Ken and Len's Weekend in New York City 2007

"Start spreading the news, we're leaving today.....". Yes, you guessed it, New York, NEW YORK. We had talked about going to New York since September '06 when I went with my family and Ken could not make it because he would be visiting his family in South Africa.
So, since October 8th was a Holiday,(Columbus Day Observed), we decided to spend that weekend in New York City. "These vagabond shoes ....". Okay, okay, enough now !!

Our flight left early Saturday (7:00 AM) morning on the 6th of October, so we had to get an early start for the airport (4:15 AM) (Very early indeed after having gone to bed about midnight.

We get to the airport, go through security without delay, and settled in for breakfast at the Nathan's Concession in our departure terminal for our Delta flight to NYC.(about 5:30 AM)

I ordered two bacon and egg breakfast sandwiches and Ken ordered 2 sausage and egg sandwiches. Ken's sausage patty was a normal 2 to 2.5 inch diameter piece of meat on top of his eggs. The bacon however must have been in short supply, because I had one inch of one slice of bacon on each of my egg sandwiches. Essence of bacon may have been a better description of my egg sandwiches. But the good news, is that they were tasty and hot and it hit the proverbial spot.

After breakfast, we confirmed that our gate had been changed and made our way to the new gate assignment to wait for our flight.

The time passed quickly and we were on board before we knew it.
The flight was not crowded. so we were able to have 3 seats for the 2 of us.
The flight attendants were pleasant and helpful when it came time to order a cocktail. ( Yes a cocktail...we were technically on vacation and it was already noon in Paris France by this time).

We prepaid for 2 drinks, gave the young lady a tip and a contribution for Breast Cancer Awareness. We lucked out because she made us 3 drinks each saying that the first one she had made us was not mixed correctly. (It had vodka in it so as far as I knew, it was correct) but we didn't argue the point and graciously accepted all three.

The flight was very comfortable and we were in NYC ("that never sleeps.."), in relatively short order.
We landed in La Guardia and took a taxi to our hotel, The New York Hilton on Avenue of the Americas (6th Avenue) in Mid-town Manhattan.

We checked in, but our room was not ready so we went to the Time Warner Center to have lunch. We walked around, checked out some of the shops (The Samsung Experience - a store full of electronic gadgets; Border's Books; The Armani Exchange Shop; J. Crew; Bose; Colors of Benetton and others) and eventually made our way to Bar Masa for lunch.(See our restaurant review section for more on Bar Masa) On the way out of the Time Warner Center, we stopped of at the Lincoln Center's Rose Theater Box Office located in the first floor lobby, to pick up our will-call tickets for the following day's center piece of the New York Film Festival, No Country for Old Men. (Please check our movie review section for more on this film.)


The room was still not ready, (even though we had requested an early check-in) when we came back from lunch. The front desk attendant was a very nice fellow and gave us a pair of vouchers for $15 each that we could use for drinks at the lobby bar.
So off we went to have our free beverage. We ordered a Flirtini, which was vodka, champagne and pineapple juice. That was not too bad but we didn't care for the taste of the Kettle One Vodka served as the house vodka. After the drink we went to the front desk to see if they would continue with their hospitality of free drinks, but our room was ready so we went upstairs, unpacked and headed back out.
(They were not able to upgrade our room to a suite but we did manage to stay on one of the Concierge Floors, next to the Presidential Suite).

This time our destination was The Guggenheim Museum. We walked the entire building and saw all of the exhibits in about 90 minutes. Some of the exhibits were contemporary; some were more traditional. We loved some of the impressionist works they had there as part of their permanent Thannhauser Collection. They had notable works by Paul Cezanne; Pablo Picasso; Vasily Kadinsky; Salvador Dali; Claude Monet;
Edouard Manet; Jackson Pollock and others.

The building itself is a work of art. It forms the shape of a modified inverted ziggurat, where it is bigger at the top than at the bottom. Once you enter you are whisked off to the top floor so that you can begin viewing the exhibits down a concentric set of circles that became smaller as you approach the first floor.
The building exterior is also very artsy but it was under restoration and covered in scaffolding. It was approaching 6 PM, so we rushed back to the hotel, cleaned up, got dressed and went to the Concierge's Lounge on the 47th floor of the hotel for drinks and appetizers. These were complementary appetizers which we ate as dinner since we didn't have time for a formal one before the show on Broadway, that night; Hairspray.

The show was excellent. It was fun and energetic; it made you dance in your seat. (at least me anyway) Lance Bass played Corny Collins and Jim J Bullock from TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT fame, in the 80's played Wilbur Turnblad. Jim was also a regular in the Hollywood Squares. Hairspray is set in the 60's in Baltimore and about the racial tensions as it pertained to Teen Dance Shows, and the politics of being a regular on those shows.

The show was a lot of fun and we will always remember it as one of the best times ever on Broadway. The theater was a beautiful old majestic Broadway Theater, The Neil Simon Theater. We picked up a collector's edition poster at intermission while we sipped on an Absolut & Soda. The seats were great albeit tight and cramped as they were.

After the show we went outside and it was full of people leaving the theater and looking for transportation. So we went away from Broadway towards 8th Avenue, and began hailing a cab. After maybe 2 minutes a Mercedes Benz Sedan 500 SL pulls up and says they can take us to our hotel. We inquired as to how much this would cost and the man said it would be $20. A regular cab fare would have been $10 but there were none of those available. We had asked a bicycle rickshaw how much they wanted and they said they wanted $30 for the same trip. So we choose the Mercedes Sedan for less money and more convenience of the two modes of transportation available at the time.
We were very tired having only had a maximum of 3 hours sleep in the last 48 so we decided to go back to the hotel for a night cap. We sat at the Lobby Lounge for about 30 minutes, had a couple of drinks and went to our room about 12:30 AM.
(We had an early and busy day Sunday)

Sunday morning we were up around 7:00 AM. We wanted to get some breakfast before the movie, so we went to the Concierge's Lounge again. There they had a continental buffet spread over several tables. They had a wide assortment of cheeses, pastries, breads, fruits and juices to satisfy any palette. We opted for several croissants, cheese, some pastries and several glasses of orange juice.

Once we had our fill we went back outside, hailed a cab and we were off to the Rose Theater at Lincoln Center for the showing of No Country for Old Men. It was as excellent as it was bizarre. We were so engrossed by the story and the unclear ending we bought the book when we came back in audio format so we could listen to it. The book was clearer than the movie. The movie was cut short to keep it less than 2 hours long. (See Movie Reviews in this Blog)

After the film, we went to an excellent little steak house called Porter House - New York, for brunch. (Please see Eating Around Town and Beyond... for reviews on this an other venues we visited during our trip.)

After brunch, we hailed a cab and we were off again. This time to the Al Hirschfeld theater for an afternoon showing of the Musical, Curtains.
Curtains was excellent. It was funny, it had a great original score, and it included this years Best Actor in a musical, David Hyde Pearce, of Frazier fame. (He played Niles Crane, Frazier's brother.)
This musical deals with a murder committed in a theater in Boston in 1959, and the detective sent to investigate and how he falls for one of the girls in the show. It was entertaining, interesting and fun. It features the music by Kander and Ebb (Chicago, Cabaret)
The seats were great orchestra seats but again cramped and tight. (Ken and I are not petite, we are both over 200 pounds and well over 6 foot tall)
We picked up the collector's edition poster for this show, again while sipping on a cocktail at intermission. There was a couple next to us that appeared to be "family". They were from Maine and come to NYC for the weekend also, when they have a chance.

After the show, we decided we would wander over to what we thought was supposed to be an Oktoberfest Celebration. We are still not sure what those folks were celebrating on Lexington Avenue between 47th and 57th streets, but it didn't seem like it was Oktoberfest.
As we walked past vendors, looking for an Oktoberfest Beer Garden we came upon Grand Central Market. It was an access hallway to get to Grand Central Station but it has been converted to a market. This was part of the revitalization efforts of the late 1990's to renovate and restore this grand old gem. It was great. They had tremendous varieties of cheeses, cold cuts, meats, vegetables, fruits and other consumables.
They also had restaurants and clothing stores along the different concourses.


We made our way all the way down into Grand Central Station and stood in the Grand Concourse and looked at the sky ceiling; it was breathtaking. We stopped in and visited the Museum Of Transportation of NYC. It was very interesting seeing the blue prints that were used to construct different elements of this Terminal.
Having little time to spare, we decided to walk the rest of the way to have a bite to eat near our next venue, The Eugene O'Neil Theater.

We had looked on-line for an Irish Pub that was close to our hotel and this coincidentally was it; O'Lunney's Irish Pub Times Square. We went in and sat down and ordered our usual adult beverage. The young lady brought us a menu and we sat back and relaxed from a pretty busy afternoon. It was Sunday evening about 6:30 PM
All of the televisions had football on them which was great. We caught up on the day's final football scores and with the current games. We ordered the Shepherd's Pie and watched the games. (Please see our Restaurant Reviews Blog for more)
An hour later we were done and on our way to Spring Awakening; this years Best Musical Rock Opera and 8 Tony award winner.(11 nominations)
I am not sure if it was my imagination or if I had swelled up during the day but I must say these orchestra seats were the tightest and the most uncomfortable ones we had sat in all day. (This was our third performance in 11 hours) And this theater was not properly ventilated.
We were talking amongst ourselves about the fact that this show had no, "stars"; no one whose name we would recognize in the Playbill; and a young woman in front of us was compelled to turn around and tell us that the reason there were no celebrities in this show was because it was about a group of school children in late 19th century Germany and all of them were between the ages of 14 and 21, with the exception of the two "adult" roles.
Ok. We had been advised. So far so good. A little hot; a lot cramped; but ok.
(Research after the fact revealed that this musical was based on a very controversial German play of the same title, by Frank Wedekind, where the characters feel compelled to express their frustrations, motivations and desires directly to the audience.)
The music was very good and the voices were spectacular.
The stage set was interesting in that there were audience members sitting on stage and the actors, when off-cue, sat amongst them.
The end of act one involved what was shown as two children, with partial clothing removed, simulating intercourse.
We sat through the first act, and were relieved to get up and out of the Sardine-can like seats we were in; very uncomfortable.
We waited patiently in the bathroom line, had a cocktail and bought the poster.
(not all in that order)

Act 2 started, where act One left off; two kids simulating sex on stage.
We decided to stand in the back of the theater for as long as we could stand to be there to try and be more comfortable.(Both artistically and ergonomically)
Then the ushers from hell started to tell us that we had to stand closer to the last row of seats where the Standing Room Only crowd was standing. And that made us more uncomfortable so we decided to leave.

The streets were not as crowded since the shows had not let out. This gave us a great opportunity to enjoy the Times Square area without the masses being in our way. We walked up Broadway and we found Emmett O'Lunney's Harmony View Bar and Grill; Coincidentally, this bar was owned by the son of the Irish Pub owner we had visited earlier in the day for dinner. With a nice sports bar atmosphere, we settled in our seats and watched football and baseball on the screens while we sipped on some beverages. We enjoyed it and our bar tender was great and she kept buying drinks for us. After a while we decided to walk back to our hotel since it was already midnight and get ready for our trip home the next day.

Monday the 8th of October we got up early, had breakfast and made our way to the airport so that we could be there the prescribed two hours in advance of our 11:00 AM flight.
The flight back was more crowded that the flight to NYC. Ken however had our seats changed so that we could sit in the row with 2 seats instead of the row with three seats with an exit row, so that legs could be placed in front of us comfortably. That worked out great. We had an affable flight attendant that took care of us very well on the flight home keeping us hydrated with adult beverages. The flight home was a good one.

We get back to the Orlando airport, picked up our car and made our way towards home. On the way, we stopped at Fashion Square Mall, and walked the mall looking for a Book Store to buy No Country For Old Men. In the process we walked through Macy's and picked up some shaving cream; walked through Spencer's Gifts and looked at the Halloween costumes; walked through Victoria's Secret;(naughty store) and bought ourselves a hot dog wrapped in pretzel dough; a soft pretzel; and a Fanta Orange Drink. We took these to the car and made our way to the new Winter Park Village mall to visit the Border's Book Store. Ken ordered the audio book and bought the sound track to Spring Awakening, since we really did like the music to the show.
Once we had completed our shopping, we decided to check out an Irish Pub in Winter Park not far from the Mall, called Fiddler's Green Irish Pub, on Fairbanks Avenue, right where Orange Avenue merges with Fairbanks.

It must have been about 4 PM. We ordered a couple of drinks and decided to play some conventional steel tipped darts. Ken was kicking my butt at darts when a waitress comes around and says if we were interested in playing trivia. This bar hosts a trivia game challenge every weekday from 5 to 6 PM. So we said sure,and we played trivia and darts for the next hour. You got to write the answers down on a piece of paper which was collected and graded by the moderator. Ken and I placed in the top three most of the rounds. I think we came in tied for second overall. That was a lot of fun. (Our Team was called the Dart Guys.)

We decided to order dinner before we left Fiddler's Green, so we asked for a Shepherd's Pie and an Irish Stew to go. We brought that home and we enjoyed it very well. Delicious stew and pie. We had a night cap and called it a day.

That was the end of our fantastic weekend in NYC 2007. We had a great time and look forward to the next time we have another getaway. Plans are being brewed for a weekend to Savannah, GA, so come back soon.