travelswithalice

November 09, 2007

A WEEK IN NEW YORK WITH BABY

Baby and I have been emailing back and forth, reconstructing the week in our minds.

The following is lifted from Baby's journal:

New York, October 24-31, 2007

24th Wednesday - arrived in Newark Airport, N.J., 5pm, 2hr delay; took Supershuttle prepaid by Tim to take me to Waldorf Astoria where I am to stay with Alice and Stuart.

The traffic was horrendous, the ride took at least one and a half hours. Meanwhile Alice and I have been texting to give her logistic update. She said she would be waiting for me at the parking entrance on 50th St. And there she was.

- it was dinner time and I was famished from my unexpectedly delayed arrival; had nothing substantial to eat except the snack box provided by Continental Airlines; got up 4am to give me time to do my necessaries in time for my 7am flight.

But as soon as Alice and I were situated in the Peacock Alley, the lobby coffee shop, I was fine. Alice said we'd have a glass of champagne each to mark my arrival; but as it happened we had 5 (or was it 6) between the two of us; and so my scrumptious red snapper and the beautiful songs rendered by the lady entertainer playing her piano next to our table, and everything else that transpired, stayed only in my subconscious. Thank goodness we took photos!

- between our 2nd and 3rd glasses Stuart came by from work just to say Hi, and went straight to bed because he was leaving early next day for a Citi conference in Armonk.

25th Thursday - Alice and I woke up relatively early, must be before 11am because we managed (without baths of course) to partake of the complimentary breakfast at Oscar's. Alice had a stack of breakfast cards of which we only used 2, and I later used the 3rd with my friend from school, Angelina Agcaoili.

Back to our room, we decided that we would just take it easy until time to go to The Metropolitan Opera to see "Lucia di Lammermoor" which was to be the highlight of our day.

- after baths, we set out to check out the city a little; walked to Grand Central Station, a few blocks away from the hotel; too bad I hardly paid attention to the wonderful details on the walls and ceiling Alice was pointing out to me.

Our mission at hand was to figure out how to get to the Metropolitan Opera via, why not, the subway, and have a few hours left at our disposal before the 8o'clock show time.

Now Alice never took the subway before so after quite a few trial and error turns and stops, we finally got to where we needed to be, no thanks to the mixed directions we were getting from the few people we asked. It did get a little tiresome not knowing which way to go next; Alice was elated and referred to it as a growing-up experience.

By then I was dead tired and hungry (Alice never gets hungry, her body simply shuts down), so we walked to Barnes & Noble not too far from the Met for a quick lunch. Through the counter glass window overlooking the street we saw people with umbrellas, so we bought one which we never used anyway.

- in Lincoln Center, standing in the courtyard in front of the Met and the New York City Opera was an experience in itself. I recovered promptly and was simply in awe breathing the cultural air around me.

Having our pre-opera dinner in Panevino which was completely packed with people probably all going to the opera was exhilarating.

- "Lucia di Lammermoor" was well worth our stressful adventure earlier; it was outstanding.

- Our way back to the hotel was a strangely similar experience but not stressful at all to me.

- We stayed up till 3am, just talking like we often times do; don't remember what we talked about.

26th Friday

- 10:30 in the morning, we were awakened by a loud repeated banging on our door shouting "housekeeping"; not sure how many or how loud, it doesn't matter, and even if we didn't have a very very late night, this shouldn't happen!

Anyway I'm skipping the unpleasant details and going straight to the good part. It messed up our morning, but we reluctantly accepted a free lunch in Peacock Alley and thanks to Mr. Jones's intervention, a complimentary stretch limo ride to the New York City Opera for our date with "Carmen".

27th Saturday

- Stuart and Erle had breakfast at Oscar's. Alice and I both agree that we had a better breakfast of fresh fruits and toast and butter and honey and coffee which Stuart brought to us in the comfort of our room. When we were ready we joined Stuart and Erle to see more of the city.

[Aside to Alice: at what point did we join them?]

We walked to St. Patrick Church, the Rockefeller Plaza and finally to the Museum of Modern Art where I experienced for the first time Georges Seurat's art on exhibit.

- walked some more with Stuart and Alice (Erle had to be somewhere else) and then found a suitable place to sit and decide our next course of action.

We decided we'd go see Phoebe Snow in Birdland, "The Jazz Corner of the World"; but before that where to have dinner?

- we had a very nice dinner in a very happening place called The Modern where you had to hover around waiting for a table to be vacated.

We grabbed one, no problem.

Alice’s recollection of the events:

We joined Stuart & Erle a long time after our "room service" breakfast after they had toured the city, texting every time they arrived at a new place to wait for us. Oscar's, downstairs at the lobby, Bloomingdale's, Four Seasons, and finally at MoMA where we finally caught up with them just in time for lunch in the museum cafeteria, a quick look at Seurat, and then coffee and biscotti at the cafe right up to closing time. And then we walked around. After Erle left, we walked some more, then back to MoMA for dinner at the Modern.

We must have been in tune with the universe that evening because we got a close-to-impossible-to-get table at the Modern after which we sailed right up to a just-made-available table in sold out (not even standing room available) Birdland.

Hey, I like this! Nice to relive the whole experience together. This is even better than our usual postmortems!

28th Sunday

- had breakfast with Marilyn, my classmate who I haven't seen since high school over 40 yrs ago; said she remembers me as being much taller, I guess because our class seating arrangement was according to height and she sat in the front row; looked at pictures she brought of recent class reunions; happy to see that none of us changed much.

- what are the odds of my long lost classmate leading me to my long lost friend and officemate Ali. Well, I needn't worry having to search the United Nations where she works because as fate has it, Marilyn was having lunch with Ali and her husband Rico on that very day! How weird is that; Alice thought that was scary.

- I decided to join them for lunch and surprise Ali. To kill time before lunch we did a little shopping; bought my winter supply of skin care products from Saks 5th Avenue, and a comfortable pair of walking shoes from Aerosoles Shoe Store. You should have seen the look on Ali's face when she saw me.

29th Monday

- we moved to Hilton Time Square on 42nd Street. It was perfect; closer to the shops and the theater district, and perfect for simply walking along Broadway. And more importantly, we have the most beautiful view of Manhattan and the Empire State Building.

- lunchtime, we found a delightful looking restaurant called Orso, where we were later joined by Bing Manaloto. Since Bing is practically a New Yorker having lived there for quite a while, she was our designated guide; went to Saks 5th to meet with Marilyn, shopped at H&M (which became my favorite store), walked some more and ended up in Rockefeller Center. It was getting late, Bing and Marilyn went on their way.

- went back to H&M for a final shopping spree while waiting for Stuart and Erle.

- walked leisurely around Greenwich Village and stopped at Sevilla for tapas and sangria.

Note from Alice:

Actually we took a cab to Sevilla where we had tapas, sangria, and a feast of a dinner!

30th Tuesday

- Alice and I woke up early; enjoyed the beautiful morning just looking at the view outside our window, taking in the grandeur of the New York skyline. Even our coffee tasted better that morning.

- it was our last full day; walked down Madison Ave. looking for a nice place to have lunch. Alice, who is gifted with a knack for divining good restaurants, was drawn toward the corner of Madison and 38th E Street, took one look inside Salute and said, this is the place. I had sea bass, Alice had veal; no dessert, just macchiato for her and cappuccino for me. Then we headed back to the hotel.

- as soon as we stepped inside our room, we were awed by the magnificent sun setting before our very eyes. It was as though the sun waited for us. An artist will have appropriate words to describe it.

- for dinner we suggested Orso. Erle thought it was a good choice as it is where one goes for after theater late dinner.

- the day is not over for us. It is time to get ready for "Spring Awakening", a musical playing at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre. It was intense, stirring and amazing. It is no wonder Erle has watched it at least 5 times.

31st Wednesday

- our last day; Alice and I had breakfast at Above, the restaurant at the lobby. You'd think it would be at the penthouse or somewhere above.

- all my bags are packed, I'm ready to go...

- I am coming back. Cheers!

Labels: Carmen, Lucia di Lammermoor, Spring Awakening

posted by Alice Dimalanta Jones # November 09, 2007

travelswithalice

November 09, 2007

A WEEK IN NEW YORK WITH BABY

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