Personal Reflections of a Middle-Aged Man

After a short hiatus due to Covid, the hubby, one of the Papas, and I made it back to the Big Apple for our annual trek for shows and fun. Sadly, one of the Papas couldn’t go due to doggy illness issues—he was greatly missed.

We have developed a sort of a routine for our visits: trying to meet with family, randomly-ish sightseeing, Broadway shows, and after lessons-learned from our very first trip, time for relaxing and reading. This visit was not any different.

Day 1 (Sunday)

After getting settled in, we went to the family meet-up place, John’s Pizzeria on 42nd/Broadway (you must go if in NYC), with a path through Times Square, which as usual did not disappoint. Unfortunately, due to a variety of reasons, family wasn’t able to come into the City this time. That didn’t stop the three of us from indulging in some excellent pizza and breadsticks—bonus points for them having Mug Root Beer.

Day 2 (Monday)

Our first full day is always a visit/presentation with the Hilton Grand Vacations sales reps. Goals are always to see how to best use our points, do we want to upgrade, and get free coupons to various nearby restaurants, thus saving costs for great food eating out. This year we had an additional goal, which was to get down to one unit to help reduce our annual maintenance fees. Mission accomplished all the way around!

Then we always seem to end up at the Brooklyn Diner afterwards for lunch. They’ve set-up some outside dining since our last visit, so we sat outside. Mind you, NYC was having a record-breaking heatwave at the time of our visit. The food was as good as we remembered, and portions almost too big to finish.

After a harrowing Uber ride to get there, we finished the day at 1803 (82 Reade Street), a Cajun/creole restaurant in Tribeca. Since I didn’t snap my birthday would be that week to make sure to be in NYC for it, I opted for an early birthday dinner in the City. Loving Cajun/creole food, I figured there must be at least one restaurant in NYC serving it. After a bit of research, 1803 was my choice. The food was fantastic as was the service and ambiance. If you visit, make sure to have the gumbo and rice dish. The staff surprised me with a “little” birthday candle.

Day 3 (Tuesday)

Our second full day started in Greenwich Village. Well, East Village to be precise. The hubby wanted to visit the famous Strand Bookstore (828 Broadway). He knew it was a risk since there was no way around me walking out empty-handed. I would say one must stop in just for the historical value and to support one of only a few independent bookstores still in operation. For me, I’m glad we went, but it was overwhelming and a bit disorganized (and I rarely get overwhelmed by a bookstore).

When we left, with the hubby being a huge comic book fan and collector, we also had to make a stop at a comic bookstore we had passed he’d read about—Forbidden Planet (832 Broadway). Ironically, it was me who walked out with a purchase, not the hubby.

We rested for a bit in Union Square as we contemplated lunch. In the end we decided to head back to Midtown to try a Cuban restaurant, Guantanamera (8th Ave between 55th/56th Streets), which was on our coupon list. You must try the Flan! Another excellent meal and very attentive service. We almost had the place to ourselves. Then we were off to Moulin Rouge.

Day 4 (Wednesday)

We kind of had a lazy morning on this day. Since we were seeing two shows, matinee and evening, there really wasn’t much time to go and do anything further. Some relaxing and some reading were the joys of the morning.

In between shows, Kimberly Akimbo and Hamilton, we stopped at a place called Junior’s (1515 Broadway on 45th Street). Apparently it is a famous southern restaurant known for its cheesecakes. Unfortunately (not), they have several cookbooks with recipes of the foods they make, including the cheesecakes. I, of course, had to buy at least one of them, which I did—desserts. Yes, I know, can’t take me anywhere without buying a book or a cookbook, but there are worse things in life.

Although I didn’t didn’t have any cheesecake after my hot dog combo, I did have some strawberry cake. Let me tell you, it was big enough for two people and about as decadent as one might have in a dessert. It literally melted in my mouth. I can’t remember from my small sugar coma if I finished it or not; I’m pretty sure I did though!

Day 5 (Thursday)

One of the places to visit on my bucket list was the famous main branch of the New York Public Library‘s reading rooms. The hubby decided to join me for this sightseeing jaunt. Our first stop was supposed to be a farmer’s market at Rockefeller Center. Upon arrival at where it should have been, we found out it has permanently closed (Note to self: always do a Google search before embarking to see if a place is still in operation).

With it closed, we started walking down 5th Avenue doing a little shopping. I was hoping very much to find a deep purple shirt since my old one bit the dust a little while ago. We didn’t find a shirt for me, but we did find the perfect hoodie for our grandson. It has skeleton bones on the sleeves and such. For some reason he love skulls (which he calls do-do) and skeletons. As is more than appropriate, more shopping for him than me.

As we continued down 5th, we walked past St. Patrick’s Cathedral. A huge and gorgeous church, and quite famous as well. On a whim we decided to check out the interior. As one might imagine, the inside is breathtaking and the pipe organ blew me away. I’ve always loved the sound of a good organist playing. The sound, when done well, can bring tears to my eyes. I wish it had been being played while we were there.

After a bit of a trek, in humidity that had us practically melting, we arrived at the library. This was another time a little research would have gone a long way. To actually step into a reading room one must be part of a tour, with of course, the next one being at 1:00 that afternoon, a time that wouldn’t work. Regardless, we walked around the building and I was able to stretch my neck to at least see into a reading room. Next trip will be better planned.

Thankfully, they were having an exhibition in one of their halls. It contained a mix of history and artifacts. There were two highlights for me. The first was the collection of stuffed animals that inspired the Winnie the Pooh series; they were just so cute. The second was the writing desk of Charles Dickens. I’m always amazed at how small writing desks were and the amount of classics written on them. I had to linger looking at the desk a little longer than the other items.

It wouldn’t be a visit to the library without visiting their bookstore. It also wouldn’t be a visit if I didn’t walk out with a bag full of books. The one I’m most looking forward to reading is about the history of New York and how it came to be the (my words), Center of the Universe.

I did leave the library with a goal. One of the displays in the visitor center was all the books “Made at NYPL.” Since I’ve begun to have a reading goal each year (50 for 2023, with only five to go), I decided on a goal to read each of the books displayed. Now, I do have a little bit of a head start as there were several I’ve already had the pleasure of reading. Wish me luck!

The highlight of the day though has to be reconnecting with an old friend. I had met David a little over 20 years ago while living in the Bay Area. We had been very good friends and companions, and dare I say, a bit of mischievous partners in crime at times. When I moved away after meeting the hubby, we lost touch, but reconnected via social media a few years ago. He had moved to NYC and thought we could meet-up during one of our visits, then the pandemic hit. I reached out for this trip and thankfully he was back in town from vacation across the pond.

He, the hubby, and I met at a little bakery by Bryant Park. After finding a place to sit inside nearby, the one bakery didn’t have enough seating, we had a fun hour or so of catching up. It is so interesting to see the different unanticipated paths we take across the years of our lives. Unexpected ups and downs, twist and turns, which make life all the more interesting. The good thing is we all are in pretty good places in our lives. As we said good-bye, we vowed to make sure to get-together again when we come back to the City. So glad we were all able to make it work. Sadly, we forgot to take a selfie together…next time!

This evening was also our last Broadway show of the visit. For the last dinner of the visit, we went to a little Italian place close to our current timeshare, and just around the corner from the “upgrade” we did this trip, Pazza Notte (375 Avenue of the Americas/6th Avenue between 55th/56th). Being early evening, it was pretty quiet, which was nice. I had a risotto dish. Good, not spectacular, but good enough to have again if we were to have dinner there on another visit. Once finished, we were off to Six.

Day 6 (Friday)

A last day in New York is always very sad for me. It was a very young age in which I feel in love with New York—I never thought I’d ever be able to visit it. I do have a goal of living in the City for a year as a bucket list item—it’s convincing the hubby that will be the challenge.

I had booked our flight to be later in the evening to have a pretty full day for getting in those last sights. We had packed up and had breakfast in the lounge. Then checked out and said our good-byes to the Papa who was off to visit family on Long Island.

We had decided to visit Little Island (West 13th Street) for our finale. It is a man-made park built in the place of an old river dock. It rests on what I can only describe as golf tees. One must walk over one of two bridges to access it. When you step foot in park, it is hard to believe it isn’t sitting on land. There are paths, hills, trees, flowers, facilities, and views. Fabulous views! The best is when you hike to the highest point of the park. From there, what I call the Manhattan of New Jersey (Hoboken and Jersey City), is quite visible as is the Financial District. For being in the hustle and bustle of the City, it is an oasis of peace and calm. I would liked to have stayed longer if the dang weather hadn’t been so hot and humid.

Leaving to go eat before picking up our stored bags, we had decided to go back to the Brooklyn Diner (we still had some food bucks to burn). While eating lunch we got the notice our flight had been cancelled—this wasn’t the first time we’ve had return flights cancelled. Thankfully they were able to get us on a flight later that evening. Unfortunately, it was just the start of our travel woes. When we got to the airport, for the remainder of the evening it was flight delays and/or gate changes for a total of 13 times. We finally departed at 10:00 that evening, getting home well after midnight. At least we got out that evening, when the Papa went to go home, he had cancelled flights, as in plural, and it took a couple of days to finally get home, including a sleep over at La Guardia.

Other than the little(?) snafu with the flight home, it was a great time! It goes without saying it would have been even better if both Papas could have been there. As always, I can’t wait to get back to my Center of the Universe. But, yes, there is a but, I think we’ve learned the best time to go is not in September. I’ll be perfectly fine in going back to an early or late spring, or trying later in the fall, like October or November.

See you soon New York!