New York Trumpeting

11/10 /16 – 11/13/16

Pam and I went to New York with John and Kris.  For Los Angeles natives they know New York really well, mainly because their kids lived there for a couple of years while working or going to school.  Pam knows New York a little bit.  She has been there a couple of times over the past couple of decades.  Despite the fact that my father was from New York, I know the least about it, having not been there since the summer of 1968, at the same time the Chicago Eight, later known as the Chicago Seven,  were arrested in Chicago for demonstrating at the Democratic National Convention.  Our vacations the past five years or so have consisted of beaching ourselves on either the island of Maui or Hawaii and just chilling in the tropical heat, something at which I am decent and something at which Pam excels.  This year we wanted to make a change, and Pam said she wanted to go to New York.  Neither of us felt the need to go for a week, so we opted to go for a long weekend, and thankfully John and Kris quickly said they would love to go and act as our tour guides.

Even though it was going to be a short trip, and maybe because it was going to be a short trip, planning our activities was difficult.  We had a lot of Sunday morning, post workout breakfasts with John and Kris where the primary topic of discussion was where did we want to stay and what did we want to do in New York.  They answered the first part, as they like to stay at the London, a nice hotel in mid-town.  We readily agreed with that choice.  The second part took more time and discussion.  Being the supportive husband I am, my contributions were consistently simple, as I kept repeating, “I do not care what we do.  We should do whatever Pam wants.”  This was a true statement, though at some point I added, “Except for seeing Hamilton, as those tickets are just too expensive, and no play is worth that much money.”  Obviously, lots of people disagree with me on that assessment.

After some give and take, we worked out a sightseeing plan that included the 9/11 Memorial, MOMA, Central Park, Times Square, Lincoln Center, Chelsea Market and the High Line.  Then came the hard part, selecting the play and the restaurants.  Besides not wanting to see Hamilton, I only made one request with respect to the play.  I wanted to see a matinee because I have a bad habit of falling asleep in plays, even matinees.  Embarrassingly, I once fell asleep watching a matinee of Phantom of The Opera, which was not easy to do.  Of course, we decided to see an evening performance and then have dinner afterwards.  Oh well.  When it came to restaurants, Pam and I abdicated to John and Kris, saying we would be fine with whatever they selected.

For a long time I put off thinking about New York.  It’s not that I didn’t want to go.  It was just that I did not have a compelling reason to do so.  So after the New York planning was over, Pam and I spent the summer and early fall going to a series of concerts.  We also had an amazing return trip to Nashville, where we spent an extended weekend eating some great southern food, speaking on the radio (again), buying some cowboy boots, playing around on some cool Marine armament, watching a Tennessee Titan game, and, of course,  spending an inordinate amount of time in the bars listening to country music.

Finally, it was time for me to focus on New York.  I wanted to go.  I wanted Pam to have a great time.  I wanted to be with our friends.  I just had no idea what I wanted to do there.  Sure, I wanted to see the sights we planned on.  Sure I wanted to see the play.  Sure I wanted to eat at the places we selected.  I just wasn’t sure the benefits of seeing and eating outweighed the hassles of being in New York, with its over the top costs and traffic, both auto and pedestrian.  About a week before the trip, I figured out what I wanted to do in New York, and it dawned on me that I wanted, really wanted, to go there.

We flew into New York on Thursday, two days after the election.  Getting into the city was a mess.  Landing at rush hour didn’t help, but then every hour is rush hour in NYC.  Having Donald Trump land at LaGuardia a couple hours before we landed at JFK didn’t help either, but it gave us something to talk about besides the traffic.

In a nutshell, the trip was fantastic.  John and Kris were amazing tour guides.  They got us on the right subways, got us off at the right stops,  and shepherded us to everything we planned. We enjoyed all the sights.  We enjoyed the play we saw, and  with the help of a couple of Pam’s elbows, I managed to stay awake through 99% of it.  And, we enjoyed the food we ate at the restaurants they selected.  We were thankful that they orchestrated reasonably warm, dry weather, which enabled us to walk with impunity all over the place, see the leaves still changing colors in Central Park and watch the retailers getting their holiday windows ready.  Moreover, I relished the fact that they even humored me with respect to the New York experiences I really wanted to have, which included walking on Mulberry Street, eating Pizza (Lombardi’s and Ray’s), eating Corned Beef (Carnegie Deli which is closing its doors at the end of the year) and eating Bagels (No Name Stand in Chelsea Market).

Of course, no trip goes completely as planned.  This time the unexpected events made the trip even more special and memorable.  After dinner on Thursday night, we walked over to Trump Tower to see what was happening.  Despite our advanced ages, we were all too young to have participated in the anti-war protests during the 60s and early 70s.  So when we arrived outside of Trump Tower, our long dormant boomer genes awakened.  Our memories of Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, and Tom Hayden and Co. resurfaced.  Our inner radical personae kicked in.  And, just for shits and giggles, we joined the protest, though in our case it was more fauxtest than protest.  I guess it was a bucket list item for me and maybe everyone else.  We all had fun, and it was pretty obvious that Pam loved it.

On Thursday night, the NYPD was still allowing one lane of traffic up and down Fifth Avenue.  By Saturday, Fifth Avenue was blocked off to cars for four or five blocks, making the usual crazy mid-town traffic insane.  While Pam and Kris shopped, John and I had fun strolling up and down the middle of Fifth Avenue.  To me it was no big deal, but to John it was mind boggling, as he has always seen bumper to bumper traffic there.

Additionally, I had the unexpected opportunity to sample some ridiculously priced tequila.  This was made possible by an Amex promotion at the hotel which gave us free money to spend in the restaurant and bar.  As we had little reason to spend any money there, the highest and best use of the promotion was to sample the tequila, which was expensive and quite good.

Last, but not least, was our unexpected trip to the Lego store at the Rockefeller Center.  After I got over the postage stamp size of the ice rink and the immense size of the Christmas tree adorned with scaffolding, enabling the workers to decorate it, I announced that I wanted to go into the Lego store.  Pam, Kris and John found this amusing.  Frankly, so did I.  I am too old to have played with Legos in my youth.  Our girls were never interested in them so we have never had them in the house, and we have never gone to LEGOLAND.  But Lego recently came out with a 2,700 piece scale model of a Porsche GT3, and, given my Porsche obsession, I really wanted to see one.  So they all humored me some more, and in we went.  Even though it has a somewhat exorbitant price tag, I have a feeling I may see one again in the near future, most likely long before I see New York again.