Day 15: Final Leg Home

Even though this is the last day of our trip, it doesn't feel as much like a vacation. That's because the only thing on the itinerary is to drive home. Still, it beats driving home from NY or even PA, which is just the way we designed it.

We slept in as late as we could and still manage to make check out. On the downside, we missed the complimentary breakfast. But thankfully there was a McDonalds just around the corner.

A quick side note about McDonald's all-day breakfast: as awesome as it is (the greatest thing since TiVo), the menu really varies from restaurant to restaurant. Some locations (like the one down the street from us) have multiple selections (including biscuits), where others just have a few items (mostly Egg McMuffins). So when we put up, I have to ask for first and second choice. And then we all get Egg McMuffins. Makes me appreciate my local McD even more.

We hit the road just after Noon and took 81 most of the way home. Luckily, traffic was pretty good. We had a few small traffic jams, but nothing major. The Virginia State Police were out in droves. I was constantly spotting them hiding in the trees. Unfortunately, they missed the most aggressive driver we saw all day. A guy in a black pickup was speeding, didn't slow down for a traffic jam, and almost hit a guy pulling a boat. We thought for sure he was going to impact. We were so close to the boat that I was worried that we'd get hit, too. He passed the boat in the emergency lane and then whipped it back into the road. We saw a State Trooper moments later, but was just far enough away that he missed the whole thing. Such a shame. I kept hoping for the next several miles that I'd see that guy get pulled over, but no such luck.

We keep ourselves entertained and relive the magic of the Big Apple ("the greatest city in the world"), we listened to the soundtracks of Hamilton (for which we couldn't get tickets, sadly) and Something Rotten! Interesting thing about the latter: two performers from the original cast (main character Nick and the Narrator) had moved on. Nick was originally played by Brian d'Arcy James (who we knew from Smash). But we actually liked the current Nick better. We'd never seen him before (his name is Rob McClure and apparently starred in the short-lived Chaplin), but he's edgier than his predecessor and really exuded the "mad at the world" quality the role requires.

Listening to Hamilton (which is really long, by the way, since the entire show is sung) really made me want to learn more about Alexander Hamilton (mission accomplished, Lin-Manuel Miranda). And since the show mostly takes place in NYC, it also made me wish that we had visited some of the historic locations while we were there. For example, Hamilton, his wife Eliza, and her sister Angelica, are all buried at Trinity Church, which we walked by a couple of times while we were in lower Manhattan.

We made it home just fine, though it finally started raining just before we got here. Got a little damp unloading the car, but still nothing like the deluge we had in NYC. Once we got the laundry sorted ( and started), we were able to settle in a bit. John and Katie had dropped off their dogs for the night while they went out of town. But that means we get to spend the day with them tomorrow before we have to go back to work on Monday.

Great ending to an awesome trip!

Day 14: Full Circle to Pennsylvania

Today was our last entertaining leg of the trip before our final leg home. We decided to drive a few hours and then spend the afternoon in Pennsylvania before making some progress towards home. Taking the trip full circle a bit. We wanted to swing through Hershey (especially since we missed it on our last trip through the area) and Strasburg for some mini-golf.

Still, I didn't manage to take a single photo (mainly because we did things that I've -- wait for it -- covered previously). So, I've interspersed this entry with interesting signs we saw in New York.

We had one more friend, Jess, with whom we wanted to meet up. So we had an early breakfast together at David Burke's fabrick in the Archer hotel. That actually worked out perfect for us (due to checkout) and her, too, because she had a work function right after lunch.

We got up early, just threw on our clothes, and walked down to the restaurant. We'd never been to a David Burke restaurant before (seen him on TV, of course), so we were excited about that. Marsha and I had just passed one of his other restaurants yesterday, David Burke's Kitchen, on our way to the Brooklyn Bridge. The food was really good (yay breakfast!), though we found out afterwards that they had a B rating. That was a bit of a surprise. We expected better based on his reputation.

We went back to hotel afterwards to shower up and pack. We called down for the car,  checked out, and went down to the parking garage. All right on schedule. As always, it was tough to leave NYC. We always want to spend more time in the city.

When we got to the car, they said they were having a problem with the key. I'd had a glitch once before where I had to open the door manually, and figured that's what was going on.

Nope. We actually had a dead battery. I couldn't even open trunk. This was all very frustrating, especially since I'd just had it serviced ahead of schedule before we left. Since we were driving so far, I wanted to get my checkup done beforehand. Luckily, they were able to give us a jump start. Still have no idea what caused it. There weren't any lights left on our anything. Just another fluke, I guess.

Thankfully, we had plenty of gas, because I was determined not to stop until we reached Hershey. Of course, getting out of NYC was a challenge in itself, thanks to road construction and tunnel traffic. I just prayed that the car wouldn't cut off when every time we got stuck for a few minutes and were surrounded by other cars. Had we broken down, it would have been a real pickle. I finally breathed a sigh of relief after we made it back out of the city and onto the New Jersey Turnpike.

We managed to make it to Hershey just fine. We stopped at Chocolate World, of course, which they've updated yet again even since Marsha and I were there last. On that trip, they'd completely rerouted the entrance to the ride. Now they've changed the entrance even more by taking your picture before you even get on. And they've replaced a lot of the mechanical effects (such as baking beans and stirring chocolate) with animated video screens. They've even added holograms of their cartoon mascots (talking Hershey bar, Reese's Cups, and Kiss) and a big social media push to the finale. And, of course, we bought some chocolate in the giant gift shop. Which posed a slight challenge since it was 90 degrees outside.

Afterwards, we drove over to the Hershey Lodge (another favorite) and had an early dinner at The Bears' Den, the hockey themed cafe in the hotel. We also bought more chocolate afterwards.

As tempting was to stay there, we still had more ground to cover. We drove over to Strasburg to play mini-golf at our favorite course, Village Greens (again, see previous post). It was still in the high 80s, so we asked them to keep the chocolate in the little cafe for us. Got the feeling this wasn't the first time they've gotten that request.

We did the long (gold) course again because it's just so beautiful. It was National Cow Day, so each hole had a trivia question about cows. You won a free little sundae if you got them all right. We did terrible (even using Google), but they gave us sundaes anyway. Participation trophies, I guess.

The general goal was to drive to Winchester, VA, before we stopped for the night. That still seemed pretty do-able after we left Strasburg. But because we had gone east from Hershey, our GPS had us cut across 30 to get to I-81, instead of going back up to Harrisburg and then down again.

At first this was just fine, since 30 is a major highway in that area. We actually went right back through York and even drove past the Around the Clock diner, where we'd eaten breakfast two weeks ago (feels like forever) on our first morning out.

But then 30 turned into a tiny country road and we ended up going through small town after small town. Gettysburg was nice and made me want to go back some time. Eventually it was slow going and very frustrating until we finally made it to I-81. Would have definitely been quicker to have driven back to Harrisburg.

To make matters worse, Marsha had some troubles trying to book a room in Winchester. She even called Customer Support at Hampton Inn and still couldn't get it booked. Still not sure what was going on there, but she finally managed to book a room in at Holiday Inn Express. We got there around eleven and were so glad to finally call it a night.

Tomorrow is the last leg home, which I hope will be uneventful. I especially hope that the car starts again in the morning. Fingers crossed!

Day 13: Hard to be the Bard

On our last full day in NYC, Madison spent the day hanging out with a friend, so Marsha and I had practically a whole day to ourselves. We've actually contemplated staying over another day. The Cats revival just started in previews tonight, but to see it we'll need to spend an extra night. That's because we already have tickets for Something Rotten! for tonight.

I was still a little concerned about the weather and the predicted rain this afternoon. Marsha and I both ended up taking our jackets (neither of which are actually rain coats), which seemed like a dumb idea for most of the day. It was already pretty warm out and only managed to get hotter. Umbrellas might have been a better plan.

We took the subway down to the West Village to another of our favorite places, Ditch Plains (which I've also covered before). Of course, just getting there was a challenge in itself. For some reason, our Metro cards stopped working last night right after we added money to them. The guy in the booth said to try them over and over and finally just let us go through the door.

Ditch Plains is owned by chef and frequent Chopped judge Marc Murphy. We had planned to eat brunch, but they only serve it on the weekends, which is when we usually go. Lunch was still great, though. Which is why Ditch Plains is one of our favorite places.

We'd decided to mark another major item off our list by walking across the Brooklyn Bridge. On the way there, we walked through Little Italy and Chinatown. We just love strolling through both of these areas, which are right next to each other. In fact, parts of Chinatown, such as Mott Street, used to be Little Italy. We especially like all of the little shops that display their goods right on the street. Though the smell of fish is a bit strong.

We also did a little movie location scouting. Mott Street was also used for a pivotal scene in The Godfather. Obviously, it looked a lot different back then. Unfortunately, there was a big truck making a delivery, so it was hard to get a good picture.

This building was the location of Genco Olive Oil, Don Corleone's company.

Directly, across the street is the spot where Don Corleone was gunned down (spoiler alert).

We walked down the street a bit and found a spot with some overhead lanterns and other decorations. And there were more delivery trucks blocking the whole street.

But when we walked around them, we realized that they were actually setting up for a film or TV shoot. I asked one of the crew people what it was and he said it was a Marvel show called Kick. I looked it up and found out that Kick is actually the code name for the the upcoming Marvel series, Iron Fist. It fits in with Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and Luke Cage.

We walked just a couple of blocks more down to Doyers Street, which is also in Chinatown. It's a small, curved street that looks like something on a Hollywood backlot. It was nicknamed "the Bloody Angle" because of all the Tong battles that took place from 1900 through the 1930s.

From there we hiked just a few more blocks to the Brooklyn Bridge. Marsha thought there wouldn't be very many people there, but it was pretty full. We were also surprised to see sidewalk vendors on the bridge selling water and souvenirs. It had gotten pretty dang hot by this point, so we'd already gotten a big bottle of water to share.

The pedestrian path runs down the center of the bridge and is higher than the traffic lanes on either side. At any point, you can look down and see the cars below. The path is split in two: one side for bicycles and the other for pedestrians. The path up on each side is concrete and is, therefore, the hottest sections.

Once you get up to the highest point, the path turns into wooden slats, like a boardwalk. This was the best part because you get the breeze coming from every direction, including below. That was awesome and a welcome relief from the heat, which was close to 90.

After we reached the other side, we had some debate over just how far we needed to go to say we'd crossed the whole thing before turning back (we're both completionists). We were both cooking from the heat and running out of water. We walked further just to make sure. Once I saw the words "Welcome to Brooklyn" mounted in the concrete, I deemed that far enough.

By the time we made it back up to the top, we were both getting overheated and had to stop for a break. We sat down in the shade at the Brooklyn-side tower. After a short while, we looked at the time and realized that we needed to get going. We had early dinner reservations due to a 7:00pm curtain time.

We hoofed it back across the bridge and down into the subway station at City Hall. 

We were both drenched in sweat. And, of course, wehad trouble with our Metro cards again. The guy in the booth told us to just keep trying them over and over. We eventually got through and onto the air-conditioned train. Such a relief!

Now, it was all blue skies and hot as blazes when we got on the subway. But when we came out roughly twenty minutes later, the sky had turned dark and the wind was blowing like crazy. We were only a couple of blocks from the hotel, so we were sure we could get back before it started raining. No such luck. The bottom dropped out and we got drenched. At least our jackets finally came in handy. Madison got caught in the rain, too, and got even more soaked than we did.

The rain didn't last long, though and ended while we were getting ready for dinner. By the time we walked up to Bar Americain (Bobby Flay's restaurant, yet another favorite I've covered previously), you couldn't tell it had ever rained except for a few puddles.

Dinner was awesome, as usual, and yet another reminder of why we love eating there so much. No trip to NYC would be complete without eating there, especially before a show.

We had balcony seats for Something Rotten!, which is playing at the St. James. Built in 1927, it's another of those theaters with really tight rows. We didn't really know what the show was about other than it was a musical comedy about Shakespeare. And that it starred Christian Borle. In one of his final performances before leaving.

Now the funny thing is that on our last trip to NYC back in December, Madison actually got his autograph and a picture without actually having seen the show. We'd gone to see Misery, which was short and let out earlier than everything else. So she got in line at the stage door and even managed to grab a Playbill from someone who'd just come out.

The show was hilarious and we loved every minute of it. The humor was really over the top and it both paid tribute to the theater while poking fun at Broadway itself. I'll never think of Hamlet the same way again. And was so relieved that Borle performed tonight, which is always a risk (like the time I tried to see his ex-wife, Sutton Foster).

Afterwards we went back to the hotel, checked on our wet clothes (still wet), packed up a bit, and settled in watching Ghostbusters (the original, of course). Tomorrow we get up early to meet a friend for breakfast before we hit the road and say goodbye again to NYC.

Day 12: Who Could Ask for Anything More?

When we got up this morning, we faced the eternal question: what are we going to do today? It's a question with which we'd begun grappling last night. Normally, we have our NYC trips planned out pretty well. But this time, we've been playing it by ear. 

One idea had been to go see another Broadway show, particularly a matinee. I'd been wanting to see An American in Paris (even more so since we were Americans in Paris last summer), which is a new musical based on the Gene Kelly movie. And since we could get last minute tickets for a pretty good price, we decided to do it. Thank heavens for technology.

By the time we were ready to head out, we only had two hours before the show. Marsha had the excellent idea of going to the Cosmic Diner (one of our long-time favorites, which I've covered before) for breakfast. We had a table and food inside of ten minutes. Can't beat that.

Afterwards, we walked down to the theater and picked up our tickets at Will Call. Since we still had some time before the show started, we walked back to Times Square. Popped into the Disney Store for a minute and then went to pay our respects to the sadly departed Toys R Us.

Show time! Our seats were in the middle of the mezzanine and they were great. We had a fantastic view of the stage. What's more, the three rows in front of us went unsold, we we got to move down a few rows after intermission. The theater was great, too. It's playing at the Palace, which was built in 1913 as a Vaudeville venue, so the seating was a little tight.

The show was fantastic (it won the Tony in 2015 for Best Musical). The music is by the Gershwins and, since it's based on the movie, has Gene Kelly's fingerprints all over it. I bought the soundtrack at dinner when I could connect to wifi.

After the show, we walked down to Bryant Park (another favorite spot) and relaxed for a bit. About that time we noticed a slight change in the weather. It's supposed to rain tomorrow, but the coming drizzle had clearly shifted a bit.

I also had my second celebrity sighting. While I was walking around in the park, I passed by Candice Cuoco (the goth designer) from the latest season of Project Runway. Sadly, Madison and Marsha missed her. I would never have recognized her myself (situationally famous), but Marsha and Madison are both hooked on the show. 

We felt a few drops, but they didn't last long. Dinner reservations tonight were at Amada, our first time at the NYC location (you should know that Amada in Philly is Madison's favorite restaurant), which is all the way down at the World Trade Center. We decided to walk most of the way and then take the subway.

We hiked as far as 7th and Christopher, then made one quick little sightseeing stop in front of Village Cigars. It's a small mosaic on the sidewalk called Hess' Triangle. Back in 1910, the city claimed a number of buildings by eminent domain to widen 7th Avenue. A landlord named David Hess fought the city to keep from losing his apartment building, the Voorhis. Hess lost, but in 1922, his family discovered that the city had goofed on their survey and they still owned this tiny 26-inch triangle. The city asked them to gift it, but the Hess family refused and put in the plaque instead. In 1938, Village Cigars purchased it for $1000 dollars.

From there we got on the subway, which unfortunately stopped a few times thanks to issues on the line. We'd been ahead of schedule, but now time was getting tight. As soon as we got back up to the street, it started sprinkling again. Thanks to our lunch yesterday, we knew that we could get there via the basement level of the World Trade Center all the way to Brookfield Place.

The NYC Amada is just as great as the Philly location, but slightly different. It's much larger and the tables are closer together. It's also a bit noisier. There are fewer tapas selections (a couple of our favorites were missing) and more large plate items. It was still a fantastic meal and the service was excellent.

Afterwards, we walked out to the water again, where an outdoor concert was getting started. The esplanade along the Hudson is really one of the most beautiful areas in the city. You could easily forget that you're even in Manhattan, except that both the Freedom Tower and the Statue of Liberty are both in view.

We decided to walk the esplanade all the way up to the High Line. It was a bit of a walk, but we'd never done the High Line (which I've also covered previously) at night before. Plus, I don't remember the esplanade going anywhere near that far before, so that was a new experience, too.

Walking the High Line at night was just great, except for when we reached the end at 10th Avenue. The closest subway station that would get us back to Midtown is at Penn Station, so we had to walk several more blocks in an area that we weren't exactly sure about. Naturally, we all felt a lot better after we reached Penn Station. Not just for personal safety, but to finally get a break from walking so far.

We were all pretty glad to get back to the room and relax with a little TV. Tomorrow is our last full day in NYC, and this time we have a little more of a schedule.

Day 11: New York, Old and New

Got off to an amazing start today and then just went where the wind took us. I think I've mentioned in previous posts that our current aim when visiting NYC is to get out of Midtown. We've been really focused on exploring Lower Manhattan, which is just what we did today.

Our day started at One World Trade Center, also known as the Freedom Tower. We've been to the Memorial and the Museum on previous trips, but never inside the actual building. Fortunately, we have a friend who works for Conde Nast, the building's largest tenant.

As you can imagine, security is pretty tight. We checked in at the security desk and had to provide IDs. They even took our pictures for our temporary passes. Madison forgot she had her X-Acto knife (from art school) and pepper spray in her purse, so it took a few extra minutes for them to hold them for her.

The building is completely state-of-the-art, too. When you press the digital screen at the elevator, you not only get to select your floor, but it also tells you which elevator is coming for you. That was pretty cool.

She took us up to the 34th floor so that we could look out the giant windows at the city below. There were great views of the 9/11 Memorial and the Statue of Liberty off in the distance. Even the office itself was pretty darn amazing.

Then she led us down to the basement level and through an underground tunnel to Brookfield Place, the shopping center next door. They have an excellent food court upstairs (satellites of actual local restaurants and high-end chains) where we grabbed lunch and caught up.

After we walked in, we realized that we'd wandered in there before a few years ago. It may have been before One World Trade Center opened. Back then there was hardly anyone there, but today it was chock full of people. We also realized that the NYC location of Amada is there, which is where we'll be eating dinner tomorrow night.

While we were waiting to get Madison's things back, we spotted a familiar face going through security. It was Jenna Coleman from Dr. Who. Our celebrity sighting for this trip.

Afterwards, we walked up to the Federal Building at Federal Plaza, which is where the FBI has their New York field office (the IRS is there, too). Wish I could have gone up there, but they don't seem to offer tours.

From there, we walked down to the Hudson and walked down the pathway alongside the river, which is one of Marsha's favorite things to do. It has great views of New Jersey and the Statue of Liberty. We followed the path all the way down to Battery Park.

That's where we stumbled upon the Seaglass Carousel, which for some reason, we'd never seen before. The outside looks like a big fishbowl and you ride in these giant translucent fish. Well you know, we just had to ride it. How could we not?

We had wanted to go to Governor's Island, which is a small island on the East River between Manhattan and Brooklyn. A friend from home had recommended it, so we thought we'd check it out. But the ferry building was already closed, even though the times on the door said it would be open for until 6:00pm.

We decided to take the Staten Island Ferry instead, which we've never done before, despite it being New York's best free attraction. Mark another one off the list!

Once we got to the other side, they made everyone leave the ferry, even if you just want to go right back. We didn't really have any idea what to do there, so we walked around through the terminal (which has several places to eat, just like an airport). Then we went outside and sat on a bench for a few minutes to enjoyed the view across the harbor.

As soon as we saw another ferry pull in, we went ahead and hopped on for the return trip. On the way back, we got a good view of Governor's Island. So, mission semi-accomplished there.

After we got off the ferry, we walked over and checked out The Dead Rabbit Grocery and Grog (named for one of the infamous Gangs of New York), a bar that serves small plates as well as drinks. I'd discovered them recently and love their website and menu. I wanted to go in and check it out, but the guy working the door made me rethink that idea.

Instead, we walked around the corner to Fraunces Tavern, which is the oldest building in New York, and where we had our dinner reservations. The building has been painstakingly restored to its Colonial-era days, and they even have a small museum inside about the building's history.

We were a little early, so we planned to see the museum first. Sadly, it was already closed, but they weren't packed, so we went ahead and ate. George Washington delivered his farewell address to the Continental Army in the very room where we were seated, which was really cool. The food and the service were both excellent.

It was too late to catch a show or anything (and we were nowhere the Theatre District), so we just decided to walk part of the way back and take the subway the rest of the trip. We walked up several blocks through the financial district and passed Federal Hall, which is where Washington took his oath of office as first President. Basically the sequel to his speech at Fraunces Tavern, which was pretty cool. All pretty apropos for our Fourth of July vacation. 

We made it all the way to Union Square, which was perfect, because that's about where we started walking last night. After we got settled back in the room, we watched a few episodes of Chopped and part of The Proposal. Good way to call it a night.