On April 9, we went to New
York City with our friends Amy & Sara Nolan.
Our flight was originally scheduled to leave at 9:10AM, but
after several delays because of a mechanical issue, it was finally cancelled
all together. We ended up leaving on the
3:00PM flight that was itself 45 minutes late.
That was a long time to sit in an airport. But, everyone has airline stories and they
are mostly uninteresting. There are
worse things than hanging out in an airport bar all day.
We got in to NY and to our hotel, the Hilton Vacation place
on west 57th Street,
right by the Russian Tea Room, without further incident A & S
are members and graciously allowed us to stay there.
Our room, a “Studio Plus,” was great! Big bathroom, sitting area, separate bedroom
area area, and, best of all, a huge balcony on 57th St.,
looking north. We could see Central Park!
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| Looking west down 57th Street from our balcony |
Friday was a museum day with lots of walking.
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| Laurie, Sara, & Amy on Fifth Avenue |
We started out at the Frick Museum. The Frick is one of our favorites and we go
every time we’re in New York (it helps that it
has reciprocity with the Milwaukee
Art Museum). There are two portraits there, one of Thomas
Cromwell and one of Thomas More (hardly a saint in my book), that have become
quite popular because of the books, play, and now Masterpiece show, “Wolf
Hall.”
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| Amy & Sara in the Frick |
These museums are somehow linked and buying tickets to one
gets you into the other. But oddly, they
don’t cost the same. El Museo is $9 and
the Museum of the City is $14. Of course
we went to El Museo first and Laurie and I got the added bonus of the senior
discount!
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| Senior Matthew and August Belmont |
After lunch we hit the
Nicholas
Roerich museum on the upper west side.
Roerich was a Russian painter who spent a lot of time in
Tibet. If you’re in the area and have a little time,
stop in. It’s pretty interesting stuff.
Dinner Friday night was at
Sullivan Bistro on
Sullivan Street just north of
Houston. This was a great find by Sara. The place was very small and it seemed
everyone there was from the neighborhood.
The food was excellent. I had
mussels, Laurie and Amy had shrimp, and Sara had salmon. Laurie and I split an order of sautéed
calamari and our waiter brought them a salad when our squid arrived so that
they wouldn’t feel left out. We had some
fun political conversations with the people next to us.
Saturday was Brooklyn Day.
We spent a little time in Prospect
Park waiting for the Brooklyn Museum
to open. 11:00 seems pretty late to
me. After a few hours there we headed
for Dumbo for lunch, then walked back across the Brooklyn Bridge.
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| Laurie on the Brooklyn Bridge |
We meandered our way back to the hotel, stopping for some
wine along the way.
We had snacks and drinks at the Hilton’s happy hour, then
went to the Booth Theater to see the play, Hand to God.
A nightcap at the Whisky Trader, then we were ready for bed.
5:00AM came pretty early, but we made it in plenty of time
for our 8:30 flight back to Milwaukee. We were home in plenty of time for a restful
Sunday.
Great trip & friends!
