A Coming out of Retirement Blog – NYC April 21

 So ya, it’s been six months since I’ve moved back to Canada, and well, I came to realize I miss the blog! Although life in Calgary isn’t near as exciting for me to report, my travels here and there are. Recently, I made my way to New York City, and I thought what better way to preserve the trip than through the blog.

The trip to NYC couldn’t have come at a better time – car is purchased, condo purchased, and I had just moved. Things at work were getting crazy, and I was missing my London peeps. I was ready for a holiday…but its hard to have one in a city that is alive 24/7!

My sister Isabell joined me and we started our trip off right – in the first class lounge in Calgary, courtesy of our sister Gina. Thanks G! it was nice to relax before hopping the red-eye flight to Toronto…then a three hour layover followed by a quick flight to La Guardia. I knew I’d be tired on Thursday, so the drinks and comfy seats while waiting sure helped a lot.

We got to La Guardia quickly and had our first star sighting. Well actually she was on our flight which is where I first saw her but it was confirmed at baggage pickup. It was Ellen Ripley herself…Sigourney Weaver, sans make up, sans fan fare. It was cool. On our way to the taxi stand we ran into a private hire to give us a deal on the ride to our hotel – the Four Points Sheraton on west 40^th.    It wasn’t the fanciest or grandest room ever but it suited our purposes just fine thank you very much! And the price was right!

It didn’t take long before I got my phone call from Aleksandra. The London crew was on their way to Times Square to meet us and the reunion was fantastic. There was me, Isabell, Aleksandra, Horacio, Andy, Kate and Ania. After lots of hugs we took off up 7^th Ave to Time’s Square where you see pretty much everything there is to see: lights, broadway shows, MTV, M&M shop, it just goes on and on. And amazingly enough, is just as bright at night as it is during the day. So many lights!

We made our way to The Stage Deli where we had our first deli sammies – Isabell and I split a Corned Beef on Rye because I swear, there was half a cow in each sandwich. We stopped to grab some beers and made our way to Central Park where in the Sheep Meadow we gorged our selves on sammies, giant pickles and beer wrapped in paper bags. How satisfying! We then walked a bit through the south side of the park visiting strawberry fields a living memorial to John Lennon, and then off toward the lake to see Bethesda Fountain. To the general public, it is a reference to the Gospel of John describing the angle blessing the pool of Bethesda and giving it healing powers. But to me, I wanted to see it as when I worked for ATP and we did the play Angels in America, the crew built a miniature version. It was stunning, on stage and in person.

I then got a call from our little munchkin, the last to arrive – Basar! She had landed and would meet up with us after she got to the hotel. We made our way out of the east side of the park and started walking down fifth avenue. Wow. So much to see all in one street but the highlights were FAO Schwartz (some for the Big piano, others for the Gryffindor scarves…I won’t say who), Tiffany, Trump Tower, blah blah blah. Eventually we got hungry and I’m not sure how…so we made our way back to 7^th, a relatively quick and easy to find location for Bas to meet us, and we went to Benash Deli for some NY cheesecake and some cosmos. Totally touristy, rude and ignorant service, but we got what we wanted anyway so we didn’t care. Not a recommendation that’s for certain, which is why I didn’t bother with a link. But Bas found us and we were all officially together.

We definitely had enough of time square so we walked down 5^th ave seeing more amazing things like Radio City Music Hall and eventually made our way to Rockefeller Plaza. We spent some time taking the pics we wanted to take, like of the ice skating rink, making a plan to come back later in the weekend to go to the Top of the Rock – something I highly recommend.  We decided we needed to get out o f tourist central and took the train to Greenwich where we found a Chinese joint (yes there was room for food) for some noodles and a rum and coke that was 7/8 rum and 1/8 coke. Amazing.

Isabell, Bas and I head back to our hotel; the rest to their apartment, and thus the first day was complete. 

Isabell and I slept like the dead.