Whoop, whoop, whoop...go the sirens. Honk, hoooonnnkk....Ahh, the sounds of New York City. It was a beautiful week in the city. It's our third time here and it's different every time. There's so much to see and do that a week is hardly enough time.
A view of the city as we drove in from LaGuardia Airport.
We stayed at the Warwick Hotel in Mid-town Manhattan. What an amazing location! The hotel was built in 1927 by William Randolph Hurst for his mistress, Marion Davies. He lost the hotel in foreclosure in 1944 and it was purchased by Lowes. Cary Grant lived here for 12 years on the 27th floor! You can rent his two bedroom suite if you are so inclined. We were not.
We did, however, get a suite. We got an amazing deal. The same room the next week was almost three times as much. And what a great time to be in the city. The weather was perfect! Brisk and autumn-y. Our room had a balcony that faced 6th Avenue.
We had a fantastic living area and we were on the corner so we had views in both directions.
And a separate bedroom. This room would have been great without the living area. It's huge! The hotel was awesome. It had charm and a cool old world vibe. Lots of photos of Marion Davies in the rooms and the hall. And as I said a great location.
Our first night we walked three blocks to Central Park. It's a little creepy and dark at night. There were no people in there walking around or anything.
St. Patrick's Cathedral at night. We went to Mass there on Sunday. I love doing that at these old historic churches. They also had an interesting light show inside that you could get tickets to.
The next day we did walk through the park. It was a little rainy so you'd think it would be empty. It was not. There were tons of bikers and joggers and nannies with kids.
Since we hadn't been in a while, we went to the Met. This place is unbelievable. It's huge and has a little bit of everything.
This is the Temple of Dendur. You may remember it from a little movie called
When Harry Met Sally. But it's a real temple. It was built around 15 - 10 BC during the reign of the Roman Emperor Augustus. I love that.
One of the things I thought was cool was this. It's the facade of the Branch Bank of the United States. It was built in the 1850s down on Wall St. In 1915, the building was demolished and the museum got the facade. We spent the whole day there and I know we didn't see everything.
Times Square at night. Did you know that Times Square is named for the New York Times? They moved into that building in 1905 and lobbied to change the name of the square from Longacre Square to Times Square. The paper only stayed in that building until 1915 before they outgrew it but the name stayed.
The 2026 NY ball. I never thought about it but I guess it stays up there all year. Huh.
The city was already getting ready for Christmas. You could go see the Rockettes Christmas special. We didn't. The tree was delivered to Rockefeller Center this week as well. I think they unveil it December 2nd.
We did go to the Frick. This was the Gilded Age Mansion of Henry Clay Frick who was a steel magnate along with Andrew Carnegie. He built this house in 1914 and he intentionally built it to eventually be a museum. It was not a cozy home.
No photos inside, which I didn't like or understand. But you could take photos of this courtyard, which was gorgeous. The upstairs where the bedrooms were had more of a "home" vibe. Downstairs, not so much. But it was cool. This guy started collecting art and wanted to share it by making his place a museum after he died. And he did.
I never realized there was so much stuff in Central Park! They have this cool carousel. It was built in 1908 and there are 57 hand painted horses. For $5 you can take a 4 minute ride.
Also in Central Park is Belvedere Castle. It was built in 1872 as a lookout but for what? You can go inside and climb to either level for free.
And this is why you'd want to do that. There are some pretty amazing views from up there. This is Turtle Pond with the city in the background.
And you can't go to Central Park and not pay your respects at Strawberry Fields.
Atticus now lives in Brooklyn! He goes to school here at Parson's School of Design. We are so proud of this guy!
He came and picked us up and took us to the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn to this really great Thai restaurant. It was so cool to see him in New York. We had a great time visiting.
Sitting out on the balcony at night, this is our view of 6th Avenue. That's some traffic they got there. And it is constant. John was up pretty late on various evenings and when he looked out the window, the traffic was just like this. It really is the city that never sleeps.
Did you know that New York City was the first capital of the United States? It's true! George Washington was inaugurated right here at Federal Hall in 1789. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a great picture because of all the scaffolding but there's a statue of old George over there somewhere.
Inside is really cool. They have the desk that George Washington used along with some other cool exhibits like the stone that George stood on when he took the oath of office. And, it's free to go in!
Down here in the financial district is the Trinity Churchyard. Have you ever heard of that play, Hamilton? It's about this guy! Alexander Hamilton, the father of our financial system. He's buried down here. I'm not sure why I find that so fascinating. Maybe because it's right in the heart of the financial district.
Down in Battery Park they have some cool old stuff as well. This is the Battery Park Control House. It was built in 1905 for the original subway line and is one of the last stand alone above ground station houses in the city. The Bowling Green line still comes through here during the day. I cannot imagine the rush of people getting off the subway trying to squeeze through those little doors.
From Battery Park you can get some great views of the Statue of Liberty.
This is Castle Clinton. It was built in1811 as a defensive fort before the War of 1812 started heating up. By 1853, it became the first immigration station for the State of New York prior to Ellis Island.
We were trying to take a selfie and a lady just came up and took our phone to take photos for us. You gotta love New Yorkers. That happened several times. If we looked lost, we were offered directional help. If one was taking a photo of the other, someone would offer to take a photo of both.
One of the other cool things we did (and there were many) was take a tour of NBC Studios. It was a "behind the scenes" tour of the various studios along with some history of NBC. No photos until we got to this room where they had backdrops of the various stages. This is "home base" for SNL. We didn't see anyone famous there.
Then we got one for the Tonight Show with Johnny Chaney.
That night we went to Cafe Boulard for dinner. This lady and her companion sat next to us and she had that "Grande Dame" air about her. She was...I'll say fussy. She didn't like our waiter. She wanted the guy who usually waited on her because he knew what she liked. When she found out we were celebrating my birthday, she took our photo. Then she asked how old I was and when I said 60, she said, "60? I have shoes older than you!"
Walking back to the hotel along 5th Avenue. To the right is the Plaza Hotel. I did price that as a place to stay and just had to laugh. Who can afford that?
The Museum of Modern Art was across the street from our hotel so we decided to take a look. This is the Andy Warhol exhibit - Campbell's Soup Cans. Just looking at this made me want some soup.
There were tons of artists that I'd actually heard of. Matisse, Kandinsky, Georgia O'Keefe and Edward Hopper. This is a Picasso called Girl Before a Mirror.
The views from the MoMA were as cool as some of the art. This is the courtyard for the museum along 53rd Street.
And finally, we saw a show, thanks to my brother-in-law, David. Before we left, he texted us and told us how cool this show was. We were lucky and got tickets at the last minute. It's Billy Crystal at the Imperial Theater on Broadway.
I love going into these old theaters. This one was built in 1923 and is part of the Shubert Theater Organization. Our seats were pretty far up but we still had a great view of the stage.
And Billy Crystal. He was fantastic! His show was called 860 and it was about his life and how he lost his house last year in the Palisades Fire. I can't even imagine losing everything like that. His show was great. If you're in town, I highly recommend it.
It was an amazing week. I love New York!
