The Good,The Bad and The Ugly, New York City

I'll start in reverse order and get the yucky stuff out of the way.

The Ugly


I arrived at my hotel about 10 PM, on Sunday night.  Monday morning it was raining, a lot.  My plan for Monday was to walk the High Line, something I've been wanting to do and and never got around to on my previous trips.  There's so much to do in NYC, it's always hard to decide what adventures to have. Monday was High Line Day, NOT.  Since this was an 100% outdoor activity, it went on the back burner.

I decided to walk to the diner where I eat breakfast every morning I'm in NYC, Skylight Diner, on 34th and 9th, then to Penn Station and get my Metro Card; a girl has to have her Metro Card, if she's in NYC.  I also needed to pick up some stuff at Duane Reade, that I didn't want to pack.  Add an umbrella to that list!  I was hoping the rain would let up.  (I did bring my fuchsia Eddie Bauer Rain coat, so I was styling.)

On my way back, I fell - flat on my front.  I was stunned, I must have tripped.  Two young men rushed to my aid.  They helped me up and asked what happened and if I knew why I fell.  Did I have a medical problem, was I OK?  They were such nice young men, probably in their late 20's.

I limped back to my hotel to check the damage.  I was already colorfully bruised and had a small gash above my left ankle and a deep gash on the other knee.  Talk about being balanced.  I was really bleeding; I patched myself up.  I always carry band aids because Bob is on blood thinners.  My patch job didn't last long; back out to Duane Reade for some super-duper bandages and peroxide.  I spent a lot of time changing my wound dressings that week, and the next week, too.  I have to say, thank heavens for Advil.  I don't think I would have made it thru the remainder of the week, as well as I did.

The Bad

The bad isn't all that bad, but I'll stick with the post title theme and tell you.  Saturday morning my last day to enjoy NYC, I woke with a sore throat.  After breakfast I went to Duane Reade and bought some salt to use to gargle with.  (Living in a hotel has it's challenges.)  I gargled and figured I was good to go.  I went about my day.  I took the M34 to 5th Ave, the M5 to Water Street in Lower Manhattan, so I could take the free ferry to Governors Island.  By the time I arrived at Governors Island it was about 11 AM; I started wandering, visiting the museums and gift shops.  There was an alternative art festival happening, Figment NYC.  All of it was new to me and very exciting.  THEN, a full blown cold hit me.  Yuck.  I decided to head back to the hotel, and stopped at Duane Reade, on the way, of course.  Bob was due late Saturday, and we were leaving for Bermuda the next day.

The other bad news is, in two weeks I re-gained the five pounds I've been working so hard to lose!  Bummer.

The Good

I did have a great time in NYC, despite the Bad and the Ugly.

Being a tourist.

New York is such a great town for walking and riding the bus.  I avoid the subway, because you can't see much underground.

Old Street in SoHo.

My three special tourist efforts this year, were to see Grants Tomb, Visit Hamilton Grange and visit Governors Island, mission accomplished.  Grants Tomb at Riverside Drive and West 122nd Street and Hamilton Grange National Memorial is in Saint Nicholas Park in Manhattan, at 414 West 141st Street, between Convent Avenue and St. Nicholas Avenue.  I had planned on two days for these visits and lots of extra exploring; but I improvised and saw them both in one day.  They are both in the South Harlem area; it was very easy to combine the two.  Bus transfers with the Metro Card are automatic, as long as you're going in the general direction away from your starting place.

Taken at Grants Tomb

Sitting on a bus bench, on Broadway, ready to head home, I asked a woman how I could get to the nearest Barnes and Noble.  She wasn't sure of the cross street, it was down in the 70's, but she told me to take the M4, instead of the M5, and transfer to the M104, down near Columbia University, and the bus would go right by the bookstore.  I did.  It was perfect.  I think this B&N is the original location.  It was pretty small, but they were very busy.

The last day of the BEA is pretty much a half day.  After walking back to the hotel and catching some lunch, I made my trip to the High Line.  It was so cool.

taken from the High Line.

Then I trekked to the two famous quilting fabric stores in NYC, City Quilter on W. 25th, and Purl SoHo on Broome Street..  They've always been on my must do list.  At City Quilter I may or may not have purchased some FQ's for a future project; and I may have shipped them home, so I didn't have to take FQ's on the cruise.  Purl SoHo is beautiful, but the prices are higher, and their in-store selection is limited.  I may not visit them next year.

Being a Bookseller.


Attending Book Expo America is a bookseller's dream  An expensive dream, because it's NYC.  This is my 9th BEA, and the BEA comps my ticket, which is cool.  There are other expenses, but it's nice to be a VIP!  It's like a three ring circus, there are always 3 things, at any given time, that you want to do.  I spent a lot of time prioritizing.  I shipped home 80 pounds of books; still to be unpacked.


For you readers, here's a list of the authors I saw, not in order of importance:

Stephen Colbert
 Barbara Kingsolver
 Jo Nesbo
Junot Diaz
Elizabeth  Hartman >- Modern Patchwork-12 Quilts to Take You Beyond the Basics <
Lawrence Block
Dennis Lehane
Chris Colfer
Walter Dean Myers >
 John Green
 Kadir Nelson
Lois Lowry
Patti Smith
 Neil Young
Richard Ford
J.R. Moehringer
Lee Child
Victor La Valle 

I had a great time attending the BEA.  I'm use to all the hub bub and know I can't be everywhere I want to be.  My only regret is that when Patti Smith interviewed Neil Young, he was so poorly mic'd, I could hardly hear him.

This is a long post for me, and I'll be posting more, about Bermuda and some more photos, soon.  I hope you enjoyed reading about my adventures.

Thanks for stopping by and sharing my life with me,

NYC

Last year, I was in NYC, during Memorial Day week.  It' was Fleet Week, too.  I managed to buy some sailors dinner, one night.  Believe me, it was hard to do.  As soon as anyone saw a group of sailors sitting down to eat, some one picked up their check before they placed their order.

When I'm in NYC, I walk around town taking photos of anything and everything.  Here's some that are appropriated for today, Memorial Day.  These were all taken last year, on the 27th and 28th.  Some in Central Park and some at Trinity Church, in Lower Manhattan.

for a daughter of a soldier, of the American Revolution.

Alexander Hamilton and his wife Eliza.

Our flag.

I know this is my 3rd post, today.  Around here, it's either feast or famine, post-wise.  (I won't be posting at all while I'm gone to NYC\Bermuda, no laptop or ipad for mobile posting.)

Thanks for stopping by and sharing my life with me,

The Meet-ups, NYC

We had such a great time in Manhattan; part of the reason was the meet-ups. I'd contacted three people I know who live in the area; unfortunately one had to cancel, hey, there's always next time. Mary T, and her wonderful husband Vinny, came in from Queens and picked us up at our hotel. It was so great to meet them IRL. Mary wears a number of hats, in blog land, Work of the Poet, where she host Ruby Tuesday, Mary Tomaselli's Photos, Sepia Scenes, and Window Views; plus she teaches college courses. She makes me look like a slacker! Vinny is retired, and like Bob, not a blogger. We all had so much in common; we had a wonderful time.

They whisked us off to The Cloisters, where Mary and I each took hundreds of photos. Each trip to NYC, I've wanted to visit this museum, but never fit it into our busy schedule. The day couldn't have been more perfect. The Tomaselli's and the Prytz's have similar museum visiting styles. Go in, see as much as possible, have a lot of fun and leave.

After our visit to The Cloisters, Vinny chauffeured us to a fabulous NY deli. The portions here gigantic, each plate would have easily served all us. Mary and Vinny were very generous with us; Mary even gave me a wonderful bag of books. I can never have too many books.

Our next meet-up was with a former bookseller, Melissa. She majored in Criminal Justice in college, because she always wanted to be a Fed. Below are some shots she emailed to me when she was going thru the Secret Service academy.

Yes, she does carry guns and knows how to use them. She's stationed in NYC, as a diplomat, but has traveled the world with various members of the State Department. She's protected both Condoleezza Rice and Hilary Clinton, among others. She'll stay in NYC for two years and then be posted somewhere else in the world. She's fluent in Spanish, so it'll be interesting to see where she goes, next. We had a great time catching up; she and Bob have a lot in common, and really get along. She pick a Greek restaurant and it was fabulous.

NYC Tours and Travel

The view from my hotel room.

In May, I went to NYC.  The principle reason was to attend Book Expo America.  The BEA is a 3-day event where publishers get to tell booksellers and librarians about upcoming releases.  It's a winning situation for me, I come home each year with over 100 complimentary new books, most are ARCs, Advance Readers Copies.  I get to read books before they are published.  Several members of my Tai Chi class are avid readers, and they've gotten used to reading ARCs, too.  The disadvantage of ARCs is they are not the final printing and may have errors.

Each time I attend BEA, except when it's in LA, I make a week of my visit, giving myself time to be a tourist.  I've been to NYC quite often, so I try to always do new things.  This time I had time for 4 new to me activities.  On Memorial Day. I took the subway to Brooklyn and walked back home to Manhattan via the Brooklyn Bridge.

The rest of my adventures were professional tours.  The first was a walking tour, called Five Squares and a Circle.  It was a great tour.  It started in Greenwich Village, in Washington Square Park and ended in Central Park.  The tour involved a lot of walking and a couple of subway rides.  The tour guide was a historian and I learned a lot.

I've always wanted to see Manhattan from the water.  There are a lot of options, so I did my research and booked the AIANY Around Manhattan Architecture Tour.  We sailed around Manhattan on a small yacht.  Our leader was a member of the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects; the emphasis of the tour was the style and construction of the buildings and bridges of Manhattan.  It was so very interesting.  I highly recommend this tour.

Daryl, our leader on the Food Tour.

My final indulgence was Chelsea Market, The Highline & The Meatpacking District Food and Culture Walking Tour, offered by Foods of NY.  There were many tours to choose from.  I picked this one, leaving a 4 PM, after doing my research because it also included a visit to the nearby Gansevoort Market.  It was a great tour.  Foods of NY actually selects and pays for the food tastings.  During the tour I was on there were 3 "new" tastings and such a great variety.

View from the High Line.

I hope you enjoyed finding out about my NYC trip.  I did raise a few eyebrows since I took this trip four months after Bob had passed away.  My philosophy is "There're no guarantees".  We don't know how long we'll be around or what our health will be like, so just do what you want, when you want, as long as you can.

I already have more trips planned.  In September, my cousin Carol and I are going on The Ultimate Game Day Weekend.  We'll be traveling to Texas and we'll see two MLB games, a college football game, and an NFL game.  Carol and I are both baseball and football fans, but neither of us has seen an NFL game.  This trip is through Jay Buckley's Baseball Tours.  Bob and I and Sharon and Oden went on a tour with them three years ago.  They are a great company.

The family in Detroit.  Oden is now taller than me.

Carol and I are very excited, we booked our flights yesterday, and I booked the dogs at Rover.com and my airport transportation with a local service.  We also have purchased t-shirts of the home teams for all the games.  The family did that for the baseball tour and it's a great idea.

Thanks for stopping by and sharing my life with me,

Going to NYC

My bags are packed, again. I'm super excited because I'm going to NYC, all by myself.  I'll be attending Book Expo America and I've planned extra time to see the sights. I've never "done" Central Park; so that's on my agenda, plus eleventy million other things!  I'm staying in Hell's Kitchen, again.  It's great, I know the neighborhood and where to eat.  I know where the closest Duane Reade is; what more could I ask for.

The BEA has returned to it's old format of 3 days, but it's still mid-week; things shouldn't be as harried.  Also, this is the second year the BEA has invited me to attend as a VIP, for free.  Free is good, especially in an expensive city like New York.  I got my NYC fix, before I left by reading Pete Hamill newest, Tabloid City.  I loved it.

Here's some of the authors that I'll see at the Book and Author Breakfasts, Julianne Moore, Mindy Kaling, Jim Lehrer, Kevin Henkes, Sarah Dessen, Roger Ebert, Anne Enright, Jefferey Eugenides, Charlaine Harris, Kevin Henkes, Diane Keaton, Erik Larson, Brian Selznick and Katherine Paterson.  They're be tons of other authors there as well as publishers and editors anxious to give me a copy of the next great book.  Such a deal.

Last year, the buzz on the book floor was all about I Am Number Four and Room.  I wonder what the buzz-iest books will be this year?  I'll let you know.

Thanks for stopping by, we enjoyed having you,

Croatia

In April, I traveled to Croatia with Road Scholar.  When I want to travel abroad, Road Scholar is my first choice. How I first heard about them is kinda funny.  About 10 or 12 years ago, I was having breakfast at my favorite NYC diner, when a group of travelers came in.  They were all excitedly chattering about what had happened the day before.  So I asked, "What's going on?"  They proceeded to tell me about the great tour of NYC they were doing with this wonderful company called Road Scholar.  Now, I'd never thought of going on a tour of NYC, but I made a note of the company name and years later when I decided to go to France in 2016, they were the company I used.  Croatia is my fourth trip with them and all the trips have been very successful.  How's that for a recommendation!

Our first stop was in the capital, Zagreb.  Here are just a couple of photos.

Notice the 4th listing on this directory, The Museum of Broken Relationships!  Yes, that's a thing in Zagreb.  The photo below fits right in.

Zagreb was beautiful but I was hard-pressed to find healthy food.  That quickly changed when we headed for the coast.

The view from my hotel room, Grand Hotel 4 Opatijska Cvijeta.

Even though it was rainy and dreary, it's always good to be near the sea.

I love this dog, "just hanging out".  He paid no attention to the tourist, he was just doing his job!

Some photos from our walks exploring the Istrian Peninsula and the town of Porec.

The next morning we had a wonderful hike in the rain to the Plitvice Lakes National Park.  It's a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  I'm pretty sure the last photo shows the entrance to a Hobbit house.

Before leaving for our next adventure, I spotted Santa wandering in the hotel lobby. He was cranky and wouldn't pose. I think he was lost.

In Split, there were lots to do.  We visited Diocletian's Palace and in the afternoon had some free time, I used that time to visit Split's Archeological Museum.  When I was in Madrid last year, I thoroughly enjoyed their Museo Arqueológico Nacional (Archaeological Museum), it was fantastic.  Split's version wasn't fantastic, but it was pretty great.  I really enjoyed my visit.  Below are some photos of my day.

This was a 13-day tour and I loved everything about it.  I feel as if this post has photo overload and we're just on day 8!  Here's a few more, and if you've read this far, be sure to put Croatia on you must-travel-to list.  Croatians love Americans, plus their main industry is tourism, so go see them.

Croatian pest control!

The Croatian climate is very similar to mine in Southern California.  Their soil isn't the best, but they work with what they have and they do make great wine!

The last photo shows the wonderful group I traveled with.

Thanks for stopping by and sharing my life with me,