The warmest welcome

It’s a little chilly here- I mean, it’s 52 degrees, but humidity has a lot to do with how chilly those 52 degrees feel.  Nevertheless, we got the warmest welcome.  We landed, and a very nice lady at the airport asked us what we were trying to find, then directed us to the correct intra-terminal train.  From there, a man at the Bay Area Rapid Transit station told us which train would do the trick to get us where we were headed, and finally, we hopped right on a proper San Francisco cable car.  I felt like a jerk with luggage on a cable car, but everyone was super-nice.  The conductor even offered to take a very fabulous tourist photo when we reached the end of the line.  

I mean, look- 

It was a great way to roll into town.  Our hotel is around the corner from the end of the cable car line, and in addition to the luggage, we were a proper tourists all the way here, marveling at the buildings, the sights and the absolutely steep streets.  Man, Dallas is flat…. 

The unexpected cool thing we saw on the way here was how they move a cable car at the end of the line into position so it can begin again.  There is a section of track on a rotating platform.  The cable car rolls onto the platform, then the crew manually spins the whole car around to flip it to the right direction for its next journey.  So cool.  So, that’s the unexpected awesome thing we got on the way to the hotel.  We’re here, now and about to figure out where we want to eat dinner.  I suspect there may be a little seafood or maybe some Chinese in our future.  

Cas has officially kicked off our photo album, too, so hop in there and check out what we have seen so far:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/pvpQGq1HUr8hBmKa7

Searching for Tony Bennett's heart

If you're going to San Francisco, be sure to wear flowers in your hair- and be on the lookout for Tony Bennett's heart.  I hear he left it there.   Had to get the song lyrics out of the way.  And while we're at it... let's talk side dishes, because it's time to cook up a big bowl of Rice-A-Roni (the San Francisco treat!) and start packing our bags.  Spring break is a few days away, and we have two tickets to San Francisco, along with a self-made itinerary of things we booked, complete with some wiggle room for things we find along the way. We'll head to wine country, check out some redwoods, cross a pretty famous bridge, hit up Chinatown for a little lunch and dive face-first into some great (and fresh) seafood. Then, there's Alcatraz, a sunset cruise and a trip to a place called the Exploratorium- we've got plans. It's Wednesday today. We have to get up and go to work two more times, then away we go! 

For today, I think it's time to listen to some classic crooner music.  Tony Bennett, anyone?  

Here's a video, in case you need to listen to him, too:

Home again, home again

Home again, home again, jiggity-jig.  

Last night, we slept in our own bed at our own house.  When my eyes first started to creep open this morning, I actually caught myself thinking: Hey, this hotel has a ceiling fan!  Wait- this is no hotel...

So regular life resumes.  We saw Cas' mom when she came to pick us up at the airport.  We saw my dad when we grabbed two and a half weeks of mail from him.  We went into our local grocery store to pick up food, and this morning, for the first time in ages, I am headed to my own kitchen to make breakfast.  I absolutely love travel- seeing new places and learning new things- but coming home is pretty great, and making your own coffee is a real money saver.  

What was the best part?  Impossible to say.  Best food?  Can’t decide.  If I could return to just one of the places, which would I choose?  Not entirely sure.  They were all perfect in their own way.  Red Wing was the polar opposite of New York, and we loved them both.  Chicago was great.  Boston was great.  Cas showed me Hanover, which was beautiful.  Every part of this trip was correct, even when it dumped down rain on us.  There was no particular best food, best attraction or best experience.  It was just a really superior vacation.  What would we do again?  All of it.  Of course.  

A few thoughts at the end of this adventure- 

• If you are in a place where there is good public transportation, either figure it out or travel with someone (like Cas) who is very clever about how these things work.  We used the L in Chicago, got a multi-day pass for the subways in Boston and used the heck out of a seven day pass for the New York City subway and bus network.  I mean we used the heck out of it.  For $33 each, we had unlimited transportation for a week.  The only time we paid extra to go someplace was when we did a special thing, like boat rides or guided tours.  Good public transportation is a gift.  Dallas tries, but it’s too sprawling.  Appreciate that gift whenever you can.  
• Wherever you go in the world, buy a few breakfast foods and take them to your hotel room.  Seriously.   A couple of bananas or cereal bars can take you past the point in the morning when you feel you must find breakfast immediately.  You can actually get going and do a few things before it gets too late in the morning.  Also, if your room has a refrigerator, go to the closest store and buy a 12 pack of bottled water- or bring along a filter bottle.  Just don't spend your trip paying four bucks for a plastic bottle of Dasani every time you step out of your hotel.   
• If you go on a long trip, look for a good laundromat or two in the middle of the time you’re gone.  If you're unsure, look at a map of the place you'll be at the midpoint and search for one.  You can wash your clothes and carry fewer things.  It’s the perfect solution when traveling. 
• Lastly, travel with someone whose wishes are like yours, whose must-sees are similar and who is fun to go places with.  I have traveled with each of my parents and siblings, as a big group and individually, and of course, I have spent the past several years traveling with Cas, and I can say unequivocally, that it is awesome to go places with somebody who likes the same things as you do.  I couldn’t really travel the same way with a big time shopper or someone who likes to lounge on a beach and read a trashy novel.  If that's you, great.  Enjoy moving about the world in the way that makes you happy!  It’s just not who I am.  Find a proper person to go on your style of trip.  It’s pretty critical.  

Anyhow, we're at the end of this and rapidly approaching the start of back-to-school time.  We'll still have adventures and go do very cool stuff, but nothing on the scale of this trip until we get another block of time to go out and explore.  Next spring may be somewhere west of here.  Next summer may mark a return to Europe.  We have much to discuss and plan, but first, laundry.  Here is how we waited to move the first round of clothes from the washer to the dryer last night: 

Thanks for following along.  I certainly love sharing this stuff! 

One last photo album link for you: https://photos.app.goo.gl/2sYnZaQSheDb6sfJ6

We’ll take the Gandolfini table in the back

So, the last night of our trip earned a pretty prominent exclamation point.  Cas and I have been deliberately avoiding Little Italy until it was time to have dinner with Scotty and Lisa, his old pals.  This completed the circuit of visiting college buddies, as well as the last big dinner of the trip.  Behold, the two college kids together, then, of course, the whole lot of us.

We went to a place called Il Cortile, and everything was fabulous.  We decided on this trip that it would be hard to get a bad meal in New York City.  Every ethnic restaurant is probably reasonably authentic, as plenty of folks here are from somewhere else, and lots of them brought recipes, foods and traditions with them.  We had great Chinese, amazing Spanish tapas, spectacular deli food, fantastic bagels and a slice of pizza big enough to hide behind.  Il Cortile was the icing on the cake.  Cas had the Pepite di Gnocci, which was he describes as a cross between a pasta shell and a dumpling, and I had the lobster ravioli.  Scotty and Lisa had some kind of tortellini.  It was all pretty amazing.  We finished off the evening with cappuccino and cannoli.  I mean, when in Rome, right?  

It was good to see the two of them, and I think they may have had a good time, too.  We sat at a table in the back of a very pretty room, and the plaque over my head announced proudly that James Gandolfini had graced that spot.  We were at the Gandolfini table.  Bada Bing.  Had to say it.  I’m not even sorry.  

When that was a wrap, we headed to the subway and back to the hotel.  It was pretty late, and we have a travel day today.  We’re shoving dirty shirts into roller bags right about now, and I had to break from that to write this.  

Fun fact: Cas is pretty clever, and when we’ve had to set an alarm on this (or any) trip, he picks a song to wake us up based on our travels.  On this trip, we have heard Sweet home, Chicago by the Blues Brothers, Subterranean Homesick Blues by Minnesota’s own Bob Dylan, Dirty Water by the Standells, the Dartmouth Alma Mater by a group of college a cappella singers, and New York, New York by the incomparable Frank Sinatra.  It turns out that the song was originally written for a movie and performed by Liza Minnelli.  We learned that on our horse and carriage ride.  Fun facts abound.  But I had one for this morning.  We didn’t set an alarm, as we are allowing ourselves a slow start today, but when we did start to wake up, I played the theme from the old TV show Dallas.  I earned a laugh from that, and I also remembered how unnecessarily long that theme song is.  

But that’s it for now- we’re zipping up luggage, about to go off and locate some coffee.  We fly out of LaGuardia, named for former New York City mayor Fiorello LaGuardia.  You know what, nobody names their kids Fiorello anymore.  

Nevertheless, it’s time to head out, so I share the photo link once more and will write you all at the end of this journey.  https://photos.app.goo.gl/2sYnZaQSheDb6sfJ6

Such good mathing!

For me, it was the late ‘90s. Probably ‘96 or ‘97- that was the last time I took a math class.  It didn’t go well.  I majored in Literary Studies, and took Algebra for non-math majors.  I didn’t get an A, either.  They had the audacity to teach that class at 8 am, and I was working as a bartender.  Not a real GPA booster, but it did the job… 

Still, today’s trip to the museum of math was very cool.  If math had been presented this way to me in my younger years, I may have actually taken such classes voluntarily.  I may have actually liked the subject.  Cas and I each have our strong suits.  When he has to write a work email, it sends him into frustration, and occasionally, a text message exchange will take his full attention for large blocks of time.  I clearly love writing.  I mean, I am doing it right now!  But put a tricky equation in front of both of us, and my eyes glaze over with confusion, while he looks like a kid who just broke open the piñata.  

Watching someone who sees math as a series of fun puzzles and loves to solve them as he makes his way through a two-story museum of math is kind of great, even if you are lousy at the subject yourself.  I certainly wouldn’t have picked out the National Museum of Mathematics, but going there with Cas is like going to a fabric store with Vera Wang or a butcher shop with Wolfgang Puck.  You just see someone totally in his element, and it is pretty great.  Cas delighted in the exhibits, asked lots of questions of the staff, did a lot of explaining to me and generally had a blast.  We did linger in the gift shop for a while, which is a decidedly un-Cas-like behavior, but I pretty much expected that.  They had math stuff there.  It was a pretty great day.  

We started the day with a sausage roll at an Australian bakery, which was a little unexpected, and certainly very yummy. When you think of Australia, you don’t really conjure up images of pastries, but they do make them in Australia.  The breakfast was very good.  After that, we played with math-y toys for four hours, then we headed to a tapas place.  The breakfast reminded us of our first big trip together, while the lunch reminded us of the last big one before the COVID lockdown took vacations from us for a year.  It was kind of a nice recap.  

We’re stopping mid-day, now for a bottle of wine on our hotel’s 21st floor.  There’s a covered patio up there, and it looks like more rain is on the way for the afternoon.  No worries, though, it is supposed to be clear and pretty by the time we have our 8 pm dinner with Scotty and Lisa.  After that, we come back to the hotel sleep, have a relaxing morning and head to the airport.  We actually changed our flight, as the original one was slated to make two stops.  Changing it cut our travel time in half, though we had to shell out a few bucks for the privilege.  We decided it was worth it- it’s just about time to head back to the house.  Until then, here are some photos.  Enjoy:  https://photos.app.goo.gl/2sYnZaQSheDb6sfJ6

Bones, boats and Belvedere Castle

This morning, we got to the Museum of Natural History just as they opened the doors.  We walked in easily with a pair of printed tickets we have had with us on this whole trip- we bought them a while back.  There are four levels of the museum available for people to walk through, and true to our tactic from yesterday, we started on a nearly vacant fourth floor.  Half of the city was still on the first floor, but we were in mostly or totally empty rooms up on four.  Just me, Cas and some dinosaur bones.  Some children would locate those same bones, and that was our cue to leave.  We did this until the population size became more people than exhibits.  At that point, we switched tactics.  We prioritized what we wanted to see, and we made our way to each exhibit.  We actually had tickets to a show in the Hayden Planetarium, and that was pretty great.  Pro tip, though- if you go- sit closer to the back.  We sat closer to the middle, and it was a lot of tilting your head back to look straight up.  No worries- it was still an absolutely great show.  

After our planetarium visit, we checked out more space exhibits and things about earth geology, then made our way to the big Easter Island head.  It was pretty great.  

We were hungry by the time we left, so we stopped at a street vendor cart and had a hot dog.  It was something we both really needed to do.  It’s a quintessentially New York thing.  After that, we actually had another foodstuff from a different vendor.  It was just about perfect.  Check another item off of the New York goals list.  From there, we walked through Central Park a while, finding ourselves at the entry to the Shakespeare Garden.  We walked there for a while, through flowers to Castle Belvedere, which was very pretty.  It is actually also the highest point in the park.  I was- no surprise- a little tired at that point.  We haven’t had a chill-out day since this trip began, and my legs could occasionally use a rest.  Cas and I solved that by picking up a bag of popcorn and a few ciders from a grocery store, then heading up to the 21st floor of our hotel.  That’s the top floor, where they have a wrap-around balcony.  Seemed like the perfect place for an impromptu self-made happy hour.   

That took us to the point in time when we had to leave on a city bus for the Circle Line Cruise around Manhattan.  Cas’ brother Chad proposed on a Circle Line Cruise.  He got on the boat with a girlfriend and got off with a fiancée.  Today is Chad any Becky’s 12th anniversary, so it clearly worked out.  We always go to 7-11 and get a Slurpee on their anniversary, which is also on 7-11.  Today, we took a Slupree selfie in front of Circle Line’s departure point.  Seemed better than a greeting card. 

The cruise was good.  The announcer had a lot of personality and plenty of corny jokes, and the sights were ones you probably can’t get any other way.  I don’t know if the daytime cruises are as good, but if you are ever in the neighborhood, you should check out the sunset one.  Pretty great.  

Finally, we got on a bus back to the Times Square area and had dinner at a spot called The Playwright Celtic Pub.  They had an image of Yeats opposite of the upstairs bar.  It was just about perfect.  This place has a rooftop bar, and the only drawback seems to be the several flights of stairs you have to take to get there.  It’s the fourth floor of the building.  Cas had bangers and mash, and I couldn’t handle another day without a proper cheeseburger.  That really hit the spot, and good thing, too, as it was already 9 when the cruise was over.  

Tomorrow, we have a trip planned to the National Museum of Mathematics.  I know you’re assuming that was my call, but actually, Cas wants to see it.  Who knew?  We’re not sure what the afternoon holds after that,  Maybe we’ll just stay there and do math until dinner time.  Hard to say.  We do have our rescheduled dinner with Scotty tomorrow, and that should be good, too.  

So, I will leave you with the usual photo link, and we’ll get back into it tomorrow, after the math museum.  Can’t wait.   https://photos.app.goo.gl/2sYnZaQSheDb6sfJ6

Off Broadway

This morning, Cas and I started out a little earlier than necessary.  We had timed entry tickets to The Met for 10 am.  We headed to Tal Bagels.  We actually talked to a native New Yorker while we were in Boston, and got his bagel recommendation.  He gave us a pro tip- don’t get it toasted- the bagels are super fresh, and asking for them to toast one marks you as a tourist. We followed directions- the bagels were perfect.  We got two everything bagels, one with cream cheese, the other with lox spread.  Wow.  Those things were amazing. 

From there, we headed to The Met.  We had tickets when they opened for the day.  We made it a little way through the first exhibit when an idea occurred to me- if you walk in at opening time, you should go to the last spot people usually see on a walk through.  You see fewer crowds at the outset by going backwards.  Best.  Strategy.  Ever.  We took more photos of empty rooms today than we had any right to take.  It was like a private event on the second floor of The Met for just me, Cas and a half dozen other folks who had it all figured out.  

The Met is amazing.  They have whole spaces where Egyptian temples are reassembled. There are rooms so big that building facades are on one wall.  They have tapestries from palaces in ancient Persia just hanging on walls one room away from something else amazing.  If you have six or seven days in New York, you could conceivably spend all of them in The Met.  Heck, part of me wants to do that.  I mean, Rodin was heavily featured in the museum, and the place itself is so old that Rodin himself donated some of his own work to them.  How cool is that?  If a brilliant artist donates to you while he still breathes in and out, and you still have that stuff over a century later, you win.  Well done, Met.  Well done.  

The Met is on Fifth Avenue.  We walked across Park Avenue on the way there.  We also drank a few beers and conducted some great people watching on Lexington and 84th.  That was at a great bar called Carlow East.  I was an Irish pub with an actual Irishman behind the bar, accent and all.  They were very welcoming.  We wanted a snack, but they don’t have a kitchen.  They said we could bring in food from anywhere nearby.  The waitress even said our last round was on the house.  It was pretty great.  We started out sitting inside but the air conditioning was a little intense and the outdoor space was pretty inviting.  I’m pretty sure anyone who had access to hammers, saws and skills to build outdoor seating areas made all of the money during the Covid lockdown.  It seems that every food or beverage establishment in this city has a propped up plywood space on the street outside.  I wonder what happens in the future for those who would have parked in those spaces that are now restaurant seating.  I don’t know if the bars and restaurants give that back. 

But, I digress.  We went from Park Avenue to Lexington and 84th to our hotel on 50th street to a decidedly off Broadway event.  We attended a production of Macbeth by the good folks at Drunk Shakespeare.  If you have an opportunity, and you are good with silliness and wildly inappropriate humor, I can recommend it in the strongest of terms,  If you get a little twitchy about off color jokes, skip this one.  Needless to say, Cas and I thought it was hysterical.  Ooh- also, never bring children to this.  Just trust me.  Having said that, it was the thing that made us laugh more than any other thing on this trip.  What they do is pick one actor, and feed that actor a whole lot of alcohol, then they do the play.  This time around, it was the guy who played about a half dozen supporting roles in the show.  Beyond that, they stayed to the plot, but not the script.  A sword battle switched over to a dance battle.  A sad soliloquy became an acoustic guitar performance.  It was spectacularly silly.  It was everything we hoped it would be.  It was actually the very first thing we booked for this trip after flights and lodging.  We really liked it.  

But, that is it for today.  We headed back to the room and had a little wine and wind down.  Tomorrow is the Natural Historuy Museum and a sunset river cruise.  We will probably employ our new start-at-the-end tactic at the museum, but for the cruise, we’re on our own.  

Either way, here are today’s photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/2sYnZaQSheDb6sfJ6