Yankees Stadium, Brooklyn Bridge and Carnegie Deli

When Eric and Lindsey arrived, we went to the new Yankee Stadium along with Lauren and her co-worker (and new family member) Andrew. Even though it isn't the old stadium, the history exudes from it as you walk to your seats. Below is a picture from the concourse. A few of those players do look familiar, don't they?

We were not aware that if you got to the stadium early enough you could go to and see the monuments. This is the closest we were able to get.

It is a beautiful stadum. The grass is pristine and it has a wonderful video board. 

While clearly all New Yorkers that attend Yankees games are Yankees fans, the same cannot be said about the affiliations to the New York Rangers hockey franchise as during the game there was quite a ruckus between some New York Ranger fans and New Jersey Devils fans. Those fans are passionate and the fact that the two teams were in the playoffs against one another at the time fueled the passion.

Another part of the concourse.

Here is Lindsey (with Felice in the background) waiting at "our" subway station for a Brooklyn bound train. You learn very quickly that directions are not North, South, East or West, but rather Uptown, Downtown or Crosstown or described by the direction of the subway line you are going on. In this case, the B line goes between the Bronx and Brooklyn, so you are either Brooklyn Bound or Bronx Bound. This is an important lesson.

This is Lauren's building in Long Island City, Queens, New York City. It overlooks the East River and the famous Pepsi Cola sign.You can see the United Nations right across the River on a clear day.

Lindsey, Eric and I visited the Museum of Natural History and Lindsey particularly enjoyed the dinosaurs. I wound up at the Museum 3 times and each time was interesting.

Here is the Ernst & Young building in the heart of Times Square. What ever city we are in, we always look for the E&Y building.

Lindsey, Lauren, Felice and I, during our walk of the Brooklyn Bridge. Eric took the picture and can be seen in the following shot. I highly recommend walking the Bridge. It is very cool.

Here is Eric on the Bridge. They have a walking path that is auto free, but is subject to gawkers and individuals that think they are the only people entitled to walk on the path.

Here is Eric with a little of the skyline in the background.

I must have mentioned the Carnegie Deli a hundred times, so here is the outside of the building to go with the descriptions of the food. By the way, I have assumed all along that it is called the Carnegie Deli due to its close proximity to Carnegie Hall. Via Wiki I have concluded that I am probably correct.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnegie_Deli 

 http://www.carnegiedeli.com/home.php

Here are Eric and Lindsey inside of the Lombardi's Pizza. They did a New York City Pizza Tour which they very much enjoyed and highly recommend.

And finally, here is the whole family at Yankee Stadium. Please excuse the hair as it got windy that night. It was great for us to be all together in the Big Apple during out 2 month residence in New York City.

Answer to the question, "What is a chocolate babka?"

We have been asked what a chocolate babka is and thought it would be appropriate to share some information for those that have not been exposed to what I believe is one of the greatest desserts ever created. An explanation (with help from Wikipedia) follows.

A chocolate babka is a coffee cake that is associated with the Eastern European Jewish tradition and is made from a doubled and twisted length of yeast dough. It is typically baked in a high loaf pan and contain a filling of cinnamon and chocolate.

The picture below is a very standard babka, but doesn't give the definition to understand why it is so good.

As you can see from the picture below, there are swirls of dough and chocolate, with bits of chocolate on the top. It is so good.

Check this one out. Now you can understand why we only ate babka for the first month of the trip.

These are the Zabar's babkas. There are so many of them in the store that your mouth just waters.

A little secret. Felice and I lived in Los Angeles for four years at the beginning of our marriage. We frequently went to the Fairfax area of LA, which is the old Jewish section. We bought many a babka there at a deli called Canter's. Canter's is close to CBS Television City and is a place where the stars come to eat and be harassed by the old Jewish waitresses. I believe that their babkas are the equal of the ones in New York City, but further, they have something that we were unable to find in NYC, a chocolate racetrack. We don't know if this is just baked at Canter's but it is so chocolaty that you can only eat half of the portion that you would of a babka. As you would surmise by the description, the cake is baked in a circle yet the insides are like a babka. On the top of the cake is chocolate and chocolate chips. There are also marascino cherries on top. To us, the chocolate racetrack is the ultimate dessert. We will keep looking in other locales, but we doubt we will find anything like this delicacy from Canter's which is pictured below.

Hopefully, that will answer the question, "What is a chocolate babka?" But you know that you will never really understand until  you have a slice, so I encourage you to seek one out as soon as possible.

Gary

More Pictures

Here are some more pictures taken with the iPhone camera so I apologize in advance for picture quality.

Here is the Firemen's Memorial in Midtown that I wrote about.

Above is the plaque. Sorry it is out of focus, but you can find it very close to Grand Central Terminal.

This is the Panorama that I raved about. Here the picture shows in the foreground the Upper West Side, with Central Park and the Upper East Side above it. The UWS is where we stayed.

The yellow section close to the Park is where we stayed. See the proximity to the Park? Note that on the upper right corner of the property is where "our" subway stop was.

The Panorama from the Downtown area. The Panorama was last updated in 1992, hence the Twin Towers are in view.

Picture covering not only Downtown, but also most of the lower portion of Manhattan.

Picture from above New York City. You can see the runways of La Guardia towards the bottm and Manhattan on the right. It is amazing how big Queens and Brooklyn are and yet everyone wants to be on the small island of Manhattan. This also gives some feeling of size of Panorama.

The Park and the Upper West Side taken from Uptown.

A view from above (Uptown).

A view through the glass catwalk.

Another view from a catwalk shooting through the floor so there are obstructions. Feels like floating over NYC.

The room is just immense. Look how small those people are off in the distance.

See how large the room is from this shot and the next one?

Another shot of the whole thing.

This is where some claims they lost their virginity. In a subway station if you can believe it.

Here so you can read it. By the way, it was written in what appears to be yellow nail polish.



Seems a little too close to the tracks for my liking.

The Ernst & Young Building in Manhattan taken from the observation deck at Rockefeller Plaza.  

Lauren's apartment way in the distance taken from Rockefeller Plaza. She is on the other side of the East River near the Pepsi Cola sign.

Pictures

Below are a few pictures from the trip.

Eric and I were excited to be at Yankee Stadium and were sporting our University of Arizona colors. Bear Down!

This was my experience at the Carnegie Deli. I ordered a Woody Allen. I literally had to break my half sandwich in half to be able to eat it. At $19.99 (cash only) I got two good meals out of it.

Here is a close-up of the sandwich. Man that was good. I can taste it now. Just don't seem to be able to get good corned beef and pastrami in Arizona. At least not as good as this.

We went walking with LaVerne and Kim and wound up at Christie's Auction House across from Rockefeller Center. They have a wonderful lobby and a museum (not so wonderful). From there we walked into the Lego Store where LaVerne took this picture as well as the Carnegie Deli pictures and the street scenes that follow.

The taxi is not really your friend. You must fear them at all times. Although one good feature in NYC is that there is no right turn on red so at least if you are walking with the light, you should be fine.

Here is am crossing the street intensely surveying the surroundings.

Rockefeller Center is not to be missed. The inside is almost as spectacular as the outside.

Here is where all the crazies go to be seen behind the anchors of The Today Show. We saw Hoda Kotb at a street side restaurant around here.

The Lego Store at Rockefeller Center.

Pedometer Error

Felice and I recently went for a three mile walk in Mesa which frankly seemed pretty easy now that we are accomplished walkers. We did find out that the pedometer that she used in NYC was inaccurate and underreported our milage. Consequently, with the requisite adjustment we have determined that we actually walked 245 miles during our trip. If I had known we were that close to 250 miles, I would have arranged a long walk in Central Park before we left.

Gary

We're home

 Okay, so we have been home for a few days. Unfortunately I caught a cold in New York which I fought on the flight back and it turned into a respiratory tract infection that knocked me down.

Thursday was our last day in New Yorand it was mostly filled with laundry, packing, cleaning and getting to the airport. Of course, during that time we had the opportunity to reflect on our trip. We were picked up at 3:00 by our livery vehicle, which this time unfortunately was a small, compact car as we had 3 large bags (46 pounds each), 4 carryons (including our two computers), and three full bags and a box fan to bring to Lauren. Well, we stuffed every corner of the car and we were off to JFK, with a stop at Lauren's apartment. Surely the 3 1/2 hours set aside would get us to the airport early? We forgot about New York traffic. One of the things you quickly learn when trying to drive somewhere is that there are multiple routes to get there with one taking longer than the next. There is no such thing as a short cut. Also, to get out of Manhattan, you have to know which streets go one way in the direction you want and how to gain access to the bridge/tunnel you have chosen. Our route to Lauren's was over the Edward Koch Tri-Borough Bridge. While it certainly seemed like the driver did quite a bit of back tracking, I know that he took the most efficient route. I would estimate that from the apartment to the bridge, the distance is about 4 or 5 miles and the trip took 40 minutes. It felt like a 15 round, heavyweight fight with our driver ducking in here and there and holding position from other drivers. Once over the bridge, the 3 or 4 miles to Lauren's apartment took a mere 25 minutes. So our average was about 8 miles per hour and it was a gut wrenching 8 miles per hour at that. We dropped the stuff off at Lauren's apartment and it was on to the Long Island Expressway. "Expressway" right? I figured that at 4:00 or so, the traffic on a Thursday couldn't be too bad. Well, it was the same rush hour, bumper to bumper, hold your position and inch forward traffic we had been experiencing. I opened up Google Maps and saw that the driver really only had two choices and while the LIE was the first, it was quickly (20 minutes quickly) on to choice number two which was to get on to Queen Boulevard. Suffice it to say that at 4:35 (less than two hours before our flight) when Felice asked me, "Do you think we will get there in time for our flight?" I will now admit that there was some small level of concern. Traffic finally cleared, uh opened up, uh moved along sufficiently so that we got to the airport about an hour before flight time. That was one very nerve wracking trip to the airport.

The flight home was actually early, like our flight out and we arrived at our house an hour earlier than expected. We welcomed the dryness of the night and it was only in the high 90's when we got home at 10:00. We will take high temperatures over humidity every time. Of course, it did take over an hour to cool the house down, but little time to get the water heaters up to a warm temperature. It is an interesting phenomenon to have to relearn where all of your light switches are in the house you have lived in for 30 years after being away from the house only two months. It was also difficult to arrive home and out of habit keep looking for our Rocky who is no longer with us.

We walked over 220 miles during our 53 actual days of touring which results in an average of 4 1/6 miles per day. Felice has used our walking experience to initiate a walking program and has started at about 3 miles a day for now. She is dealing with the fact that the sights aren't as interesting, but at least she doesn't have to spend as much time avoiding others. We both came back with less weight than what we started with which is surprising given the food we ate during the trip.

A few family members have asked us if we will do a 2 month trip like this again and if so where. Though I can't say with total certainty, I don't think we will as I am not sure that there is a city like New York that could hold our interest for a full 2 months. New York has so much to do by day and great food and entertainment by night, that I doubt there are other cities that could keep us so occupied. I could see a 1 month trip to cities like Chicago, DC, Boston, Seattle/Portland, San Francisco, etc. I could also see an extended trip back to New York City at some point in the future as the city changes so quickly. Exhibits at museums change, Broadway shows change and new restaurants come on the scene. I don't know that we would go to NYC to 2 months, but we will see. Having Lauren there made it so much easier for us.

It was so great being in the same city with our adult offspring. We had that pleasure during Eric's early years at Ernst & Young in Phoenix and now got the same opportunity with Lauren. It is so wonderful to see your kid to be grown, self-sufficient, thriving and professional in their actions. It is nice to have the luxury to, in the spur of the moment, meet up for dinner or a little shopping. It is very nice to be able to look them in the eye and give them a hug. We so enjoyed doing every day things with Lauren that you just don't get to do when you only are together for short periods.That is certainly something that we will cherish from this trip. We will miss things like being in the city this coming Sunday on Tony Awards night. I am sure the city will be electric and Lauren will be on cloud nine as she gets to attend her first Tony Awards and be there waiting to see if her show, Jesus Christ Superstar or its lead actor, Josh Young, win the award. Keep your fingers crossed for JCS on Sunday.

As this is the last email, I thought I would list the places we have seen, people we have seen and tours attended. Previous emails had lists of shows, museums and restaurants. There is also a list of what I will call memorable sights.


Places
1964/1965 World's Fair Site
Alwyn Court (unique edifice)
Battery Park
Brooklyn Bridge (walk across) 
Bryant Park
Canal Street (shoppers/hawkers haven)
Carnegie Hall (from outside and the lobby)
Central Park (upper west side, upper east side, including in front of the zoo)
Chinatown
Dachshund Friendship Club Dachshund Days at Washington Square
Ellis Island (from a distance)
Empire State Building (will always be my favorite)
Essex Street Market
FAO Schwartz (brings out the kid in you)
Fifth Avenue (between 18th to 34th Street, 42nd Street to 98th Street)
Fifty Seventh Street galleries
Firefighters statue and poem in front of Emigrant Savings Bank
Frieze Art Fair on Randall's Island
Gramercy Park
Greenwich Village
High Line Park (unique, but so crowded)
Lego's Store, American Girl Store and the Metropolitan Museum of Art Store
Little Italy
NYU Washington Square and arch
Plaza Hotel (Starting at $50 a person for tea, I'll say)
Statue of Liberty (from a distance) (still brings tears to my eyes)
Soho cool art galleries
Riverside Park
South Street Seaport (tourist trap)
Strawberry Fields in Central Park and The Dakota Building (what an honor to John Lennon)
Tenth Avenue galleries
Wall Street with views of the New York Stock Exchange, the NYSE bull, and a statue of of George Washington 
West Chelsea Artists festival
Westin Hotel Lobby  (our sanctuary)
World Trade Center Preview Center and World Trade Center Memorial (can't wait until its finished)

 

People
The two leads of Jesus Christ Superstar (Jesus and Mary Magdalene) at dinner
Keith Richards in Soho
Richard Kind, Ron Rifkin, Victor Garber, Rachel Dratch and Jesse L. Martin, and cast members of The Book of Mormon at Our Time Gala
John Lithgow and Stephanie J. Block in the audience at Peter and the Starcatcher
Seth Rudetsky of SiriusXM record his interview show called Chatterbox. His guest was Tony Award Nominee Laura Osnes
East Valley friends LaVerne and Kim
Lennie Benson
Susan Wells
Two different females wearing University of Arizona attire and a male saying, "Go Arizona!" upon seeing my UofA shirt
Andrew and Katie Ullman

Tours
Grand Central Terminal one-hour audio tour (really cool)
Lincoln Center facility tour
Rockefeller Center Tour and Observation Deck (the art deco is incredible)
Staten Island Ferry with views of downtown Ellis Island, Governor's Island and the Statue of Liberty (and its free)
Stage Tour at Radio City with a Radio City Rockette
United Nations

Memorable Sights
Husband and his drunk wife leave subway and she immediately falls to the ground
Naked female subway rider with painted on mustache
Older beggar lady that verbally abused us twice and Felice told off
Rats in the subway and street
Spot on subway platform where it is written in yellow nail polish, "On this spot, I lost my virginity."
Taxi cab accident with cabbie screaming and gesticulating
Undercover police car painted like a Prius yellow taxi cab
Woman throwing her coffee on a man who bumped into her on the street
Outdoor Markets
Amsterdam Avenue (Upper West Side)
Chelsea Market
Columbus Avenue Fair
Columbus Avenue Green Market
Fair on 43rd Street
Greenwich Village
Hell's Kitchen fair
Hester Street Fair 
Union Square green market

In closing, I want to thank you for reading this travelogue. It was fun to prepare and I especially appreciate the feedback. I am not sure I have a professional writing career in front of me, even though some of you have suggested that I should consider it, but it was very therapeutic to write during the trip. New York is a great topic and it is a great city. We thoroughly enjoyed it and feel while we are likely 4 years short of the residency requirement to call ourselves New Yorkers now, we do have some feel of what it is like to be a New Yorker. You have to be tough as it is a tough, unforgiving city. That being said, New Yorkers are actually really great people. We have seen them warn others when they are about to lose a cell phone, offer their seat, help foreigners and actually be very polite. That being said, they do push the envelope and if there is a second for them to scoot across an intersection against the light they will do it. When a light turns green, if a driver doesn't move instantaneously, the horns will blare and if you stop suddenly as you are walking up the street, you will know that your actions are not acceptable. It is a safe city, but one where you are always on edge. There is always construction and the resulting noise. Lots of scaffolding and traffic congestion and noise. Subways and taxi's are great ways to travel, but they are very herky jerky in New York. You can never just hop over somewhere and even New Yorkers don't know what is exactly going on with the subways on the weekends. Space is at a premium there and you fight for your territory. The famous New Yorker Magazine cover that shows the New Yorker's map of the world from 9th Avenue and is so New York-centric is so apropos.  http://bigthink.com/ideas/21121

Thanks again and be well.

Gary and Felice

Our last few days in New York City

We have just a few more days in New York City as I begin to write this. On one hand we are sad that it is coming to an end, yet on another hand, we are ready for our next adventure, going home.

Tuesday was a day of recovery so it involved a lot of sleeping for me, while Felice was like the Energizer Bunny. We eventually sat down and watched a NetFlix movie and headed off to Central Park for a long walk. This was the first day in about 7 weeks that we didn't take the subway, but I guess a day off every once in a while is not a bad thing. Our total walking was a measly 2 miles.

Since Thursday is our travel day, Wednesday was our last full day to experience the City and achieve any goals that were outstanding. So we took the subway downtown to the Staten Island Ferry. The ferry trip is only about 20 or so minutes, but it was well worth the time to go to Staten Island, get off the boat and get back on another ferry for a return trip. You get an amazing view of the downtown area and even though the Freedom Tower is nowhere near complete, it is easy to see how it will dominate the skyline of downtown. There were a lot of thoughts running through my mind as we looked back on downtown and what the City went through ten plus years ago. At the outset of the ferry trip you travel by Ellis Island, Governor's Island and the Statue of Liberty. We have been to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty before, so a ferry around them both was sufficient for this trip, but I heartily encourage anyone who hasn't been to go to both of those places. There is something magical about traveling by the Statue of Liberty and having a "moment" in her presence. It certainly is an emotional experience for me every time I see her. One of the best parts of the Staten Island Ferry is that it is absolutely free of charge. Once safely ashore back in Manhattan, we walked across the downtown area on Wall Street acting like tourists and seeing the New York Stock Exchange, the NYSE bull, a statue of of George Washington and so much more. They have made Wall Street a pedestrian only thoroughfare probably to protect it. We stopped at South Street Seaport for a little touristy shopping and to buy a pretzel. I told Felice that I was sure that I could find one for $2 as the last few times we were charged $3, but I had paid $2 before. It took 3 different stands, but I think the secret is to go to stands that are close to other stands where they have reduced prices due to competition. Thus I found my $2 pretzel amongst a few different stands. This was a lesson in the free market. We also saw a stand selling cups of corn. It looks like they sell these cups for from $4.59 to $6.59, depending on size. Raw materials are probably a can of Del Monte corn so it is real profitable. We took the subway uptown for our last pilgrimage to Zabar's for some babka buying and went home to relax. We then met Lauren for dinner at Spring Kitchen in the Upper West Side. Note that we only repeated three restaurants during our visit, Spring Kitchen (twice), Max Brenner's (twice) and Carnegie Deli (three times). So we had approximately 40 meals at 37 different restaurants during our visit and there is a list that follows if you might be interested. We walked (as part of our total 5 1/4 miles for the day) Lauren to the train and said so long for now and it was home for us to get ready for our big travel day. So as of this day, the three major goals have been achieved, walk over 200 miles, not take a taxi and go to all 5 boroughs.

Restaurants that we ate at:
Bareburger
Bella Luna
Blue Fin 
Bryant Park Grill
Carnegie Deli
Cafe Blossom
Cheesy Pizza
Cranky's
D'Agostino
Don't Tell Mama
Five Napkin Burger
Flor de Mayo 
Friend of a Farmer
Good Enough to Eat
Jackson Hole
Katz Deli
Longgrain
Maria Pia
Max Brenner's
Marseilles 
Nah Wah Tea Parlor 
Natureworks
Nizza
Organica
Peter's Since 1969
Pizza stands
Pretzel stands
Russ & Daughters
Shake Shack
Shanghai Asian Manor
Spring Natural Kitchen
The Breadbox
The Eatery
The Original Chinese Ice Cream Factory
Tuk Tuk
Vice Versa
Wo Hop




While this is not the last email, there are some thoughts that have come to me that I feel appropriate to share on this penultimate day in New York City:

Central Park is like a day at the beach without the water.
New York City is a great place to live if you have money, unfortunately we don't have that much money.
Going back home after two months will be very difficult, especially since our beloved Rocky will not be there to meet us.
When you feel like you can saddle a rat or at least they are squirrel-size, you have a rodent problem.
Everyone here owns their portion of the sidewalk (and a portion of yours too).
Local news reporting is bad everywhere, even in New York.
This city is very dependant upon tourism. Even more than Arizona.
You can tell a tourist from a resident; really you can.
There are a lot of people in the city.
There is no place like home.

After spending almost 2 months in New York City I have come to admire New Yorkers. They are a resilient bunch. This is a hard city to live in. Transportation is a grind, the noise is ever present. Even at 2:00 in the morning when there is no construction or significant traffic sounds, the birds are loud. The weather is unpredictable, cold, hot, humid and just not easy to deal with. There are no shopping centers so if you want to pick up a bunch of stuff, you go from store to store without a car knowing that you can only buy what you can carry. Other than Starbucks, if you need a rest room at a moment's notice, you are out of luck. If you don't have a lot of money in this city, it is just not any fun. I think Felice and I had our eyes opened quite a bit during our visit. While we felt very proud of Lauren before we got here, seeing what it is like to come to this city, trying to figure it out and then making a life here is so difficult. We are even that much prouder of our Lauren as we depart New York City as she has made great strides to conquer the Big Apple.

Be well and we will share more when we arrive home.

Gary and Felice

Goodbye to Eric and Lindsey and our theater reviews

I think that besides going through significant withdrawal once we leave New York City and head home to Mesa, I will have a similar feeling from not having a periodic outlet like my New York City emails. For now, I am going to make the most of the few emails I have left.

Sunday morning was the opportunity to take the kids to a real, Jewish Deli, the Carnegie Deli. The food on the table was impressive for the five of us and included two Woody Allen Sandwiches (Corned Beef and Pastrami), a corned beef sandwich, a tuna fish sandwich, 3 potato latkes, 1 potato knish, 1 bowl of chicken soup with matzo balls and french fries. Suffice it to say that we all had plenty of leftovers. We went back to the apartment for Eric and Lindsey to pack and then bade them farewell. The five days went by so quickly and having all five of us together for the period was the highlight of our trip to New York City. Felice and I did some straightening up including deflating the blow up bed and cleaning the bedding and then took a one hour walk in Central Park. I don't think that walking for 5 hours would have made a dent in all the calories I had today at the Carnegie Deli and I only ate half the sandwich. The law of diminishing marginal returns is a real economic law and after our 3rd trip to the Carnegie Deli, I think I have the urge for corned beef and pastrami out of my system for quite a while. Felice and I did a little grocery shopping and had a relatively small dinner of leftovers. We are trying to figure out what we should do for the next few days and are a bit perplexed as we have gone almost everywhere we planned. Perhaps we will wake up with a brainstorm. Today we walked a mere 4 1/3 miles.

Monday, our 34th wedding anniversary, is so special to us as we got to spend it together just being with one another. After breakfast and relaxation, we readied ourselves for the rest of the day. That was at about 2:00. After watching a little television we went out to Central Park, but chose not to walk because it was about 80 degrees and 70 percent humidity. Not the best combination for us desert dwellers. We packed up all of the bedding, inflatable bed and stuff and went to Lauren's apartment. Someone up there (at the MTA, not God) must have known it was our anniversary because even though the trains were on a weekend schedule, and confusing as all hell, we had an easy trip. We were lugging a 30 pound piece of luggage with the things for Lauren, but the first train arrived quickly, and we were able to take an elevator up to the next platform and jump on the 2nd train just as it was leaving and the third train was waiting when we got to it. We went to Lauren's and then to Thai food at Tuk Tuk. It was very good and we even had leftovers. After going back to Lauren's to get our empty luggage we said goodbye to Ella and gave Lauren a conditional goodbye as we may still see her before we leave and headed back to retrace our subway steps. Well, it turned out that we were able to get right on the 2nd train, but it didn't stop where we planned so we weren't able to transfer to the third train. We took the 2nd train right to 96th Street and jumped on a crosstown bus. We got home even quicker and easier than our outbound trip. Again, someone was looking out for us on this fine day. 'We walked a total of 3 miles today and spent the evening planning the last three days of our trip to pick up the loose ends we have left.
 
We have been asked by a few people which of the shows that we saw would we recommend and have done so below. Note that they are broken out based on musical and straight plays with comments next to each of them.
 
Musicals

Highly Recommended
The Book of Mormon   It is rollicking and crude and is to Broadway now what The Producers was then. We heartily recommend it, but the ticket price is steep and it is hard to get a ticket.

Jersey Boys  In the words of the Fours Seasons' song, "Oh What a Night!" We loved the show and believe that it should be seen preferably with the Broadway cast, but regardless it should be seen.

Jesus Christ Superstar  This is the best production of JCS. It should not be missed as we saw it twice and would see it again. The staging was phenomenal as was the sound.

Anything Goes   This is an old time Broadway musical with dancing and everything. A little dated, but still a lot of fun. It would be fun to go to if you have time.

Fat Camp  This is Off Broadway and is very cute for a fun evening.

Mildly Recommended
Newsies  The dancing was spectacular and the show exciting, even though the material was a little weak and the leads not as strong as they could have been in singing or acting, Typical    Disney show with a built in audience that will probably run for years, but frankly was a very expensive ticket for what we saw.

How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying  This was a great show that has not aged as well as it could and Beau Bridges looks like he needed a job and that is the only reason he is in it. I am glad I saw it, but glad we were able to get discount tickets.

Now. Here. This. This is a thought provoking show from the the creators of [title of show]. It was a good value for the ticket price, but it probably won't be around long as it appears to be searching for an audience.


Not Recommended
Leap of Faith There is no need to jump for this one and I would think it won't be around long. Raul Esparza is a great talent, but the material just doesn't work and the music is not different enough to make it interesting.



Straight Plays

Highly Recommended
Clybourne Park This is a sequel to Raisin in the Sun and is focused on race relations. It had been adapted from a Pulitzer Prize winning book and it is very well handled.


Mildly Recommended
Peter and the Starcatcher   I am probably out of touch with most of the folks that have seen it and it will likely win a few Tony's, but for me was a little too silly in its staging. That being said, it is an enjoyable prequel to Peter Pan, but just be ready to suspend all disbelief.

Lonely I'm Not   This was an interesting concept that is well staged and is touching yet funny. The local critics found things to complain about, but if you are able to buy a reasonably priced ticket, it is worthwhile.

Seminar   This is a little crass with too much done for shock value, like at one point the female lead pulled her blouse off in an effort to shock one of the actors, but it was really gratuitous. Jeff Goldblum was very good in the lead, but it didn't move quickly enough and was a bit too pretentious for my liking.


Not Recommended
Don't Dress for Dinner   This is the prototypical British farce. No need to dress for (or go to) this one as it is just silly and for a show where the dialog and action is fast moving, the show was very slow.

Magic Bird   This character study of the relationship of Magic Johnson and Larry Bird just didn't go deep enough into the relationship between Magic Johnson and Larry Bird to make it that interesting. Females who are not knowledgeable about sports or even Magic and Bird, will be bored out of their minds.

Of course I would not take my word for it and encourage you to go to the New York Times Online as it has excellent reviews. You may not be able to access them online without a subscription, but you can buy a 30-day online subscription for 99 cents and just remember to cancel it. Even if you cancel it, they will try to keep you as a subscriber and will offer another 30 days for 99 cents. I am not sure how many times they will do that, but likely long enough for anyone who wants to learn what the expert critics have to say.

Bye bye for now from the Big Apple.

Gary and Felice

They're here, they're here!

So Wednesday is finally here as are Eric and Lindsey. We cleaned up the apartment and made sure to leave them some drawers and closet space. Once they arrived we hung out for a little bit and caught up, but quickly the hunger pangs hit and we were off to lunch at the Shake Shack. I think both Eric and Lindsey agreed that it was worthy of some of the hype that surrounds it. From their it was a stroll up Columbus Avenue and back to the apartment. Felice called upon Eric with technical input from Lauren for some computer upgrades on her computer. We then took a subway to the Bronx to see the House that Ruth Built, when we met up with Lauren and her friend and coworker Andrew. We got to see the Yankees beat the Royals and were treated to Andy Pettite, star Yankee pitcher, and two home runs in the first inning. After a subway ride back from the Bronx we were surprised that we had managed to walk 5 miles. I am pretty sure we are going to achieve one of my goals that is to reach 200 miles walked during the trip. Two others are also still possible: to go to all 5 boroughs (as we have a Staten Island Ferry trip planned) and to go the whole two months without ever taking a taxi, except to and from the airport. We will see if we can be successful on all three.

Thursday was a rainy day unfortunately. Eric, Lindsey, Felice and I took a subway to Long Island City to meet Lauren for breakfast at Cranky's, a little restaurant that is in search of an identity. That being said, the food was pretty good. Then we went to hang out at Lauren's, apartment to chat, play with Ella and make plans for the day. We split into two contingents. Eric, Lindsey and I, after a quick stop at the pier nearby, took a subway to the American Museum of Natural History. I will admit that my subway skills were poor today and while we did get where we wanted to, it was a bit of a longer route. Oh well, I guess I am not a local yet. We had a great time at the Museum and we then met Felice and Lauren at the apartment, but not before Eric and Lindsey shared a New York hot dog from a Central Park Hot Dog Stand. Lauren and Felice had gone to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to see a fashion exhibit comparing designers Prada and Schiaparelli, which they said was excellent. After relaxing for a bit, we then took the subway in and had dinner at Vice Versa, a Broadway area restaurant. We had a nice dinner and again we split, with Eric and Lindsey off to see The Book of Mormon, while Felice, Lauren and I went to see Jersey Boys. Jersey Boys is produced by the company that Lauren works for so besides seeing an excellent show with great acting, singing and songs, we got to look in the Playbill and see Lauren's name in it. I have to admit that more than once, I wanted to tell the patrons around us, "My daughter sitting right here works on this show and here is her name in the Playbill." Of course I didn't do that, but don't think I didn't want to. We were so looking forward to Eric's response to The Book of Mormon since he grew up in the city of Mesa, which has a significant Mormon influence, especially in his high school.  We were not disappointed by his response. Both he and Lindsey loved the show and have been recounting dialog and songs ever since. Felice and I finished the day with 4 miles walked, and it wasn't until Felice and I were on the subway home that she told me that because of the heavy rain, Lauren and she took a cab to avoid the rain. Well, at least I haven't taken a cab.

Weather on Friday started yucky, but got better as the day went on. Eric and Lindsey headed to Bleecker Street for a pizza tour which they totally enjoyed. They learned the history of pizza as well as the history of pizza in New York City. They also got to sample pizza at three different restaurants in the City. We, on the other hand, met Lauren at Max Brenner's for lunch. It was supposed to be for breakfast, but Felice and I were tardy. After breakfast, Felice, Lauren and I went clothing shopping and I think we hit every shoe store up 18th Street and up 8th Avenue. But we had a great time joking and talking and I even got Felice to try on a pair of boots with spike heels. No, she did not buy them. We had our best shopping luck at Old Navy and after awhile, Eric and Lindsey joined us there and did a little shopping as well. Because they were tired from their pizza tour with all the walking it required and I was tired from all the shoe shopping, the three of us headed back to the apartment to relax, while Felice and Lauren soldiered on. We ultimately met up for dinner at Bareburger and it was a great meal. Bareburger is environmentally conscious and serves pure products including organic foods and very interesting protein choices. The sides were great and yes also had dessert there and it was also great. We took a subway to Times Square to see the new musical, Newsies. This musical was brought to Broadway by Harvey Fierstein and the folks at Disney and was based on the highly successful Disney film of the same name. On the positive side, the dancing was spectacular and included dance numbers, jumping, tap dancing and ballet. Unfortunately, it was my opinion that the acting was weak, the singing of the leads not strong, and the new songs not particularly memorable. It was good to see, but I can assure that the opinion of the majority of the audience was not consistent with mine. It seems that the show appeals to pre-teens, teens and young adults, many of whom grew up with the Newsies or with Disney in general. Hence, there was constant schreeching of young girls, to the point of distraction. The amount was consistent of how you see young girls greet heartthrobs, like the Beatles, Davey Jones, Bobby Sherman, Elvis and [fill in the blank]. We finished the day with 5 miles walking and 5 subway rides. Buying a monthly or weekly ticket has certainly been the best economic decision for us, that is for sure. Oh, as always, I was wearing a UofA shirt tonight and I got some more UofA love on the C Train on the way home. Bear Down.

Saturday was the day we planned to get to the Brooklyn Bridge early to walk across it without there being any crowds. Well I guess 10:00 isn't early enough because there were a bunch of people, but we walked across anyway in about a half hour for the 1 1/4 miles. It was a bright, hot and humid day so after cooling down on the other side of the bridge, we walked a little around Brooklyn and then Eric and Lindsey went to the Brooklyn Brewery for a brewery tour, while Felice, Lauren and I took the subway back into Manhattan and had lunch in Greenwich Village. The restaurant was Organica Ka and we sat out on the street. It was very nice and we hated to leave, but we had more window and shoe shopping planned. We did make a brief stop at an open-air market where we purchased some cookies which we ate along the way. Lauren, then headed to Our Time to work on the rehearsal of the teens' show for early June while Felice and I headed back to the apartment to relax, nap and recover from our 5 miles of walking so far. After the brewery tour (and a little pizza from a cart at the brewery), Lindsey and Eric headed back to the apartment, but stopped at the New York Historical Society for a new exhibit on beer in New York. In the evening, we had dinner in Chinatown with Melissa and Taka, Lauren's former roommates. They had picked the restaurant, Shanghai Asian Manor and we let Melissa order for us and she did so in Chinese. Our trust was well placed as it was an excellent meal. We then walked to the Original Chinese Ice Cream Factory for ice cream and then Felice and I headed home while the Eric, Lindsey and Lauren headed out to a movie. As I have mentioned before, weekends on the trains are an experience, not only because certain trains don't run, but because repairs and maintenance make for changes as well and sometimes the websites that should know this stuff doesn't. It was also interesting tonight because you see all types on the trains and in our train car this time was (no not a naked lady) but a husband and his drunk wife. She was so drunk that when he ushered her out the door, he had to hold the door to make sure she made it out before the doors closed and left with her still inside. Once he had her outside, he wasn't as supportive of her as the train's poles had been and she fell right to the ground as the doors were closing. There was a collective gasp of the train car's occupants, but as soon as we left the station, it was all forgotten. Somehow I think that is a metaphor for the City of New York, but I am way too tired as I type this to get much deeper than that. One other thing we saw a couple of days ago that I forgot to report, is that we spotted an undercover police car this week that revealed itself to help support a fire truck trying to get through traffic. The thing that was noteworthy was that not only was this undercover car painted like a yellow taxi cab, but it was a Prius. That just seems way to unfair to the traffic law breakers, now doesn't it? We finished the day with 7 1/2 miles, which pushes us over the 200 mile mark to 206 miles. We did not get to the Staten Island Ferry tonight, so we may not get to all 5 boroughs.

We are rounding into our last few days and will be vacating Casa Freed-NY on Thursday.

Gary and Felice

It's rainy and very humid

Just a short update as we prepare for Eric and Lindsey to arrive for a long weekend with us. We understand that it has been 111 degrees for two straight days at home, but at least it is dry there. Seems like if there is going to be heavy rain in New York City, it is going to happen on a Monday, and this Monday was no exception. We went over to Carnegie Hall to go to the 3:00 tour of the building only to find that they cancelled that tour and all of Tuesday's tours. We had a nice conversation with the docent who highly touted the Neue Galarie so went there via 2 subways and a bus. Unfortunately, it was not worth the effort. It is a small museum devoted to German/Austrian art and is on Museum Mile on the east side. We then took a bus across Central Park and subwayed back to the apartment. Later, we took a subway to 42nd Street/Bryant Park for dinner at the Bryant Park Grill with Felice's cousin Lenni Benson. We had a lovely dinner and conversation and then returned home. Given the wet weather, we only accumulated 3 miles, but trust me when I tell you that we more than made up for it the next day.

On Tuesday, we took a train down to 34th Street and Herald Square and then walked crosstown to a little luncheon spot on 31st Street and 3rd Avenue called Natureworks. While the write-ups were excellent and the food matched the reviews, we found that it was more of a small space and not the restaurant we expected. Regardless, the food was great, and the company was even better as we met our friend Susan Wells there for lunch and to hang out. After lunch, we walked up to her hotel at about 60th Street and the west side. From there the three of us walked back across town on Central Park South and wound up at the toy store FAO Schwartz. If you never have been to the original FAO Schwartz in New York City, you have really missed out. FAO Schwartz has a huge store across from the Plaza Hotel and has just about every toy you can imagine. While it is not as special now that ToysRus is a market leader, the magnitude of the store is incredible and just the opportunity to see the piano keyboard that Tom Hanks played in Big makes it all worthwhile. By the way, you can buy that keyboard for the tidy little sum of $250,000. We parted company with Susan; and Felice and I headed to the United Nations (with a brief stop at Lalique) for the 1 hour guided tour. It was very interesting and afterwards, we hung around the main lobby where they have special short term exhibitions. The two I focused my attention related to the United States Underground Railroad in the 1800's and to Israel's capture and trial of Adolph Eichman. Both were very enlightening and reinforced the UN's involvement in assuring human rights throughout the world. The UN was all the way east at 1st Avenue and 46th Street and afterwards we walked to Grand Central Terminal to buy some food for dinner and then walked the equivalent of about 4 or 5 crosstown blocks (say about a mile) before we got to our subway. We were exhausted and even more so when we read the pedometer to find that we had walked 7 1/2 miles.

We are now in the process of getting everything ready for Eric's and Lindsey's visit and I have been told by Eric that he might want to add some comments to my emails or be a guest-blogger while he is here.

Gary and Felice

Like a day at the beach without the water

On Saturday, we headed out to Lauren's apartment to pick up bedding and towels for Lindsey's and Eric's impending visit and to have breakfast. After breakfast at The Breadbox in Long Island City, Felice and I headed back, much more heavily loaded. We got back with a minimum of walking, but it took 3 different subway lines. After a couple of hours rest, we headed to the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center. There were three exhibits there including one on Noel Coward, another celebrating the revues from about 1905 until the end of World War II and a small one of the music on the Titanic. The revues are shows that are defined by what they are not: burlesque, musicals, vaudeville, musical comedies or operettas. Think of the Ziegfeld Follies. I cannot do it justice, but if you go to the link you can learn more. http://lc.lincolncenter.org/shows/204759?show_date=2012-04-30%2012:00:00&hit=1 It was very interesting as it is a theater era I didn't know anything about. We then walked over to Whole Foods to buy some prepared foods and then had our own picnic in Central Park, around 60th Street and Central Park West. After dinner and people watching, we walked up to to 72nd Street through the Park to the subway. The scene there was very different from the scene in the Park we see near our apartment. There were thousands of people, many of whom just picked a patch of grass and hung out or sunned. There were joggers, bikers, Frisbee players and people eating. Seeing that, Felice remarked, "Like a day at the beach without the water." We walked 4 1/4 miles and wound up with a quiet evening at home.

On Sunday morning, we were treated the sounds of music groups from Central Park, which were probably from the Aid's Walk going through the Park. Later, there was a large booth and speakers right on 96th Street and Central Park West, where they were celebrating Ecuador, all in Spanish. Early afternoon we went over to Andrew and Katie Ullman's place to visit since they are neighbors being just a mile and a half away. We were treated to refreshments on their rooftop on a beautiful, sunny day. They have a wonderful view of the Upper West Side and the Hudson River over to New Jersey. We then walked to Riverside Park and then to a street fair on Amsterdam Avenue. After a little food shopping on our way home, we got to see the remnants of two individuals colliding on the sidewalk. The female's reaction was to yell at him and then throw her coffee on him to which he responded, "Great waste of a drink, huh?" But he was drenched with coffee. As we approached our apartment, someone noticed my UofA shirt and said, "Go Arizona!". So we do have fans all the way back here and I would like to believe that he was on his way home to watch the Wildcat softball team on ESPNU win their softball regional tonight. We walked 2 3/4 miles today and spent some of the evening planning the 5 days that we will have with this week with Eric, Lindsey and Lauren.

I have been asked to rate the Museums we have visited in order of pure enjoyment. While this is a very difficult task, I have tried my best. Note that I have placed comments to the side of most of the museums as an explanation or because the physical facility or a particular exhibit or piece made the museum special.

Metropolitan Museum of Art (there is so much art from so many great artists that it is incredible)
Museum of Modern Art (the place for contemporary art)
Guggenheim Museum (the building is a corkscrew and is phenomenal, but the experience is highly dependent upon the current show which right now is not that great)
Museum of Natural History (there is so much to see it takes two days, but also a lot of kids with their school classes)
Lower East Side Tenement Museum (gives a great understanding of immigration after the turn of the century)
Eldridge Street Synagogue
Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum including the US Submarine Growler & Concorde supersonic plane (great to be on an aircraft carrier & in a submarine & soon to have the space shuttle)
Queens Museum of Art (the Panorama makes the visit worthwhile)
Whitney Museum (Jasper Johns Three Flags)
Frick Museum (the building is wonderful and though a smaller collection, the artists are all mostly well-known)
Morgan Library and Museum (the building is also wonderful and if you like books you will be impressed)
New York City Police Museum (the anti-terrorism exhibit is incredible)
New York Transit Museum
Anne Frank Center
Planetarium at the Museum of Natural History
City of New York Museum
Cloisters Museum (the building and location is beautiful)
Museum of the Moving Image
Paley (William S.) Museum, formerly the Radio and Television Museum
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center
New York Hall of Science (kids hand-on science)
Skyscraper Museum
Museum of American Finance
New York City Fire Department Museum
Brooklyn Museum
Bronx Museum
Society of Illustrators
Christie's Auction House and 20th floor museum
South Street Seaport Museum
Titanic Exhibit
Lightship Ambrose Boat

As you can see, the best known museums are the ones that are the most impressive, but if you have a special interest, like I did related to the Lower East Side, then there is a museum for you to go to. I think what I will take away from our experience with the museums are those particularly wonderful moments that were relevant to me like:
 the Panorama and how it gave us such a great understanding of the geography of New York City;
 the New York City Police Museum and how they have tackled anti-terrorism;
 the Tenement Museum and its relationship to Jewish Immigration;
 particular pieces of art from artists like Jasper Johns, Lichtenstein, VanGogh, Monet, and a few more. I absolutely fell in love with the work of Seurat during this trip as he was not an  artist that I was familiar with before; and
 how impressive so many of the buildings that housed the art.
While the last few days have brought us glorious weather, unfortunately, the weather forecast for Eric and Lindsey's visit promises some rain, so keep your fingers crossed for us.

Gary and Felice

Museums, Museums and More Museums

I realized that I made a mistake in the last email. I referred to the Intrepid Museum, but it is really called the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum. I also referred to it as a battleship when in fact it is an aircraft carrier. Note that our neighbor Ralph, who has been so helpful during our trip, caught my error as well and let us know by mail on Friday. The Intrepid had a whole bunch of aircraft on display on its deck including a Harrier (the airplane that takes off like a helicopter, but flies like plane), an Israeli fighter jet, various US fighter jets, and various helicopters. They also restored one of the massive elevators that moved the jets from the hangar on to the deck and we had the opportunity to ride on it during our visit. It was really cool.

Now on to this week. While some of our visits are to what could only be described as minor museums and attractions, it is incredible what you will learn at these places. I am still blown away by the Panorama that I described in the last email. So on Monday we went to the New York City Police Museum. It was housed in the original First Precinct Station house, just like you see on television, sergeant's desk at the front and all. This museum hit home because of the anti-terrorism exhibit. Now Felice and I were big fans of Jack Bauer (Keifer Sutherland) and his role on 24 and we replaced it this year with a show called Person of Interest. The premise of this show is that a guy developed a computer system for the government that through surveillance in New York City helps thwarts terrorist activities. It also helps the protagonists prevent non-terrorism future crimes. Well, we like the premise of the show, but figured that the kind of surveillance that they claimed in the show was so much like George Orwell's 1984 that it couldn't be possible. In fact, the New York City Police Department has such technology and the degree that they can follow someone on a real time basis based on facial recognition, what they are wearing or other characteristics is on one hand very appealing as they are protecting us from terrorists, but on the other hand very scary as it could easily be abused. I encourage anyone who is interested to watch the 60 Minutes report on New York City terrorism prevention. http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7382308n It is very enlightening. The excitement of this museum caused me to feel it was very appropriate to go to the New York City Fire Department Museum to give it equal time. It was funny because none of the tourist magazines mentioned it, but still we went. We found out why no mentions as there really wasn't that much there. Even its portrayal of 911 was somewhat limited and frankly not as good as the Police Museum's coverage of 911. If you like seeing old fire trucks and equipment, it is the place to go. One thing that was moving was a stained glass window created by kids at an Oklahoma high school to commemorate 911, using different symbols and colors to remind and inspire. There were also a small scale model of downtown New York before 911, after 911 and as it is expected to be rebuilt. We walked 2 3/4 miles on a cool rainy day, but managed to stay drive.

Tuesday was also a rainy day, but when we left, it was not raining. Unfortunately, when we got out of the subway, it was pouring. By the time we walked the 10 blocks to the Morgan Library and Museum, we were sopping wet as we had not taken our umbrella. The Morgan Library and Museum had a very interesting exhibition of Dan Flavin, an artist who is known for his "sculptures" with fluorescent tubes. This exhibition included many of his sketches and letters. What was more impressive was the facility itself. Pierpont Morgan and his son J. Pierpont Morgan accumulated great wealth and had no problem spending it on their house and library. The buildings had spectacular domes with ornate murals and paintings. The multiple library rooms had three stories of books and all of the books collected were leather bound. In one area, they must have had 100 different bibles, not the least of which included not one, but three Gutenberg Bibles. It took us two hours to go through it and also to dry off. Of course, we went out and there was no rain so we got home nice and dry. We did get to see our first taxi cab accident. It was typical as the cabbie cutoff a driver and when she hit him, he came out of his cab screaming and gesticulating. Only in New York can you drive like a maniac and blame someone else. Well, not really; I guess that happens everywhere, but in New York it happens with such flair. After dinner at home, we went back to the subway, this time with umbrella in hand, and went to see Jesus Christ Superstar. This is not a typo, as we did see JCS last week, but Lauren was able to get us tickets so that we could see it again. This time we were front row, center of the mezzanine, which is just about 8 rows back from the stage. We saw a few things we missed the first time like Jesus's clothes being vacuumed off his body right before the whipping scene, the blood appliques showing the affect of his whippings and bagels in the production. The show was just as great as the first time, but our location and ability to watch for nuances and listen more closely to the lyrics, made this a very special evening. Thank you Lauren. After leaving the theater, I was that guy who had to fight the crowd upstream to get back to the seat and retrieve the umbrella (which we never used) and went home. Our total mileage was 3 miles.

Wednesday morning got started with a text from our East Valley friends LaVerne and Kim, who indicated that they were taking a train down from their vacation rental in Connecticut and would love to see us for lunch. We met them at Grand Central Terminal and gave them a quick mini-tour before taking the subway to the Carnegie Deli for Jewish delicacies. We had corned beef or corned beef and pastrami sandwiches, potato knishes and meat knishes. Of course we generated lots of leftovers, but had a great time eating what we could. From there, we walked around the Rockefeller Center area and Felice remembered that the public was allowed to go into Christie's Auction House even if they weren't bidding. So we toured the auction house and then went to their 20th floor museum and saw the work of an artist named Steve Young. From there we stopped at stores including the Lego's Store, a very expensive chocolate store (as in $4.50 for a mini-bar of chocolate) and the Metropolitan Museum of Art Store. We then ambled down Fifth Avenue (between 57th Street and 42nd Street)and over to Grand Central Terminal to deliver them to their train. Along the way, in front of Emigrant Savings Bank, one block away from GCT we came upon a huge statue and poem dedicated to firefighters. Although commissioned before 911, the Bank and others felt it was important to keep the statue in NYC and it is the only 911 memorial in mid-town Manhattan. We headed home and we had walked 5 1/4 miles on a warm and humid day. Of course we had to finish our leftovers from the Carnegie Deli and a little babka. Well, we didn't have to finish the leftovers, but it seemed like a good idea at the time, but there is something to the concept of too much of a good thing.

On Thursday we took a subway and then a bus across Central Park to go to the Whitney Museum. It is focused on modern-contemporary art for the most part with a biennial celebration of about 50 new artists. I did find my moment of total joy though when we found a Jaspar Johns flag picture just sitting on a wall all alone. It was 3 layer picture with 3 separate/overlapping US flags and it was so accessible. It is called Three Flags. http://whitney.org/Collection/JasperJohns  We then walked to the Frick Collection which was the personal collection of an industrialist partner/competitor of Andrew Carnegie. He decided to build a home in New York City which would house his art with the ultimate secret plan to turn it into a museum at the time of his death. The building was built in the early 1900's and is spectacular. Upon his death there were major renovations to add a garden and more gallery space. His collection was anything but modern and included Renoir, Rembrandt (self portrait), Turner (many ocean/boat scenes), Gainsborough (many portraits), Van Dyke, Manet, Monet and Whistler. All of the art is situated on the walls and tables like it was during his life and it is all very accessible. From there we walked up 5th Avenue on what was a glorious day of 70 degrees and a light breeze. We wandered into Central Park near the front of the zoo. We then walked into the Plaza Hotel, where my mother has told me she honeymooned.  We looked around and for an instant we considered attending High Tea, but with pricing starting at $50 per person, we quickly made other plans. We walked across 58th Street and Felice found a real diamond in the rough when she spotted a special apartment building amongst the other apartment buildings. It is called Alwyn Court and it is a 12-story building with incredibly detailed finishing on the outside. http://www.nyc-architecture.com/MID/MID093.htm  We took the subway home and rested up. Then we took the subway to 86th Street and walked over to Amsterdam Avenue looking for Chinese food. We wound up a Flor de Mayo which is a Peruvian, Chinese and Mexican food restaurant and the food was pretty good. After we subwayed and walked back we found we had tallied 5 miles.

On Friday we took the subway up to Harlem to go to the Cloisters Museum. Unfortunately the travel instructions were not clear enough for me and I was not aware that when we arrived at the 190th Street Subway Station, that we were supposed to take an elevator up to the top of a tall hill. Instead, we took a ramp to a street at the base of the hill and wound up climbing it. It was rigorous, and I am lobbying Felice to count that mileage double due to the steep grade we encountered. The Museum is an old monastery built in the style of monasteries from the years 1000 to 1150. The architecture, gardens and views of the Hudson River are spectacular. The art is medieval and religious. There was a lot of stained glass and tapestries. We did not walk back to the subway, but rather took a bus as we were told that the more direct way back to the subway was uphill. From there, we went to NYU and hung out at Washington Square near the arch. It was fun to listen to the various 2 and 3 person groups make music in exchange for tips. We walked to Max Brenner's for a snack as this is a place Lauren introduced us to years ago. The concept is that wherever possible, they use chocolate in their recipes and have lots of chocolate dishes. I think it would be a great franchise idea. Susan and Jim, we need to work on that one. We then walked to Union Square for their open air market, but there were no bagels or foods that we were interested in. It was a beautiful day so we ambled up Fifth Avenue (between 18th Street and 34th Street) and then took 34th Street across to the Empire State Building so we could see it up close and personal. There was no need to go to the observation deck as we have done that before and we did go to the Rockefeller Center Observation Deck this visit. Note that during our stay, the Empire State Building lost its claim as the tallest building in the City as the World Trade Center building surpassed it on its way to 1776 feet. The area around the Empire State Building was a zoo as there was a bunch of tourists. In New York City, where ever there are tourists there are sure to be Tour Hawkers. These tend to be new immigrants who hold a sign in your face and try to get you to take the tour they are selling. Well there were a bunch of them as well. From there we walked to the subway to head home, but not before seeing a female wearing a University of Arizona sweatshirt. That is the 2nd encounter with a person wearing such a shirt in the City during our trip. So there are at least 3 of us running around in UofA attire. While that does not sound like a lot, I have not seen one other non-New York school represented on the streets of New York, so it made me feel good to see another Wildcat. Bear Down! After dinner at home, we took the subway to see another round of Our Time student's shows (this time the pre-teen students), including one performance that Lauren directed. It was great to see the kids perform and develop confidence. We walked 6 1/3 miles today, at least 1 1/2 miles of which were uphill.

So we are up to 167 miles walking and 13 shows with 2 more (Newsies and Jersey Boys) to come.

Have a great weekend.

Felice and Gary