Merry Christmas. Santa probably won’t find us here but that’s ok; I don’t deserve anything anyway!
We have a more or less unusual Christmas planned: a Singing Gospel Brunch in Harlem. You can go to one of these any Sunday at Hondo’s on Main in Fredericksburg, Texas but we’ve never been.
The gospel brunch was more than we’d have imagined. This was a sub-group of a group of at-risk teens under the sponsorship of “The Mama Foundation for the Arts”. Sixty Minutes followed this group for a year. Their two reports both won Emmy’s.
Next stop, at the other end of the island, was the Staten Island ferry. This free ferry carries 70,000 passengers a day. Our only objective was great views and photographs. Above see the skyline and the Brooklyn Bridge. Also above is one of the Macy windows which we saw after the Empire State Building. Below see the Statue of Liberty.
Next stop was the Empire State Building. Although we had pre-purchased tickets these had no advantage. We were told we still had to stand in the security line, two blocks long and a wait-time of 2+ hours. At 4:00 pm on Christmas day? We found that we could upgrade to VIP tickets for a price; we were willing to pay. Still, this is a crowded and confusing venue. One factoid I discovered is that 10,000,000 bricks were used in the construction. See photo above and three below taken from the 80th, 86th and 102nd floors.
We had pre-arranged dinner at Nice Matin, our standard breakfast place. At night, this was totally transformed from a casual, laid-back breakfast café to a crowded, hopping dinner place. The food was quite good. So was the wine. We couldn’t believe that this relatively small place would have a 50-page wine list.
Tomorrow Brenda and I return to Dallas and then on to Fredericksburg. On the trip here (DFW to CLT and CLT to EWR) we were upgraded to first-class on both flights. We hope this repeats tomorrow, but seriously doubt if it will.
We’ve had four full days: 9/11 Museum and Memorial, lunch at Eataly, MOMA Museum, the play Spamilton, dinner at Lincoln Ristorante, the MET Museum, NEUE Galerie (not me), dinner at Bouchon Bakery and Café, the Christmas Market at Columbus Circle, the play The Humans, Whitney Museum, walk High Line Drive (not me), New York String Orchestra, dinner at etcetera etcetera, Gospel Brunch at Ginny’s Supper Club in Harlem, Ferry to/from Staten Island, Empire State Building (80th, 86th and 102nd floors), perused Three Lives Booksellers, viewed Macy’s windows and dinner at Nice Matin. The list of things we did not do is even longer. But I’m tired. Following Glenn, Patrice and Brenda on foot in New York is harder than most bike rides I’ve done. Time for a rest.
This will likely be the last blog until May 2017, when we head to Japan.
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