US

September 21, 2019

Spent the day causally walking around.  There were some things that I hadn’t seen in a while and wanted to see and there were new things that I wanted to see.  It was off to lunch at a place close to the Javits center followed by a walk down to view “The Vessel” which for some reason, I didn’t take any pictures of and then it was off to Grand Central Station and then back to the hotel. We took a break and then we went to dinner at a Peruvian restaurant and a final stroll through New York Times square.

I had to take a picture of Hotel Edison for two reasons, years ago, I spent a few weeks at that hotel installing a property management system and it was one of those projects that didn’t go so well.  The hotel desperately needed a face life and I remember the room being extremely small and dated.  Adding insult to injury, a co-worker was also in NYC at that same time working o!n another project, they put him up in the Marriott Marquis next door.   I remember thinking on how I drew the short straw!

The other reason for that picture was the “Bond 45”.  One of my first jobs in High School was at Bonds Clothing store.  There was a very famous Bond’s clothing store in Times Square and although it had closed years before I went to work for them, the older employees loved talking about that Bond’s store in Times Square.   I think it turned into a casino and a nightclub before it becoming a restaurant called “Bond 45”.   I was surprised to see that Bond 45 had moved from it’s original location into the Edison hotel.  Two very unrelated and distinct times of my life in one picture!

While walking around, I couldn’t help but notice how many people were oblivious to their surroundings.  I had several people walk right into as they face-timed or texting.  It is not like I haven’t seen this before but never to this extent.  I kept thinking I am in one of the most interesting cities in the world, why would I want to spend it texting and face-timing?

Times Square

Grand Central

Empire State building

Hotel Edison

September 20, 2019

I grew up in upstate New York and there were a lot of really good family owned Italian restaurants that served pizza, subs, garlic bread and pasta.  I wouldn’t call it gourmet but it was really good.   We never ordered pizza or subs from a chain, it was always a local shop.   It was something that I really missed when I moved to Los Angeles.   Los Angeles had some upscale Italian places but the red and white checkered table cloths serving lasagna, spaghetti and meatballs were harder to find.

I had never been to Little Italy in NYC so I put it on the list of places to explore.  I was thrilled to learn that there was a festival going on while we were there called the Feast of San Gennaro.   The main streets were closed down, restaurants extended their dining room into the street while other vendors set up booths.  I found it difficult to decide what I was going to eat, I wanted to eat it all – pizza, zeppoles, cannolis, tiramisu, gelato and arancini was everywhere.

We opted for a sit down lunch at Lombardi’s, the oldest pizzeria in the US but we made it a point to leave room for a few treats at the street festival.

For dinner, we continued with Italian food.  We went to dinner at Capizzi, a small place with amazing food on the other side of the Port Authority bus station. We discovered this place on a previous trip and was glad to find that it was just as good as we remembered it.

Lombari’s Pizza

Lombardi’s

Capizzi

Food Festival San Gnnaro in LIttle Italy

September 19, 2019

I am a big fan of hotels that offer breakfast.  It is so nice to have breakfast without making an extra stop.   I skip the eggs and have English muffins with peanut butter which is my favorite breakfast with a cup of coffee.    Toast the muffins, spread the peanut butter that gets gooey with the heat of the muffin and I am in heaven.

As many times I have been to NYC, I hadn’t spent anytime in Central Park.   I was looking for new things to do and this was on the list.  I booked an hour long horse and carriage tour though the park.  I couldn’t have been more impressed with the tour guide and the company (NYC Horse Carriage Rides), although it was a bit more expensive than other tours, I felt like I was getting quality.

The guide said that the park was first approved in the 1850’s.   It wasn’t a park back then but rather a residential area that was cleared and landscaped.   He pointed out the park was originally designed to be seen from a horse and carriage as they didn’t have cars back then.  Throughout the tour, the guide pointed out areas that were used in films.  As we went through the tour, I felt like most of the park was pretty recognizable, Central Park has been used in a lot of films.

One of the busier spots was “Strawberry Fields”, an area of the park that is living memorial to John Lennon.  People gather at the memorial which is a round tiled area which at the center say “Imagine”, people were there singing his songs.  The tour guide said that singers show up every day to sing his songs.   I have to say, I was quite moved, John was killed close to 40 years ago, most artists would have been forgotten about but his music lives and as I thought about the songs thought they are a just a relevant today as they were back in the 60’s and 70’s.

The Dakota, where John Lennon Lived, overlooked the spot.   We were told that his wife Yoko still lives there and wondered if she heard the music coming from his memorial on a daily basis.

So many of the buildings around the park have history, they also come with a high price tag.   As the tour guide pointed out some of the buildings with recent real estate deals, I think to myself, even if I win the lottery, I still couldn’t afford those apartments.

That evening, we had made reservations for dinner and then a play.   We had dinner at Orso, an Italian restaurant, a street up from the Music Box theater.   I had my heart set on artisan pizza and was disappointed to see that due to renovations, they did not have pizza on the menu.  At the end of the meal I realized that I had one of my best meals in New York City and then wondered, would I have felt that way if I had ordered the pizza?   Sometimes being pushed out of comfort zones ends up being the best experience.

Afterwards we saw Dear Evan Hansen at the Music Box Theater.  Both Sophon and I enjoyed it.  Neither of us knew a lot about it going into the play which was part of the fun seeing the play.

John Lennon Memorial

With Shazam

Central Park

Ghost Busters filming Locaiton

Central Park

Jim and Sophon taking a tour of Central Park

Music Box Theater

Dear Evan Hansen

September 18, 2019

A few weeks ago, I checked my United Premier status.  I realized that after decades of having Premier status, I was about to lose my status.  No Premier check-in line?  I had to pay for checked bags? No Economy Plus?  I cannot think of anything worst, I needed to take a few trips before the end of the year and I love New York, flights were reasonable, weather this time of year is not too hot and not too cold and I would earn a lot of miles.  Off to New York City it was.

It was an early morning to get an 6:00 AM flight.   I landed at Newark, NY around 2:30 PM and took the train to Penn Station.    By the time we got settled in, it was time for dinner.   We decided on Boqueria, a Spanish tapas restaurant in the lobby of the AC hotel which we stayed in the last time we went to NYC.

Sophon is a Nintendo fan while I am an Xbox fan.   Every time we go to NYC we go to the one and only Nintendo world store in the Rockefeller center. Although I am an Xbox person, I love the Nintendo store.  Sophon picked up a new t-shirt in addition to purchasing a replacement t-shirt for one of the t-shirts that he was worn out. We played a few games on the big screen and then headed out..

As we left the Nintendo store, I pointed out to Sophon that Glenn Close was walking down the sidewalk towards us.   I figured she was headed into the NBC building, Sophon was convinced she was going to the Nintendo store.  She was much shorter than I would have imagined but she looked like a million dollars and had a lot of charisma.   You couldn’t help walk past her and not notice her!

December 17th, 2018

If you knew my mother, you would know how much she adored her father.   She was born in Brooklyn and she often talked about how that my Grandfather would take her into “The City” and they would take in a matinée at the Radio City Music Hall.  Every time we caught a glimpse of the Rockettes on TV she would tell that story how the dancers would come out and dance and then you would watch the movie on a huge movie screen.   were talking about bulldozing Radio City Music Hall and the Rockettes were performing everywhere but the Radio City Music Hall.

Although I have been to NYC a number of times, I have never seen the inside of Radio City Music Hall nor have I seen the Rockettes live on stage. I decided that since I had scheduled a trip to NYC, I was going to look for tickets and I found some.    After I booked them, I realized that I was going to see the show on 12/17, her birthday.

We arrived an hour early as instructed and as I entered it, I was amazed at just how big the theater is.  I guessed that it held over 5,000 people and later confirmed that it holds just over 6,000.  It is something just to see the theater.  I cannot imagine how special it was for my mother to see a movie there.

Just prior to the show, two organists appeared to the right and left of the stage and started to play Christmas music.  There is something about the sound of a large pipe organ that is so moving, it is as if the music moves through you.   It gave me the chills.

What happened next took me be surprise – the show was wonderful and very high-tech with the digital screens, 3-D, drones, and light shows along with the singing and dancing.    I was on the edge of my seat the entire time thinking that I didn’t expect this!  There were the high kicks, ice skating, jazz, ballet and pageantry, there was aerial dancing and after I thought it couldn’t get better it got better!

I would go back and see it again! Continue reading →