Saturday, September 26, 2015
Well! It truly will be difficult to beat seeing the Pope,
but we really had a lovely evening!
After
our sipping/munching and Pope-watching on the second floor, we headed out about
7:15 pm for our 8 pm show –
The Book of
Mormon at the
Eugene O’Neill Theatre.
We took the subway right next door to the
hotel to
Herald Square, and found the
theatre with no problem.
There was a
REALLY long line, but it moved quickly
and soon we were in our seats.
We were
in the first row of the balcony, on the right-hand side of the stage.
And truly, we have never, ever been in seats
that narrow!
Talk about being close to
your neighbor!
There was a low padded
ledge in front of us (which we were told
NOT
to be anything on…) and absolutely zero legroom either!
 |
| Theatre ceiling |
 |
| Stage |
However, that being said, the performance
started about 8:05 pm and in a word, it was absolutely
hilarious!
I had seen the
play before in London, but there, it seemed like truly every other word was
profanity; at least that’s what I remember most about it.
And while I can deal with it, it just seemed
so totally unnecessary to do that to get your point across!
 |
In our very tight-fitting seats!
|
This production was much different – cleaner
language-wise, but so endearingly funny and genuinely warm-hearted.
Brenda and Chris are both former
Mormons.
They met at
BYU, and Chris did his mission in Korea
for two years.
Robert and I both thought
that it was definitely possible that Chris might fall out of the balcony from
laughing so hard!
Apparently, in their
view (especially Chris’), the play was so well done that there definitely had
to be insider information in putting it together originally.
Brenda knew just how much Chris has been
wanting to see
The Book of Mormon, so
she set it up as a surprise by telling him that we were going to see
Jersey Boys and – oh, my – did the
surprise work!
Very enjoyable
performance!
Chris had been researching pizza places for afterwards, and
just a block and a half away we found a family-owned and run Italian restaurant
– Patzeria Family Restaurant on West
48th! They weren’t too
crowded and we were able to get a nice table.
(Sorry about lack of photos; R didn’t lug the camera to the theatre, as
no photography was permitted – although I did get a few “before” shots on my
iPhone which hopefully I can figure out how to add…) Excellent pepperoni pizza for all, with some
good Italian wines. We got back to the
hotel about midnight – whew, and were so tired that we didn’t even turn on the
computer; just brushed teeth and went to bed!
Tomorrow, as we learned from The
Book of Mormon is a “Latter” day!
 |
Front entry of Natural History Museum
|
 |
Liked the totem pole!
|
We did manage to sleep until 7 a.m. before dragging
ourselves into the shower. About 8,
Chris and I walked over to Morton Williams.
I got a cupcake for me (awful breakfast, I know…although it was very
good!) and an onion bagel for R. Picked
up Brenda and Chris around 9:30 am for our walk to Columbus Circle and the
subway ride to the Natural History Museum. As it turns out, there is an entrance directly
into the lower level of the museum from the subway station, so we didn’t even
have to re-surface above ground!
 |
Black star sapphire from the gem collection
|
 |
Me and Teddy!
|
We spent the next several hours wandering through many of
the museum’s halls – evolutionary biology, meteorites, as well as minerals and
gems – all sorts of sparkly things!
 |
HUGE canoe from one huge tree log!
|
 |
| Fossilized shell |
As
fans of
Nights 1, 2 and 3 at the Museum,
it was fun to see some of the “stars” that come to life at night!
The museum is becoming so wonderfully
interactive – there were lots of computer exhibits and things to touch and do;
very fun!
Finally about 12:30 pm we decided that we had seen all we
wanted to see and headed out for lunch – at Alice’s Tea Cup (the original)
which isn’t far from the museum. We
didn’t have a reservation, but fortunately they were able to seat us within a
few minutes.
 |
| Seriously stunning cake... |
 |
Chris & Brenda at Alice's Tea Cup the Original!
|
This Alice’s Tea Cup unfortunately doesn’t have a liquor
license (boo hoo!) but it is larger than Tea Cup II, and decorated in the same
fun Alice-y vein.
For lunch, R ordered a
veggie grilled sandwich to which he added bacon…hmmm…I had their Lapsong tea
chicken but in salad form this time, with granny smith apples and goat cheese;
both came with small salads.
(Note:
the chicken salad is better than the
sandwich, even if they did cut off all the crusts!)
Brenda ordered a croque Monsieur, which also
came with a small salad.
Chris, the
experimentalist, ordered three different scones with a pot of strawberry (I
think!) clotted cream.
Everything was
good, and I think everyone was happy with their choices.
 |
View from the street!
|
 |
My chicken sandwich
|
 |
R's grilled veggie (with bacon) sandwich
|
Dessert – whew – yet another piece of their
wonderful chocolate cake with pink and white buttercream frosting this
time.
Brenda, Chris and I all had that,
and R had yet another piece of carrot cake.
All in all, it was a lovely lunch and a great tea-party experience!
From the restaurant, we walked down to Broadway, where we
finally were able to catch a 104 bus to take us back to the general vicinity of
the hotel, where we then collapsed.
There had been some suggestions for Saturday afternoon activities, but
everyone agreed that naps sounded better.
R still asleep now!
We are going to Volare tonight, which is an Italian
restaurant in Greenwich Village. It’s
one of those places out of which men’s room one expects to see Michael Corleone
– and I have already told R that if that happens, I am definitely heading under
the table! We have been going there for
years, and are very much looking forward to it again!
Tomorrow, all we have on the docket for the morning is
Serendipity3 for lunch. Apparently there
was a movie called “Serendipity” that Brenda has always loved, and she really wants
to get their specialty – frozen hot chocolate!
We have reservations for 11:30 am when they open, after which Brenda and
Chris will head to Newark to catch their 3:30 pm plane back to Atlanta. We plan on going to the J.P. Morgan Library
tomorrow afternoon.
So—more later!
m
xxx
Back again, this time from dinner, and we’re in for the
night!
We gathered again at 6:15 pm to
head to
Volare for our 7pm
reservation.
As it turned out, the first
bus we got on at the Plaza Hotel and 5
th Avenue, didn’t go its
regular route, but rather turned off at 26
th street…which would have
been fine except that we needed to go to 8
th Avenue and Washington
Square!
 |
Washington Square Arch
|
 |
George Washington!
|
 |
Grand piano under the arch! How did it get there??
|
(This was the point at which
Robert called the restaurant to tell them that we were running late…thank
goodness for iPhones!)
So, we walked
down 5
th Avenue to the next bus stop and caught yet another bus that
was actually on the route that was posted!
What an idea!
(Although the gal
who got on the bus in front of me complained to the driver that she had had to
wait 40 minutes, which really is a long time in Manhattan!)
Finally, we got to Washington Square and got
off the bus.
The Washington Square arch
was beautifully illuminated at night (it was dark by now) and there was
actually a grand piano sitting right under it, with a man playing for the
passers by – cannot even imagine the logistics of getting that piano both in
and out of there!
 |
Me, Brenda and Chris at Volare
|
 |
Robert and Chris' chicken in garlic with sausage
|
Finally we reached
Volare
– and oh my goodness, it was packed to the gunnels, with only our nice front table
untenanted.
There were several parties
of 8 to 12 or 14 people, and in a small space with nothing to baffle the sound,
the noise level was astronomical.
Truly
amazing.
While we had the quietest table
in the entire restaurant – it was up against the front window – sitting around
the banquette Chris, Brenda, me and Robert, Chris couldn’t hear a thing unless it
was actually
SHOUTED directly at him!
Wow!
Unreal!
So between the talking
and laughing and singing (Happy Birthday twice – at the same table, and about
an hour apart …I think they forgot they had already sung it once…) it was total
sensory overload.
The food was
wonderful!
Chris and Robert had chicken sautéed
in garlic and butter, with slices of Italian sausage, mashed potatoes and
veggies.
 |
Brenda and Chris
|
 |
| My eggplant and pasta! |
 |
| What a group! |
Brenda had veal in a wonderful Marsala
sauce, and I had their eggplant parmigiano with spaghetti and a tomato
sauce.
For dessert, Brenda had a
chocolate éclair which she said was delicious, and Chris cleaned up a nice
looking tiramisu.
So…finally finished
and back outside – where my ears literally hurt from all the silence! Wow!
Reminder to the planner:
Next time in NYC, do
NOT go to Volare on Saturday night!!
WAY too crowded.
We walked to the nearest F
train to take it back to the hotel – but consistent with the rest of the
diverted public transportation this weekend, it turned out to be an M train masquerading as an F train, and it left us off at 53rd
street and 5th, rather than the 59th street that is on
the normal schedule. Really don’t know
what’s going on, but hoping that all will be back to normal by tomorrow! After all, the Pope left this morning!
So, that’s about it for blogging for the night; nice to feel
I have finally caught up! More tomorrow!
Much love,
m
xxx
