Day 2 in NYC. It feels like a hundred degrees. It was about 80 at 10am. We hit the ground running this morning, like the thousands of runners we met in Central Park raising money for disability awarenes. We are a few blocks from Central Park and a GRRRRRRREAT bagel place, called Absolute Bagel, so we started there with the world's biggest most tasty bagel and then walked around the North end of Central Park. We had planned to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but had to put that off (for this trip entirely, possibly, since it's not open tomorrow and we leave on Tuesday...) because the half priced ticket joint in Times Sq opened at 11. We walked to TS and then waited an hour in the hot but friendly line to obtain tickets to FELA, a story about a subversive Nigerian artist living in Nigeria from 1960s-1990s and how his music influenced and reflected the very bloody politics of the time.
The show had great dancing and music, but the second half sort of went on a tangent away from the story. The show had us up and dancing at certain points, which was fun, but sometimes confusing because one never knew quite how involved one could get in the performance: the audience/performer line was a bit unclear. Overall, the voices were immaculate and the format was like you were an audience member in Fela's walled and barbwired music club in Lagos. The set was amazing!
We lunched at Olympic Diner, a very cute Greek restaurant in Midtown with a family feel, full of locals and tourists, before the show and were happy to seek refuge from the heat for 2 hours to catch a piece of art unlike anything that has ever been on Broadway, let alone like anything playing anywhere else in the world. It's all about local tastes this first trip to NYC!
Now we're back cooling off and getting ready for a lovely dinner at home with our hostess, Wesley and her adorable cavalier king charles spaniel, Beatrice.
Dinner was tasty and fun! Joseph, Wesley's brother, came over to celebrate his birthday with his partner, Matt. Wesley made this fabulous cordon bleu chicken dinner with lovely appetizers and desserts: tantalizing tastes! Matt and Joseph invited us to their place downtown afterwards to show us the view from their condo near Park Ave. It was gorgeous! The whole city sparkled. So sweet and generous of Wesley, Joseph and Matt to welcome us so warmly!
Once Matt and Joseph found out we wanted to go swing dancing, they made some quick phone calls to their friends for some recs because our internet searches were spotty and somewhat fruitless. The first one came up and Jim and I were off on the subway to midtown to Swing 46 - Jazz and Supper Club. What a delight! There was a full live band, no cover and the dance floor was pretty unoccupied. The only other couple who joined us on the dance floor at first turned out to be the swing dancers who taught the lesson an hour before we arrived. They were charming! We invited them to our table and before we knew it, there were six of us enthusiasts up dancing.
These kind of spontaneous interactions often bring endearing and affirming networks of friends together. One of the dancers who joined us a bit later was Alex, originally from Vancouver, who actually knew my friend, Nardia, who introduced me to swing dancing years ago. What are the chances of that in a city the size of New York, let alone a continent the size of North America? It was a great connection to make and we hope we get the chance to visit each other again soon, once our respective lives and travels settle down a bit.
At the end of the night, we collapsed into a yellow cab and made our way home uptown happy and tired from a fabulous day of newly discovered friends in North America's largest city.
Monday, June 28, 2010
First day in NYC - June 26
We left Newark around 3:00 pm. We found out the difference between 99th street and W 99th St. the hard way: one is in Brooklyn, the other in Manhattan. People were super friendly and helpful, and we saw a quaint corner of Brooklyn in the process! What would we do without GPS and cell phones? I don't know. So, a 40 minute trip from Newark to Manhattan took us about two hours, with traffic and tolls. The trip was lovely, though!
We are staying in Manhattan on the Upper West Side, thanks to the generous hospitality of Jim's friend, Wesley. She showed us around the neighbourhood and we took her out to dinner at her local favourite Sushi place.
We were pooped from running around with kids and waking up early this morning, so we decided to call it an early night (it's twenty to midnight and I am still typing/uploading photos :S) and we'll hit the ground running from Times Square tomorrow morning, NY bagel in hand.
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Newark, NJ
This road trip is a chance for Jim and me to connect to friends we have not seen in a very long time. The first friend we stopped to visit was Alexander Schliep, a friend of Jim's. We had a lovely time with him and his family: they opened their home generously and we enjoyed great cuisine and conversation.
The Schliep family is lovely: they have two twin three-year-old boys and they live near a high school with a full sized track and field racetrack. We had a blast running our legs off (and theirs) around the track in the balmy afternoon and early morning. Visiting them was a wonderful way to recharge, re-connect and ground before heading into a buys three days in NYC. Although we only spent one night with them, it was difficult to say goodbye and we hope we see them soon, either here in New Jersey or north of the 49th!
The Schliep family is lovely: they have two twin three-year-old boys and they live near a high school with a full sized track and field racetrack. We had a blast running our legs off (and theirs) around the track in the balmy afternoon and early morning. Visiting them was a wonderful way to recharge, re-connect and ground before heading into a buys three days in NYC. Although we only spent one night with them, it was difficult to say goodbye and we hope we see them soon, either here in New Jersey or north of the 49th!
Lake George
It's the first day of summer, a symbolic day in many ways, to start our road trip around the United States. The most beautiful weather is upon us and the feeling of liberation on the open road with the company of my sweet husband, Jim, and our dog, Mrs. Wiggles is great.
The initial purpose of the road trip is for Jim to attend conferences in Atlanta, LA, and Portland. The great thing is that I had time off between adjournment and law school to join him in his travels. Instead of flying, we thought we'd use the extra time to visit friends we have not seen in years. We are heading down the eastern seaboard to Atlanta and then straight across the desert and back up the Pacific Coast where we will catch a flight in Seattle to Indianapolis to visit my sister-in-law's family and their new bundle of joy. Then we'll drive back around the Great Lakes to pick up Mrs. Wiggles where she will have been staying with Jim and Janet during our ten week Homeric adventure.
Our first day started out fabulously until we had car trouble outside of Montreal. A lurching engine kept us waiting in a Canadian Tire parking lot surrounded by nothing but Boston Pizza and big box retail stores for three hours. The wait wasn't that bad: we found a shady spot, took out MRs. Wiggles' portable water bowl and hung out reading under a tree until we needed some lunch. We made it to Lake George by 7:30, a full three and a half hours past our arrival time. I would have loved a swim in the Lake, but it was starting to rain when we arrived.
I just have to say, I love Lake George. It's gorgeous. Some would call the LG Village tacky, but for me it represents all the good natured, innocent small town America I only knew from television. There's the main street (interestingly named Canada street) with its arcade, salt water taffy shops, ice cream parlours, gift shops, banks and boutiques, the high school, the boat launch. Walking around is like being on a movie set. Today we drove through on our way to Elizabeth Island, but tomorrow I hope we wander in and get all dressed up and take Old Time Pictures! The Adirondack Theatre festival is also on, so we are headed to a musical tomorrow night.
When we arrived tonight, Jim's dad, Jim, picked us up at the dock. We managed to get the lurching engine (no, they didn
It's great to be here, surrounded by the warmth and peace of the Lake, and all the wonderful associations and memories I have of falling in love with Jim and his family. A perfect destination to rejuvenate from city life before launching into our Odyssey.
The initial purpose of the road trip is for Jim to attend conferences in Atlanta, LA, and Portland. The great thing is that I had time off between adjournment and law school to join him in his travels. Instead of flying, we thought we'd use the extra time to visit friends we have not seen in years. We are heading down the eastern seaboard to Atlanta and then straight across the desert and back up the Pacific Coast where we will catch a flight in Seattle to Indianapolis to visit my sister-in-law's family and their new bundle of joy. Then we'll drive back around the Great Lakes to pick up Mrs. Wiggles where she will have been staying with Jim and Janet during our ten week Homeric adventure.
Our first day started out fabulously until we had car trouble outside of Montreal. A lurching engine kept us waiting in a Canadian Tire parking lot surrounded by nothing but Boston Pizza and big box retail stores for three hours. The wait wasn't that bad: we found a shady spot, took out MRs. Wiggles' portable water bowl and hung out reading under a tree until we needed some lunch. We made it to Lake George by 7:30, a full three and a half hours past our arrival time. I would have loved a swim in the Lake, but it was starting to rain when we arrived.
I just have to say, I love Lake George. It's gorgeous. Some would call the LG Village tacky, but for me it represents all the good natured, innocent small town America I only knew from television. There's the main street (interestingly named Canada street) with its arcade, salt water taffy shops, ice cream parlours, gift shops, banks and boutiques, the high school, the boat launch. Walking around is like being on a movie set. Today we drove through on our way to Elizabeth Island, but tomorrow I hope we wander in and get all dressed up and take Old Time Pictures! The Adirondack Theatre festival is also on, so we are headed to a musical tomorrow night.
When we arrived tonight, Jim's dad, Jim, picked us up at the dock. We managed to get the lurching engine (no, they didn
It's great to be here, surrounded by the warmth and peace of the Lake, and all the wonderful associations and memories I have of falling in love with Jim and his family. A perfect destination to rejuvenate from city life before launching into our Odyssey.
Buck Mountain
Taken August 14, 2008
Taken August 14, 2008
Stalled!
Our road trip was off to a slow start when car trouble made us detour just outside of Montreal. We were surrounded by big box stores and parking lots where the only place nearby with some shade was a Boston Pizza. Poor Mrs. Wiggles had to wait on the other side of the glassed-in patio. Who puts glass around a patio???
The entire experience was not a loss. The kindness of strangers prevailed and we were back on the road (still with car trouble, mind you) determined to reach our destination, Lake George, before nightfall.
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