a nice surprise when he saw that the lady sitting next to him was a friend. Small world. The play was simply fantastic. Well worth all the hype.

Tuesday, July 15

This was the big conference day for us. We both presented. I think I can safely say that my presentation was no more awful than anyone else's, and Dave's was actually interesting.

When we were done, we wanted to go back to the hotel to change but were stopped by a torrential downpour. We had brought umbrellas, but they were useless against this rain. I haven't see rain like this since Houston. We huddled under the awing of Landor's College for Women, and when it eased up a bit we bolted for the hotel.

Unfortunately, we didn't get to bolt very far. The hotel was about a mile away and we weren't quite halfway when it picked up again and soaked us to the skin. It was lunchtime anyway, so we ducked into PJ Clarke's--because it looked like a burger place. I suppose technically it was, but it was a very expensive burger place. But it had a friendly staff, and a first class hairdryer in the bathroom which warmed me up a bit, plus the nifty slogan below so we didn't mind too much. We ordered comfort food and watched the rain. Catherine, who had spent the morning at the Natural History Museum, met us there and helped me finish my $19 bowl of macaroni and cheese. What the heck. We shared some cheesecake too. By then the rain had more or less let up. So we were able to get back to the hotel to dry off and take a nap.

Yup, that is a trash can chained to the railing.

Here I am demonstrating how easy it is to multitask in the hotel bathroom.

Once we were somewhat rested, we headed back downtown to see the 9-11 memorial. On the way, we passed an amazing street artist who made futuristic landscapes from spraypaint.

The museum is not that close to the subway exit. But there was this spiffy sculpture to see on the way.

The grounds of the memorial are beautifully done. Considering how huge the towers were, and how densely packed the buildings in Manhattan are, it's a miracle more buildings weren't destroyed.

Here we are by the survivor tree. As the name implies, this lone pear tree survived the attack.

I was almost as excited to eat at the Essex World Cafe, as I was to see the memorial. Our friend, Glade had gone to NYC a couple of weeks before us and told us the story. This cafe is RIGHT next to where the towers were. When they came down the owner opened his doors to anyone who needed help. He gave out all of his food and water and kept on getting and giving more out. He let his restaurant be used as a triage unit. The impressive thing is that he kept this up for MONTHS. So much so that he eventually went out of business. Since then he's been able to re-open. We got to meet the owner, a stereotypical New Yorker complete with accent. He's a wonderful man who didn't accept our thanks very easily, but instead blessed us for coming to his cafe.

 One of the signs left up in the cafe.

Happily eating a goodie at the cafe.

We had tickets to see the museum at 7 and it closed at 8, but the staff was wonderful. They let us and many others stay as long as we wanted. We stayed till 9:15 and we weren't the last to leave.  We weren't allowed to take pictures in most of the museum which was good as it would have been distracting. But these are the "survivor's" stairs.

And one of the firetrucks. The museum really gives one hope for humanity. It is gorgeously, tastefully done. One of my favorites was a small movie theater that you could walk in and out of that featured a continuous loop showing each person who died--a picture, some facts and stories told by the person's friends or relatives.  I stayed there for a long time.

Heading back home we met a man who was also a BYU grad (he noticed my backpack). It was a good thing we came across him, because we were lost. He very kindly walked us back to the subway entrance--which was a bit of a walk.

Back at the hotel we finished the day with some Oreo cheesecake I had bought from the cafe.

Wednesday, July 16

Dave very diligently caught the first sessions of the conference. I slept for another hour and then took Catherine to this darling tea-cup sized restaurant.

Quotes from Alice in Wonderland were all over the walls and they even had a library. I think every restaurant should have a library!

Good thing we didn't order two scones each, they were huge. After breakfast, I trudged off to the conference and Catherine went back to 42nd street to see about discount Broadway tickets.

YAY!!  Free at last from the conference. Wonderful people, but depressing that educators could be so uniformly uninspiring. We met Catherine downtown and  got some junk food from the street vendors--a gyro for Dave and some roast nuts for me. 

Then headed for the Cort Theater because Catherine had gotten us tickets for The Cripple of Inishmann, starring Daniel Radcliff!!!

We had "partially obstructed" seats. No kidding!! However, the theater wasn't quite full so I moved almost right away. Daniel did a great job, especially with the accent. The play was billed as "hilarious." No. It had lots of funny lines, but the story was poignant.  We thought the lines for the bathrooms might be shorter at M& M world. Maybe, but it was packed



From here we went to Chinatown with an eye toward eating there because Fodor's told us that Chinatown was thriving and exciting, with better food, while Little Italy was sort of dying down and the food is not inspiring. We DON'T agree. Granted, we turned the wrong way at first and walked into the sleezy grimy section of Chinatown, but even the better part was dirty, crowded and tacky.

We did like the abacus insurance corporation

We went looking for food and again Fodor's gave us a weird steer. They recommended Jing Fong's as a fun place with a carnival atmosphere.  As you can see below, it doesn't look promising. 

Turns out it was a very classy, expensive place. Not anything like a fun relaxed atmosphere. We had about 8 waiters--none of them doing anything, but they were there. If I were a Mafia don, I would come here for dinner. It had that kind of elegant but a sinister atmosphere. There were some scary authentic Chinese dishes too. We passed on the "Fresh Frog in Kind of Flavor."

After we ate, we headed for Little Italy. On the way though we passed a Tibetian store. I have a weakness for Tibet, so we dropped in. I bought a beautiful little "singing bowl" When you run a little wooden mallet around the bowl it really does sing.

We all liked Little Italy MUCH better. This was the happening place. Interesting stores and delicious sounding restaurants, and people eating on the streets laughing and having fun. 

We spent some solid time in the Christmas store.

But alas!!! the oldest cheese store in America was closed!!!! This tragedy will haunt me until my dying day.

As usual, getting home involved a whole lot of walking.

Thursday, July 17

Well, the plan was to get up really early and be on the Today Show, but we were just too exhausted. We got there around 8:30. Too late to catch any stars, but we got to see the whole set up, and we DID get to be in the cheering crowd. We were on TV for exactly 1 nanosecond.

The famous plaza is tiny.

No, we didn't really get to meet Matt Lauer, but his wax figure is impressive.

After our television appearance, we went to the Bouchon Bakery. This was another recommendation from the guide book. Gotta watch out for those guide books!!!! For $52 we each got a breakfast sandwich and some milk and Catherine got some macaroons. Now that we've been there, I see it almost every morning on the Today show, so I feel a little bit better about the price.

Rockefeller Center is right there and a fun place to be. I'd love to see it at Christmas time.

We saw the famous statue of Prometheus

Unfortunately, we also saw this gigantic topiary called "Split Rocker" by Jeff Koons. As a giant, random flowering statue I can take it or leave it. Leave it preferably. But I can NOT forgive the placement of this thing!

Yup. Right above Prometheus. What is this trying to say? The tacky visits the classical? If the intent of this is to irritate the viewer, it is a great success.

Turning our backs on this monstrosity, we fled for the shops. The NBC shop was fun. Lots of t-shirts with Jimmy Fallon.

We always love lego stores. This view of NYC was wonderfully detailed.

My favorite store was the Metropolitan Museum of Art store. I love random, beautiful things. There was a whole pile of these blue hippos that we all liked. Luckily, we were the only ones in the store, so the sales clerk told us about the hippo. His name is William, and he's the official mascot for the MET. We bought one for Catherine. But he's so cute, and Catherine is mostly away at school, so William has migrated to our bed. 

Next on the itinerary was ESCAPE THE ROOM. This is a newish kind of a game that scored big on the "what to see in NYC" charts. There are several adventures to choose from --the home, the theater, the office etc. We chose the Home--a game for six players. 

We were matched up with three players from New Jersey, Linda, Lauren and Megan.  At the appointed time the six of us were locked in a room with a Victorian theme. Our goal was to find the key that would unlock the door before the hour was up. Naturally, they wouldn't let us take pictures because that would spoil the game for others. But we found things like desks with combination locks and then the clues would give us the number to unlock it. There was also a TV in the room--a "puzzle master" was watching us the whole time and would occasionally give us hints. We ALMOST made it out.  This was so much fun that despite the steep price tag, we tried to sign up for another adventure. They were completely booked. If we ever go to New York again, this will be the first thing I reserve.                                                                                                                                      

After our escape, we still weren't hungry for lunch, so we thought we'd go see the Empire State Building which was close by. This was a mistake. We'd been so spoiled by never having to wait long for anything, that we forgot that many attractions can have massive lines.

The Empire State building is very impressive on the inside as well as the out. Luckily, we had tickets to go all the way to the top, and so one of the guards gave us VIP treatment and sent us ahead, cutting out about an hour and a half of line waiting. Even so, we still waited over an hour before we finally got on the elevator.

I loved these pictures of the workers who built the building. Amazingly, only 5 people were killed and only one of those fell off of a scaffold. Of the other four, one was hit by a truck, one fell down an elevator shaft, one was hit by a hoist and one was in a blast area.

By the time we got to really see anything, all of us were tired, hungry and grouchy, so this was not a highlight of the trip, but it's impossible not to have fun at the Empire State. Like the Statue of Liberty, it's ridiculous to take pictures, but it's impossible not to. Especially this one featuring the H and M building. H and M was EVERYWHERE.

We had wanted to eat at the Hard Rock Cafe and it wasn't too far, so we hiked there and discovered that it wouldn't open until 6:00!  GACK!!! We were starving. So, we figured that we'd had fun at Ellen's Stardust diner and it really wasn't much more expensive than anywhere else, plus--most importantly, we actually knew where it was. This time, the food was worse, but the singing was still terrific. While we were there with our aching feet we decided to change our plans a little. The plan had been to get up early the next day and go to the temple, but we (me, mostly) couldn't face the idea of walking miles and miles more that day. So we decided to go back to the hotel and change and then go to the temple, where we could enjoy a session AND give our bodies a break.

The temple was beautiful and just what we needed. Very New York. Clothing was on the fourth floor and the session was on the fifth. The session was just what I needed. Afterward we changed back into tourist clothing--stopping at the giant Century 21 store on the way to pick up our "free" gift.  Turned out to be big bags. Catherine found some cute sandals. Then we went back to 42nd street to the Hard Rock Cafe. Warning, going from the Temple to the Hard Rock does give one a case of the spiritual bends.

There was a gigantic line. While we were waiting, Catherine and I pretended that we already had a table, slipped in and took a good look at some of the displays.

We were pretty sure at one point that our waiter had abandoned us completely, but it was a good time anyway. By the time we finished it was 11:00 p.m., but we had to stay downtown until midnight because we'd heard about the spectacular light show downtown at midnight. This gave us a chance to finish looking through the Toys R Us.  Fun lego section!!

This is a sculpture on 42nd that captures old New York very well.

Ugh! Too many people on 42nd. This is the McDonald's bathroom.

McDonald's did have some fantastic lego displays. Everybody in New York has great lego displays.

The light show was a disappointment. Three minutes long, was on just a few of the big screens and was inappropriate at one point.

We were back at the hotel and dead to the world by 12:30.

Friday, the 18th

We slept in the got on the subway for our food tour of the West Village. On the subway, we saw some very brave people! A pre-school class was on their was somewhere with about 30 kids. It was something to watch those teachers get the kids off the train. They had those kids trained. I'd love to have taken a picture, but thought it would creep out the teachers so I let the moment pass.




I can't say enough good things about this food tour. Above, is our guide, Dante. He was super friendly and knew all kinds of interesting history. The tour took us to six places and the food was included in the price. Our first stop was Mamouns Falafel, reputed to be the best falafel place in NYC.  I believe it.  As you can see, it's just a little place. We never would have found it ourselves.




Number two was Faicco's Italian Specialties, a deli. I nearly missed the salami sample, because I was distracted by the cheese shop next door. But I made it back and got to try "Arancini," an Italian specialty. It's a rice ball stuffed with cheese and deep fried. Delicious. I saw some at Trader Joe's in SLC, and will have to give it a try.

Number 3 was Molly's cupcakes.  This was the cutest place. Old fashioned lunch boxes as decorations, and swings for seats. How can you not love a place that has swings?

Catherine has a long and cherished history with swings.

Plus, it had awesome signs.

On the way to stop #4, we got a lot of history. The Cherry Lane Theater is the longest running off broadway theater. It's been going for 90 years. Interesting fact--being on or off broadway has nothing to do with the shows, only the seats. Any show in a theater with more than 500 seats is Broadway, 100-499 seats is off Broadway, and less than 100 is off-off Broadway. 

I  think this is Chumleys, NYC's most famous speak easy. They never shut down during the prohibition, because the police would always warn them if there was going to be a raid.

Grove Court. Was built for the poor, but now it's for the rich. O Henry wrote, "The Last Leaf" about grove court.

Stop #4 was Hudson Bagels. One of the few places that still sells real New York Bagels--Meaning they were boiled before baking and sold fresh. These were delicious. Overall the NYC bagels were a disappointment. Sure, you can buy them everywhere, but they aren't particuarly good. Not even Einstein quality, just the same thing you can buy at a grocery store. 

Cafe Wha is famous for its performers. Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Bill Cosby all performed here when they were young. Mary, before she joined up with Peter and Paul was a waitress here. 

Next stop was Artichoke Pizza, which served up enormous slices of, guess what, artichoke pizza. We also got to sample a marinara pizza that was very good. 

Last, but definitely not least was Pasticceria Bruno. Oh my. We Neeeeeed a bakery like this in Utah. Look at that Ferro Rocher cake!! This place made a cake for Pope Benedict, but it's known for its canneloni's. The owner beat chef Bobby Flay in a canneloni throwdown, and that's what we got to sample. 

That ended the official food tour and we were pretty full, but no matter. We had passed the world famous Murray Cheese Shop, and no way was I going to leave it behind.  I don't remember if we got lost on the way there or afterward or both. We spent a good deal of this day being lost. But no matter, we got there in the end. 

We ordered a "sampling" and the cheese expert---sort of an equivalent to a wine sommelier, asked our preferences, and selected 5 cheeses with accompaniments for each one. If I lived in NYC ALL my time and money would be spent here.

We wanted to go back to Washington Park, that we had passed on our food tour. Our guide told us that the park was haunted by Eleanor Roosevelt's dog. We walked for what felt like miles--we were lost on Bleeker street for what seemed like forever, but we finally found the park. New Yorkers love their parks. I don't blame them. Every park we saw has neat things to do.

This one had some nice fountains with signs not to let dogs in the pond. Nobody seemed to mind. Dogs, kids, whatever.

This lady with her feet straight up was funny. I don't know how long she held this position, but we passed her several times and she never moved.

The chess playing area that was shown in the movie, Searching for Bobby Fischer.  One man asked if I'd like to play. I said, "no," thinking that I didn't want to spend that kind of time. I should have said, "yes," these guys are pros. I would have been checkmated in 5 minutes. Probably less. 

Columbus circle at the bottom of Central Park, very nice, but the really important thing is that it's near FAO Schwarz.





The Brooklyn Bridge wasn't near anything, but no matter. I was determined to at least walk ON it, if not all the way across. Long walk to the subway, but the entrance by the Bridge is the classiest that we saw.  Of course we walked all the way across into Brooklyn. Long walk to the subway station on the other side.

We took the subway to Rockefeller Plaza--there are all kinds of shops underground. We found the Swarofski crystal shop, where we enjoyed this subtle couch.

Friday nights at MOMA (The museum of modern art) are free. That was our next stop. Many books have been written on modern art. But I can sum up the museum in three words, "I don't understand."

There was some stuff like this, that was weird, but I kind of liked it.

A lot of stuff that I really disliked. And a lot of stuff like this that baffled me. This green square was about 8 feet by 8 feet. I did similar value paintings in Art 101. Maybe my painting wasn't green enough, or big enough.

I saw a few things that I recognized. Salvador Dali's melting clocks are really small!!  REALLY!  It looks like he just took a piece of copy paper and painted a masterpiece. 

I saw several real Picasso's too! I don't understand them, but I think I like most of them.

There was lots of Andy Warhol. I don't get him, but he's so famous it was fun to see.

Dave loves Starry Night.

But at the risk of sounding like the uncultured American that I am, I must confess that I liked the gift shop the best.

Now it was after 8 and we were starving, so we decided to walk towards the Hard Rock and see what was on the way. One thing on the way was St. Patricks Cathedral. It's being refurbished, but it's still a WOW site.

St. Pat's is one of the biggest and most famous of the churches in NYC, but there are about 3000 in the city! I couldn't get over how many, big European-style cathedrals there were.


At the end of the day we went back to the Hard Rock cafe. Super-slow service, but my cobb salad was big enough to feed four people. It was late, but we still hadn't really looked Toys R us as much as we wanted, so we took a final look around there before limping back to the subway and bed. Always by way of the fake Mickey and Minnie Mouses. This would NEVER happen at Disney.





Saturday, the 19 

Our last day. We slept in and Dave and Catherine had the free breakfast from the hotel. I was still working on digesting that salad. Then we finally went to Central Park. The weather was perfect. I LOVED Central Park. I want to come back someday and spend much more time there.

I was surprised by the amount of wildlife. 

Central Park has perfect climbing rocks.

The view from Strawberry Fields

There are formal areas.

And surprises around every corner. This was one of my favorites. Underneath one of the many scenic bridges, was this lavishly decorated one with a gospel choir singing underneath. The acoustics were amazing,and so was this group. They're a family, and they were singing one of the most beautiful renditions of Ave Maria that I've ever heard. It's rare for me to buy a CD, but I bought one of theirs. 

I loved seeing how much fun the native New Yorkers had at the park.

 We found the famous carrousel.

And we all rode.

The Carrousel is near the bottom of Central Park. Which is near Trump Towers (who cares?), a huge H and M store (because those are everywhere) and FAO Schwarz (which had been on our itinerary from day 1. 

We left the park and went to FAO, but not before we found this classy window display. 

I've decided that I like it. No matter what, at least I look better than this model. 

Columbus circle. 

A hotel that was a little classier than ours. 

Forget Toys R Us! FAO Schwarz is the place to be! This toy store was ten times more fun. Toy soldier guards outside, fantastic displays inside--I felt like a little kid. 

Dave's kind of breakfast cereal

We all got to play on the famous piano.

And I found this. A kit to make the Taj Mahal out of thousands and thousands and thousands of matchsticks on sale for only $28 as opposed to the $145 it normally costs. I've never been to the Taj Mahal, I have no place to build this and no place to display it should I ever actually finish. So naturally, I became obsessed and had them hold a copy for me--a little tricky, because the sale price wasn't showing up in the computer, but I was persistant. It became obvious to the clerks that this insane lady was never going to leave until they figured out how to give me the sale price.

For the record, this project is at about this stage now. 

Eventually, we dragged ourselves away from the toy store and went to "All About Food" for lunch which was right across the street. Great name. forgetable food. 

Both the Guggenheim and the Met are right across the street from Central Park. We didn't have time to see both, but Dave at least wanted to see the outside of the Guggenheim and visit the gift shop. 

Squashed alien? We're not sure, but this little guy is at the crosswalk of the Guggenheim. Dave found a very cool watch in the gift shop.

There was still lots to see in Central park. I was especially determined to see the castle. On our way in we saw this handsome fellow. 

We watched him for quite awhile, but eventually let him have his lunch in peace. 

Here's Shakespeare presiding over his gardens. 

I couldn't get over how many peaceful idyllic places there were.

 The castle was great.

It came complete with a winding staircase that would be great for a swordfight. If you're pushy enough you can get to the top where there is a great view of turtle pond among other things. 

Lots of turtles, and even egrets.



Beautiful girls,

and cozy places.

 and lovely views and bridges everywhere.

With great reluctance we left the park. We wanted to see at least a little of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which is another place to spend several months. First stop was the Egyptian wing.

There were full size replicas of some of the temples.

But our goal was to find William the Hippo. We were imagining that he would be life-sized, but no---he was cute stuffed animal sized. I don't know how, of all the treasures at the met, he became the mascot, but I'm not arguing. Obviously, we're not the only ones who think he's cute.

It was so fun to see such famous paintings in real life. This picture was somewhere in most of my elementary school classrooms.

As you can see, Washington crossing the Delaware is enormous. I had no idea.

The bear sculpture is by the cafeteria. Where we had dinner of sandwiches and chips for a mind-blowing $62!! Granted, that included a blackberry pie, but $62???? It's a good thing we didn't stay in NYC much longer.

Dave is a fan of Frank Lloyd Wright and much of his work is in the Guggenheim, so I was happy we got to see some of his art here.

The Frank Lloyd Wright room was closed when we first came, but happily, they finally opened it up. In the meantime we saw all kinds of other period rooms.

We loved the hall of music with all of the weird instruments. I'm refraining from posting 100 pictures because I think you can see this all online.

The hall of armor is fascinating too. This is King Henry the VIII's battle armor.

And here is a whole army. I loved how the Met used huge amounts of space for displays.

There was much, much more, but it was nine o'clock and the museum was closing. We rushed to the clearance gift shop (wouldn't want to miss one of those!), Catherine found a shirt, but there wasn't much else. We were glad we found the museum store in Rockefeller plaza.

At this point we were beyond tired. I wasn't this exhausted even after a week at Disneyworld and that's really saying something. Anyone with an iota of sense would have simply gone back to the hotel to collapse. But we are not anyone. We are people with obsessions. Dave and Catherine are obsessed with Build a Bear and were disappointed that they had not thought to bring their pawsport to FAO Schwarz, which had a build a bear section. That alone might not have been enough to trigger a return trip to the store, but I HAD to pick up the Taj Mahal or my life would have been blighted. Unfortunately, it was not a short walk to the subway to get back to the hotel. Once we got there, I grabbed the pawsport, and Dave grabbed paperwork and went to battle the checkout people. Catherine was a hero and came with me to FAO so I wouldn't have to walk NYC streets alone at night. There is no short way to FAO. We limped along as fast as we could back to the subway, which dropped us off at the bottom of Central Park. FAO was on the other side of the park. We limped/ran/walked the whole distance, saying hi again to Columbus, making it back just before closing. We got what we came for. Dave was relieved. The one cheap thing that New York had was fresh blueberries for just $1 a pint. I threatened to buy 50 pints to take home. Luckily, for him I didn't come across one of the cheap blueberry stands on the last day. He was more than happy for me to bring home 50,000 matchsticks instead. Catherine and I limped back to the subway much more slowly, happy with each other and the trip of a lifetime.

THE VIRTUAL TRIP IN 2012

Oh yes. The Daleks invaded NYC last night in the 1930's. They were stealing people living in Hooverville and using the Empire State building as headquarters for their nefarious plot. Gotta love Dr. Who and NYC.