thewrightsusa

Thursday! We drove for hours and hours through hot boring desert. Sorry, it’s true. Anyway, we have now arrived at our oasis - the Chateau Marmont. Wow! It’s even better than I imagined. We have garden cottage 82. It is old and cute and has a lounge room with study nook, a bedroom with WIR and the biggest room safe we’ve ever seen, a bathroom and a kitchen/dining room. It is so cute. The kitchen has original old appliances and cupboards. The back door, from the kitchen takes you straight to the pool and the front door is accessed from a little garden with fountain and outdoor setting. When we arrived in our room, there was jazz music playing and a tray set up ready to mix a drink. So we did just that. I used ... read more

What day is it? Since we last wrote we had a busy day of travelling, a flight from Washington DC to LAX, and then collection of a car that reminds me of the Dukes of Hazard car - you know the ugly orange one with the black stripes! Then we set off on the lengthy drive to Las Vegas. I was a pretty tired by the time we got in - due to the time differences from the West to East coasts and the travel. So we had a quiet first night in Vegas & a nice swim in the pool. Yesterday (Monday 16th) we headed off on a walk after breakfast. We visited most major casinos/sights on the MGM end of the strip. Although our hotel is one block back from the strip, it is ... read more

We went to visit the Frick Collection. Henry Frick was a very wealthy industrialist who built a beautiful home on Fifth Avenue in 1913 & 1914. He only lived until 1919, but over his life he gathered an amazing art & furniture collection. I can’t recommend enough visiting this house when you are next in NYC. http://www.frick.org/collection/index.htm We had lunch in a diner nearby! It was actually really nice. We also went to the garment /textile area and went to Mood Fabrics. My friend Sonia told me about this place - OMG! Even Matt (who avoids places like Spotlight & Lincraft like the plague) was blown away. Hidden up on the 3rd floor of an old building with old fashioned elevators that have an elevator operator! The selection and sheer volume of any type of ... read more

Today we decided to go our own way! Just kidding. I went to Macy’s and shopped for 4 hours. So many clothes and shoes and accessories. I wish they had a store like that at home. I sent Matt an SMS during the day: Macy’s shoe dept = overwhelming Later I went to one of the 12 manicure & pedicure places along 2nd Ave near the apt and got all spruced up. After dinner we walked to the Rockefeller Centre and looked out over New York from the top. We could see camera flashes coming from the Empire State Building - very funny - because I’m sure that’s what they could see from the Rockefeller Centre rooftop too! The views were fabulous. We hopped on the subway and went to the Brooklyn Bridge, we walked ... read more

Sunday night we went to Terminal 5 - an amazing venue across town. It was 3 stories inside and everyone had a great view of the stage. There was a rooftop garden too. It was a fantastic venue. I wish there were places like it at home. There were heaps of bars and staff, so no line ups, the bathrooms had staff in them and although it cost you a $1 tip to use them, it was worth every cent. Clean amenities, your choice of aftershave and sweets, someone to hand you a clean towel etc. (We discussed on the way home that we know why the bathroom staff were so happy - if the 3000 people use the bathroom even just twice each over 3-4 hours, at a $1 a time, those 3 staff probably ... read more