NEW YORK CITY

June 20, 2014

TRAVEL

I travelled alone to New York City on June 13. I stayed at the Manhattan Club, 200 W. 56th Street, a place I rented though RedWeek. Dick and I stayed there once before as an exchange. This time it was a rental from Ivor Alexander. Doug and Jennifer planned to meet me there with Doug only staying for the weekend. Unfortunately, he had to work, so Jennifer took the train in and she stayed until Thursday. Thursday, Selena, Brad, Maggie and Ella joined me. We had dinner at Pazzo Notte, 1375 6th Avenue. Jennifer and I ate there on our way to catch a view of the "Red Carpet" people going to the Tony's at Radio City. The thin pizza is great as is the service. This out of order - but I went to see WICKED WITH Selena, Maggie and Ella. The theatre was huge as was the stage -- a great production. That culminated my stay -- but the rest of the trip was just as great.

Saturday,  Jennifer and I took the bus to the Cathedral of St. John the Divine located on Amsterdam Avenue at 112th Street. I like to go there because it is where the O'Donnell's lived and where Mother brought me when she left Bill and California. We stayed there several months and she had great memories of how they treated her. She would walk with me to the gardens at St. John's one day and in the other direction to Riverside Park the next day. I think they lived on 101st Street. I think we made three trips to New York during the war. Mother had a number of stories - mostly about the crowded trains and the helpful service men. One very funny one was when a serviceman ask me if my Daddy was in the service. I replied, "Which one? I have one in the Army and one in the Navy." That was true but Mother said she just slipped lower in her seat.

 There are great pictures online of St. John's. The Cathedral is spectacular. It is the fourth largest Christian church in the world. The building was begun in early 1900's and because of the two world wars it is still not complete. There was a fire in 2001 and most of it was closed when Dick and I visited NYC. At this time it is a showcase for the Phoenix sculpture of Chinese Artist Xu Bing. I tried to get a picture - but the ones online are much better. It is spectacular - but it interfered with seeing the Rose Window.

We caught another bus to see the Museum of the City of New York. That was where we discovered that Jennifer's pass from the Orchard House got us both into the museums. I think this is the only museum that Jennifer had not been to. She wanted to go there to see the Stettheimer Dollhouse, a two story, twelve room dollhouse created by Carrie Walter Stettheimer over the course of 25 years. It contains miniature art made by artists that she knew. It is quite a story.

Sunday we went our separate ways. I went to St. Patrick's for the choir mass. It is a 5 minute walk from the Manhattan Club - except on Puerto Rica Day with a parade down 5th Avenue. After several detours I got to the church as mass was starting - and to my surprise found that the scaffolding is inside as well as outside. Cardinal Dolan said the mass which I watched on a TV monitor and the choir was beautiful.  I had not been able to go to Carnegie Hall on our last trip to NYC and I wanted to this trip. So I had gotten tickets on Saturday for the Sunday performance. It was an interesting program - difficult to describe. The first part was a concert of orchestra and an international chorus. The last half was bluegrass with the chorus coming back for a bluegrass mass. Enough said. Jennifer spent the day with her uncle and family walking on the High Line, a linear park built on a section of the former New York Central Railroad. It is in the meatpacker's district which is now galleries.

Saturday and Sunday were perfect days for beautiful weather. The rest of the week we were lucky not to be caught in a rainstorm. It was fine with me since I needed some humidity. We met at the Manhattan Club and went out for dinner at Pazzo Notte and back to watch the Tonys.

Monday we went to the Metropolitan Museum for the Pre-Raphaelite exhibit - and to visit the Metropolitan. It was raining - so we did take a taxi. Then we met Jennifer's uncle and his daughter at the Neue Gallery. Dick and I had wanted to go there because of their collection of Klimt works. They have a great cafe and we enjoyed the pastries.

Tuesday was our Ellis Island Day. We took the subway from a stop on 57th Street just across from the hotel. No problem with the directions we received from the Concierge. It was interesting - but many of the artifacts are still in storage from Hurricane Sandy. We probably should had planned our time better - but it was worth the trip.  We stopped for a quick box lunch at Starbucks which was perfect and decided to walk to the South Street Seaport booth for 1/2 price tickets.  We had heard there was more available than at the Times Square booth. We debated between Lady Day at Emerson Bar and Grill and Act One. I told Jennifer to make the choice and she chose Lady Day -- for my sake. After walking forever we did catch the subway back to 57th Street. Audra McDonald had received the Tony the night before for her role in  Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill. She deserved it. I will always check on what she is doing. It was at Circle in the Square, a small theatre near us.

Wednesday was the Guggenheim with the Italian Futurism: 1909 - 1944: Reconstructing the Universe exhibit. We both thought it was tremendous. I had never seen any of the artists. Jennifer has the book - my gift for her birthday. We got home in time to go to Studio 54 for Cabaret. Alan Cumming was on stage almost the whole time -- it was exceptional.

Thursday, we hung out in the neighborhood. I got to visit Balducci's. Dick and I visited the original one when we went with Roger and Judy on a late honeymoon in 1961. It has had a long history since then. It moved in the 70's and became a high end leading to closing in 2009. It reopened as Balducci's Gourmet On The Go  on 56th Street just down from the Manhattan Club. I will remember it if I get back to NYC.

I LOVE NEW YORK.