Over lunch one day in early October, my two friends, Barbara and Barbara, who I will call Babs, and I hatched a plan to visit New York City just in time for the holiday hullabaloo. Barbara and I had tried to do this several years ago but it never came to fruition. We weren’t really sure this would either but we started checking airfares, hotels, Airbnb’s and other places to stay. Babs would be flying from Baltimore and Barbara and I would fly from Charlotte. Plane reservations went smoothly.
After looking at hotels, we settled on a lovely little 3 bedroom 2 bathroom apartment on 30th Street, right in midtown Manhattan. What a find!
It was such a fabulous location we could even see the Empire State Building lit up while walking down our very secure, neighborhood street.
On the corner was a great little restaurant, the Banc, where we had delicious salads and scrumptious bread. I forgot to take pictures of our food! I didn’t bring my camera on this trip so I wasn’t thinking photography all the time.
It seemed like the Gods were with us in this case and throughout the trip. As soon as we stepped out of the restaurant, we caught a cab uptown to the Gershwin Theatre to see Wicked.
Wicked is a wickedly dazzlingly musical based on earlier times for the witches, Glinda and Elphaba. The beginning was slow and I felt myself dozing a bit. However, the musical score picked up and by intermission it even began to charm me. It’s been on Broadway for 15 years so it’s popularity enthralls the young and old alike. The set design was colorful and the flying monkey scene was mesmerizing. Elphaba, the wicked witch, had a Broadway theatre voice that was absolutely fabulous. Of course, the good witch Glinda was uproariously funny and she brought the house down with her comical one liners. All in all it was a wonderful evening on Broadway.
We began our first full day in New York City leisurely. We drank coffee, chatted a bit and made decisions on which way we planned to walk. Our first stop was the Empire State Building lobby. We didn’t go to the top since we all had been there on previous visits to the Big Apple.
Next we stopped for brunch at LePain Quotidien on Park Avenue. They had a very interesting menu. I had avocado and feta with scrambled eggs. Barbara had salmon and scrambled eggs. And Babs had an over easy egg with other accompaniments. I was too late to get a picture of hers!
Refreshed and nourished, we trekked to our next landmark, the New York City Library. We took a walk through it, realizing we could get lost for hours in the vast labyrinth of marbled walled passageways.
After perusing the bookstore, we made our way out onto the street and walked several city blocks to our next landmark, Grand Central Station. The celestial ceiling which was redone from the 1914 version in 1945 is amazing to look at. It’s wonderful that the City preserves some of this old architecture.
We made our way to Fifth Avenue and visited Lord & Taylor’s, which is going out of business, Cartier’s, and Sacks. A visit to St. Patrick’s is always on my list with a moment to sit and reflect.
We stopped at a few more churches on Fifth and strolled up to Central Park.
Our fitbits registered close to six miles of walking. It was time to take a subway back so we could get ready for dinner and a show.
We caught a cab right outside our apartment. But it went at a snails pace all the while the meter spun very quickly. It was the lighting of the tree at Rockefeller Center and the city was alive with thousands more people than usual. Unfortunately our cab was headed in that direction. It took us 45 minutes to go about 1.5 miles but we were dressed for dinner and the theatre so we didn’t want to walk. We made it to the Japanese restaurant 20 minutes late, but they were gracious enough to hold our table. We had a wonderful meal at Natsumi on 50th Street.
This night we went to see King Kong on Broadway. The reviews were mixed some very unflattering so our expectations were not very high. What we all walked away with was a delightful evening with more enthusiasm for this show than we had when we saw Wicked. First, Kong was magnificent. The puppeteers made him come alive on stage, his full mass standing before us in all his glory loudly bellowing his rage towards those who confronted him. His eyes showed his pain at being betrayed by Anne, the woman he trusted. Kong was no longer mechanical but a seeing, breathing, feeling entity. The dancing and movements on the stage, especially the scene where the ship is departing New York makes the audience feel they too are on the ship. Kong climbing the Empire State Building, Kong running through the jungle were electrifying. How could you not be sitting on the edge of your seat. Anne’s performance was sensational. Her voice was strong, her delivery spot on. But again the true star of this show is King Kong.
To end our evening we decided to go to Junior’s on Broadway to have a slice of their famous cheesecake. Yummy!
On our last full day in New York we decided to head downtown. I took Barbara and Babs by my old home on 21st Street. Me, being who I am, couldn’t resist ringing the bell to see if I could check the place out. I haven’t lived there in 35 years but I was curious to see inside. The loft was 2000 square feet and when I lived there I paid under $500 month rent. It’s a co-op now and worth over $2 million. The people who live there let us in and let us have a little look. It didn’t look anything like it did when I was there. But it was a nice visit and great to see inside. I didn’t take any pictures – didn’t want them to think I was casing the joint.
We stopped for a bite to eat at a little restaurant that makes its own cheese, Beecher’s. It was great. We had grilled cheese with fig and Tomato soup.
We strolled through Union Square Park checking out the vendors selling scarves and jewelry and other items. It was my walk on a daily basis when I attended college at NYU. We reached Washington Square Park which is at the center of the University and walked around. A pianist had brought his piano to play by the arch. For a moment I thought it might be the same person who played there so many years ago but alas it was someone new and younger.
We walked and walked through Greenwich Village, Soho, where we went into a few galleries, then to Chinatown and Little Italy. We stopped at a tea place for cake and coffee and tea.
We did stop at one point because the paparazzi were out in full force. Nobody seemed to know who was coming out of the building but the crowds were building. Finally someone said it was Kylie Jenner. So we moved on.
At the end of this day we had walked nearly seven miles. We were so full from the cake we couldn’t eat in Little Italy. Next time.
What a wonderful trip! Lots of laughs, good food, great company and a lot of walking – New York City is certainly about the walking.
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