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Happy Birthday America
Fireworks on the Hudson River are amazing!!Once you’ve arrived in the “city so nice they named it twice”, you come to the realization that in order to do almost anything, you need a ticket. One for the theater, one for the “hop on hop off bus,” one for the helicopter ride, one for the museum, one for the….well you get the idea. And of course if you arrive without a ticket, there are plenty of folks ready to liberate you from some of your money on most sidewalks in Times Square and other nearby locations…..about every twenty feet or so that you walk. “Hey! Let me make you a deal on some tickets……”
We love cities and NYC is alive and energetic!! In a short time you will feel the personality of this city---- this magical city. Music fills the air with jazz clubs and streets musicians. The island of Manhattan is a unique place unto its own. This is the city that never sleeps and provides endless means of diversion. It is also a city that has completely and amazingly reinvented itself in the course of less than 25 years to become a mecca of tourist activity and also cleaned itself up tremendously in the
Lady Liberty
She welcomed tens of millions to our nation. process. It is now the safest large city in America. On these streets many dreams have come true and others have died.
They have a great infrastructure for most things and particularly for clearing away the garbage. Strange subject to broach, but read on…….Each business stacks the garbage bags out on the street each night and by morning they have disappeared. This reminded us of our time in Phnom Penh where they do the same stacking of the garbage bags on the street at night. The difference is that in Cambodia they have no infrastructure for picking it up so they sit on the street and rot. The smell is as awful as you can imagine in that heat and humidity. Here…not much of a smell……and the garbage probably ends up in New Jersey…. at least that is what they lead you to believe on the Sopranos.
Those of you who know us are probably of the opinion that we travel quite a bit, have been doing it a while and have been to a lot of the “must see” cities and places. Well get ready because this is MJ's first trip to NYC since she was about
NYC Pizza is a must
John's Pizzeria was recommended to us by one of NYC finest. You can always trust a cop to send you for good food!! 14 and Dave’s first!
Hard to believe, right? But true! Earlier in the year MJ struck upon the idea that we should take in the 4th of July watching the fireworks on the Hudson River as this is quite the display. One thing led to another and we booked ourselves a flight and got a hotel a stone’s throw from Times Square.
It is hard to write about NYC and not sound like a travel brochure but we will do our best to share our experiences with you and let you feel the energy of this city.
One of our first days in town we had a delightful walk through Central Park, from the top at 102nd street back down to 59th street. From tip to toe it’s about 2 ½ miles long and ½ mile wide. Fox and Olmstead really knew what they were doing when they designed this park. We are Law and Order junkies and could not help but hear the theme music to the show as we walked through the park. We did not come along any dead bodies. We must admit we have felt completely safe in this city and the only
Dinner at Elaine's
Osso Bucco was a must have. thing we have seen that slightly resembled a crime was an altercation between a family and a very angry cab driver who was screaming, shouting and trying to physically remove them from his cab. It caused a stir that stopped traffic for several minutes. The teenager in the family was in a tug of war with his suitcase and the cab driver as he attempted to expel it from his cab. It took a half a dozen police officers to get this situation under control. Not exactly the stuff of Lenny Briscoe, but what the hell….
Speaking of cab drivers - our ride into town from JFK was interesting. Since time is money for these guys he was bobbing and weaving in and out of traffic. It caused us to reminisce about our most famous and dangerous cab ride with a driver we lovingly named “Bernie” along the Ho Chi Mehn trail as the sunset into darkness. Some cab rides cannot be forgotten. Creative driving is a popular trait among NY cabbies.
Are any of you familiar with the author Stuart Woods? He is one of our favorites for light and funny mystery crime novels. One of the
Vibrant colors
Macy's knows how to throw a party. series he writes that takes place in NYC and the key characters are Stone Barrington and Dino Banchetti. They frequent a restaurant called Elaine’s, so naturally we had to go eat dinner there. We wanted to get a look at the place so we could picture it in our mind when we read his books. It was a delightful evening. We had read the reviews on Trip Advisor and they were mixed. We were pleasantly surprised to find attentive staff, very good food and charming ambiance. Dave ordered the Osso Bucco which is the dish Stone Barrington always orders in the book. MJ had the Seafood Linguini. Gianni, Frank and Armand provided delightful conversation.
MJ was taking photos of the restaurant and we confessed to Gianni that we were Stuart Woods’s fans. Gianni had already surmised that and he shared with us that Stuart Woods would be in for dinner at 8:30pm. We thought he was kidding until Stuart Woods walked through the door with a blond on his arm!!! Later the owner Elaine was chatting at tables with the locals and MJ asked to take her photo. She was very gracious and later bought us an after dinner
Happy July 4th
3 million dollars worth of color and excitement!! drink. We had a very enjoyable evening.
So where else do you go in a city with thousands of restaurants? Ralph and Marie, our next door neighbors in Pittsburgh recommended “El Faro” in Greenwich Village and we had a wonderful Spanish meal. Another afternoon, MJ asked a cop where to get some good pizza, so we stopped for a pizza at John’s Pizzeria. On our last night in town we had Turkish Cuisine and it was wonderful. We have not had any bad food in this city.
Movies and songs having been written about the views and rendezvous at the top of the Empire State building. This edifice, built around 1930, is still a thing of beauty. It is an amazing structure and very sturdy, which made MJ happy as on occasion she freaks out at heights. The views are magnificent. In a city with hundreds of buildings over 30 stories, this building still stands out as a noteworthy architectural achievement.
So by now you have all realized that we are being the quintessential tourists on this trip. And we unabashedly agree! We took a harbor cruise past the Statue of Liberty and also a helicopter ride.
The Flat Iron Building
One of the 1st skyscrapers ever built and employed a steel skeleton. 1902 The weather cooperated wonderfully and the views were exceptional. We also did the “hop on, hop off” bus trip in the city. We highly recommend these as they are a great way to get a feel for the city. You’ve got to ride up top if the weather cooperates. It’s the only way to see everything.
We also spent some time at Ground Zero. Very sobering to revisit what happened on that day which has changed the world we live in forever. But in typical NY style, a tower will be built on this site which is taller than the original. A memorial garden will also be where a couple of the towers once were. The view of this from the helicopter was eerie.
Taking in some theater was also on our agenda. MJ wanted to see Fences as it starred Denzel Washington. We were not disappointed as it was a great performance by him and the entire cast. Also took a trip to the Lincoln Center to see South Pacific. As you know, we are not fans of the musical genre, but made an exception as after all, we are in the Big Apple! The production and
The Empire State Building
Tallest building in the world for 40 years. orchestration were first class and we definitely enjoyed ourselves. For those of you who have not been to NYC you can easily get half priced tickets for many of the productions. We bought our tickets to Fences in advance and paid far too much--- one of life’s little lessons. New York City provides an education so we were able to get half price tickets for South Pacific!
One problem with attending a musical is those crazy show tunes live in your head for a while.
Ooooo, ahhhh, Ooooo, ahhhh, wow, Ohhhhh, ahhh, those are the sounds you hear when New York City decides to throw a birthday party for AMERICA. NYC also has the largest fireworks display in the States, courtesy of Macy’s. They close down a large section of the parkway on the west side of Manhattan for viewing. We paid some money and secured a spot on top of a parking garage on the riverfront and joined 1000 of our closest friends for the festivities. There were six barges blowing off 1500 fireworks per minute for about 30 minutes. This my friends, was a serious pyrotechnic display! We’re certain that the views from the nearby high
NYC View
From the Empire State building rises was wonderful, but seeing and hearing the simultaneous displays from the barges accompanied by music was a sight to behold. When we purchased our tickets for the roof top parking location we questioned its value but after the fact we can tell you it was well worth the expense!! Save your dollars and we can point you in the right direction for next year.
We managed to cram all this activity into a little less than 6 days. Our only disappointment was that we were unable to see the Late Show with David Letterman. We strolled down to the Ed Sullivan Theater to inquire about stand by tickets, but were told that none were available. We had requested them on line months ago but our good friend Dave did not call.
So…..that means we will simply have to come back at some point and experience a truly unique city and drink in the ambiance that is Manhattan……..
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Hank & Mildred Stieneker
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Hello thank you for thinking about us So gland to here from you