2011 Trip East - Part 1
This part covers our trip up to NYC and visit in NYC. I have put in links to many sites and restaurants. And here's the link to our pictures.
October 16 – St. Louis to Columbus: We planned the trip east with specific stops along the way and to get into NYC midday. The first night was in Columbus, Ohio at the Short-North B&B. The Short-North district is north of downtown (just north of the old Union Station) and south of Ohio State campus. The B&B is an old house. We were in the “rose” room (wallpaper of roses) on second floor front with bay window overlooking the street. Large room really for three people since besides the queen bed there is a twin bed in another … so it’s a suite. Charming manager who lives on premises.
We got there in mid-afternoon. So we walked along High Street (the main drag) and in and out of shops then back to our room. Lots of people smoking (outside only) and lots of people walking dogs. Fun murals on building walls (see our pix).
We had looked online at several places for dinner and had picked one that looked like it was local foods, vegetarian, etc. However, when we walked over there, it was unappealing: only counter service, menu basically sandwiches. So we walked along the street and went into Rossi, a lively bar and restaurant and had a wonderful meal. Back in the room, we watched the Cardinals win the National League pennant.
October 17 – Ohio to Hershey, PA: Shorter drive than the day before. Stayed on 32-acre horse farm and B&B: Westwynd Farm. The house had originally been built for the owners, but they expanded it to make it into a B&B. Beautiful house and grounds. We walked around and went through the big horse barn which dates back into the 1800s. Interesting to look at how barns and stalls were built back them. Lovely place. Most of the stalls were empty, but looked used with clean bedding, stuff hanging on stall doors, etc. Horses must be in fields or away at shows.
Late afternoon we drove into Hershey, about three miles away, with the idea of walking in town, looking at shops, etc. before our dinner reservation. There really is no area of Hershey we could find that would qualify as a shopping street. It’s pretty much big Hershey buildings/factories and houses. We drove by Hershey Park, a huge (and I mean huge) amusement park that includes some old-fashioned roller coasters (two of them side by side) and other rides that would make one barf. In town, we parked on the Hershey employee lot for me to take a couple of pictures … and inhale the wonderful smell of chocolate! We then drove up a hill to the Hotel Hershey, a large, old hotel overlooking the amusement park. We had tried to get dinner reservations there, but they were full for days. Then downhill and into an outlet mall for a brief sortie into Chico’s and some lovely pix of the amusement park at sunset.
We drove to our restaurant, What if … (yes, that’s its name), which is located in the basement of a Howard Johnson’s motel. Really odd place for a basement, but the food and service was good. Then back to the farm and into our very lovely and large room, “In Our Time.”
October 18 – Hershey to NYC: Nice breakfast (way too big) in a large, sunny dining room. NYC is only 3+ hours from Hershey, which is what we planned. So, we had a leisurely breakfast, walked around a bit, and left after 10:00 for our drive into the city. Our friends, Mary Beth and John loaned us their EZ Pass appliance, so we sailed through all the toll road booths. Love it! Easy trip into NYC and to the hotel (Hilton Garden Inn Times Square at 48th and 8th, where we’ve stayed before). We filled up a cart with all our stuff. Our room wasn’t ready, but they took our mobile phone number to call us when it was. And they would (and did) put all our belongings into the room.
We walked around the area and settled on getting lunch at Carmine’s. We’ve been there before. The portions are enough for two people and we each took half of our lunches back to the hotel where they lived in the room’s refrigerator until we left six days later … still untasted. We went back to our room (they called during lunch), sorted things out, and went for a walk in the theatre district – Times Square area as far east as 5th and south to 42nd. Before we left our corner room (431), we saw people finishing off a sukkah in a pocket park on 48th beside the hotel. On our way back to the hotel, we took 48th to look at it more closely, which we did. Coming back onto the street, a nice Orthodox Jewish man invited us to say the blessings over the lulav and esrog, which each of us did. Very good experience. Robin and I had walked through the Jewish Quarter in Paris this time of year in 2008 and no one had offered us to say the blessings. Hey, Hebrew is Hebrew even in France. Ah, well.
Before we left St. Louis, I had not only gotten theatre tickets for three shows, but also had also made dinner reservations for each night in NYC. Our first evening was at Ce Va Brasserie, a Todd English restaurant. As with all the places we ate, food and service was excellent. After dinner, we walked along Broadway taking in the crowds, the lights, the billboards, and the Naked Cowboy (see pix).
October 19 – NYC: It rained all day. We walked. We got wet. In mid-morning, we walked to MoMA. The line outside was around the block for people wanting to get tickets. Seems like it’s always a mob on rainy days. I have an out-of-town membership, so we were let in at the head of the line, got a guest tix for Marian, and went into the exhibits. Besides their usual collections, they had a de Kooning retrospective of hundreds of his works. Wonderful to see the evolution of his paintings and sculptures. It’s really too much to take in with just one visit.
We walked back to the hotel so I could get a fresh battery for a camera and then took a taxi to Lincoln Center for the afternoon performance of “War Horse.” This play is one of the best theatre experiences I’ve had. Besides the imagery and huge horse puppets that really mimicked horse actions and behavior, the play is a grim history of warfare and how things changed in WWI with advent of the machine gun, barbed wire, tanks, etc. Gruesome and beautiful all at the same time.
We were to get in a subway train and go downtown to meet my cousins Annie Parker and Carol Paasche right after the show, but Annie let us know they were still at their lawyer’s dealing with their mom’s (Jean Levine, my second cousin) estate. So we sat in a café in the Lincoln Center building that houses the NY Symphony until it was time to go.
We took a cab into the West Village to Barbuto (Jonathan Waxman’s restaurant) where we met Annie and Carole. They are both so dear and we had such a lovely time with them. After dinner, we walked over to their mom’s apartment. They are taking it all apart, shipping some stuff up to Carol’s farm in upstate NY, giving some things away, etc. Family has already been in there to take furniture and other meaningful items. Annie had moved in here when she was two and is now 70. Imagine what was going through her mind (and Carol’s as well) as they disassembled a lifetime. I wanted Marian to see the view from the rooftop garden. It was lovely, even in the misty rain. After lots of hugs and kisses, we took a taxi back to the hotel.
October 20 – NYC: They took down the sukkah today, carted off the corn stalks that made up the roof (lulavs were in short supply this year given the disruptions in Egypt, we were told). After breakfast at Starbucks, we walked over to 30 Rock and went up to Top of the Rock. It was beautiful and it was also fun to watch others up there on the various levels where you can look over the city. I don’t think either of us had been up there before.
Coming down, we stopped at a chocolate shop for hot chocolate and then watched people skating at Rockefeller Plaza before heading back to 7th Ave and meeting up with Caroline (our dear granddaughter) at her place of work, The Actors Fund. Caroline showed us all around the offices, introducing us to her coworkers and showed us some of the materials they were amassing for their next silent auction. We walked over to the Edison Hotel for lunch (cash only) and found out a one-degree of separation: Caroline knits. She pulled out two socks, each of a different color, to show us. Marian commented that the son of her cousin (who we are going to see later in the week) either does or used to work at Little Miss Match, who sells purposely mismatched socks. Caroline said a friend of hers from Joyful Heart, where she used to work, dated a guy from that company. When we told her his name was Jesse, she said that was the one. Her friend is Jess (Jessica) and she always loved the idea of Jess and Jesse. We confirmed all this with Jesse. All true. Cannot escape these things.
After leaving Caroline and a brief stop at the hotel, we walked north to the Museum of Art and Design and spent time there through their galleries. Even saw the same Eames stool Marian has had since the mid 60s. They’ve done a good job here renovating this museum.
Dinner was at 6:00 nearby at Saigon 48 right around the corner on 48th and then to the Marriott Marques Theatre for “Follies.” While both of us are very familiar with the music and have seen the concert version on TV, we had not ever seen it live. It was great. The story line was more pronounced. The individual performances were all knockout. Loved seeing Bernadette Peters, Jan Maxwell, and the rest of the cast. The audience was very responsive, knew the material, and cheered after almost every number.
October 21 – NYC: After breakfast, we walked over to MoMA again to look at one of their shops and I got some stuff for our kitchen that I shipped home. Then we walked up Madison Ave. looking at people and shops. Unplanned, we went into the Whitney Museum, had lunch at Danny Meyer’s Untitled restaurant, and went through the exhibits.
Then we continued uptown and over to 5th and the Metropolitan Museum. We were a bit foot weary, but kept on going. Saw the modern collection, saw a collection of works put together by Stieglitz that were donated to the museum by O’Keefe after his death. All the photographers and painters who he had encouraged and showed in galleries.
Then it was a walk over to the Goodman house on E 80th where we met Pru and Richard, George H. W. Bush’s brother, Jonathon (who is a financial advisor to the family), and got to spend some time with Pru’s mom, Georgine. And Marian got to see this wonderful four-story brownstone.
After some tea, we headed downtown on the subway to the 9/11 Memorial. We stood in a snaking line for over a half an hour, went through a very thorough metal detector, had to show our entry passes at least four times, and then got onto the grounds of the memorial. There are two pools, each the size and place of where the two towers stood. They are black granite with the names of those who perished here, the Pentagon, and in PA cut into the stone and lit from beneath. The pools have water cascading down each side and disappearing into a black square hole in the middle of the bottom. I think being there at night was the best time to see it. It’s very well done and impressive. Certainly a “must” for a visit to NYC. We spent around an hour there before winding our way around the neighborhood for our reservation at Brasserie Les Halles (Anthony Bourdain’s restaurant). After a lovely dinner, we each went on our separate subways home.
October 22 – NYC: After breakfast, we stayed in our room until mid morning. We then walked over to the theatre where “Billy Elliot” is playing and could buy two very nice seats for that day’s afternoon performance. So we went to Hurley’s on 48th for lunch and then back to the theatre. It’s a wonderful show. Marian hadn’t seen it, but I had. I enjoyed it almost as much as I did the first time – I cried a lot!
Back to the hotel to freshen up, Pru and Richard met us in the lobby and we walked over to Sophia on 46th for a nice Italian dinner and then to “Book of Mormon.” Another great show. Another great evening with Pru and Richard. Lots of hugs and kisses and goodbyes after the show.
October 23 – NYC: Last full day in NYC this trip. Didn’t do much all morning. Took subway down to SoHo to meet Arthur Albert at Balthazar for late brunch. It’s always such a delight to be with AA and catch up with what he’s doing. His wife, Rosalie, is in Brazil with her family – AA will be heading down there soon.
After lunch, we went into the MOMA store across the street and some other stores in the area before taking subway back to our hotel area. Toward evening, we took the subway downtown again to meet Jesse Goldstine at Co. (pronounced “Company”), a unique bread/pizza place. Again, a lovely visit with a wonderful man. Then back to the hotel.
Lots of relatives/friends on this trip: Caroline, Annie, Carol, Georgine, Pru, Richard, AA, Jesse. Then to PA for family wedding!
October 16 – St. Louis to Columbus: We planned the trip east with specific stops along the way and to get into NYC midday. The first night was in Columbus, Ohio at the Short-North B&B. The Short-North district is north of downtown (just north of the old Union Station) and south of Ohio State campus. The B&B is an old house. We were in the “rose” room (wallpaper of roses) on second floor front with bay window overlooking the street. Large room really for three people since besides the queen bed there is a twin bed in another … so it’s a suite. Charming manager who lives on premises.
We got there in mid-afternoon. So we walked along High Street (the main drag) and in and out of shops then back to our room. Lots of people smoking (outside only) and lots of people walking dogs. Fun murals on building walls (see our pix).
We had looked online at several places for dinner and had picked one that looked like it was local foods, vegetarian, etc. However, when we walked over there, it was unappealing: only counter service, menu basically sandwiches. So we walked along the street and went into Rossi, a lively bar and restaurant and had a wonderful meal. Back in the room, we watched the Cardinals win the National League pennant.
October 17 – Ohio to Hershey, PA: Shorter drive than the day before. Stayed on 32-acre horse farm and B&B: Westwynd Farm. The house had originally been built for the owners, but they expanded it to make it into a B&B. Beautiful house and grounds. We walked around and went through the big horse barn which dates back into the 1800s. Interesting to look at how barns and stalls were built back them. Lovely place. Most of the stalls were empty, but looked used with clean bedding, stuff hanging on stall doors, etc. Horses must be in fields or away at shows.
Late afternoon we drove into Hershey, about three miles away, with the idea of walking in town, looking at shops, etc. before our dinner reservation. There really is no area of Hershey we could find that would qualify as a shopping street. It’s pretty much big Hershey buildings/factories and houses. We drove by Hershey Park, a huge (and I mean huge) amusement park that includes some old-fashioned roller coasters (two of them side by side) and other rides that would make one barf. In town, we parked on the Hershey employee lot for me to take a couple of pictures … and inhale the wonderful smell of chocolate! We then drove up a hill to the Hotel Hershey, a large, old hotel overlooking the amusement park. We had tried to get dinner reservations there, but they were full for days. Then downhill and into an outlet mall for a brief sortie into Chico’s and some lovely pix of the amusement park at sunset.
We drove to our restaurant, What if … (yes, that’s its name), which is located in the basement of a Howard Johnson’s motel. Really odd place for a basement, but the food and service was good. Then back to the farm and into our very lovely and large room, “In Our Time.”
October 18 – Hershey to NYC: Nice breakfast (way too big) in a large, sunny dining room. NYC is only 3+ hours from Hershey, which is what we planned. So, we had a leisurely breakfast, walked around a bit, and left after 10:00 for our drive into the city. Our friends, Mary Beth and John loaned us their EZ Pass appliance, so we sailed through all the toll road booths. Love it! Easy trip into NYC and to the hotel (Hilton Garden Inn Times Square at 48th and 8th, where we’ve stayed before). We filled up a cart with all our stuff. Our room wasn’t ready, but they took our mobile phone number to call us when it was. And they would (and did) put all our belongings into the room.
We walked around the area and settled on getting lunch at Carmine’s. We’ve been there before. The portions are enough for two people and we each took half of our lunches back to the hotel where they lived in the room’s refrigerator until we left six days later … still untasted. We went back to our room (they called during lunch), sorted things out, and went for a walk in the theatre district – Times Square area as far east as 5th and south to 42nd. Before we left our corner room (431), we saw people finishing off a sukkah in a pocket park on 48th beside the hotel. On our way back to the hotel, we took 48th to look at it more closely, which we did. Coming back onto the street, a nice Orthodox Jewish man invited us to say the blessings over the lulav and esrog, which each of us did. Very good experience. Robin and I had walked through the Jewish Quarter in Paris this time of year in 2008 and no one had offered us to say the blessings. Hey, Hebrew is Hebrew even in France. Ah, well.
Before we left St. Louis, I had not only gotten theatre tickets for three shows, but also had also made dinner reservations for each night in NYC. Our first evening was at Ce Va Brasserie, a Todd English restaurant. As with all the places we ate, food and service was excellent. After dinner, we walked along Broadway taking in the crowds, the lights, the billboards, and the Naked Cowboy (see pix).
October 19 – NYC: It rained all day. We walked. We got wet. In mid-morning, we walked to MoMA. The line outside was around the block for people wanting to get tickets. Seems like it’s always a mob on rainy days. I have an out-of-town membership, so we were let in at the head of the line, got a guest tix for Marian, and went into the exhibits. Besides their usual collections, they had a de Kooning retrospective of hundreds of his works. Wonderful to see the evolution of his paintings and sculptures. It’s really too much to take in with just one visit.
We walked back to the hotel so I could get a fresh battery for a camera and then took a taxi to Lincoln Center for the afternoon performance of “War Horse.” This play is one of the best theatre experiences I’ve had. Besides the imagery and huge horse puppets that really mimicked horse actions and behavior, the play is a grim history of warfare and how things changed in WWI with advent of the machine gun, barbed wire, tanks, etc. Gruesome and beautiful all at the same time.
We were to get in a subway train and go downtown to meet my cousins Annie Parker and Carol Paasche right after the show, but Annie let us know they were still at their lawyer’s dealing with their mom’s (Jean Levine, my second cousin) estate. So we sat in a café in the Lincoln Center building that houses the NY Symphony until it was time to go.
We took a cab into the West Village to Barbuto (Jonathan Waxman’s restaurant) where we met Annie and Carole. They are both so dear and we had such a lovely time with them. After dinner, we walked over to their mom’s apartment. They are taking it all apart, shipping some stuff up to Carol’s farm in upstate NY, giving some things away, etc. Family has already been in there to take furniture and other meaningful items. Annie had moved in here when she was two and is now 70. Imagine what was going through her mind (and Carol’s as well) as they disassembled a lifetime. I wanted Marian to see the view from the rooftop garden. It was lovely, even in the misty rain. After lots of hugs and kisses, we took a taxi back to the hotel.
October 20 – NYC: They took down the sukkah today, carted off the corn stalks that made up the roof (lulavs were in short supply this year given the disruptions in Egypt, we were told). After breakfast at Starbucks, we walked over to 30 Rock and went up to Top of the Rock. It was beautiful and it was also fun to watch others up there on the various levels where you can look over the city. I don’t think either of us had been up there before.
Coming down, we stopped at a chocolate shop for hot chocolate and then watched people skating at Rockefeller Plaza before heading back to 7th Ave and meeting up with Caroline (our dear granddaughter) at her place of work, The Actors Fund. Caroline showed us all around the offices, introducing us to her coworkers and showed us some of the materials they were amassing for their next silent auction. We walked over to the Edison Hotel for lunch (cash only) and found out a one-degree of separation: Caroline knits. She pulled out two socks, each of a different color, to show us. Marian commented that the son of her cousin (who we are going to see later in the week) either does or used to work at Little Miss Match, who sells purposely mismatched socks. Caroline said a friend of hers from Joyful Heart, where she used to work, dated a guy from that company. When we told her his name was Jesse, she said that was the one. Her friend is Jess (Jessica) and she always loved the idea of Jess and Jesse. We confirmed all this with Jesse. All true. Cannot escape these things.
After leaving Caroline and a brief stop at the hotel, we walked north to the Museum of Art and Design and spent time there through their galleries. Even saw the same Eames stool Marian has had since the mid 60s. They’ve done a good job here renovating this museum.
Dinner was at 6:00 nearby at Saigon 48 right around the corner on 48th and then to the Marriott Marques Theatre for “Follies.” While both of us are very familiar with the music and have seen the concert version on TV, we had not ever seen it live. It was great. The story line was more pronounced. The individual performances were all knockout. Loved seeing Bernadette Peters, Jan Maxwell, and the rest of the cast. The audience was very responsive, knew the material, and cheered after almost every number.
October 21 – NYC: After breakfast, we walked over to MoMA again to look at one of their shops and I got some stuff for our kitchen that I shipped home. Then we walked up Madison Ave. looking at people and shops. Unplanned, we went into the Whitney Museum, had lunch at Danny Meyer’s Untitled restaurant, and went through the exhibits.
Then we continued uptown and over to 5th and the Metropolitan Museum. We were a bit foot weary, but kept on going. Saw the modern collection, saw a collection of works put together by Stieglitz that were donated to the museum by O’Keefe after his death. All the photographers and painters who he had encouraged and showed in galleries.
Then it was a walk over to the Goodman house on E 80th where we met Pru and Richard, George H. W. Bush’s brother, Jonathon (who is a financial advisor to the family), and got to spend some time with Pru’s mom, Georgine. And Marian got to see this wonderful four-story brownstone.
After some tea, we headed downtown on the subway to the 9/11 Memorial. We stood in a snaking line for over a half an hour, went through a very thorough metal detector, had to show our entry passes at least four times, and then got onto the grounds of the memorial. There are two pools, each the size and place of where the two towers stood. They are black granite with the names of those who perished here, the Pentagon, and in PA cut into the stone and lit from beneath. The pools have water cascading down each side and disappearing into a black square hole in the middle of the bottom. I think being there at night was the best time to see it. It’s very well done and impressive. Certainly a “must” for a visit to NYC. We spent around an hour there before winding our way around the neighborhood for our reservation at Brasserie Les Halles (Anthony Bourdain’s restaurant). After a lovely dinner, we each went on our separate subways home.
October 22 – NYC: After breakfast, we stayed in our room until mid morning. We then walked over to the theatre where “Billy Elliot” is playing and could buy two very nice seats for that day’s afternoon performance. So we went to Hurley’s on 48th for lunch and then back to the theatre. It’s a wonderful show. Marian hadn’t seen it, but I had. I enjoyed it almost as much as I did the first time – I cried a lot!
Back to the hotel to freshen up, Pru and Richard met us in the lobby and we walked over to Sophia on 46th for a nice Italian dinner and then to “Book of Mormon.” Another great show. Another great evening with Pru and Richard. Lots of hugs and kisses and goodbyes after the show.
October 23 – NYC: Last full day in NYC this trip. Didn’t do much all morning. Took subway down to SoHo to meet Arthur Albert at Balthazar for late brunch. It’s always such a delight to be with AA and catch up with what he’s doing. His wife, Rosalie, is in Brazil with her family – AA will be heading down there soon.
After lunch, we went into the MOMA store across the street and some other stores in the area before taking subway back to our hotel area. Toward evening, we took the subway downtown again to meet Jesse Goldstine at Co. (pronounced “Company”), a unique bread/pizza place. Again, a lovely visit with a wonderful man. Then back to the hotel.
Lots of relatives/friends on this trip: Caroline, Annie, Carol, Georgine, Pru, Richard, AA, Jesse. Then to PA for family wedding!
posted by Bud Hirsch at 1:20 PM
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