TRIP TO NEW YORK CITY

5/24/01 - 5/29/01

Our local theatre company offer a theater trip to New York City through the tour company Break-A-Way so David and I joined up. We had been wanting to spend a week in NYC and this seemed a good opportunity. We left Thursday morning, 5/24 at 5 AM from Menlo Park with a pick up by East and South Bay shuttle. The flight went well and we arrived in Newark, New Jersey about 4 PM where we were met by our tour guides who had our luggage loaded into two busses - there were about 70 of us! It took us two hours to get to the hotel because of the traffic but we saw lots of well known sights along the way including the famous New York City skyline. We drove through the Lincoln tunnel. We stayed at the Millennium Hotel - on 44th St. between 6th and Broadway, right next to Times Square. We were on the 34th floor so we had a great view including most of Times Square, parts of Broadway, the Empire State building, Bryant park, and the surrounding buildings. We took a short walk and then went to dinner up the street at Cafe Un Deux Trois, with the group. We sat at small tables so we met two other couples and had a good dinner. After dinner David and I walked to the Empire State building. We did not go up because the visibility was zero due to fog, but we enjoyed the lobby and talking to several different people who were working there. So far everyone has been friendly. Our guide said that most New Yorkers would be friendly - she said they were just in a hurry. She also said if any car tried to cut us off she’d bet it was a car from New Jersey. Sure enough the first time it happened to me and I checked the license place it was New Jersey. (I was walking in the cross walk on a green light and the car was turning left into the crosswalk. He deliberately pulled up bumper to bumper so I had to walk around him - outside the cross walk - it was funny in a way he was so rude.) That continued to be the rule! Anyway we enjoyed our mid night walk to the Empire State building past the well know Bryant Park, Herald Square, and down 42nd street. All the places they sing about!

Friday 5/25 We drove through various areas to The Players Club in Gramercy Park. The Players Club was founded by Edwin Booth in 1888 to help give actors some respectability. They served us a very nice breakfast. One of the actors from “The Full Monty” (Marcus Neville) came to talk to us about actors, his life as an actor, and acting in general. He was very entertaining and informative. He and his wife own an apartment in Gramercy Park and they really did have to be interviewed by the other residents in order to buy there. Then the current librarian of the manuscripts talked more about the history of The Players Club and Gramercy Park. The Park is the only private square in New York. He then took us on a tour of the building including Edwin Booth’s private apartment. It was all very interesting. From there we took an overall bus tour of the city with our group ending at Rockefeller Center where we ate Pizza for lunch - I wanted to try New York style pizza. It is thinner than ours. I am planning to try all the foods that I think of as being associated with NYC. We saw the Diego Rivera murals there - so very different than the ones from our Coit Tower. Then we went to Radio City Music Hall for a tour of that building - it has been beautifully restored to its original glory. One of the rockets ended our tour with a talk about her life with the company. Then David and I left the group and took our first bus ride - it was great and so easy. They had given us a metro card which was good for one week on all the buses and subways. We ended up using it a lot. We went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I was very anxious to see the Vermeer exhibit before it closed on Sunday. They had 16 of his 36 known painting. They were wonderful and so much more beyond any reproduction. You could really pick out his paintings from the others. But I have never been in a museum that was as crowded as this was. It was very slow moving but at least I could see the paintings. There was anywhere from 1 to 2 hour wait for the “Jackie” exhibit and that was just to see the clothes she used to wear! Well after Vermeer we had a snack in the cafeteria and while there and talking to a woman she reminded us to be sure to see the Joan of Arc painting by Jule Bastieh-Lepage so we went back upstairs to see it. An extremely moving painting. Then we took the bus back to the hotel - exhausted. So we just had a deli sandwich from a deli across from the hotel and rested a bit before our first theatre. We walked to the Walter Kerr Theatre on 48th Street where we saw “Proof”. This was a play about a mathematician and his daughter. It was written by David Auburn and starred Mary-Louise Parker and Larry Bryggman with Johanna Day and Ben Shenkman. He had just won the Pulitzer Prize for this play. It certainly was a good play. (It ended up with 3 Tony’s - Best Play, Best Actress, Play, Best Direction,Play) As a point of interest in reading about the actors in the various programs a lot of them have also been in lots of other TV shows - especially “Law and Order” I wonder if I’ll ever recognize any of them. The theater was small but very ornate. A lot of money has been and is being put into these old theaters to restore them. The larger theaters are considered “on Broadway” and the smaller ones (under 300 or so) are considered “off Broadway”. At least that is what one guide told us - another guide told us to ask three different people for directions or whatever and choose whatever answer seems best - that certainly seems to be true - especially for directions! Anyway I thoroughly enjoyed the play and the walk back to the hotel was exciting too. Times square has been marvelously “cleaned up”. It was great to be out at 11 at night and feel safe. There were so many people about and also very many policemen. The streets were clean and very bright. In fact in an effort to prevent Times Square from looking like the rest of “downtown” NYC all buildings in Times Square are required to have billboards and to have them with moving lights and a certain amount of light. There is a unit called a LUTS - light unit times square - that must be met to build in the area. It truly makes this place the city that never sleeps. The lights all stay on until about 2 AM. The streets are full until then. The only time I saw the streets quite was at 7 in the morning! Many people go out to dinner after the show - we went back to the hotel and went to bed!

Saturday 5/26 We all went (via the two buses) to Tavern on the Green for breakfast. What a place that is. There are lots of mirrors and glass chandeliers and we sat in a glass conservatory. We had a nice breakfast - standard fare of eggs, bacon, and potatoes and enjoyed the view. Then we divided into various groups for different tours. We chose to go to “The Cloisters” at Fort Tryon. The Cloisters is a part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and is devoted to European art of the Middle Ages. It is up at the north end of Manhattan and we took the subway - good thing we had a guide because one line was closed and we had to transfer at Harlem. After enjoying our time there we left the group and took the city bus back to the Met Museum. It took us almost an hour and was a wonderful tour of upper Manhattan past many different types of communities, past Columbia University, Barnard College, St. John the Divine cathedral, all down Broadway - the longest street in “something” - maybe the state. I think it goes to Albany. It is the original road that the Native Americans had used. When New York City was laid out in a grid they just kept that street cutting through the city at an angle. We enjoyed the scenes of the city - especially since the bus was not so crowded as it had been yesterday and we could sit down and enjoy the view. We went back to the Met - I wanted to see the Vermeer again and we also walked a little more around the museum. Then we had the required “street” hot dog from a vendor - only one dollar and probably one of the best lunches yet! We ate lunch on the steps of the Met along with thousands of others. I have never seen so many people at once as we have seen in NYC. The San Francisco area doesn’t have a clue as to what crowds are! It should also be noted how clean this whole area was - no litter - almost no beggars, homeless and that type in any area we were in. San Francisco could learn something about improving their downtown area from NYC. After lunch we walked down to the Frick Museum. The former home of Henry Clay Frick - it has been turned into a museum to display his collection of great art. We saw three more Vermeers there plus paintings by many other great masters. It was not as crowded and we enjoyed the visit. Then we took the bus back to the hotel - rest up and went out to dinner at a Pub nearby. In the Times Square area you can’t walk 20 paces without passing a restaurant of some sort. We asked someone at the hotel for suggestions and this sounded good - we didn’t want fancy. It was fine although we haven’t yet found that the food in NYC is outstanding - even the expensive places - it is all right. Then we went to the Plymouth Theatre on 45th Street for “The Bells are Ringing” starring Faith Prince and Marc Kudisch. Another very interesting theater - old and ornate. And by the way all of our seats were excellent. Again the show was fun and excellent and Faith Prince had a great voice. On the way back to the hotel we notice a bunch of people waiting for some celebrity - there was a limousine waiting. When we went to our room we watched and saw a redheaded woman come out and get into the car while the flashbulbs were flashing. We later found out that was Reba McIntire and it happened every night after she played Annie in Annie Get Your Gun. We saw the crowd waiting several more times. People certainly are star struck.

Sunday 5/27 The two buses took the whole group to Ellis Island. We were driven to Battery Park where we boarded the boat - first going to the Statue of Liberty. We didn’t get off there but we were close enough to see her very well and imagine we were new immigrants seeing her for the first time. We also had a wonderful view of the New York skyline. Then we went to Ellis Island and wandered around there. It was very moving to see the photos of the immigrants there and to imagine their experiences when they first arrived. I especially was moved seeing the exhibit called “Treasures from Home”. These are the treasures the immigrants had brought from there home and eventually their children have donated them to the museum. It was so touching to see what each person thought was so important that they went through the additional hardship to carry to America, candle sticks, Bibles, rolling pin, baby clothes, a quilt, fork and spoon and so forth. I could really empathize with those people. How fortunate we all are and how much we take for granted - it is good to be reminded of who has built this country. I think it also affects me since I personally knew one of those immigrants - my grandmother. When they restored Ellis Island as a way to raise money they built a wall where for a donation you could have the name of a relative inscribed. I chose to have my grandmother’s name inscribed “Carrrie Belle Nelson”. She was the last of my relatives to have immigrated and I knew her - I grew up hearing stories of her parents hard life in Sweden. So we went out and found her name on the wall and took a photo of that area with Castle Garden in the background. Castle Garden in where she landed in America in 1882. Castle Garden was in Fort Clinton and had been a fort then a concert hall and then the immigration center where eight million immigrants arrived before the immigrant office was transferred to Ellis Island. Walking back to the bus after Ellis Island we walked past the Fort so I stepped on the same soil as my arriving relatives did. We spent about two hours on Ellis Island and then enjoyed the boat ride back to NYC. By the way the city was shrouded in fog. The whole time we were in NYC the weather was cool, overcast, some rain but not a problem. We thoroughly enjoyed the weather. Back to the hotel and rested a bit and then on to the Eugene O’Neill Theatre on 49th Street where we saw “The Full Monty”. It was hilarious and very well done. A fun play. It will be interesting to watch the Tony’s this weekend and see if any of these win. So back to the hotel where we rested for 2 hours and then on to the Cotton Club for a “Gospel Dinner”. This is not the original Cotton Club as it has moved twice but It gave us a flavor of what the original one was like. We had a buffet dinner and then a jazz/gospel show afterwards. It was a little late (starting at 10:00) so we weren’t in the best form but it was interesting and the bus trip through Harlem was interesting too.

Monday 5/28 Despite the late night we were up at 6:00 so we could go birding in Central Park. We had bought some breakfast food at the deli so we could eat in our room. We ended up taking a cab to the meeting point so we wouldn’t have to leave so early. It was about 2.5 miles to the meeting spot on Central Park West and it cost us $7.00. (5.60 plus a tip). The charge is $2.00 to start then 30 cents for 1/5 mile (or 20 cents per 75 seconds of sitting in traffic). So taxis are not expensive compared to owning a car but they are expensive compared to buses and subway. I had known about the wonderful birding in Central Park for some time. Being on the migration route Central Park is a stopping place for all kinds of birds in April/May and in September/October. Also I have read several books - fiction and nonfiction - that referred to birding in Central Park so I wanted to go there. I found out that a teacher, Starr Saphir, leads bird walks there during May so we skipped our group guided walking tours in order to bird watch. She was there waiting when we arrived and by 7:30 their were 20 of us for her 3 hour bird walk that lasted 4 hours. There was even a gentleman who referred to himself as “the blind birder” and I had read about him in one of the books. He birds with his wife and instead of using his white cane he keeps his hand on her shoulder and he identifies the birds by sound and Starr teaches him the ones he doesn’t know. All of the people were so nice and helpful. The were willing to indulge my interest in their very common birds such as the Cardinal and the Blue Jay and she kept saying now I want to be sure our visitors from San Francisco see this. All of the participants where friendly and pointed out other spots of interest that I had heard about and now know. We birded The Ramble - an undeveloped part in the center of Central Park where you would never know you were in the city and you could get “lost”. I’ll bet not many tourists have been there. I saw The Swedish Cottage, Shakespeare Garden, Turtle Pond, Delacorte Theater, Strawberry Fields, Cherry Hill, The Boathouse, Muggers Woods,The Lake, Tanner Stream, Lady’s Pavilion - all places I’ve heard about in bird reports. We also saw the famous Red Tail Hawk that is nesting on an apartment building on 5th Ave at 74th Street (the one they wrote the book about). We could see at least one juvenile in the nest. Following are the birds I saw, 42 species, 27 new for NY and 1 new for ABA (the Yellow-bellied flycatcher!):

Double-crested Cormorant, Great Egret, Black-crowned Night-Heron, Canada Goose, Mallard, Red-tailed Hawk, Herring Gull, Great Black-backed Gull, Rock Dove, Mourning Dove, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Eastern Wood-Pewee, Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, Acadian Flycatcher, Eastern Phoebe, Great Crested Flycatcher, Eastern Kingbird, Red-eyed Vireo, Blue Jay, Barn Swallow, Gray-cheeked Thrush, Swainson's Thrush, American Robin, Gray Catbird, European Starling, Cedar Waxwing, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Magnolia Warbler, Blackburnian Warbler, Blackpoll Warbler, Black-and-white Warbler, American Redstart, Northern Waterthrush, Summer Tanager, Scarlet Tanager, Northern Cardinal, Red-winged Blackbird, Common Grackle, Brown-headed Cowbird, Baltimore Oriole, Purple Finch, House Sparrow.

After four hours we said goodbye as she headed towards Central Park West as we wanted to head for Central Park East. Again everyone was so pleasant it was lovely. We went to the Boathouse (where they keep the bird records) and had lunch and a rest. Then we headed to museum mile and the Guggenheim. I remembered it fondly from 40 years ago and wanted to see it again. They had an exhibit of the buildings that an architect had built (I lost the paper so I don’t remember his name.) The best part of this trip was the museum building itself. By this time my ankles where swollen and I had blisters on my feet so we took the bus back to the hotel and I rested for an hour with ice on my ankle. That helped a lot - boy being a tourist is hard work. But time to get outside again so we walked to Grand Central Station to see how it looks - we had seen it when we were there in 1997 and they were still working on it. It is beautiful and again restored to its original glory. We walked all around in there and then walked down to the United Nations Plaza. We skipped the tour but enjoyed seeing the area and the East River - we have now been on all “four” sides of Manhattan. On the way back we walked through Helmsey’s hotel - not very glamorous and continued on up past the Public library (the one with the lion’s in front) and back to the hotel for another short rest. Then we cleaned up and went out to the dinner that my parents treated us to. There are so many places to choose from so we decided to go for New York City character. One of the guides had recommended the “Times Square Brewery” so we went there. It is on the second floor and we had a perfect window seat to watch all of Times Square and the billboards. Below us was a line of street artists and we could watch them sketching various people who posed for a picture. It was fascinating. I had a New York City beer and we both had a steak dinner - good - then we had New York Cheese cake for dessert - another one of those NYC foods I wanted to have. It was very good (but we can get it here at Trader Joe’s as well). We toasted and thanked my parents for the dinner and then had a leisurely walk - the long way around - back to our hotel for a long good night’s sleep.

Tuesday 5/29 Going home day - which means packing. We slept late - packed a little and then went to the Cranberry Deli - across from our hotel for breakfast. It has everything you could possibly want there - it is self serve - I had french toast and David had a egg sandwich. We brought it upstairs and again had a window seat and watched the activity on 44th street. Then we went back and finished packing and checked out leaving our carryons with the Bell Hop. We then walked to the public library (which had been closed yesterday). What a beautiful place that is. We walked all through it. They had a wonderful exhibit “Touring West” about the Performing Artists in the 19th century in the US. Also lots of other paintings are displayed and the ceilings of the place and the murals are worthy of any museum. I asked about this library - it is a non circulating library - mainly a research library. You request the books and they are brought to you. There were also lots of computers to use - and the place was very busy and very quiet. Then it was lunch time and we walked back to the hotel area on a different street. Our hotel was in just about the best location you could hope for - within walking distant to so many places in addition to every Broadway Theatre and Times Square itself. We again went to the Cranberry Deli for our final NYC “required” meals: bagels and cream cheese and pastrami sandwich. Both were very good but the pastrami is very different than we have hear - the bagel is not as chewy as ours. I think we covered all the food items I wanted to check out in NYC. Oh we are great tourists!

At 1:30 we met in the lobby to load our baggage in the bus and were driven to Newark airport. We quickly checked in and then sat around and waited. Our gate was the farthest one away which has been the case for every trip David has taken but it wasn’t long before we were notified that the gate had been changed way back to the beginning - so we moved. Then we were notified that due to weather our loading time was delayed for an hour. Finally we loaded and then were informed that there was a stack up of plans waiting to get permission to take off. We were offered the option of getting off but no one did. After an hour we finally were in line to depart but then a storm arrived - the rain came down in buckets and the lightning was all around us so we had to wait another hour before we finally left. Then because of the storms we had to go by a northern route and even that ended up being very bumpy the whole time. The upshot was that we were three hours late arriving in San Jose but arrive we did. Our Shuttle was no where to be found and the phone number was busy so we just took another shuttle that was there and he was only $2 more than the other and we lucked out - the other passenger was a neighbor of ours so we quickly arrived home - exhausted and happy to be home but with marvelous memories of our trip to New York City!