Trip to New York City, 2012 — Part 2

When I went to bed, I set the alarm for 6:00, which would have given me more than seven hours. But for some reason either it never sounded or I slept through it. I woke up shortly before 7:30. Check out time was noon, and I had a fairly full day planned so I checked out at about 9:00. Then I strolled around taking pictures of St. Paul's Church and Lincoln Center. My hotel room had a painting in of of Times Square in which the top of the illuminated ads was for Suntory Whisky, which had given me the idea that I might be able to find some of the stuff in NYC, which would save me a trip to Tokyo. There was a boozery near the hotel, but it wasn't open the first time I went by, but after my neighborhood stroll, it was open and sure enough they had Suntory's Yamazaki 12 Year. It might have been more expensive than in Japan, but the price differential was less than round trip airfare to Tokyo, so I bought a bottle. That meant I had to schlepp not only the shoulder bag with my stuff in it, but also the bag with the whisky for the rest of the day.

After that successful beginning to the day, I headed down to Russ & Daughters deli on Houston Street in lower Manhattan for breakfast — a bagel with cream cheese and salmon and a cup of coffee, which altogether cost about $10. Very enjoyable.

Then I went and took the A Train almost to the northern tip of the island to see The Cloisters, a museum of medieval art and architecture. As I started going through the museum I came upon a group of 20-30 people who looked as if they were in their late teens. There were two people explaining the exhibit they were looking at. I kept coming upon them as I moved through the museum. Finally, I asked one of them where they were from, and he told me they were students in a class on medieval (and Renaissance?) art at Fordham University. I spent an enjoyable couple of hours there. Then I headed to the New Leaf restaurant in the park between The Cloisters and the 190th St. subway station. My nephew had suggested both it and Russ and Daughters. On the way, I encountered a couple from Florida, and I told them about the New Leaf. We ended up sharing a table. At the end of the meal, the waiter put my soup on their check. When I tried to reimburse them, the man said that since their son is a musician he understands trying to make a living at it, so I should give the money to my nephew on his behalf.

By now it was almost 3:00 p.m., and the Xylopholks performance in the Times Square subway station was to go from 3:00 to 6:00, with my nephew on bass in the pink gorilla costume. (They have a quote from Michael Bloomberg: "You look ridiculous.") I met my sister-in-law there and we listened for an hour or so, broken up with a visit to a coffee shop. Even though it's not my favorite kind of music (they call it 20's ragtime) I enjoyed it. People smiled when they saw them, and some really enjoyed their playing and stopped to listen for a while. I gave them the man's $8 for the soup plus $2 of my own.

Then one subway stop to Penn Station for an uneventful train ride back to Boston and home around midnight.


Unfortunately, when I went to upload my pictures to my computer, nothing happened, and when I removed the cable from the camera, part of it broke off and stayed behind in the camera. I suppose it can be repaired, but for now, I can't share any pictures from the trip with you, or anybody else.