New York 2019 - Day 1
New York 2019 - Day 1
Hello friends! We have embarked on yet another trip. It hasn’t been quite three weeks since we had a family vacation to California where we spent four days at Disneyland with our kids and grandkids. Three weeks! Whew! Time for a get-away!!
Kidding aside, we’ve had this trip planned for over a year. We thought seriously about canceling a few months ago when Jeff broke his ankle and was grounded for six weeks. No work means no money, so we really wrestled with the decision, but we had already paid for the hotel, so here we are.
The first 2/3rds of the day were spent in airports and on airplanes. Boring! Not much more to be said about that. We were keeping in contact with our son-in-law, Will, between flights, checking on our daughter, Jenny, who was having her gall bladder removed. The surgery was a success and she was home and tucked up into bed before we reached our destination. Upon getting that news, we were able to relax and look forward to the rest of the day. We landed at La Guardia at about 5:00 in the evening, ordered up a Lyft, met our driver, a pleasant man named Boubo, and joined the thousands of other cars crawling toward Manhattan. Boubo refused to take the slow moving traffic as a matter of course and repeatedly found detours that kept us moving - sometimes in the wrong direction - but we were in motion! He would occasionally ask us, “Am I good, or what?” We would respond with effusive praise which seemed to encourage him to find another detour, sometimes through some pretty sketchy areas.
Finally, we arrived at the Marriott Marquis, our home for the next three days. We said good-bye to Boubo and went inside. Once we were checked in and had found our room, we dropped off our luggage, checked out the view of Times Square from our window, and headed back out onto the street to find some dinner. Jeff had googled nearby pubs and restaurants, and had chosen a place called Lillie’s Victorian Establishment on 49th Street. We found it with no trouble and went in.
It was a charming little place, very atmospheric, and very crowded. The long marble bar against the wall was swamped with men in suits and women in skirts, obviously people enjoying drinks with friends and co-workers at the end of their work day. Being a fairly small place, there weren’t many tables, and the few they had were full. But, we didn’t have any place better to be, so we put our names on the wait list for a table and elbowed up to the bar to order a drink to enjoy while we waited. Leaning against a railing for a closed-off staircase, sipping our drinks, we passed the time admiring all the antique pictures, as well as the elaborately painted ceiling and original architecture. In less time than we had thought, our table was ready. We noticed that the place was starting to clear out a bit and the noise level had lowered enough that we were able to hold a conversation comfortably. Jeff ordered the Shepard’s Pie and I got a really amazing cheeseburger. It was perfect, but huge, and I was only able to eat half.
After dinner, we decided to look for a bakery. It has become our tradition when we travel to take some kind of a sweet treat back to our room to eat while we relax. We found a nearby restaurant called Junior’s that had signs advertising their cheesecake. Jeff and I are both fans of cheesecake, so I got the raspberry marbled and Jeff got brownie explosion. Neither of us had room for dessert then, but there was plenty of evening left. The time would come!
After our long day of travel and with our bellies full, we were feeling pretty tired, but we had one last errand before we could go back to the hotel. We needed to find a drug store. I had forgotten face cleanser and Jeff needed shaving cream, so we waded into the throngs of people crowding Times Square in search of a CVS. We found one, but it was still under construction. However, the Walgreens up the block filled the bill. We found what we needed, then discovered that the line to check out was depressingly long. I mean, we were at Disneyland just last month and we had stood in a lot of lines, but this one didn’t have a fast pass entrance or a sign saying “the wait time from this point is 30 minutes”. Oh well, what are you gonna do? We waited. I did wonder why Walgreens was such a popular place at 9:00 on Friday night.
Finally, we headed back to the hotel, went to our room, got comfortable and ate our cheesecake while we watched Battlebots. That’s what I call vacation!
Hello friends! We have embarked on yet another trip. It hasn’t been quite three weeks since we had a family vacation to California where we spent four days at Disneyland with our kids and grandkids. Three weeks! Whew! Time for a get-away!!
Kidding aside, we’ve had this trip planned for over a year. We thought seriously about canceling a few months ago when Jeff broke his ankle and was grounded for six weeks. No work means no money, so we really wrestled with the decision, but we had already paid for the hotel, so here we are.
The first 2/3rds of the day were spent in airports and on airplanes. Boring! Not much more to be said about that. We were keeping in contact with our son-in-law, Will, between flights, checking on our daughter, Jenny, who was having her gall bladder removed. The surgery was a success and she was home and tucked up into bed before we reached our destination. Upon getting that news, we were able to relax and look forward to the rest of the day. We landed at La Guardia at about 5:00 in the evening, ordered up a Lyft, met our driver, a pleasant man named Boubo, and joined the thousands of other cars crawling toward Manhattan. Boubo refused to take the slow moving traffic as a matter of course and repeatedly found detours that kept us moving - sometimes in the wrong direction - but we were in motion! He would occasionally ask us, “Am I good, or what?” We would respond with effusive praise which seemed to encourage him to find another detour, sometimes through some pretty sketchy areas.
Finally, we arrived at the Marriott Marquis, our home for the next three days. We said good-bye to Boubo and went inside. Once we were checked in and had found our room, we dropped off our luggage, checked out the view of Times Square from our window, and headed back out onto the street to find some dinner. Jeff had googled nearby pubs and restaurants, and had chosen a place called Lillie’s Victorian Establishment on 49th Street. We found it with no trouble and went in.
It was a charming little place, very atmospheric, and very crowded. The long marble bar against the wall was swamped with men in suits and women in skirts, obviously people enjoying drinks with friends and co-workers at the end of their work day. Being a fairly small place, there weren’t many tables, and the few they had were full. But, we didn’t have any place better to be, so we put our names on the wait list for a table and elbowed up to the bar to order a drink to enjoy while we waited. Leaning against a railing for a closed-off staircase, sipping our drinks, we passed the time admiring all the antique pictures, as well as the elaborately painted ceiling and original architecture. In less time than we had thought, our table was ready. We noticed that the place was starting to clear out a bit and the noise level had lowered enough that we were able to hold a conversation comfortably. Jeff ordered the Shepard’s Pie and I got a really amazing cheeseburger. It was perfect, but huge, and I was only able to eat half.
After dinner, we decided to look for a bakery. It has become our tradition when we travel to take some kind of a sweet treat back to our room to eat while we relax. We found a nearby restaurant called Junior’s that had signs advertising their cheesecake. Jeff and I are both fans of cheesecake, so I got the raspberry marbled and Jeff got brownie explosion. Neither of us had room for dessert then, but there was plenty of evening left. The time would come!
After our long day of travel and with our bellies full, we were feeling pretty tired, but we had one last errand before we could go back to the hotel. We needed to find a drug store. I had forgotten face cleanser and Jeff needed shaving cream, so we waded into the throngs of people crowding Times Square in search of a CVS. We found one, but it was still under construction. However, the Walgreens up the block filled the bill. We found what we needed, then discovered that the line to check out was depressingly long. I mean, we were at Disneyland just last month and we had stood in a lot of lines, but this one didn’t have a fast pass entrance or a sign saying “the wait time from this point is 30 minutes”. Oh well, what are you gonna do? We waited. I did wonder why Walgreens was such a popular place at 9:00 on Friday night.
Finally, we headed back to the hotel, went to our room, got comfortable and ate our cheesecake while we watched Battlebots. That’s what I call vacation!
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