New York City

Theresa’s Facebook Posts from PHSisters Trip to NYC June 2019

There are eight of us. Three of us are sharing this suite and this gorgeous living room will be our hanging out spot for the whole group. We have two bedrooms and two baths. This place is bigger than my apartment!

Check out these amazing NYC sugar cookies! Leslie has a baker friend who custom makes sugar cookies. Leslie brought them in a separate suitcase all the way from Dallas with all kinds of bubble wrap to protect them. What a way to celebrate our time together!! The cookies were as delicious as they were beautiful. (And now Leslie has a whole suitcase for taking back souvenirs.)

How have I missed this amazing little city park before? It’s tucked right behind the library. There was a really big yoga class going on today. Check out “Bryant Park’s Children’s Reading Room”—little outdoor tables and chairs and rolling shelves filled with children’s books.

They’re celebrating games! Board games for all ages and golf (putting for children) were some of the ones we saw.

We got a personalized walking tour of this part of NYC including two Japanese stores: Muji and a book, pen, and paper shop. So much to see and do. The new Harry Potter musical has quite the elaborate signage. We walked past a beautiful small park, open to the public, with free WiFi.

There was some kind of serious bike rally going on. On our way to dinner, we walked past several blocks of motorcycles parked like this on 44th and riders to go with them.

Italian for dinner? Sounds great! Dinner in a building that housed the first professional comedy club? Bonus! Check out The Who’s Who list of people that started their careers here. We wondered how many millennials will look at that list and ask, “Who’s that?”

They say it’s the best cheesecake ever. Almost all of us got a piece to try but we were too full to eat it! Take out. Breakfast anyone?

Times Square at night. It was packed! The people watching was over the top. We didn’t stay long, just walked through to say we did.

No skating rink, no Giant Christmas tree, and yet Rockefeller Center at night is still mesmerizing.

St. Patrick’s Cathedral and across the street from St. Patrick’s are beautiful. It’s funny to think of these things as “old” after seeing 14th, 15th, 16th century buildings and sculptures in Europe. But they’re nonetheless impressive.

Let’s go! Well...let’s get going. It was 10:30 before we all finally were up and at ‘em and on our way to breakfast at Murray Hill Diner. California omelet for me with avocado, mushrooms, tomato and lots of cheese.

What’s for lunch? A food tour of the heart and soul of Greenwich Village! It includes a walking tour of the history and culture, too. First stop: Burratas on yummy bread at one of the oldest Italian eateries around. Did you know NYC used to have many “Little Italies”? Over time they’ve dissipated as fewer new immigrants came from Italy and original ones started moving out into other communities.

Stop #2 on the food tour was Porto Rico Importing Company, a coffee importing shop. The “food” was chocolate covered coffee beans. I gave mine to Elaine. But we continued to learn about history and culture of the area. This shop has really competitive pricing because the building has been in the family for generations (the family lives upstairs) and so their overhead is lower.

Most of our stops are such tiny holes in the wall that we have “sidewalk tastings” since the 16 of us couldn’t fit in the restaurant. At this Indian restaurant, Masala Times Greenwich Village, our tasting came in two rounds. First: a breakfast-burrito-like dish. The bread is made with flour and milk (instead of water) but then pan fried like a tortilla. The scrambled eggs inside had Indian spices and goodies. Second: fruit lassi—mango juice and yogurt. It was like a milkshake only better. And it really calmed the tastebuds after the spice.

Minetta Brook originates near here and then flows into the Hudson. And now it’s underground beneath these beautiful pedestrian alleys. ”One of the curves of the stream was immortalized in the form of Minetta Street, a one-block alley in the heart of Greenwich Village. At its northern end, this street intersects with Minetta Lane.”

For our food tour, we gathered at Monte’s Trattoria restaurant and now we are returning there for a tasting. It’s now a stop on the food tour! “Since 1918, Monte’s has been serving classic Italian cuisine in Greenwich Village. This old time joint features photos of actors and sports stars from the early years in New York City. Chef Pietro makes your visit a most memorable one.” He certainly made our visit memorable with this incredible ragù alla bolognese with hand made pasta noodles, plus he came out to visit with us.

“Cafe Wha? hosts the best live music in New York City 7 nights a week. Many music legends, such as Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, and Bruce Springsteen, have all had graced the stage at Cafe Wha? and the club continues to host the best up and coming talent and house bands in New York City.” Plus, they have a really great entrance door. (We only walked by and learned about it; we didn’t go in.)

This was supposed to be a sidewalk tasting but we squeezed in to grab some A/C as well as a yummy treat at OatMeals. The founder put on the freshman 15 when she went to college. Discovered the health benefits of oatmeal. Then figured out how cheap it was and on a college student’s budget started eating it three meals a day but got bored with it. Started experimenting with variations and combinations. Went to culinary school on the side while working in the world of finance. Then opened the shop. Then went on Shark Tank and got an investor. Who knows what else is in store for her!

Someone wrote out the entire fourth amendment in colored chalk on the sidewalk in Washington Square Park. It’s the only public place in NYC where you don’t need a permit to speak up publicly.

Fountain, arch, and Empire State Building all line up now. In the 1870’s the fountain was put in the exact center of the park, which made sense but looked asymmetrical with the fountain. A few years ago, NYC spent 30 million dollars to move it 30 feet. Really?! Well, we just like having our group photo in the park.

This stop at Cuba Restaurant & Rum Bar on our food tour was an indoor tasting. We had three Cuban treats. Elaine and I agreed that once you’ve had Cuban food at The Columbia Restaurant in Ybor City, FL, nothing will ever compare. I ordered the Sangria, but it’s obviously different from the Portuguese sangria I’ve grown to love. The A/C and the atmosphere were nice.

This stop on the food tour at Sullivan Street Tea & Spice Company had a fruity, decaf tea. I tried it hoping I’d find a tea I actually like, but no such luck. They also served blueberry honey (blueberry because the bees got the nectar from blueberries), which was yummy, too. My favorite part of this stop wasn’t about the food but rather the building, which once housed a mafia organization. The side door is the original with the sliding door at eye level for you to give the password. Above it is a piece of the smoked glass that once covered the front window and has “members only” painted on it. Also up there are two bottles of liquor the owner found tucked behind a wall. Both were full when they were found. The owner drank one.

How awesome that our last stop on the food tour at La Newyorkina had dessert. We had paletas—half popsicle/ half ice cream.

Oh yes! Half price tickets to the rescue, we got great seats to see Beautiful—The Carole King Musical at Stephen Sondheim Theatre. The photo opportunity was available in the theater lobby and we took the opportunity.

We weren’t allowed to take photos of the stage (even though we saw many who did, we complied). But here’s proof we were at the show. Somehow, we not only got great seats at Half Price Tickets, but we got eight together!

This was the perfect Broadway show for our group to see. It was a great story, well told by great actors in a great production. And we knew all the music! Perfect for our generation. “You’ve Got a Friend” was particularly touching for this amazing group of friends to share together.

After the show, we went to the rooftop bar on the roof of our own hotel. It just opened for the summer season just in time for us. Beautiful views of the city. Mediocre sangria.

Up and at ‘em bright and early to get to Chelsea Market. This is a former Nabisco manufacturing plant turned into an eclectic mall. They kept a lot of the old features and modernized the rest. Check out the tiled wall under the counter in one of the restaurants. It’s made of Mahjong tiles!

Breakfast at Sarabeth’s Bakery was yummy. I had potato waffles with sour cream and apple sauce. The waffle was made from mashed potatoes with chives and other yummy spices. The apple sauce was homemade and unique. The whole meal was like having potato latkes but 10 times more delicious.

The High Line is an old elevated rail line that went between buildings in a deserted industrial district that’s been turned it into an amazing pedestrian trail. You get a unique perspective on some fascinating buildings from up here on The High Line. There’s a wide variety of public art along the walking path of The High Line along with places to sit and relax. Sometimes you’re walking on the same level as the old rails, sometimes you’re on a slightly elevated walkway. Sometimes you can see the old rail and sometimes you can’t. The landscaping is fabulous. The whole thing really is a nice respite experience. There are more plans for The High Line. Congrats, NYC for a great project So far! I look forward to coming back.

At the current end of The High Line is this amazing structure. “Vessel is a 16-story, 150-foot-high structure of connected staircases between the buildings of Hudson Yards, located in the 5-acre Hudson Yards Public Square. Designed by Thomas Heatherwick, Vessel has 154 flights, 2,500 steps, and 80 landings that stretch from its 50-foot-wide base to its 150-foot-wide apex (making it as tall as it is wide at its apex), with the total length of the stairs exceeding 1 mile.” It just opened in March of this year. You have to make reservations to get on it.

The Hudson Yards is a giant shopping complex that’s part of an immense real estate development that sits “on a platform built over the West Side Yard, a storage yard for Long Island Rail Road trains.” None of us really needed/wanted to do any shopping but we kinda wanted to see the place. So we went to Neiman Marcus on the 5th floor to use the rest rooms...because we knew they’d be really nice. And they were. On the way I found this great homage to both summer and The Pride Parade this weekend.

This afternoon, the gang split up so each of us could do individual things in NYC. Our goal for tonight was to go to Penelope for dinner and share stories about our individual afternoons. Except the new owners of Penelope temporarily closed it for the transition and didn’t bother to mention it on their website. (The new menu is posted but not the important info we needed.) So we went across the street for pizza instead.

We had such good luck with our Half Price Ticket adventure last night that we decided to risk it again tonight. No such luck. One went to see “Perfect Crime,” which has been on stage for 26 years and according to the attendee, was appropriately old and tired. Five of us went to see the revival of ”Oklahoma,” which won several Tonys this year. We couldn’t get seats together but when we got back together and compared notes, we were all underwhelmed. The man next to me who is an avid theater goer (his words) was very disappointed, too. Oh well. Afterwards, we all met in the living area of our very nice studio room and yacked away until the wee hours of the morning.

Sunday came too quickly and now everyone is headed home. Kansas, Colorado, and 2 from Texas all had to leave before breakfast to get to the airport. The rest of us (Maine, Minnesota, and 2 more from Texas) got to have a mini-reunion with Tere who was an exchange student at our high school in 1973. (She was friends with the others, but she lived at our house, so this was a family reunion for Karen and me). Tere lives in Queens and came into the city to join us. It was so awesome to see her!