Our Trip to New York …..

We said our “goodbyes” to the puppies and headed out the door for Hobby to hop on the company jet for a quick trip to NYC. Before we left, I promised Lola that if she kept watch over her brother while we were gone I would ask our Southwest pilot to dip the wings in salute as we flew over the house on our way to New York.  She was sitting at attention when we left.

We were bummed that SWA no longer has a non-stop to Newark airport because our only other non-stop choice was LaGuardia and we had read that they are getting a makeover. That’s for sure! So much construction…… It was tough getting transport from the airport since the renovations make it difficult for the taxis, Ubers and Junos to make their way past the construction to the pick up area.  This time we ended up taking a gypsy cab who assured us that he was our best bet since the traffic was so backed up. We have always heard that it is a big mistake to take the gypsy cabs, but both times we’ve done it we have lucked out. The first time the driver pulled out a microphone and sang old Temptations songs and this time we got a guided tour of Queens. It was actually a pretty nice ride, our driver was knowledgeable about the area and pointed out some Greek diners that we should try out during our stay.  It was cool going under the elevated, it reminded me of “The French Connection.”

When we arrived at citizenM, we found Mr and Mrs Chicken Boy in the lobby awaiting our arrival. They were as hungry as we were so we dashed up to our room on floor 8, “the most prosperous floor” to stow our bags.  I was overruled when I suggested dinner from the food truck outside the hotel. No street meat for me!

We found a quiet little Italian place with homemade pizza and pasta which turned out to be really nice and reasonably priced which is always a nice surprise in New York.

After dinner we made our way to “Wicked” at the Gershwin Theater located across the street from our hotel. Handy!

I must say that after seeing “Wicked” I may be over my aversion to musicals.

I think my bad memories of musicals came about because at an early age I was taken to see “Oklahoma” and I’ve never quite gotten over it.

I’d like to tell you that we went out for late night drinks after the theater, but my editor only lets me stretch the truth a little and since we were up at TCOD and needed to save energy for Sunday we retired to our most prosperous floor for a good night’s sleep.

Perhaps you have heard that the venerable Carnegie Deli on 7th Avenue is closing after almost 80 years. We were going to stop in for one last  “mile-high” pastrami on rye with a side of “attitude” before the closing, but with mile long line of pastrami lovers waiting outside the Deli we decided that we could just live with our memories of sandwiches past.

We enjoyed a delizioso Sunday brunch with the Trooper family at Quality Italian Steakhouse.

Who would have thought that a dish made with buckwheat spaghetti alla chitarra, braised bacon, and poached egg would be one of the best things we’ve ever eaten? Fantastic food. Even better company.  After brunch we headed off to Central Park to walk off the 9ooo calories we consumed at brunch. At least that was the plan.  A purple plume on a sweet faced horse caught TWWNCNBUIP’s eye and before we knew it we were taking a carriage ride through the park.

We had no trouble getting plenty of steps in after our carriage ride when we made our way to the High Line, an elevated rail line along the Hudson River side of Manhattan. It has been transformed into a green space worthy of an afternoon walk – with lots of art and interesting people watching.

Walking along the space one is only a few feet from the surrounding  buildings. On this Sunday, the entire “line” was filled with citizens. Most were live, some only appeared to be. Along the flowering rail line we also found some unusual birds pecking at the ground.

We finished the High Line walk with just enough time to dash over to the St. Regis for a very quick drink at our favorite bar, The King Cole and then off to the Eugene O’Neill Theater for the excellent “Book of Mormon.” The theater was beautiful and the play was as great as we had heard it would be.

TCON. Slept in today, took a trip Brooklyn to visit Chicken Boy’s friend who runs DriveByPress, an art concept that involves the artists traveling around the country with a printing press in a van, printing tee shirts and posters for public or private events.

While the artists compared notes of fiber, color and techniques we were joined by Weezer who helped us search the interweb for a great restaurant experience for our final night. And we found one!  Roberta’s in Bushwick. The restaurant plan made and accepted, we asked Uber for a ride to the famed Roberta’s.

After an afternoon of art talk and and an evening of great Italian food we called it a night and headed back to citizenM to rest for our flight to Las Vegas in the morning.

If I forgot to include the last leg of this trip, let me expand upon it now. By luck, good fortune,  and a great friend, we had come upon free tickets to see the Rolling Stones in Las Vegas. Now, who’s gonna pass that up? Not me, even if it meant a 5 hour flight across the country.  I don’t envy the movie stars that have to make that flight, we could have flown to Europe in that amount of time. Well, maybe not, but it seemed like it.

All was good until Mick Jagger (or maybe someone on his behalf) Tweeted me Wednesday before TCON to say that he had lost his voice and would be unable to perform that night.

So, instead of the concert of the year, TWWNCBUIP and I had room service and watched the 3rd of 3 debates by those would like to be ruler of the free world.

Still not a bad trip.