Que pasa New York!
As soon as we got back from the City, I decided to write down everything we'd done so I wouldn't forget! So here it is, my account of my days in the city of New York...
On Monday morning Dave, Dave’s mom and I got up early and took the commuter train into New York City. We arrived at Grand Central, which itself is an incredibly beautiful architectural feat. Dave took us over to the Oyster Bar, where there’s a whispering gallery….you and a friend face into opposite corners of the arched hallway and talk at the wall, and you can hear each other perfectly over the noise of the crowd between you! We made our way to a pizza place inside the MetLife building (still inside the station area) called Naples 45, where we had some authentic Neapolitan pizza - superb. Then onward and upward, walking about ten blocks up Park Avenue to our hotel, the Hotel Elysee, to drop our bags off, and heading for the theater with a short stop to admire the inside of St. Thomas’ cathedral.
At one we met Dave’s brother John at the stage door of Radio City Music Hall, where he’s an apprentice stagehand. He took us back behind the scenes and showed us around, including getting to pet the camels, sheep and donkey for the nativity scene! It was so cool to see the costumes and props all waiting for action…ten-foot tall Christmas presents, Santa’s sleigh, forty sexy reindeer costumes for the Rockettes, probably a hundred Santa Suits for the Santa number, animatronic angel wings, and the full-size tour bus the Rockettes ride! John also showed us the 1930’s original hydraulics below the stage that he works with, with pistons that go thirty feet down into the ground and that can lift different sections of the stage above and below the stage level. We also got to see the control room for the Rockettes’ tap show microphones, and to walk out on the stage itself while the house was filling and see the whole theater. It was beyond awesome.
Next John walked us out to our seats, and we got to see the show itself. Each time a prop or costume emerged, I was amazed at how effectively the whole thing came together - truly a piece of art. The show was fantastic and had everything you can imagine, from a 3D ride over New York on the massive LCD backdrop to synchronized Rockette kicks and dancing to the above-mentioned worshipful sheep.
After the show was over John took us down the street and treated us to an extravagant early dinner at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, where the super-tender steaks are served on plates heated to 500 degrees! Before too long John had to run back to the theatre to set up for the next show. After dinner we walked out to Rockefeller Center, where we were nearly demolished by the crowds trying to see the tree and skating rink, but we made it somehow. Soon enough Dave’s mom headed back to the train for Connecticut. Dave and I stopped by the hotel to settle into the room, then set out to walk downtown. We went into St. Patrick’s cathedral, which was even more spectacular than St. Thomas’, and looked around for a while before heading for the Empire State Building.
We got to the roof after it was already dark, but you could see out for miles and miles. Two sides were nice, but two sides of the building were being blasted by freezing wind and no one could stay more than a minute or two! We took some pictures and headed back down.
On our way back up to midtown we went past the Macy’s on 34th street just as it closed, but did take in the window displays revolving around the plot of Miracle on 34th Street. Next we passed through Times Square, which had appeared as a giant splotch of white light from the Empire State and didn’t fail to impress. Right in Times Square was an entire store devoted to M&Ms, which was so weird that we had to go in. Dave loved the idea that someone had gone to a company and said, “make me 1000 products around the idea of M&Ms candy,” and had been duly obeyed.
On Tuesday morning we had an impressive breakfast at the hotel and then set out northward for Central Park. Tuesday was definitely the coldest day of our trip at around ten or twenty degrees, and everyone was bundled to the point of disappearing into their woolens. We started at the southeast corner of the park and wandered up in a zigzag pattern to Strawberry Fields and the Imagine mosaic. Right across the street we visited the Dakota Building, where John Lennon lived until his death. Next it was back across the park to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Before visiting the museum we decided to take the recommendation of our guidebook and try the Café Boulud a few blocks away. It didn’t open until noon, so we wandered the freezing streets until we found a gallery devoted to valuable signatures and handwriting. There was amazing stuff, from Geronimo’s scrawl to a letter from Henry VIII to his Royal Wardrober to a note from Dr. Cushing referring a patient to a fellow neurologist.
Lunch was so incredibly fancy. There was a waiter devoted entirely to bringing a little fried rice ball sitting in a bed of dry rice as an appetizer, and a waiter who only brought a selection of housemade bread to each table, and a waiter only for wine, and seemingly two regular waiters per table! We tried the duck pate and a blood-orange and field greens salad to start, followed by the fanciest Wiener Schnitzel we’ll ever have and a salmon-udon soup. For dessert we tried a chocolate thing and a cream thing, both of which were sublime. It was the first time I had ever seen one of those little silver things that the waiter uses to scrape up your crumbs between courses, and someone promptly showed up to refold our napkins when we got up to use the restroom!
At the Metropolitan Museum we saw beautiful marble sculptures, Egyptian artifacts and sarcophagi, and some wonderful paintings including Frederick Lord Leighton and Alphonse Mucha. It was ridiculously crowded!
After a short stop at the hotel we set out for dinner at Da Tommaso, a little Italian restaurant where Dave’s aunt and uncle had gotten us reservations. All the time we’ve known each other Dave has been lamenting the fact that I’ve apparently never tasted real Italian food, since according to him it is unfindable on the West coast. Well, now I’ve tasted it! I went for spaghetti and meat sauce, and it was truly an experience. There’s something so simple and yet so exquisite about the food here, and it’s addictive!
After dinner we hauled our overstuffed selves across town to meet a few of Dave’s friends for drinks. We were so full we thought we’d die! The brisk walk through the cold did us good, though, and we were mostly recovered by the time we reached our destination. Dave’s high school friends Dave, Tom, and Tristan met up with us and they all caught up over the course of the evening. At last it was nearly midnight and time for bed.
On Wednesday we walked the few blocks from our hotel to the MoMA and perused the collection there. There were a few highlights, including a suspended, illustrated whale skeleton and a few Klimts, but overall modern art mostly weirds me out. For lunch we braved a long, outdoor, touristy line for a table at the Stage Deli. We were afraid we would be disappointed, since there didn’t seem to be any locals there, but boy were we wrong. From the cole slaw to the pastrami to the matzo ball soup to the New York egg cream (which contains neither egg nor cream) everything was the best we’d ever tasted, hands down. The waiters were also appropriately gruff, and it was a great experience. We finished the meal by ordering a slice of strawberry New York cheesecake, wondering how it would hold up. The thing was AS BIG AS YOUR HEAD. We made it through about a third of the slice before ceding defeat. Holy cow.
Since we’d bought CityPass books of tickets for all the museums and stuff, Dave and I decided to go for the Circle Line cruise around the island. This is where our good luck really showed itself. All we did was walk across town hoping that a boat would leave around the time we got there. On arriving we found that the boats only left twice a day, but that we were just in time to catch the second one! Within an hour we were off. The cruise was great, with a guide illustrating all the sights and a heaping side of city pride. He pointed out where the plane landed in the Hudson, told the story of Government Island, and dramatized Ellis Island to great effect. And, due to a miracle of perfect timing, we got to see the sun set directly behind the Statue of Liberty. Well worth it.
Once off the boat it was dark. We grabbed the subway down to the Washington Square area and Greenwich Village, where we browsed the Strand bookstore and walked up and down Bleecker Street. We got in line early for John’s Pizzeria, a famous landmark serving pies since 1929. There we met Dave’s friend Mike and his girlfriend and enjoyed two enormous pizzas worth the hour-long wait. Afterwards we caught a cab to Little Italy and a fabulous dessert café. At last, time for bed again.
Thursday morning we left our bags at the hotel counter and started uptown to the Neue Galerie, a relatively new museum of German and Austrian secessionist art (my favorite.) It was lovely! The gallery is housed in a beautiful old house which has been converted into a three-level museum. It’s essentially a private collection, but includes Klee, Beckmann, Klimt and Schiele in quantity. They have Klimt’s famous portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer! And, and, I got to see my very first in-person Schiele. Practically a religious experience for me, who has loved his work for so long.
We met Dave’s friends Michelle, Lucas and Greg up on 105th street at their apartment, and all took the subway way downtown to a Szechuan restaurant that had been well-reviewed. Aside from an embarrassing incident in which I shattered a chopstick foolishly trying to cut a potsticker, the experience was flawless. My General Tso’s chicken was perfection, and accompanied by fresh-tasting and non-greasy fried rice.
We took Greg with us on a short stopping trip to H&M and to pick up our bags, then all headed out on the next train back to Connecticut. I slept a bit on the ride, so it flew by. Dave’s mom met us at the station and took us out for dinner at a favorite pizza joint called Carminuccio’s. Fantastic, once again. I know I sound repetitive, but the whole trip was unfailingly great and each meal and journey an adventure. Talk about a vacation!
On Monday morning Dave, Dave’s mom and I got up early and took the commuter train into New York City. We arrived at Grand Central, which itself is an incredibly beautiful architectural feat. Dave took us over to the Oyster Bar, where there’s a whispering gallery….you and a friend face into opposite corners of the arched hallway and talk at the wall, and you can hear each other perfectly over the noise of the crowd between you! We made our way to a pizza place inside the MetLife building (still inside the station area) called Naples 45, where we had some authentic Neapolitan pizza - superb. Then onward and upward, walking about ten blocks up Park Avenue to our hotel, the Hotel Elysee, to drop our bags off, and heading for the theater with a short stop to admire the inside of St. Thomas’ cathedral.
At one we met Dave’s brother John at the stage door of Radio City Music Hall, where he’s an apprentice stagehand. He took us back behind the scenes and showed us around, including getting to pet the camels, sheep and donkey for the nativity scene! It was so cool to see the costumes and props all waiting for action…ten-foot tall Christmas presents, Santa’s sleigh, forty sexy reindeer costumes for the Rockettes, probably a hundred Santa Suits for the Santa number, animatronic angel wings, and the full-size tour bus the Rockettes ride! John also showed us the 1930’s original hydraulics below the stage that he works with, with pistons that go thirty feet down into the ground and that can lift different sections of the stage above and below the stage level. We also got to see the control room for the Rockettes’ tap show microphones, and to walk out on the stage itself while the house was filling and see the whole theater. It was beyond awesome.
Next John walked us out to our seats, and we got to see the show itself. Each time a prop or costume emerged, I was amazed at how effectively the whole thing came together - truly a piece of art. The show was fantastic and had everything you can imagine, from a 3D ride over New York on the massive LCD backdrop to synchronized Rockette kicks and dancing to the above-mentioned worshipful sheep.
After the show was over John took us down the street and treated us to an extravagant early dinner at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, where the super-tender steaks are served on plates heated to 500 degrees! Before too long John had to run back to the theatre to set up for the next show. After dinner we walked out to Rockefeller Center, where we were nearly demolished by the crowds trying to see the tree and skating rink, but we made it somehow. Soon enough Dave’s mom headed back to the train for Connecticut. Dave and I stopped by the hotel to settle into the room, then set out to walk downtown. We went into St. Patrick’s cathedral, which was even more spectacular than St. Thomas’, and looked around for a while before heading for the Empire State Building.
We got to the roof after it was already dark, but you could see out for miles and miles. Two sides were nice, but two sides of the building were being blasted by freezing wind and no one could stay more than a minute or two! We took some pictures and headed back down.
On our way back up to midtown we went past the Macy’s on 34th street just as it closed, but did take in the window displays revolving around the plot of Miracle on 34th Street. Next we passed through Times Square, which had appeared as a giant splotch of white light from the Empire State and didn’t fail to impress. Right in Times Square was an entire store devoted to M&Ms, which was so weird that we had to go in. Dave loved the idea that someone had gone to a company and said, “make me 1000 products around the idea of M&Ms candy,” and had been duly obeyed.
On Tuesday morning we had an impressive breakfast at the hotel and then set out northward for Central Park. Tuesday was definitely the coldest day of our trip at around ten or twenty degrees, and everyone was bundled to the point of disappearing into their woolens. We started at the southeast corner of the park and wandered up in a zigzag pattern to Strawberry Fields and the Imagine mosaic. Right across the street we visited the Dakota Building, where John Lennon lived until his death. Next it was back across the park to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Before visiting the museum we decided to take the recommendation of our guidebook and try the Café Boulud a few blocks away. It didn’t open until noon, so we wandered the freezing streets until we found a gallery devoted to valuable signatures and handwriting. There was amazing stuff, from Geronimo’s scrawl to a letter from Henry VIII to his Royal Wardrober to a note from Dr. Cushing referring a patient to a fellow neurologist.
Lunch was so incredibly fancy. There was a waiter devoted entirely to bringing a little fried rice ball sitting in a bed of dry rice as an appetizer, and a waiter who only brought a selection of housemade bread to each table, and a waiter only for wine, and seemingly two regular waiters per table! We tried the duck pate and a blood-orange and field greens salad to start, followed by the fanciest Wiener Schnitzel we’ll ever have and a salmon-udon soup. For dessert we tried a chocolate thing and a cream thing, both of which were sublime. It was the first time I had ever seen one of those little silver things that the waiter uses to scrape up your crumbs between courses, and someone promptly showed up to refold our napkins when we got up to use the restroom!
At the Metropolitan Museum we saw beautiful marble sculptures, Egyptian artifacts and sarcophagi, and some wonderful paintings including Frederick Lord Leighton and Alphonse Mucha. It was ridiculously crowded!
After a short stop at the hotel we set out for dinner at Da Tommaso, a little Italian restaurant where Dave’s aunt and uncle had gotten us reservations. All the time we’ve known each other Dave has been lamenting the fact that I’ve apparently never tasted real Italian food, since according to him it is unfindable on the West coast. Well, now I’ve tasted it! I went for spaghetti and meat sauce, and it was truly an experience. There’s something so simple and yet so exquisite about the food here, and it’s addictive!
After dinner we hauled our overstuffed selves across town to meet a few of Dave’s friends for drinks. We were so full we thought we’d die! The brisk walk through the cold did us good, though, and we were mostly recovered by the time we reached our destination. Dave’s high school friends Dave, Tom, and Tristan met up with us and they all caught up over the course of the evening. At last it was nearly midnight and time for bed.
On Wednesday we walked the few blocks from our hotel to the MoMA and perused the collection there. There were a few highlights, including a suspended, illustrated whale skeleton and a few Klimts, but overall modern art mostly weirds me out. For lunch we braved a long, outdoor, touristy line for a table at the Stage Deli. We were afraid we would be disappointed, since there didn’t seem to be any locals there, but boy were we wrong. From the cole slaw to the pastrami to the matzo ball soup to the New York egg cream (which contains neither egg nor cream) everything was the best we’d ever tasted, hands down. The waiters were also appropriately gruff, and it was a great experience. We finished the meal by ordering a slice of strawberry New York cheesecake, wondering how it would hold up. The thing was AS BIG AS YOUR HEAD. We made it through about a third of the slice before ceding defeat. Holy cow.
Since we’d bought CityPass books of tickets for all the museums and stuff, Dave and I decided to go for the Circle Line cruise around the island. This is where our good luck really showed itself. All we did was walk across town hoping that a boat would leave around the time we got there. On arriving we found that the boats only left twice a day, but that we were just in time to catch the second one! Within an hour we were off. The cruise was great, with a guide illustrating all the sights and a heaping side of city pride. He pointed out where the plane landed in the Hudson, told the story of Government Island, and dramatized Ellis Island to great effect. And, due to a miracle of perfect timing, we got to see the sun set directly behind the Statue of Liberty. Well worth it.
Once off the boat it was dark. We grabbed the subway down to the Washington Square area and Greenwich Village, where we browsed the Strand bookstore and walked up and down Bleecker Street. We got in line early for John’s Pizzeria, a famous landmark serving pies since 1929. There we met Dave’s friend Mike and his girlfriend and enjoyed two enormous pizzas worth the hour-long wait. Afterwards we caught a cab to Little Italy and a fabulous dessert café. At last, time for bed again.
Thursday morning we left our bags at the hotel counter and started uptown to the Neue Galerie, a relatively new museum of German and Austrian secessionist art (my favorite.) It was lovely! The gallery is housed in a beautiful old house which has been converted into a three-level museum. It’s essentially a private collection, but includes Klee, Beckmann, Klimt and Schiele in quantity. They have Klimt’s famous portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer! And, and, I got to see my very first in-person Schiele. Practically a religious experience for me, who has loved his work for so long.
We met Dave’s friends Michelle, Lucas and Greg up on 105th street at their apartment, and all took the subway way downtown to a Szechuan restaurant that had been well-reviewed. Aside from an embarrassing incident in which I shattered a chopstick foolishly trying to cut a potsticker, the experience was flawless. My General Tso’s chicken was perfection, and accompanied by fresh-tasting and non-greasy fried rice.
We took Greg with us on a short stopping trip to H&M and to pick up our bags, then all headed out on the next train back to Connecticut. I slept a bit on the ride, so it flew by. Dave’s mom met us at the station and took us out for dinner at a favorite pizza joint called Carminuccio’s. Fantastic, once again. I know I sound repetitive, but the whole trip was unfailingly great and each meal and journey an adventure. Talk about a vacation!