Chieko and I used the coupon to book a flight to JFK Airport in New York on Wednesday, November 11. We found a hotel at a new Holiday Inn near Times Square on sale through Travelzoo and then reserved tickets to see the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular on Friday. Our plan was to drive to John's house Wednesday, take the train back into New York Thursday morning, see the show Friday and take the train back to John's Friday night.
We arrived in New York about 3 p.m. on Wednesday and decided to take the subway into Manhattan for a couple hours, because John's family wasn't going to be home until late. We parked in the long-term parking lot B and hopped on the blue line subway. After a couple stops, we got off and called the hotel to see if a room was available that night. It was and for about $30 less than the sale price on the same room Thursday night. So we went back to long-term parking, moved a few things from our big suitcase to the small one, left the car in the parking lot, and took the subway into the city.
At the Salt Lake Airport: We took one checked bag and one carry-on. We didn't plan it this way, but our checked bag was exactly on the weight limit.
The New York Times building on 8th Avenue close to our hotel.
Everyone in the coffee shop is on a cell phone.
Times Square.
Chieko at Times Square.
New York has built a lot of bike lanes. Murray City says it can't build more bike lanes because the city is old and the infrastructure is already in place. New York did it.
We ate dinner on Wednesday at Nippori, a Japanese restaurant at 245 W 51st Street. Chieko had black cod. I had tonkotsu ramen.
Our hotel offered free breakfast, but with the hotel being open only three weeks, the eating area hadn't been finished, so they sent us here. This bar actually has a restaurant upstairs, and a decent breakfast.
This is the bus depot near our hotel.
A large winglike building is going up near the 9/11 Memorial site.
Inside the 9-11 museum, these are original anchors that were around the perimeter of the tower.
A steel support pillar.
The Twin Towers had a steel facade. The bent portion at the top of this piece is where the plane hit the facade as it flew into the building.
These box pillars supported the perimeter of the buildings.
Two pools of water sit where the North and South Towers used to be.
This is the winglike structure that's still under construction. I think it's a transportation building.
A crab cake sandwich and lobster bisque from Cull and Pistol at Chelsea Market.
The fish store at Chelsea Market.
A spice shop at Chelsea Market.
On Thursday night I stood in line at the half-price ticket office at Time Square and got great seats for Matilda. We loved the show and were amazed by the nine-year-old girl, Mattea Conforti, who played the main part.
Broadway show street. One of them.
Back to Nippori for dinner. Tonight I had grilled eel on rice, unadonburi.
On Friday morning we headed on the subway to the Brooklyn side of the Brooklyn Bridge.
The Brooklyn Bridge looking toward Brooklyn.
The Brooklyn Bridge looking toward Manhattan.
A lot of people have attached padlocks ("love locks") to the light posts and elsewhere on the bridge.
Chieko on Brooklyn Bridge.
Michael on Brooklyn Bridge.
The Manhattan side of the bridge is just a few blocks from Chinatown, so we walked there, past all the government buildings, and Chieko asked some random Asian girl on the street where there was a good dim sum restaurant. She sent us here, on Elisabeth Street. Just inside the door is a long escalator that goes up two or three floors.
This is the restaurant. The hostess sits people wherever there are open chairs, so we shared a table with some random couple. The dim sum was very good.
After lunch we headed back to Midtown to Radio City Music Hall, after a stop at the Uniqlo department store on 5th Avenue.
This is the orchestra for the Rockettes' Radio City Christmas Spectacular.
Santa and his reindeer.
Ornaments.
Signature leg kick.
A girl's dream comes true.
Toy soldiers are shot by a canon.
The Rockettes dance at Time Square.
And they drive about New York in a tour bus.
Again at Times Square.
The show ends with three kings seeing a star and traveling to Bethlehem to the manger. The three camels, several sheep and donkey are live.
The finale.
Then we walked to the Holiday Inn, picked up our small suitcase, rode the subway to the Howard Beach Station/JFK long-term parking, got in our rental Civic and drove to Branford, picking up dinner (Subway and Cheese Boy) at a rest stop on I-95.
Saturday we went to Grozzi's Turkey Farm to see the colorful Thanksgiving dinners.
Wells was most interested in the grass.
The pinkest turkey stole a green wool mitten from some child and took off on a power-walk getaway, with all the other turkeys in pursuit. After about three laps, the pinkest turkey decided the mitten didn't taste all that great and dropped it. The others stood around pecking at it for several minutes until they too lost interest.
John's kids feeding the turkeys grass from the greener side of the fence.
Later we planned to see the new Peanuts movie, but it was sold out, so we went for a walk on one of the many trails around John's house. I am jealous. This is a great place for biking.
Elliot and Mei race up the hill.
Hiding behind a tree.
Power Rangers on the rock.
Racing up another hill. Elliot qualified for and ran in the state cross country championships this year.
Church on Sunday was the annual Primary Program. The music leader is a professional actor, professor and theater company owner, who had the children singing like professionals. They also had all their parts very well memorized. After church we ate brunch at the Griswold Inn in Essex.
Then we took a drive to the very new Hartford Temple.
Nox.
Nox and John.
Off to school on Monday morning
Except this one.
We headed to Hyde Park, the home of Frederick Vanderbilt, grandson of Cornelius, the railroad magnate. This is Frederick and Louise Vanderbilt's 54-room mansion that overlooks the Hudson River and has a nice view of the Catskill Mountains.
This is the dining room. Unlike the other Vanderbilts' Breakers mansion in Rhode Island, this one never had more than 18 guests at one time and usually no more than 12. It has only four guest rooms.
The living room.
Frederick's bedroom.
Louise's bedroom takes its design from Marie Antoinette's chamber.
One of the bathrooms.
Children's bedroom, although these Vanderbilts had no children, so a guest bedroom, I guess.
The servants' spiral stairs go down. The up stairs are rectangular. This was done so the servants wouldn't be confused by the many stairs.
The kitchen in the basement.
Then we moved on to Franklin Delano Roosevelt's home, also in Hyde Park. FDR was born and raised in this house, and he lived here as an adult and president. He died of a brain aneurysm at a hot springs that he had bought in Georgia to treat his polio. He contracted this childhood disease when he was 39 years old. Polio initially paralyzed him from the neck down, but he was able to regain strength in his upper body through physical therapy.
FDR's favorite room.
The dining room.
FDR's wheel chair in his elevator, which is a manually run dumbwaiter-type device that uses a system of ropes and pulleys.
The bedroom and bed that FDR was born in.
Franklin Delano and Anna Eleanor Roosevelt's tombstone. Also buried here are their two dogs, a German shepherd and a Scottie. Franklin and Eleanor were fifth cousin's once removed. She was a niece to Teddy Roosevelt, and her maiden name was also Roosevelt.
The kids are on the school bus on Tuesday morning, and we're heading back to JFK. We stopped in New Haven to eat lunch at the Hogwarts-like Commons and shop around the Yale stores. Then we took Highway 15 south toward New York City and stopped at a large mall, where Chieko shopped at Uniqlo and we got a small Cinnabon. Then we made great time getting into New York, that is until there was an accident that brought to us to a stop-and-creep. Police cars, an ambulance, a wrecker, and two fire engines squeezed through the traffic on our right. Cars were also passing in the emergency lane on the right, until a car that tried to sneak back into the lane in front of us ran into the back of a car that was merging from an on-ramp. We got around them and the accident and still arrived at the airport with time to grab dinner, but not a lot of time.
The Hertz rental car return guy was a jerk. When we drove into the parking lot no one was there to direct incoming cars. I followed the car in front of me, and we stopped in the next available returning-car lane. We unloaded our suitcases and waited for the attendant to check us in. But he wasn't around. He finally arrived and told me that I was supposed to be in the next lane. He refused to walk back three car lengths to check us in. I had to move our luggage to the side, get back into the car, and drive it to the front of the next lane. I have to say the attendant got pretty nervous when I gunned the engine and flew into the lane (or so Chieko told me the guy was waving his arms frantically). I had tried to screech the tires, but the Civic didn't have the umph.
Also, on Friday the 13th, as we were leaving New York City to head to John's we heard about the terrorist attack on Paris, where a soccer stadium, a club, a concert hall and other venues were bombed and gunned, killing 132 people. Apparently security at Times Square got pretty tight after that. Then, as we landed in Salt Lake City, I saw on the news that an Air France plane was diverted to Salt Lake due to a bomb threat. That happened about 7 p.m. We saw the plane still sitting on a remote part of the south end of the tarmac when we were headed to the parking lot about 11 p.m.
