Sunday, August 17, 2014
Some images of our trip to NYC, mostly food, some culture….but isn’t food culture too?
First stop after landing at Laguardia, taking the cab to the Sheraton, getting a free free night at the Grand Central Station Westin because the Sheraton was overbooked, hoofing it to the Westin, with luggage. Buying the Metrocard and taking the subway to the Lower Eastside and walking for half a mile…….Ahhhhh Pastami
Walking off the pastrami led us through the Village where we passed by another cultural touchstone, The Bitter End, once owned by a second cousin of Bonnie’s. This of course led to ice cream.
Ice cream and pastrami, plus a little salami, meant no room for dinner on night one. But we had room for a bagel breakfast the next morning. We hoofed it down to Ess-a-Bagel where Bonnie started her tour of smoked fish with the whitefish. In a subsequent visit she learned that by ordering her bagel “scooped out” she got about twice as much fish…who knew.
Other cultural events included, Broadway Musicals, here we are in line for Hedwig And The Angry Inch, plus an illegal photo of their set.
A visit to the Whitney Museum which had a huge Jeff Koons exhibit
A walk on The High Line, an old elevated rail track that has been converted into a cool urban park that runs from Chelsea to the Garment District.
And then on to Madison Square Garden for the main event….Billy Joel in concert.
Next day was Brooklyn day. We saw some hipsters around Park Slope and Prospect Park, walked to Brighton Beach, but the highlight was seeing Barbara’s childhood home at 4089 Ocean Ave in Manhattan Beach. Then dinner with Kitty & Mark Linder.
After the brunch, we toured the Tenement Museum, walked around the city and then saw the Carole King Musical “Beautiful”. Filled to the brim with Culture, we packed up, ubered up to White Plains picked up a rental car and spent the rest of Sunday touring Westchester. Visiting the Harrison homestead, Rye Country Day High School, impressive Lacrosse & Ice Hockey facilities, passed near the old location of Tung Hoi and then drove for 4.5 hours to Tom & Grace’s in New Hartford.
For the next two and a half days we visited the finest Italian food palaces in the Greater Utica area. The best being the kitchen of Tom & Grace’s house, incredible. The carb coma lasted three days after landing in Dallas. Great conversation and food! And a bit more culture, a fine collection of European classic paintings at the museum in Utica. Tom & Grace packed us up with Tomato Pie and Sausage Roll for the airplane ride and drove us to the Syracuse airport. Our flight to Charlotte was an hour late arriving in Syracuse, so the Tomato Pie never made it out of NY. We barely made the connection in Charlotte, we walked from Terminal B to Terminal D, got on the plane, one couple arrived two minutes after us, they closed the doors and we took off. No time to check out the seafood spot Tom recommended, but we did make the other passengers jealous with the sausage roll. Quite the trip.