With apologies to Billy Joel who wrote the song of the same name as my title, so I am not being very original, our short, but very packed, recent trip to New York City (NYC) was completely original as every trip ultimately is. It was an unofficial birthday trip for Tim, but his real trip comes in October, along with his birthday, in this case to New England, but it provided an excuse to see a show and explore some of the sights that we haven’t yet seen in other trips to the big city. There was never a dull moment, lots of amazing food and even more amazing sights…not to mention over 25 miles total walking distance over the course of less than 3 full days!
Arriving In NYC
We left Atlanta in the late morning and had a nice short flight up to LaGuardia. I had arranged for a Town Car from Dial 7 to meet us at the airport because it is a much nicer ride than a yellow cab, and at $39 plus tolls for the tunnel, it is a bargain over the cab fare, which usually reaches at least $50, and that assumes that the cab driver isn’t playing you for a stupid tourist and taking the long way around to jack up the fare. And yes, some of them try that, but since I lived in the City for 4 years, trying that with me tends to result in some pointed commentary and a course correction. The Dial 7 driver is in no way incented to take anything but the most direct route as a quick trip is likely to increase his tip but increasing time spent won’t do anything for him.
Shopping for Paper
We were able to check-in immediately on arrival at the Doubletree in Chelsea and then wasted little time in getting out of the hotel and heading out on a walking journey that took us to Starbucks, of course, as well as several paper stores that I had read about on-line that I wanted to check out. Ultimately, we visited Papyrus, Paper Presentation, Paper Source, and Greenwich Letter Press. I always enjoy Papyrus but they have stores nationwide. Paper Presentation is an enormous space with an amazing array of items to choose from, especially is you scrapbook (which I don’t) but I did find something I have long wanted, and that was a sealing wax kit with a script S embossing tool that I can use to personally seal my letters in the classic manner! I have a friend who has one and I have wanted one of my own ever since she sealed a card with wax and her monogram. It is very stylish! Paper Source had some amazing wrapping papers from Cavallini and Company, the one I especially craved featured an old fashioned periodic table of the elements, but I couldn’t see an easy way to get it home without either shipping it, or checking my carry-on bag and carrying on a tube instead. Sadly, I had to let it go. I was most excited about Greenwich Letterpress since it is a unique local shop that isn’t duplicated elsewhere like the other stores. They had rave reviews and were even named “Best Card Shop in New York City” but I was sadly disappointed. While they do make their own cards, I think they are best if you want to have custom cards made, particularly wedding invitations, but for my purposes, they didn’t have anything I wanted. Fortunately, on the same street is McNulty’s, which is a classic, local, and very unique coffee and tea store in business since 1895. Tim scored some flavored coffee and I picked up several different herbal teas along with one bag of Lapsang Souchong, a very smoky and flavorful tea that I enjoy.
Philosophical Musings
Many times when I visit NYC, I have to be very careful to keep my expectations in check. I lived in NYC for four years, from 1988 to 1992 and I tend to be nostalgic about the past and can sometimes be disappointed in the ways the city has changed since I lived there. When I lived there, NYC was still “edgy,” not always completely safe, even in heavily touristy areas like Times Square and the Theater District. Now, NYC seems to be a sanitized version of its former self, perhaps mostly due to Mayor Giuliani who made a concerted effort to “clean up” the city. I think he succeeded only too well and as a consequence NYC today can often feel very much like “Anytown, USA” with the same chain stores and restaurants that you find anywhere, and formerly sketchy neighborhoods such as Chelsea, Alphabet City, the Meat Packing District, and Hell’s Kitchen, now very gentrified and annoyingly safe! Imagine our surprise to find that in some respects, especially concerning some nightlife options, Georgia is more liberal than NYC! Tim was completely dismayed to discover that there would be no brunch Bloody Marys on Sunday until after noon! In Georgia I would expect it, but even here that isn’t the rule any longer.
In the interest of fairness, I have to acknowledge that the NYC I knew hasn’t existed for almost 30 years, a fact I am reluctant to admit since that means I have aged considerably in the meantime if I can recall 30 years in the past, and that time represents my youth, wayward or not, and I think we all on some level bemoan the changes that time can bring to our familiar places. And, I don’t live in NYC anymore and perhaps the changes make life easier for those who do. Furthermore, I assume that many residents welcome the presence of national chain stores which might have better prices and selections than the more local places that have often been replaced. I know that life in NYC is often challenging because everything is generally more expensive and everything is crowded at all hours of the day and night. You will never be alone, and unless you have massive financial resources it is highly likely you will have shared walls and ceilings/floors. The challenges of life, at least in the NYC I remember, could change a person, and I know it changed me, often times in ways I ultimately didn’t like. NYC is where I learned to be racially intolerant for the first time in my life. I went there wide-eyed and relatively innocent and I suffered for that when confronted by people who were significantly different from anything or anyone I had known. I know all the reasons why I shouldn’t have felt the ways in which I ultimately did. I understand that cultural differences and financial differences (as much as we as Americans like to pretend that “class” doesn’t exist…it does) can cause friction between people due to misunderstandings and preconceptions. I understand all that, but when confronted one too many times with yet another stereotypically hostile and aggressive black person (I intentionally don’t use the term African-American because in NYC, people of color are quite likely to not be “American” at all, or even if born in the US think of themselves as Afro-Caribbean, Dominican, Cuban, or even directly from Africa and to assume they are American can land you in considerable difficulty) you start to learn to be intolerant and make assumptions in the process of protecting yourself. If your experience of theft and mugging is at the hands of a Puerto Rican, you start to feel differently. And when you are stalled at the grocery store check-out line by yet another old Jewish woman nagging about a discount on this, that, or the other, for increasingly absurd reasons, you start to learn to hate. Unfortunately, I believe that stereotypes exist for reasons based all too often in fact, and while I am not proud of some of the changes that life in NYC brought about in me, I am at least willing to admit it. I like to think that I have mellowed a great deal as I have aged but I never quite forget lessons learned and experiences both good and bad that will continue to shape my thinking and even, sometimes, my behavior. And, I confess that living in greater Atlanta has not always resulted in a great love and acceptance for others, no doubt for exactly the same reasons that saw the growth of my intolerance in NYC, but I am at least aware of the tendency if not always 100% successful in overcoming it. I suspect this is true of many, if not most, but I don’t think that everyone has the, I’ll say it, courage to admit their own biases and beliefs when they fly in the face of what we all know to be “correct,” and the current political climate and rhetoric furthers my belief about this in that so many find so many ways to lay blame and fault on the current leadership without just admitting that what they really find offensive is his color more than his policies, but we’ve been trained to not to admit that, so we try to hide it behind “issues” where I can’t help but feel it would be easier to move forward if we could just admit where our faults lie so that we can better address what we can acknowledge.
But enough of waxing philosophical, you want to know what we did, what we ate, and what we saw!
Katz’s Deli
After paper shopping, we headed over to the West 4th Street subway station at 6th Avenue to catch the F train and head to Katz’s Delicatessen. Katz’s is a true NYC institution having been established in 1888 in its same location in the Bowery which was once the home of much of the poor Jewish immigrant population of NYC. Given that Whole Foods Market has opened a branch a few blocks to the west on Houston (How-sten, NOT Hew-sten) it seems safe to say that the neighborhood has changed pretty significantly. The walls are covered with photos of the famous who have eaten there and the place even did a turn in the Hollywood movie, When Harry Met Sally. This is the place where Sally famously proves that she can fake an orgasm! There is a sign over the table where it was filmed if you are a fan. When you walk in, you take a ticket from the security guy and are cautioned to not lose it, even if you don’t use it if you are eating with a companion and all charges are on one ticket. There is a heavy fine for a lost ticket, so don’t. You can opt for table service, but the traditional method is to simply choose a cutter at the counter, wait on line if necessary, and then tell the guy what you want. While it is a Jewish deli, you won’t see a Jew working; rather they are all Latino, probably Puerto Rican, why I don’t know. The cutter will give you a sample of the meat you choose and you’d be crazy to choose anything other than the pastrami, which is truly amazing. If you tip in his jar you will probably end up with a sandwich, on rye of course, that won’t fit in your mouth and you probably won’t finish it, but you will be happy trying. They will throw in pickles and I always specifically ask for the sour ones as I don’t like the bright green ones that taste to me like nothing other than wet cucumber; seemingly no spice or salt at all, but that’s just me, some folks love them. Take a table in the center, those against the walls are for table service only, and chow down! If you are really in love with it, get a t-shirt on the way out, or even take home a whole salami. Or as the slogan says, “Ship a Salami to Your Boy in the Army!”
Hedwig
After dinner we raced back to the hotel to shower and change in preparation for the show we were there to see, Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Hedwig is now a revival show since it was originally produced and performed back in 1998 in NYC, although not on Broadway. The show would travel the world before being made into a movie in 2001. This production began on April 22, 2014 and headlined Neil Patrick Harris, who worked the show non-stop until August 17, 2014 with NO UNDERSTUDY. That was an incredible commitment, and one he honored without fail. The show now stars Andrew Rannells, who was formerly the premiere lead in Book of Mormon. The role will transition to Michael C. Hall, of Six Feet Under and Dexter fame, on October 16, 2014. While there are five other people on stage, four of them are strictly musicians and have no speaking role beyond a few words here and there, if they speak at all. The only other speaking part is quite small and the show is for all intent and purpose a one man show. The story is about a young man living in East Berlin, prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall who is seduced by a US Army serviceman. Hansel, who will become Hedwig, undergoes a botched sex change operation in order to marry the serviceman and escape East Berlin. The marriage is short-lived and Hedwig finds herself stuck in Kansas alone and destitute. She befriends the son of the commander of the local Army base and grooms him into an international rock star sensation, who unfortunately never acknowledges the role Hedwig played in his success, including writing his songs. The story is retrospective for the most part and includes about ten amazing songs. I found the production to be stunning and the acting incredible. I simply can’t imagine how Mr. Rannells maintains the physical and emotional energy to act this very physically and emotionally demanding role seven nights a week! I was literally in tears for about half the show because it was just that incredibly well done. While the character is certainly unconventional in being, essentially if not completely, a transsexual, the themes of difference, isolation, loss, and ultimately triumph, are ones that I think can resonate with anyone if they are willing to move past the more sensational aspects of the character. If you have a chance to see the show either on Broadway, or in what I have to believe will be a nationwide tour, you really should, provided you like musical theater at all. If the live show isn’t an option, the movie is excellent, although far more elaborate in its staging and production than any stage show possibly could aspire to. A plus of the movie is that it stars the author and original stage star of the show, John Cameron Mitchell. After the show, we found a so-so all night diner (usually these places in NYC are run by Greeks and are generally quite good for standard food items) for a late night nosh and then headed to bed, very tired, with a big day ahead of us.
Ess-A-Bagel
Our first stop in the morning was Ess-A-Bagel, inconveniently located on Third Avenue in the low 50s. It was only inconvenient in relation to where we were staying but it is worth the trip for the chance to eat what are arguably the best bagels in NYC. Bagels are almost synonymous with NYC and I maintain that the best always come from NYC. Some claim it is the water, but regardless of the reason, a bagel anywhere else will never be the same. Ess-A-Bagel has two East Side locations, the other on First Avenue, and they are consistently rated amongst the best bagels in the City and I won’t argue. I love them! While Ess-A-Bagel’s tag line is “Everything On A Bagel,” by which they mean you can have just about literally anything you want served on your bagel, I go for simplicity with a salt bagel and plain cream cheese. You will rarely, if ever, have the chance to encounter a salt bagel outside of NYC, which is sad, because I love them. I owe my knowledge of their existence to my college dorm roommate, Jacob Halpern, who knew of my love of all things salty and brought me one late one study night. It was amazing and they still are. The only thing I can compare it to is a VERY salt encrusted giant pretzel in round form with a hole in the middle that isn’t brown in color. I can’t eat more than one as even I can’t take that much salt!
Damn, It Is Hot and Humid
What I wasn’t prepared for was the heat and ultimately the humidity we would encounter in NYC on this trip. I don’t remember it ever being that bad, but it must have been back when I lived there although I seem to have blocked the memory. I would be drenched in sweat, especially during travel in the subways, necessitating the frequent changing of under clothes to let them dry out, and in the end I caved and paid the hotel $3.50 to wash my underwear so that on the trip home I would have something clean and dry to wear! Beware NYC in the summer, even as late as September. Probably better to bank on the balmy weather of the fall or spring, because you really don’t want to experience a NYC winter!
Brooklyn
After eating, we boarded the 5 train and headed to Borough Hall station in Brooklyn. In my day, Brooklyn was not for the uninitiated. It was mostly, with a few small exceptions, a wasteland of Orthodox and Hassidic Jews (you won’t forget the smell as they don’t wash often) mixed, unlikely and with frequent conflicts, with poor black residents of housing projects. Brooklyn frequently wasn’t safe and the first time I found myself there was because I had fallen asleep on the A train and woke up, very late at night, or early in the morning (I had been in Washington Heights in upper Manhattan, now a very safe neighborhood, but at the time, one of the worst in the city, on a date), in deepest, darkest Brooklyn, the only white person on the train, with all the other riders staring at me like I was from Mars and wondering what the hell the white boy was doing in that part of town. I was wondering the same thing myself and did the worst possible thing I could have done, which was to bolt off the train at the next stop, assuming that I could simply cross platforms, or at worst cross the street and reenter the Manhattan bound side. Problem was, there was no Manhattan bound entrance at that station and now I am above ground on the streets of Brooklyn where I have zero business being. I was a bit panicked, but eventually found a return station and was quite grateful indeed to be back on familiar turf at West 4th Street! I would go to Brooklyn in the future, but always with an escort and only to an Italian enclave that was quite reasonable and safe. Now, Brooklyn is hipster and the cool place to live, depending still on where exactly you are. Crown Heights for example, the site of 1991 riot between Jews and blacks, remains a place you don’t belong if not Hassidic or black. But the borough, a uniquely NYC administrative division, the others being Manhattan, the Bronx, Queens, and Staten Island, is now home to many gentrified neighborhoods and with the arrival of Ikea, it has changed steadily, along with the improved access through transit services including a ferry along the East River.
Transit Museum
We went to Brooklyn to visit the NYC Metropolitan Transit Authority Museum, otherwise known simply as the Transit Museum. From the moment I arrived in NYC the subways captivated my attention and admiration. I made it my business to learn most of the lines, even if I never had occasion to ride them and I would sample routes just because I was curious about where they went. Yes, the subway can be very hot, filled with crazy and often homeless individuals, and crowded, but they are very cheap, and unlike many transit systems like BART and the Washington DC Metro, fares are not based on distance traveled, reasonably reliable and improving all the time, means to move about the city much faster in general than any cab will manage in NYC traffic. The only borough you can’t access is Staten Island, although that has its own train system, and the city opens up to endless exploration and adventure. It now costs $2.50 a ride, although in my day it was $0.85 and increased up to $1.10. The tokens are long gone and replaced with electronically read fare cards but the system still amazes me. It is the great equalizer in NYC since everyone rides the trains at some point unless you are fabulously wealthy enough to rely on cabs or a car service. Love it or hate it, if you live in NYC and can’t walk everywhere you need to go, and very few are so fortunate, you will interact with transit, often daily. The system has been around since the turn of the 20th century and was a massive and dangerous undertaking to construct using the technology of the time, which was often no more than a pick and shovel, even for digging under the East River! The system that exists today is essentially, with a few small exceptions, the one built originally and it is among the largest and most comprehensive in the world. The Museum showcases its development and includes surface transportation options as well as train travel. It is housed in a no longer used subway station which gives it a real air of authenticity and provides a great place to showcase historic subway cars, some of which I remember riding! The new cars are similar of course, but have many upgrades including electronic displays and maps that were not dreamed of in my day. The old cars are quite familiar and yet quite different with their wicker seating and straps for standing passengers, but the essential layout of many is the same. I was most taken with the Museum store and found quite a bit I couldn’t live without, including, but not limited to, a shower curtain with system map, a t-shirt, mouse pad, and even boxer shorts! We struggled to find a non-existent R train back to Manhattan, not having seen the updated maps that show the R train tunnel closed beneath the East River due to ongoing repairs from superstorm Sandy, so instead opted for a less ideal, but still functional, 3 train which had us walking back from 34th Street instead of being only one block away from our hotel, which was on 29th Street between 7th and 6th Avenues, if we could have used the 1 train to 28th Street station on 7th Avenue, but the 1 train doesn’t reach Brooklyn, instead ending at the South Ferry Station to access lower Manhattan and the Staten Island ferry. The advantage of the 3, or the 2 trains, is that they are express in Manhattan so you move much faster than a local. These distinctions, not relevant to most of you, are vital to New Yorkers!
September 11 Memorial and Museum
We had time for a brief pit stop before heading back out to the National September 11 Memorial and Museum where we were booked on the 5:30pm guided tour. We had seen the Memorial site before but at that time the Museum wasn’t open.
Reservations are not required but admission is capacity controlled so if you can it makes sense to book ahead. The tour is optional, and not cheap at $42 per adult, which includes general admission of course, but I found it to be excellent and well worth the additional fee. The Memorial is outdoors and is completely free to everyone. The new and almost completed Freedom Tower is very visible from the Memorial and despite the controversy about almost every aspect of its construction and cost overruns it is a very impressive, architecturally pleasing, and highly visible from throughout the city, building.
The Museum is completely underground and includes the footprints of the towers still visible in the steel supports that go to the bedrock, cut off now at floor level. The exhibits are very thoughtful in their selection, very well explained and not overwhelming in nature. The tour added immensely to the experience for me as the guide was incredibly knowledgeable and sensitive in his approach. The more sensitive displays are in the center and photographs are not allowed. The displays follow a chronological sequence and again, are very well chosen and displayed without being overwhelmingly emotional. I found the recorded messages left for loved ones to be the most moving and disturbing, especially the one left by a man to his mother saying that while something had happened at North Tower number 1, he was safe in South Tower number 2 and was returning to work on the instructions given to him by emergency personnel. Knowing what would happen shortly to make Tower 2 so very much not safe is heartbreaking and you have to resist the urge to tell him to please leave before it is too late as that chance passed a very long time ago. The video of those who jumped, or fell, is potentially disturbing but it is important to honor the memory of those who were compelled by heat and smoke to jump, or who fell while seeking relief from the same. Their ends were upsetting but they were victims as well. Viewing the videos is optional and is secluded from the main displays. The displays and memorial is not limited to those victims in New York but also include the Pentagon attack and its victims, along with those aboard United Flight 93 that went down in Pennsylvania, as well as those who died in the original World Trade Center attack in February 1993. The displays don’t end with September 12, but go on to explore the recovery and even the impetus for the attacks and the development of Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism, importantly not always the same thing, nor is fundamentalism or terrorism synonymous with Islam or Muslim people despite what some might claim. There is also consideration given to the ways in which the United States and the world has changed, not always for the better, as a result of the attacks. I was quite moved by the visit without being distraught in any way, which I think speaks to the mastery with which the Museum was developed and curated. Personally, I don’t believe that we will ever know the truth about all that happened that day, especially in terms of what the Bush Administration knew about what would happen that day, nor to what extent they were complicit with the events that unfolded, but that is irrelevant to honoring the memory of the thousands of innocent victims who died, in part, because of our refusal to cease playing the part of global policeman and bully as well as our unending support for anything and everything Israel chooses to do regardless of the degree to which they themselves become a perpetrator of terrorism and an oppressor of human rights and dignity. Regardless of your feelings or beliefs about what happened that day in 2001, I think it is an important site for everyone in the world, who can, to visit in order to seek some degree of understanding and to honor those lost.
Gallagher’s Steakhouse
We were so absorbed with the excellence of the Museum that we almost ran out of time to get back to the hotel to change for our 8:30pm dinner reservations at Gallagher’s Steakhouse in midtown. Gallagher’s is another great NYC institution that originated in 1927 as a speakeasy, flouting Prohibition. By 1933 the actual steakhouse is born and in many respects the current incarnation, in the same location, retains an atmosphere of those days. The meat is dry aged on site and can be seen as you enter on 52nd Street. If you don’t like beef, this isn’t the place for you! I opted for a crab cocktail to start which was literally lumps of excellent crab meat served simply on lettuce, which I shared with Tim. I continued with an amazing French onion soup while Tim had a simple salad. We opted to share the Porterhouse, an immense steak consisting of the filet and the sirloin in one piece, an item served for a minimum of two diners at $49 per person, and when you see it you will understand why it must be shared. I even had room for a wonderful crème brulee! This isn’t a place you want to eat if you are not prepared to spend a fairly significant amount of cash, but if you are prepared to fork it out, it is well worth it in terms of quality, not to mention quantity as this isn’t a trendy place where small amounts of foo-foo food is prettily arranged and you go home hungry. You get what you pay for here! If you can’t get to NYC to experience it, there are also locations in Las Vegas at the New York, New York hotel and casino as well as in Atlantic City at the Resorts Hotel and Casino. We’ve been to the Las Vegas location and while the food is essentially the same and wonderful to boot, the atmosphere at the NYC location is unbeatable and can’t be duplicated. Very satisfied and tired after a very full day, we retired for the evening for some much needed sleep!
Our Final Day Begins
The next and final day we would work our way from the north of town to the south. We started with a journey uptown on the 1 train to 79th Street station where Tim could snag the first of about five Starbucks fixes of the day on Broadway. Outside I lucked out with a street vendor who was selling a small bag that can either be used over the shoulder or as a fanny pack that was the perfect size for carrying the items currently occupying my pockets including tissues, hand sanitizer wipes (influenza was reported widespread in NYC even this late in the year), transit map, and iPhone. It was marked at $13 but since he didn’t have change he took $10 and called it even. A great bargain on exactly an item I was looking for both in the moment as well as anticipating shore excursions during the cruise to the Amazon River in November and December.
American Museum of Natural History
Our first destination was the American Museum of Natural History. While NYC is replete with art museums covering every aspect of art you can imagine and many you probably can’t, Tim hates art museums, so while I enjoy them on occasion, I won’t drag him to one, having made that mistake once or twice. But the Natural History Museum seemed like a winner for us both. The Museum covers an immense area that would take weeks to do justice to in its entirety, so you really have to focus on what most interests you. It could be the universe and space, it could be evolution, it could be different tribal societies, the flora and/or fauna of most anywhere on the planet, or it could be dinosaurs. We chose to spend the bulk of our time in the minerals section, which is huge and has an incredible display of beautiful and intriguing mineral specimens, as well as the special exhibit that our admission allowed us to visit on a timed basis, which was about spiders including live specimens of some quite beautiful, and in some cases quite large, species. I like spiders a great deal and am not at all scared of them, which is sensible since the vast majority can’t hurt you and even those that can generally won’t unless provoked. Spiders don’t hunt humans after all but they can and will defend themselves which is really only fair. I turn a blind eye to the fact that some appreciable amount of our household income is derived from the sale of so-called “spider traps,” but which in my experience are much more likely to trap insects I really can’t abide including roaches, crickets, and centipedes. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a spider in one and when I find them in the bathroom, often in the bathtub for some reason, I make every attempt to rescue them and take them outside. The display was well done and included a presentation by a spider specialist who had a large tarantula and a scorpion to use in her talk. I greatly enjoyed it! I was most fascinated by the store that was supposedly for children but which provided me with great temptations, including items focused on the periodic table and the elements about which I am quite crazy (see my iPad apps, shower curtain, books, and current Christmas wish list if in doubt about this). I scored a t-shirt that uses chemical symbols to spell “think” (thorium, indium, and potassium if you are wondering) as well as a periodic table puzzle, and card set. Sadly, bookmarks seem a thing of the past, so while we normally seek these out for the nephews and niece, we had to go with postcards, which might be more fun anyway since everyone gets a personal piece of mail that way.
The High Line
After the Museum we boarded the C train, although the B would have been OK too, and left at 34th Street and 8th Avenue, also known for Pennsylvania Train Station and the world’s largest department store, Macy*s, although technically it is a bit east of where we were. From here it was a bit of a walk over towards 10th Avenue and then down to 30th Street to access the High Line. The High Line is a brilliant piece of urban renewal that has been completely privately funded with no government involvement. It turned what used to be an elevated train track, which once went as far south as Canal Street, although now it ends just south of 14th Street in the Gansevoort District where the meat warehouses used to be, and where a few still are located. This train track was designed to serve the then predominant nature of the neighborhood which was manufacturing, there was a Nabisco plant here, as well as meat processing. The tracks went through some buildings and adjacent to others which allowed for very easy loading and unloading of industrial freight. When the tracks went disused they fell into disrepair and became overgrown with natural vegetation that was drought resistant and tough. The plan was to dismantle it but instead a local group lobbied to develop it as a park which has proven remarkably successful. It was also considerably cheaper to turn it into a park that it would have been to dismantle it. While it was nothing but abandoned when I lived in NYC, it is now a thriving and very well used public space. The entire neighborhood has been completely reborn in fact. When I lived in NYC this part of town was quite dangerous and in fact rather infamous for being the home of transvestite and transsexual prostitutes, who would not infrequently be found dead either through heroin overdose or outright murder by the early arriving meat plant workers. It was also home to some very disreputable drinking establishments and private clubs of questionable repute. Now, it is a very high end neighborhood with many new rental and condominium projects going up new from the ground or conversions of lofts and industrial spaces to very high rent residential spaces. Of course some people object to gentrification since it does displace the former poorer residents, but the process has greatly improved the economic viability of the area, provided new jobs as well as new housing in a city chronically short of that commodity. The High Line is lauded in fact as a model of urban renewal and plans to utilize similar spaces and concepts exist in several large US cities. We found it be an amazingly beautiful and unique space to visit, even though it was quite crowded on a Saturday afternoon. If you are in NYC, it is certainly well worth a visit.
Nom Wah Tea Parlor
At this point we were quite hungry and headed to Chinatown to remedy that. I was momentarily confused between Greenwich Street and Greenwich Avenue and there is a considerable difference! We went a bit farther south than we should have and overshot the 4th Street station but wended our way back through a street fair on 6th Avenue. Our first choice for dinner, the Golden Unicorn, was closed for dinner due to a private party. Who could have foreseen that? We wanted their dim sum, which is highly recommended and comes to you at the table on carts from which you choose. For those who don’t know, dim sum is the Chinese version of tapas, small dishes of usually not more than 4 pieces, often in the form of dumplings with various fillings, although other items that are decidedly not dumplings appear, for example chicken feet are quite common. In some places, and I think these are the most fun, women push stainless steel carts about with lots of steamer baskets on board and you get to see the food before you select it to eat. They note what you took on your ticket and at the end it is all totaled up. Since our first choice was closed we opted instead to go to the Nom Wah Tea Parlor, which is also highly recommended. It is a bit of a challenge to find, located as it is on a tiny winding street called Doyers Street. If you can’t find it any other way, the Chinatown branch of the United States Post Office is right across the street and Google Maps should be able to locate that. Nom Wah is nothing to look at inside or out and it shows its age having been opened in 1920 and is in the same location since 1968, but still on the same street as the original. The dim sum here is excellent but you do have to select from a menu on which you write the quantity of each dish you wish to have instead of having it brought to you tableside on a cart. Many dim sum dishes feature shrimp so it isn’t as adventurous as you might imagine but it is tasty and filling faster than you might think. By the way, I have had chicken feet several times, and it really is the feet of the chicken, claws and all. I don’t find that there is much to eat really, more of a gnawing experience, but if it has a good sauce, you could choose worse things to eat. After eating we took a break for a nap before sampling the infamous NYC nightlife on our last night in town.
Night Life?
We ventured out about 10pm to a location highly recommended on the lower end of the still upper East Side, which we had tried to visit the night before but found ourselves there the wrong night for the event we were seeking. I will refrain from naming the place to protect some semblance of modesty. It turned out to be quite small and very expensive with drinks costing $13 each without even making a call. That didn’t completely dissuade us however from drinking up a bit. Turned out that NYC isn’t what it used to be in terms of nightlife and we were shocked to discover that similar locations in Atlanta are much more, hmmm, interesting shall we say and far more liberal in allowance. Who would have ever imagined that Atlanta could out decadence NYC! But there it was. After a few hours we departed, pretty tipsy between the two of us, but perfectly capable of making our way back to the Waverly Diner, on the intersection of Waverly and 6th Avenue, for a late night dinner at a pretty good all night place that we have eaten at before. Typical for NYC, it was quite packed even after 1am! We caved and took a cab most of the way back to the hotel, at least as far as 29th Street and 6th Avenue in order to catch at least a few hours of sleep before our car service would arrive at 10:30am. Actually, I had accidentally booked it for 10:30pm, but Tim discovered this in time and was able to call and change it, otherwise, it would have been an expensive cab ride to LaGuardia for our return flight on Sunday early afternoon.
LaGuardia for the Return
The extensively remodeled Terminal D at LaGuardia is quite nice and state of the art for an airport, although we of course were hiding in the Sky Club which featured some new and very tasty eating options including two soups, marinated mushrooms, olive selections, and excellent cookies amongst other newly introduced upgraded fare. We highly approved!
Home Again
We boarded and were then slightly delayed due to congestion in Atlanta, but I didn’t care asleep as I was in seat 2D in First Class. We had a nice lunch on the way to Atlanta, half of which I gave to Tim but then he gave me his portion of an excellent cheesecake (I got the better end of that deal) and then a restful flight which I really needed. There were thunderstorms and lightening in Atlanta which meant a brief ground-stop which had us circling several times until cleared to land, but as I mentioned I was happily asleep in 2D. We moved through Hartsfield-Jackson quickly and arrived home in a timely manner to be greeted by grateful, if slightly indignant dogs. Once again a nice and peaceful conclusion to an amazing journey to one of the greatest cities in the world!