We didn't have to get up too early today, because our train from Penn Station did not leave til 3:45pm. Check-out at the hotel was noon, so the morning was leisurely. We ate at The Red Flame again. This time getting a seat in the front. That was fun because we could watch folks strolling or hurrying by outside. We both had bagels and cream cheese. Mike added lox to his. Umm, so good. Wish we could get NYC bagels in Kalamazoo.
Back in the hotel we cleaned up, finished packing, and checked out. The Algonquin was a great place to stay--centrally located and with a true-blue New York City vibe. Although our room was small, it reflected the personality of old times and we would definitely return.
We had about 3 hours to fritter way, but we also each had a roll-away suitcase that we had to deal with. We decided to slowly meander the streets toward Penn Station, traveling down new blocks that we had not yet seen.
We made one last pass through Times Square. Always excitement there. We noticed one thing we had not seen before. Under the big Coke ad there were bleacher type seats facing the Square. On the top row, if you turned to face the ad, there was a camera set up. You could see yourself at the bottom of the ad on a big screen. We didn't try it, but how fun!! Folks were posing and acting out--"movie stars" for a moment.
We continued our walk at a slow stroll and happened though the Fashion / Garment District. This is a mid-town neighborhood around 7th Avenue and 34th Street, at least that is where we found ourselves when we discovered it. It has a high concentration of fashion and textile manufacturing and design businesses, and showrooms for major fashion labels. It is geared mostly to the wholesale market.
There we passed by lovely outside cafes with lots of big, colorful potted plants and shade umbrellas. There was also a "Fashion Walk of Fame," similar to the one you see in Hollywood for the film industry. A huge billboard displayed a continuously morphing design--it looked liked masks or insects or just an abstract composition. We watched it for a while and never saw the same arrangement repeated.
Yes, we got to Penn Station way early with about 2 hours to wait before boarding. That was fine though. We weren't the least bored. As airline employees, we had spent so many hours waiting in airports for our plane to depart. We are always prepared with reading material, iPad solitaire, and playing catch-up on my notes for this blog.
In the early 20th century, different companies used different RR stations, so they were named after the company using it. If a train station was shared by several companies it was then called Union Station. That is why there are so many Union Stations around our country.
Penn Station is named for the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. We had not explored here the day we arrived, but had plenty of time to do so today. It handles up to 1,000 passengers per 90 seconds per Wiki. It services local transit, as well as regional routes and Amtrak. It is located on underground levels beneath Madison Square Garden. There are lots of little stores, cafes, news stands, and carry-out places to browse. We picked up sandwiches to eat later on the train.
In the Amtrak waiting room, we enjoyed the ever entertaining people-watching parade. For a while we observed several security dogs being trained as bomb-sniffers. A police officer would "plant" a decoy bag and let the dog weaved through the crowd until it spotted the decoy. As soon as the decoy was spotted, the dog sits next to it and gets high praise from its handler for a job well done.
Our train was delayed for 30 minutes. No surprise and, again, as transportation employees we are used to that and actually expect it most of the time. If something is right on time, that's a bonus.
We chose good window seats so we could see out the opposite side of the train from our inbound journey. With an afternoon (instead of midnight) departure we were able to view new territory. We enjoyed the route out of Manhattan, through the tunnels under the Hudson River, and then along side the river for many miles.
We saw more of northeast rural American. We stopped in Albany again to add several train cars from the Boston route who joined us going west. We enjoyed a beautiful sunset in Schenectady. We saw Cleveland Stadium at dawn. Interesting graffiti art was everywhere along the way. Except for the new views, our train ride home was uneventful.
By the end of our journey to Elkhart, we were a couple of hours late, arriving about 10:30am. We had stopped or slowed a few times for construction and to let faster moving freight trains pass. We were soooo ready to be HOME. If we were college kids, able to sleep in any position with any amount of noise, it would have been better. But our oldish, achy bones did not handle this type of travel well. Next time we will definitely ante up for a sleeper-ette arrangement as suggested by some of our fellow travelers.
All in all our trip was fabulous. We loved NYC, Manhattan craziness, the food, the people, the whole experience. We are already planning another trip for Mike's birthday next year. Yahoo!
The WTC Path led us out of the part to the corner of Greenwich and Liberty Streets where we happened by the FDNY Memorial Wall. It is a 56-foot long bronze sculpted wall on the side of the Ladder Company 10 Engine 10 Firehouse. It remembers and honors the 343 firefighters who perished in the 9-11 collapse of the towers. The names and photos of each are listed there. The bronze depicts the struggles these fine men and women went through in the battle to save lives. This was not our last thought, but our last physical glimpse of the 9-11 story today.
Our plan was to walk back to the hotel through Chinatown and Little Italy, so we checked our NYC Travel Advisory Bureau map for the best route. It is quite detailed and pointed out many interesting places along the way. We started north on Broadway heading in the direction of Chinatown on the map. The varied and interesting architecture kept our attention.
We came across a little farmer's market along Broadway, selling fresh fruits and veggies and crafts. We browsed there for a minute and then noticed an especially imposing building ahead us at the end of Chalmers Street. From notations on our map, we thought we had discovered City Hall. All eyes were on that magnificent building, but we found out later that this was actually the NYC Municipal Building.
We missed City Hall completely. Turns out it was a much smaller (but still impressive) building within the little park next to the produce stands. We were so mesmerized by the Municipal Building that we made assumptions. Not good. Anyway today I learned the real scoop while doing some fact-checking.
Anyway, the Municipal Building was built between 1909-1914. Per their website, it is among the largest government office buildings in the world, housing over 2,000 employees from a dozen municipal agencies in nearly 1 million square feet of office space. It is 25 floors high with 33 elevators. There are an additional 15 stories in the central tower. The building is rich in art and architectural details. A most impressive building for this most impressive city.
As we had our destination in mind and not so much time, we didn't go inside except for the official City Souvenir Store. I got an "I Love NY" t-shirt and we bought an "A" rated dishtowel for our gourmet cook friend Susan. Her kitchen and the food that she creates is actually A++, but they don't have a rating for that.
We had wondered about the letter placards we saw in restaurant windows. Turns out the City restaurant inspectors make unannounced visits at least once a year to each restaurant in NYC!! Based on a point system, each is given a designation of A, B or C rating (C being the lowest). This does not account for how good the food tastes, but mostly cleanliness.
For more info about the restaurant rating system, read: www.nyc.gov/html/doh/down .
For photos and info about the actual City Hall see, www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City_Hall .
For more info regarding the the Municipal Building above, go to: www.nyc.gov/html/dcas/html/about/man_munibldg.shtml
We continued a few blocks up Centre Street, passing more old and imposing edifices. This housed historic churches and courthouses. We walked by a small park where they were filming a movie. We craned our necks to spot a famous actor, but no luck there.
At Canal Street we turned right and entered the Chinatown area. I say "area" because after living near San Francisco's Chinatown, this seemed minuscule. Buildings did not have the Asian flair we were used to. There were several nice fish markets, gold shops, and varied Asian-style (Thai, Korean, Vietnamese, Chinese) restaurants, but all in all we were a bit let down. The aromas there were wonderful though.
We wandered a bit further and came to Mulberry Street with its big Welcome to Little Italy sign. Now we're talking. The street was more lively with people, shops, cafes, green-white-red (Italian colors) everywhere. Even the fire escapes were delicately designed with artistic curlicues. Again, not quite as authentic feeling as San Fran's North Beach, but pretty close. We were happy.
We wandered up and down Mulberry, the main street for the area and onto some side streets. We stepped into a few stores including a hallway-sized wine shop and La Bella Ferrara, a wonderful Italian bakery. We noticed signs saying that Bertolli was the official olive oil of Little Italy. Yep, we use that brand all the time.
There were so many inviting restaurants to choose from, we just could not make up our minds. To settle the question, we decided to call our friend Al Ceniglio, whom Mike had worked with for over 20 years in San Francisco. Al grew up in this area and visited many times over the years. We figured he would have a good recommendation. He was so excited to know that we were in his Little Italy on Mulberry Street at that very moment. He was also sad to report that Italian town had been ten times this size when he was growing up. It looked now to be maybe a 6-block area. We had a great talk, reminiscing about here and about San Fran. But, alas, he had no particular restaurant recommendation.
So Mike and I ventured back down Mulberry and stepped into Cafe Napoli. We figured we couldn't go wrong no matter where we ate. This particular place had a nice outside table, young dark curly-haired Italian waiters, and maitre d' that looked like a mob boss. It was a good spot to watch the pedestrian traffic and street commotion. It turned out to have excellent food and cheap entertainment.
We started with Bellinis (an Italian cocktail made with fresh and "healthy" peach juice and champagne). We shared a caprese salad (fresh and thick slabs of buffalo mozzarella cheese, tomato slices, basil leave slivers all drizzled in olive oil and served with a fresh baked baguette). Is your mouth watering yet? Mine is just writing about it.
For our main course, Mike chose his favorite chicken piccata (in lemon sauce) and Peroni Italian beer, while I had eggplant parmigiana with a glass of wonderful Sangiovese (red) wine. We topped off the meal with dessert, of course. Mike had very traditional spumoni (Italian ice cream) and I had a cannollo. All was delicioso!! We were the most stuffed we had been on our whole trip so far.
We were still talking about our meal as we waddled north toward our hotel. The Empire State building was our guide. See it towering in the background of this photo.
We passed by so many interesting things--many murals, street artists and musicians, quaint news stands like you would see in the movies, public works of art, the Woolworth Building (a cashier in Woolworth's was the second job I had as a kid), the flagship of the Brooks Brothers clothing store (you must be a little older to recognize that name), parks, street food vendors, and so much interesting architecture. We meandered passed the Empire State building with its King Kong history. No sign of ol' K.K. here today.
It was a LONG walk back to 42th Street, but a lovely day. So much to see, smell, hear, that our feet did not hurt until we sat down in our hotel room. Then, oh, boy, they were talking back to us big time. Sore and aching, it had been a full day and our stomachs were certainly still full. We decided to lay low for the rest of the evening. Watched a little TV, reviewed the highlights of our wild and crazy time here, and organized our bags as we had to depart the next day. Before we new it, we were soundly asleep.
The 9-11 event, as well as one other airline disaster, are very personal to me. Both involved United Airlines aircraft and I was an employee of that company for 25 years. My hire date was September 11, 1978.
The first air disaster I was personally involved with was United Flight 232 scheduled from Denver to Chicago on July 19, 1989. En route it was forced to make a crash landing in Sioux City, Iowa. In simple terms, the crash of the DC-10 was caused by three hydraulic systems lines being severed from shrapnel from tail engine failure fragments. This led to catastrophic loss of hydraulic fluids and multiple system failures, which lead to a very rough crash landing.
I was working at the San Francisco Airport in the Education Department at the time. United had had other crashes since I had begun my career. When these occurred, I felt helpless. I was an employee, but I could do nothing to help in those situations. I could only wait to hear news or details through company announcements or TV broadcasts.
In this case, however, I was asked by my boss Helen if I wished to go to Chicago to the Emergency Center to assist in post-crash duties. This included calling the families of those passengers involved with the crash. I said, "Yes." When I arrived in Chicago, I found my assignment was to advise three separate families of the condition of their loved ones. Then I would advise them regarding personal belongings and make funeral arrangements, if necessary.
A temporary morgue had been set up in Sioux City to identify those who had
perished. In the end, 185 passengers miraculously survived, but 111 had not. I had to ask my families for dental records and other identifying information to help the process. It took time to determine, but all three of my passengers had perished. It was not good news, but it was some amount of closure for the families when they finally received my phone calls. It is one of the hardest things I have ever done in my life, but at least I was able to do something.
After I informed the families, I was tasked with setting up transport of the bodies, making funeral arrangements, and getting recovered luggage and personal items back to the families. In those five days of working with them over the phone, we became very close. Family stories and intimate information passed back and forth, crying together, as though they were my own family. I did not keep in contact with them after my work was done, but got heart-warming thank you notes from each one.
Although I was an airline employee in Reservations, airport Customer Service, and Customer Service Education, I had always been an uneasy flight tripper. After the above event, it became worse. If Mike was not next to me on a flight to squeeze my hand, I would sometimes asked a seat-mate stranger if I could at least touch pinkies, just to have human contact (especially on take off). I needed a physical and human connection. To this day, I find it very hard to take a flight, although it hasn't stopped me totally.
Move forward to 2001. It was my hire date anniversary with the United Airlines. A milestone met. A day of celebration in the office. Cake with lunch. Yahoo!
I was now working at the United Maintenance Base located at San Francisco Airport. I helped schedule training for the nearly 20,000 aircraft mechanics around the world. Our base also handled periodic aircraft training and maintenance for the entire company fleet. Because we made training videos, we had a TV in our offices for training use only.
That fateful day, American Airlines Flight 11 was the first to crash. It was schedule to travel from Boston Logan Airport to Los Angeles. But instead, at 8:46am, it flew into floors 93-99 of the North Tower of the World Trade Center, killing 92 people (including the al-Qaeda hijackers), as well as hundreds inside the building. We turned on the training TV as soon as we heard this inconceivable news.
Just minutes later at 9:03am, United Flight 175 scheduled from Boston to Los Angeles crashed into the WTC's South Tower at floors 75-85. Sixty-five passengers plus those in the tower perished.
At 9:59am the South Tower collapsed. Watching this on TV, of course, we were stunned beyond belief. At that point, all was silent, except my uncontrollable crying.
Then at 9:37am, hijackers on American Flight 77 from Washington Dulles Airport bound for Los Angeles crashes into the western side of the Pentagon. On board, 59 of 64 passengers were killed, as well as 125 personnel from inside the building.
United Flight 93 scheduled from Newark NJ to San Francisco was also hijacked by al-Qaeda. About 40 minutes into the flight, the hijackers overpowered the crew and diverted the aircraft toward the East Coast. Its final target destination is not known, but it is believed to be the White House or the Capital Building.
After the hijackers took control, the cabin flight crew and some passengers made telephone contact and learned of the WTC flight implosions. They decided to take back control of the airplane, but in the process it crashed in near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. At 10:07am, all 44 people were killed. Of the four aircraft hijackings, this was the only one that did not hit its targeted destination.
At 10:28am the North Tower collapses. At 5:20pm the 47-story Seven World Trade Center collapses. All had been evacuated, but nearby rescue workers fled for their lives. Thankfully, that was the last of the mayhem on this day.
Everyone at work was inconsolable, speechless, helpless. My boss Ben and his wife Judy had both grown up in and around NYC. He was especially touched, but he kept strong for the rest of us. We set aside our work for the day. He allowed us to go home if we wanted, to be with our families. I'm not sure if I was the only one, but I did go home. I could not stop crying and was definitely no help at the office.
The next day I told Ben that I could come back to work but that I didn't think I could keep it together. I did not know any of the flight crew or passengers on the two United planes, but this was my company, my family. It was personal. He said, "You may not be ill physically, but you are emotionally wounded. Stay home, until you feel well enough to come back." I remained in bed and cried continuously for two more days.
When I finally did go back to work, our work group came together, hugged, cried a bit more, and tried to get back to our normal routine. We were wounded warriors, but we were also tough.
As I had "experience" in such matters, I thought headquarters might call to ask me to notify families again. I told Ben, that if I was asked, that I could not do it this time. I don't know if they ever called. If they did, Ben kept it to himself. Best boss ever for getting us through the above and for many, many other reasons. Miss that guy and some many other great folks I have worked with in the past.
Got a 10am start. Stopped at the front desk for best directions to the World Trade Center and 9-11 Memorial. This is on the southwest end of Manhattan and we are in mid-Manhattan, so we needed the subway to get there. They suggested the E route, which we could catch on 44th and 8th Ave.
Had breakfast at The Red Flame again, easy and cheap. We were seated in our same 2-person cubby hole booth by the kitchen window. Still fascinated by the ordering process. Mike got a bagel with lox and cream cheese. He fell in love with NYC bagels. They say it is the good NYC water that makes them perfectly chewy on the inside and "leathery" (in a good way leathery) on the outside. I had my usual artichoke and swiss omelette. And lots of good coffee with lots of real cream.
After breakie, we walked the few blocks to the subway station and boarded the E train. It was a mildly drizzly rainy day. We didn't need bumbershoots, but stepped quickly between the droplets. When we got to the station we noticed American flags displayed on each subway car on this route... a continuing reminder of the patriotism of this city and its ability to overcome difficult struggles.
As we de-trained, we found the subway station under construction. Upon emerging up into daylight again, we found construction surrounding us. We were puzzled as to which direction to turn until we noticed the WTC Path signs. They led us to the storefront reception center for the Memorial.
Here we saw a few mementos of that horrific day in 2001. Entry tickets to the Memorial were also available. They were free, but if you contributed $10 to the 9-11 fund, you received a white rubber wristband with blue letters saying 9-11 Memorial. Of course, we bought two. A small price to pay.
They gave use directions to the Memorial entrance which took us past St. Paul's Chapel. It was built in 1766 and is the oldest surviving church building in Manhattan. It ruggedly stood though the 9-11 blasts just a short distance away and was a haven for NYPD, FDNY and others in their efforts to find survivors and help the wounded of 9-11.
A venerable graveyard surrounds the church. It was impressive in itself--shady, green, peaceful in the whispering rain. Old gravestones and sarcophagi filled the front and side yards. Their engraved death years reached back to the stalwart beginnings of our country. We did not see any names we recognized, but Wiki says George Washington and other members of Congress attended services here.
Inside was understated. Just a few chairs faced a simple alter and high pulpit. A small bit of religious pageantry was displayed, along with memorial plaques of those interred in the walls of the chapel. It felt spiritual, but non-denominational.
But surrounding this seating was something we did not expect. Remnants of the aid and assistance provided by the chapel in the aftermath of 9-11. There were mattresses on the floor covered with knitted and handmade quilts and a multitude of stuffed animals. These things to give comfort to the body, head, and heart of each who sought refuge during these trying times after a long day of toil through the rubble and ruin.
There were hundreds of colorful post-it notes, written by those seeking to find family and friends or offering hope. There was a pile of embroidered police and firefighter arm patches from all over the world. Some from those killed in the line of duty. Others just left behind when officers returned to their home towns after the brunt of the initial struggling days.
There were soot covered and tattered helmets and uniforms. There were scarves that were used to cover mouths and noses from the smoke and pungent air of those fallen. There were random pieces of metal inadvertently shaped like a cross. There were rosary beads and paper cut-outs of children's hands with hopeful messages written on them. There were a bevy of colorful origami peace cranes folded in a frenzy of hopefulness.
This place and its stop action moment in time stirred up a soup of raw emotions. Patriotism, sorrow, sentiment, helplessness, anger, faith, conviction, overwhelming-ness, hope. I was pretty exhausted when we left, but there was more to come.
For more info, see www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Paul's_Chapel .
We continued on our way to the 6-acre Memorial Plaza. This Memorial commemorates and honors the nearly 3,000 people killed on 9-11-2001, as well as six killed in the attack on the WTC in 1993. I'm sure on most days there are longer lines, but today it was raining. That seemed appropriate, as though the sky was releasing its tears of grief and melancholy. We were not bothered by the rain.
Lines were long enough though and we waited a bit to get in. We proceeded through an airport-type security check and snaked around the covered walkway for about 10 minutes. When we entered the grounds and were able to walk freely. It was a quiet and respectful atmosphere.
We were drawn immediately to the two black granite waterfall-pools. These lay within the "footprints" where the WTC Twin Towers once stood and collapsed on 9-11. Michael Arad, a NYC Housing Authority architect, is the person who conceived of the design titled "Reflecting Absence" and that is thoughtful in itself. Each pool is about one acre in size and represents the physical void left by the terrorist attacks.
The topmost level of the memorial stands about about waist high. Along its parapet walls are 76 bronze plaques listing 2,983 victim names. These names not only include those from the two NYC Twin Tower air attacks, but also those from the Pentagon and Shanksville, PA air attacks and from the 1993 WTC bombing attack.
There is a register to find the location of a particular name, but they are arranged in groups relating to the time and place and meaningful relationships of their death. The company they worked for, affiliations (such as FDNY), and relative requests were all taken into consideration as to the positioning of the names. A few names had white roses lying upon them. I don't know if these were layed out randomly by the caretakers of this site or by friends or relatives, but it made you stop a little longer and read the name of that person and wonder about their lives and the lives of their families today. These simple little white roses are what brought the tears finally to stream down my cheek.
There is a 30 foot waterfall drop from the parapet down into the first level of the pools. Beyond that there is a wide reflecting pond and a final drop into a smaller central square. From the side you cannot see where the water hits bottom below you or where the water ultimately ends in the shaft of the center square. To me it brought mixed feelings of fear of the unknown and of everlasting "something."
With the rain coming down from the skies into the lowest depths of this pool, it felt like tears from Valhalla trickling through the layers of human existence into an unknown, but hopeful destiny in the circle of life. Certainly each person's destiny may be different based on their personal beliefs. But it is an amazing homage to all those every day people and public servants to be remembered.
The 9-11 Museum was not completed, so we meandered toward the exit. Police were patrolling with their K-9 companions. Children were playing in rain filled puddles, oblivious to the meaning of this place. It was nice to hear their laughs within the surrounding silence.
We passed under an urban forest of swamp white oaks which were chosen for the site for their shade, durability and leaf color. One particular tree stood out among them because it was supported by wire cables. It was smaller and I knew there must be something special about it.
Later I read that this Callery Pear tree became known as the Survivor Tree after being damaged but living through the 9-11 attack. It was originally planted in the 1970s. During early smoldering rubble removal, the 8-foot tall tree was discovered with fire-blackened trunk and lifeless limbs. It was taken to the Parks Department in the Bronx, nursed back to health, returned to this site, and now proudly stands 30-feel high. The Survivor Tree name tells its story.
Upon exiting the Memorial we passed by a gift shop. We peeked in the windows, but declined to enter. I'm sure we could have purchased a memorial piece of the towers, but we had our simple 9-11 rubber wrist bands and that was enough to memorialize our visit.
As we looked to our right we spied the new and rising One World Trade Center. It is the primary building of the new Trade Center Complex and destined to be the tallest building in America. Its height is planned to be 1776 feet (year of our nation's birth), with an additional 400 foot light spire. It will be a 104-story super tall skyscraper. Its mirrored windows reflect the heart and soul of NYC and American. Stunning.
For more info, see www.911memorial.org and www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_September_11_Memorial_&_Museum .
After exiting Central Park, we saw this elegant gray building with twin facade "peaks." Upon closer inspection we realized that this entire side of the building was actually a canvas "blanket" that covered some renovation work from public view. Look for scaffolding on the street level. It had really tricked our eyes and I guess that was the point. Pretty cool.
We began our journey south from 59th to 45th and then east back to Beer Culture for lunch. Fifth Avenue must be one of the world's premier shopping areas. We are not too much into shopping mode these days, but really into window shopping. We were oohing and aahing all along the way as we headed south.
We saw many flagship stores such as Apple, Harry Winston, Ferragamo, Lord & Taylor, Bergdorf Goodman, several Georgio Armanis, Cartier, Gucci, the original Saks Fifth Avenue, Versace, Rolex, Coach, Dolce & Gabbana, DeBeers, Prada, and many, many more. The Louis Vuitton store had quite an impressive display of golden dinosaurs in their front windows. We also saw Trump Tower with its huge old-fashioned 4-sided jewel-like clock out front.
Next we came across the Bulgari store. YES! If you have read the Janet Evanovich books about female bounty hunter Stephanie Plum, you know the cool, collected character, Ranger. He is a mystery man with lots of money who often comes out of nowhere to rescue Stephanie. This is not as racy as it sounds, but Steph sometimes showers at his place and loves his Bulgari Black Noir soap. Well, for years Mike has wanted some Bulgari Black Noir since first reading about it in the Plum series. And I have been secretly trying to get some, albeit unsuccessfully. Well, here was our chance.
Although we looked a bit raggedy as we had been tromping around all day, the doorman let us in. I guess we didn't look too intimidating and there were no celebrities on the premises at the moment. He directed us up the glamorous lighted glass stairway to cosmetics. A sales lady met us at the top and lead us to the counter. We stated what we were looking for, but she profusely apologized and said Bulgari no longer makes the Black Noir soap (boohoo for us).
What she did have was the Blanc (in her words, "It reflects the precious nature of white tea") and the Vert (lightly scented with green tea, bergamot and pepper). We were quite disappointed but opted to take the "green." She then casually had us sniff the "white" and we ended up getting one of those also. A mere $35 each. Yes, $35 EACH plus tax of 12.875%. Yikes! We didn't feel too bad though as we had only bought one t-shirt so far and had long been lusting after the Black soap. This was our best substitute and a good one under the circumstances. But the Bulgari experience was not over.
Our sales lady took her time in packaging our products in a fancy card board box, in tissue paper, in another gift box, and finally in a little Bulgari shopping bag. She added her business card and got our e-mail for "soap" updates.
As she was carefully wrapping, we chatted about this and that. Mike asked if I liked the little studded clutch in a glass display on the counter. I said it was beautiful and the sales lady said it was a mere (she didn't really say "mere") $5,000. Not today, thanks. We mentioned we were from San Francisco and she had family there and then we got into our travels. All very personal, but comfortably so.
After packaging, she asked if we were thirsty and, now that she mentioned it, we were." Did we want still or sparkling water?" She lead us downstairs where we waited a few minutes. The jewelry cases were filled with diamond and gold everything, leather goods, watches, and other luxury accessories. There were bouquets of lovely live and exotic floral arrangements adorning the counters.
We felt a bit out of place and out of our element at that point. Soon she brought our sparking crystal glasses of sparkling crystal clear water on a silver tray. We chug-a-lugged and were on our merry way. This little experience was pretty cool (we felt rich for 20 minutes), but very surreal.
Continuing down Fifth Avenue, we passed historic St. Patrick's Cathedral. It was built during 1858-1879 and a very impressive building it was. I'm sure it is beautiful, but at this moment in time, it was being renovated and is covered in scaffolding. Robert F. Kennedy's funeral mass was conducted here among other notable (and religious) things. Learn more about it at: www.saintpatrickscathedral.org/about_history.php
The next interesting place we encountered was the famous Rockefeller Center and Plaza. This is actually a complex of 19 commercial buildings between 48th and 51st Streets and between 5th and 6th Avenues. The TV show 30 Rock took place here in the GE Building, where the NBC Studios are located. Among other TV stations and related businesses is also Radio City Music Hall, home of the women's precision dance team The Rockettes. In the lower plaza during summer there is a Green Market, an open air farmer's market, operating three days a week. In winter an ice skating rink and New York's huge Christmas tree are located here.
The centerpiece of the plaza is Paul Manship's huge, bronze-gilded statue of Prometheus "bringing fire to mankind," from Greek mythology. Surrounding the plaza are some 200 flags belonging to members of the United Nations, US states and territories, and decorative or holiday motifs. This area is filled with art deco building decor, statuary, wall engravings, lots of bronze, and more. Everywhere you turn is something artistic, creative, beautiful. I mean you ever seen a more beautiful tree grate in your life!!
Once we got to 45th Street we diverted east toward Beer Culture (where we had visited yesterday). It was so much fun that we decided to return today for lunch. I was yearning for their hot Caprese sandwich (tomato, fresh mozzarella, arugula) and Mike wanted the Panino Italiano (Italian meats and cheeses). Our feet were aching, but we were glad we plodded a few extra steps out of our way to get back here. We were not let down. Good beer and good food. This place gets a double recommendation from us.
While winding our way back to our hotel, we looked for a new route with new sights. We noticed the Diamond District with its huge diamond-shaped street lights. As we had earlier blown our money wad on soap (!!!) and were not really in the market today for jewelry, we continued to our hotel without even window shopping. Our feet were raw from walking, but heads happy with the thrill of the sights, smells, sounds, and food of NYC. We gave our feet and heads a rest and took a little siesta.
Sunset in NYC today was 7:58pm. As we headed out to dinner it was just about that time. We were well rested and not starved and did not mind a little wait. We decided to try John's Pizzeria again. As we headed east down 44th Street we saw a sunset straight ahead between the skyscrapers, with colors reflecting in every direction from their mirrored windows. It was stunning! When we reached John's we almost hated to go in and miss even a minute of nature's light show.
But then...we wanted to get on the waiting list, if there was one. And there was. It gave us a little time to look around before being seated. This was John's third location and it was spectacular. The building was originally the Gospel Tabernacle Church, built in 1888. It was now converted to the largest pizzeria in the country. We've even seen it on Food Network.
In the lobby was a cool Peter Max painting (one of our favorite artists). In the back was a beautiful stained glass ceiling canopy and an upper level where we imagined the choir used to sing. (My photo of this did not turn out well, but you can see one at: www.johnspizzerianyc.com/More-Info/Our-History). There was also a LARGE (compare with man at bottom right) wall mural of Manhattan Island in the "old" days.
NYC is known for pizza by the slice, but not here. That was quite alright with us as we were hungry by this time. We ordered a Margarita (mozzarella cheese, tomatoes, and basil) with mushrooms added. As you can see it was quite big, but we polished it off. It was soooooo good. Oh, fold before you eat!
After that we waddled back to our hotel and, with full bellies, collapsed into bed for a good night's sleep.
We didn't have to get up too early today, because our train from Penn Station did not leave til 3:45pm. Check-out at the hotel was noon, so the morning was leisurely. We ate at The Red Flame again. This time getting a seat in the front. That was fun because we could watch folks strolling or hurrying by outside. We both had bagels and cream cheese. Mike added lox to his. Umm, so good. Wish we could get NYC bagels in Kalamazoo.
We made one last pass through Times Square. Always excitement there. We noticed one thing we had not seen before. Under the big Coke ad there were bleacher type seats facing the Square. On the top row, if you turned to face the ad, there was a camera set up. You could see yourself at the bottom of the ad on a big screen. We didn't try it, but how fun!! Folks were posing and acting out--"movie stars" for a moment.
We saw more of northeast rural American. We stopped in Albany again to add several train cars from the Boston route who joined us going west. We enjoyed a beautiful sunset in Schenectady. We saw Cleveland Stadium at dawn. Interesting graffiti art was everywhere along the way. Except for the new views, our train ride home was uneventful.
