Family, Friends, Food (too much), and Fun!

Hello Family and friends,

This is Larry and Steven's first travel blog entry! We are going to recap our four day stay in New York City. We arrived November 19. We had a long sojourn from Glen Ellen. For those of you who lived in small towns you know the difficulty in getting to big city airports.

We arrive at SFO at 4:30 AM (OMG!) We flew to Denver and met Larry's mom. She sat on the same row with us. A threesome head to the biggest city in the nation. Think Dorothy, the Tin Man, and the Scarecrow...

We got to LaGuardia and had a little trouble finding Marion's (Larry's Mother) bag. We found it pretty quickly and then figured out how we were going to get to the city. Larry swung into action and found a car service the will take us to our hotel for only $48.00!

Of course we went to the wrong hotel (Thanks Larry) but ours was right across the street (Luckily). We checked in and head off to dinner. TGI Friday was on the menu. Great ribs and beer (yum)... Headed to bed for a well deserved rest!

Larry and Marion got up the next day to go Rockefeller Center to see the Today Show. I could not go because I had to work one more day :-(

Hi.  My mom and I took a cab to Rockefeller Center-she wanted to see the “Today Show”, taping outside the building (if you are a fan you know of which I speak).  The Rockettes came out, did a silent warm-up, then to music, then live, as Matt, Al, Ann and Meredith came out and did the kick line behind them.  I had positioned us to see better and before we knew it, as we waved, saw ourselves on the monitors (still thrilling as embarrassing as that is to admit).  Then, both Ann and Meredith came over and thought Mother was cute enough to meet and greet.  They let me take photos of her with both of them.  That really put an early glow on our day.  As I write, I could be any home maker from Pasadena out for a week with my poster and coffee waiting for the call!

Friday night in New York City. What could be better...? We had a really adult night planned. Not that kind get your mind out of the gutter. We started the evening by going to see the Birdland Big Band directed by Tommy Igoe. Exciting!!!

We had great seats. Peggy (Larry's friend) met us there. We ordered drinks, lights outs, and the band hit the stage. Wow! If you ever get to New York you have got to check these guys out. Top notch musicians; three of us have music degrees so we know! We were out of seats one than once for standing ovations. Delightful!

We went to Cafe Luxembourg for dinner. Larry ordered champagne and we had a toast. Cafe Luxembourg had a great vibe. Lots of long-time friends having dinner and young 20 somethings (not any of us) out on dates. A really nice mix.

After much food and conversation, we were on to our next musical extravaganza! Into the taxi to the Village for Jazz at the Village Vanguard. The atmosphere was great but, the music was bleep/blap/squak/fart-not our cup of tea (or that of any true music lover and one in the know).... after three songs we fled! Home at 1:00 AM. Great night!

Saturday offered another exciting adventure in the Big Apple. Larry and I hit the gym (a necessary evil at our ages) and headed off to breakfast with Marion. After a wonderful meal at the Maison, which we all highly recommend, we headed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This place was alive with people. A myriad of languages being spoken and excitement everywhere. We took a few pictures for our blog and ran inside to see the sites. This was my first time to this museum and it did not disappoint. We focused on the American Wing, Asian, Middle Eastern, and Egyptian Art (Temple of Dendur). I for one am glad we did something different besides the typical western European stuff. The Asian and Egyptian Art were spectacular. There is currently an installation an authentic Egyptian tomb called the Temple of Dendur. The tomb in a temperature controlled room and actual papyrus growing in a man-made pond. Very cool!

We walked through the Middle-Eastern and Asian Art next. I never knew there were so many types of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. It shows, much like in Western, how important religion is the lives of people.

The last wing/gallery was devoted to American painters and sculptors and was titled as such.  What a great exhibition, although it brought to mind many thoughts, including how the African American having just been “freed” from slavery was now being pushed out by the incoming immigrants (coincidentally tonight’s show, “Ragtime” would reflect just that).

A great meal followed in the restaurant downstairs past the sculpture hall.  During yesterday’s visit there, Mother and I saw a man sketching the “Ugolino” (the Greek figure that devours his own children).  His sketch was absolutely amazing and Mother couldn’t believe it was his.  Today he was finishing up another great work in another area of the gallery.  The sun was low and golden in the park with the trees just past their autumn prime.  What elegance and grace we were in!

We jumped into a cab and headed back to our hotel the rest and get dressed for the night’s festivities.

Because our luggage was overweight and we didn’t want to put things in plastic bags for a trans-Atlantic trip. We headed out the door to Macy’s to purchase an additional bag. Of course we were walking through Time Square so that was going to be quite the challenge. We did a crazy power walk through the masses of the masses, the lights and people and images were overwhelming, sometimes going into the street to avoid the blurs coming towards us.  At Macy’s, up the old original escalators to luggage, Brenda helped us find what we wanted, a big black duffle, but another rang us up and she was not pleased with his butting in. Back up via subway, showered dressed and head to the Neil Simon Theatre.

 

 As Larry alluded to above we were going to see the musical Ragtime. We, Larry and I, previewed a few clips of it before we left Glen Ellen but, we had no idea what a delight this show would be.

The curtain rose on the very conservative and very “white” town of New Rochelle, New York. The inhabitants were very proud the there were no Negroes or immigrants in their town. You can see the foreshadowing in that statement. The story goes on to unfold a breaking down of barriers through music and art elements that all cultures have in common. The music was top notch and you could not ask for a tighter group of performers. I would love to see it again. If any of you get a chance to go see it, you will be deeply moved and exhilarated by this wonderful musical. Larry was moved to tears a number of times…

After being taken on that wonderful ride, we decided to head back to the Maison for dinner. It was about 10:30 PM ET. We wondered if they would be open. Duh, of course they were open; it’s New York. We had a late but nice dinner and head back to our hotel about 12:30 AM. Good night.

Our last full day in New York was to be “Family Day”. Larry’s brother David, his girlfriend Jennifer, his children Dillon, Mackenzie, and Aiden all came to Manhattan from Bethpage to spend the day with us. We got up early to meet them at Penn Station near Madison Square Garden. This meant we had to wade through the throngs of Time Square patrons who were in town for Thanksgiving. When everyone had gathered we jumped into two cabs and headed off to Essa Bagelry for breakfast. When we arrived the place was packed. I told Larry we should get a franchise in this place we could retire. There was constant stream of people coming into the place for bagels! We found our places in line and waited to get the counter to order. Larry and I got the same thing a bagel with cream cheese, salmon, and onions. Very tasty and filling.

Our next stop was the Museum of Modern Art. Because Jennifer had a corporate pass, we were moved past the long line, right in and didn’t have to pay.  VIPs we.  The Tim Burton exhibit was fantastic and showed his bizarre sense of humor and vast body of work.  Of course, of all the many works in the museum, that was their favorite.  So much to see, we wandered the galleries and used the Tim Burton “lightbulb” character as the central meeting place.  Again, the crowds were immense.

We walked from the museum stopping on the way to take a family photo in front of the “LOVE” sign on the corner of 55^th and Madison Ave. Then we took two cabs to 72^nd and 5^th and walked through Central Park to the Boathouse restaurant near the Lake at Bethesda Fountain. Getting all eight of us corralled together for lunch was quite the task. We ended up with a great table overlooking the lake. Larry and David opened their 50^th birthday cards from their mother. The opened their San Francisco gifts from Larry. The meal was fantastic. Marion paid for it. THANK YOU!

We walked to Bethesda Fountain and were entertained (especially the myriad youngin’s) by “Balloon Man” with his large towel on a moveable stick dipped into blue detergent.  As the balloons popped the detergent got in their eyes but they were too excited and enthralled to care.  Ah, youth.  The crescent moon was just above the fountain and the last light of the day cast an orange light across the circle.

From there, a walk down 5^th avenue.  Mother had meticulously pieced together and copied “Happy Trails” song sheets and wanted to make sure we could find a secluded place in the park to sing.  Good luck with the seclusion; we ended up sitting on a bench on 5^th Ave. and had a few attempts at it.  Continuing down 5^th Ave. window shopping, some of the stores were still not ready for the impending season.  But what were up were magical.

To Rockefeller Center, we split up for some individual walks, and then recommenced down below, near the rink for a final chocolate torte, hot chocolate and coffees.  To St. Patrick’s, the kids, after lighting candles with David played tag.  Fun… Bye!

Larry, Marion, and, I walked back to our hotel. We were exhausted. What a day. We tried to be proactive and packed as we got back. Hit the sack at 1:00 AM.

Got up early. Larry hit the gym I stayed in bed. Too tired. We went back to our favorite eatery, Maison, for one last New York breakfast. We went back to the hotel to wait for the car service to arrive and take us to LaGuardia. Marion back to Denver; Larry and Steven on to Paris.

Of course with all the building excitement our flight to Dulles was delayed to weather. We were nervous about our connecting flight to Paris. We made it to Washington at 4:49 PM. Our flight to Paris was leaving at 5:20. You can see the drama building here…

We got off the plane and I read the board to see where our flight would be boarding, “...D7 I think”. You can see more drama building here. Larry ran to get us some food. On to terminal D???? Well we arrived at D7 and I obviously read the board wrong because the gate attendant thought we were nuts when asked if this is the flight to Paris. Nope our flight was leaving out of C12. Crap! Larry started running. I thought we have 10 minutes only fast walking needed. We made it to the gate on to the plane. Lots of adrenaline and sweat but we were headed to Paris! Oo, LA, LA…