Happy Thanksgiving Y'all!
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So today is the day for which we have paid the big money. The 90th Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade viewed from room 610 at the J. W. Marriott Essex House. Clay had expected more for our money and last night it arrived. We had gotten ready to get in bed to watch a movie at 8pm when the doorbell rang and there was knocking. I had set the do not disturb button at our door so I was leery but I had on pj's and Clay had on only underpants. So I was at least covered. I went to look out the peephole while Clay shut himself in the bathroom. I must have been visible because as soon as I touched the door the man on the other side loudly apologized for ignoring the DND and said he was delivering gifts. I opened the door and he handed me a heavy Marriott tote bag. Inside were a pair of waters, a pair of etched glass souvenir Essex House coffee mugs, a novel, a guide booklet, a tiny souvenir-sweatered teddy bear and a plaid souvenir lap blanket. I am pretty sure Clay still doesn't think he's gotten his money's worth!
So anyway today was the big day and it was pretty special. It would have not been fun to be outside and on our feet again for hours today. However, we had been notified in advance in writing that we would be unable to stand in front of the hotel during the parade and that we could not sit on the bleachers across the street as they were reserved for Macy's guests/clients. Neither was true. We watched random people line the rails below our room for an hour before the parade as well as help themselves to the bleachers after the organized fill occurred for about 30 minutes prior. I guess you couldn't count on either or as Clay said figure out how to get there with all the road and sidewalk blocks. The only reason we could see it was that we were above it. Anyway, it was fun. The window is small and we pretty much had to stand up and lean against it to see the parade except for the random very high balloon that was even with the window. Those moments were golden though! I am glad we did it and now it's been done.
So, we've spent all day inside and have dinner in the Essex House's Southgate Restaurant at $125pp at 5pm. Clay thinks he can eat his money's worth and is sure I can't. I am sure I can't either! He has a plan though. The other night at Nino's Tuscany they had $3.50 each oysters on the half shell. They are on the Thanksgiving Buffet menu tonight. Clay figures that if he eats 20 to 25 oysters and some turkey or beef that he has gotten his money's worth. We'll see.
We've checked in online for our flight home tomorrow on United. Essex House wants $10 or so to allow us to print them in their Business Center so that is not happening. Clay has mapped out a public transit route for us to Newark Airport tomorrow and we'll allow plenty of time for that with the added goal of getting there early enough to find a kiosk and print our boarding passes at the airport.
The Thanksgiving buffet was good but we're both positive we did not eat our money's worth! Clay ate about a dozen oysters. I ate a half dozen raspberry macarons so Clay felt I made a bigger dent than expected. It turned out to actually cost us $337. The 20% gratuity was automatically added to the bill for the self-service buffet! Then there were taxes and a $12 beer Clay ordered. They included welcome drinks and coffee after. We had one of each of the welcome drinks. Both were seasonally tasty. One had rum and spices and one had vodka and apples. We both thought that we had prepaid for everything on this trip months ago and we're surprised to see the original $125 pp charged on the tab. We didn't have anyway to prove it and after a manager checked our hotel account, he couldn't find that we'd paid it. Clay checked when we got back to the room and couldn't find the $250 we both thought had been charged when we made the reservations. So, Clay went back down and authorized the charge.
Unless something extraordinary happens, I won't be back with any more posts about this trip. It has been a good trip and a good birthday present even if a bit too extravagant.
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Little Bob hits the road
Little Bob hits the road
Thursday, November 24, 2016
Wednesday, November 23, 2016
A long day's walking
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Clay started a movie on TV last night, Hangover III. He promptly went to sleep. I stayed up and laughed myself silly. They were outside on Central Park South setting up bleachers across the street for the parade until at least midnight. I fell asleep before the noise stopped. We slept in this morning as we had no where to be early today. I wanted to go to the Guggenheim and after 3pm go see the parade balloons being inflated. Clay was up first about 12 hours after he'd gone to bed and that woke me up. He went down the hall to get ice, then he went downstairs to the restaurant in the lobby to get me a complimentary coffee. After that he went across 58th and around 6th to go to Merci Market for breakfast. He had a bagel and cream cheese and brought me a yogurt.
We set out towards Central Park about 10am. We walked paths and trails and stopped at the Dairy Visitor Center, the ice skating rink, the Balto statue, the Alice in Wonderland statue, Cleopatra's Needle and came out on 5th Avenue past the Met. The Guggenheim opened today after 10am so we got there about an hour later. We passed the Neue Gallery on the way and saw their banners that they were currently showing Klimt. We were excited but when we went back found that they are closed on Tuesday and Wednesday. So, we missed that. But we really enjoyed the Guggenheim. The building is by Frank Lloyd Wright and it was as special as the art displayed. We ate at the restaurant there sometime after 1pm. We ate light not because we were starving but because we needed to sit somewhere for an hour or so! It was good and because we had made a gift shop purchase and had the receipt we got a 10% discount.
Now knowing what we know now, I can't say that we'd have crossed the park headed to Columbus Ave and 79th. But we didn't know and off we went. We headed for the 79th St entrance because I wanted to see the Belvedere Castle in the park. We went in and all the way up inside. It was crowded but nothing like what was coming! We exited through the Ramble and started seeing detour signs. Then crowds and crowds of people trying to get out of the park. But the paths and roads and entrances and exits were closed. We wandered back and forth for maybe an hour with Trolls balloons in sight next to the Natural History Museum but no way to get there. We had to walk over a mile, maybe 2, by the time we got inside the viewing area with a million or so other people. I'm only counting the ones who touched me not everyone I could see. There were only about 2 dozen balloons and Snoopy and Kermit have evidently been fired. So it wasn't as exciting as I'd hoped. If we could have backed out we might have but I have to say we worked almost as hard to get away as we did to get there. I was fully dark by the time we had walked maybe 3 or 4 blocks in the opposite direction of where we wanted to go. We had planned to return to the Plaza Food Hall to eat at the Chinese place where we couldn't get seats yesterday at lunch. We were both beat and had to use the bathroom by now so we got a taxi. Traffic was a nightmare but at least we were headed away from the parade balloon madness. As I told Clay, it is done and I'm glad we did it though I wouldn't recommend it! If we had known what to expect, I expect we wouldn't have done it.
We got to the Food Hall after 5pm. We got seats in a nearly empty Chinese place and both had rice bowls instead of noodles or dumplings.. It was a bit of a disappointment. I had chicken and Clay had salmon. Maybe noodles or dumpling would have been better, but I liked the crepe place better. After that we detoured over to Merci Market to stock up for tomorrow since we have plans for a lazy day in the room watching the parade from our extraordinarily expensive parade view room. We bought enough for breakfast and lunch, we hope. Clay said he might want to go out in the afternoon, but I am not sure what would be open then. We'll see. We made reservations for the Essex House Thanksgiving buffet at 5pm tomorrow per recommendations of the hotel. They wanted $125pp for it and we paid it. We do not have high expectations and may wish tomorrow that we'd done some research for something more reasonable, but we were concerned about crowds and bad weather and this was definitely the easiest thing which we assumed would make it worth the extra expense. We'll see.
It has been a long, exhausting day so I'm going to put my feet up now and give thanks!
photos
Clay started a movie on TV last night, Hangover III. He promptly went to sleep. I stayed up and laughed myself silly. They were outside on Central Park South setting up bleachers across the street for the parade until at least midnight. I fell asleep before the noise stopped. We slept in this morning as we had no where to be early today. I wanted to go to the Guggenheim and after 3pm go see the parade balloons being inflated. Clay was up first about 12 hours after he'd gone to bed and that woke me up. He went down the hall to get ice, then he went downstairs to the restaurant in the lobby to get me a complimentary coffee. After that he went across 58th and around 6th to go to Merci Market for breakfast. He had a bagel and cream cheese and brought me a yogurt.
We set out towards Central Park about 10am. We walked paths and trails and stopped at the Dairy Visitor Center, the ice skating rink, the Balto statue, the Alice in Wonderland statue, Cleopatra's Needle and came out on 5th Avenue past the Met. The Guggenheim opened today after 10am so we got there about an hour later. We passed the Neue Gallery on the way and saw their banners that they were currently showing Klimt. We were excited but when we went back found that they are closed on Tuesday and Wednesday. So, we missed that. But we really enjoyed the Guggenheim. The building is by Frank Lloyd Wright and it was as special as the art displayed. We ate at the restaurant there sometime after 1pm. We ate light not because we were starving but because we needed to sit somewhere for an hour or so! It was good and because we had made a gift shop purchase and had the receipt we got a 10% discount.
Now knowing what we know now, I can't say that we'd have crossed the park headed to Columbus Ave and 79th. But we didn't know and off we went. We headed for the 79th St entrance because I wanted to see the Belvedere Castle in the park. We went in and all the way up inside. It was crowded but nothing like what was coming! We exited through the Ramble and started seeing detour signs. Then crowds and crowds of people trying to get out of the park. But the paths and roads and entrances and exits were closed. We wandered back and forth for maybe an hour with Trolls balloons in sight next to the Natural History Museum but no way to get there. We had to walk over a mile, maybe 2, by the time we got inside the viewing area with a million or so other people. I'm only counting the ones who touched me not everyone I could see. There were only about 2 dozen balloons and Snoopy and Kermit have evidently been fired. So it wasn't as exciting as I'd hoped. If we could have backed out we might have but I have to say we worked almost as hard to get away as we did to get there. I was fully dark by the time we had walked maybe 3 or 4 blocks in the opposite direction of where we wanted to go. We had planned to return to the Plaza Food Hall to eat at the Chinese place where we couldn't get seats yesterday at lunch. We were both beat and had to use the bathroom by now so we got a taxi. Traffic was a nightmare but at least we were headed away from the parade balloon madness. As I told Clay, it is done and I'm glad we did it though I wouldn't recommend it! If we had known what to expect, I expect we wouldn't have done it.
We got to the Food Hall after 5pm. We got seats in a nearly empty Chinese place and both had rice bowls instead of noodles or dumplings.. It was a bit of a disappointment. I had chicken and Clay had salmon. Maybe noodles or dumpling would have been better, but I liked the crepe place better. After that we detoured over to Merci Market to stock up for tomorrow since we have plans for a lazy day in the room watching the parade from our extraordinarily expensive parade view room. We bought enough for breakfast and lunch, we hope. Clay said he might want to go out in the afternoon, but I am not sure what would be open then. We'll see. We made reservations for the Essex House Thanksgiving buffet at 5pm tomorrow per recommendations of the hotel. They wanted $125pp for it and we paid it. We do not have high expectations and may wish tomorrow that we'd done some research for something more reasonable, but we were concerned about crowds and bad weather and this was definitely the easiest thing which we assumed would make it worth the extra expense. We'll see.
It has been a long, exhausting day so I'm going to put my feet up now and give thanks!
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Tuesday, November 22, 2016
Thanksgiving in NYC for our birthdays
Tuesday, November 22, 2016
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We flew to Newark today to start our birthdays trip. I had voted to drive up but Clay over-ruled me. We got cheap seats on United. It was a full flight and OK except for a rough take-off and a world-class rough landing. Descent was about a half-hour long nightmare and I was only a couple of minutes from using the barf bag when mercifully it was over. We didn't check luggage so as quick as we could get outside we took a cab into Manhattan through the Lincoln Tunnel. This was convenient but the tolls for the roads and tunnel made it extravagant. I was relieved to sit in a car though!
We got in about noon and our parade view room at the Essex House was not promised until 4pm. We dropped our bags with the Bellman forgetting how cold it was outside and leaving our extra layers and Clay's hat and gloves in the bags. Oh well. On top of that we somehow gave Clay's cell phone number to the desk wrong or it was typed in wrong. Anyway, when we got back after 4pm and the room 610 was ready for us, Clay asked why he wasn't called and we found out they had called some other number. Oh well. The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade view rooms on floors 3 to 8 are available at Essex House for a 3-night minimum for a queen bed for us at $1799 per night. This will definitely be a once in a lifetime experience for us.
Clay wanted to walk by Trump Tower and St. Patrick's Cathedral so we walked that way. At The Plaza I saw a sign for Todd English Food Hall in the basement and we went in. It was like a big fancy food court. We wanted a Chinese place but as we waited it came clear we'd never get a seat so we crossed over to the crepe place. It was very good. We each had a savory and shared a Nutella. We also shared a Nutella hot cocoa. It was a great lunch and affordable. We'll be back as it is open from morning to 8pm.
It was a police state zoo on 5th Avenue a block either side of Trump Tower. I pity people who live around there! We walked on down to St. Patricks and went in. We walked down another half block and across the street to Rockefeller Plaza. We went in the big Lego store and got Mom a new watch for Christmas after some phone consultations. We watched the zamboni and the ice skaters. We walked back by MoMA. We spent enough time in their large gift shop to realize that neither of us love modern art enough to wait in line to pay about $25 pp to go in the museum.
We got our room and waited to 5pm to go back out. We had seen a place about a half block away called Nino's Tuscany that had a sign outside for wood oven pizza. We went back for dinner. We were the first ones! By 6:10pm other people were arriving but I was beat already. We got a salad for Clay and a meat lover's pizza to share. We couldn't finish it. It had no tomato sauce on it! It was alright. We skipped dessert and went to the Food Hall again. Before dinner we had gone to CVS a couple of blocks away and got Coke Zeros for the room. We also checked out a deli/grocery place that is over on 6th Avenue just around the corner from the back entrance here. It is open 24 hours a day so that will work nicely for us!
Tomorrow we hope to visit the Guggenheim and go see the big balloons being inflated for the 90th annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade!
photos
photos
We flew to Newark today to start our birthdays trip. I had voted to drive up but Clay over-ruled me. We got cheap seats on United. It was a full flight and OK except for a rough take-off and a world-class rough landing. Descent was about a half-hour long nightmare and I was only a couple of minutes from using the barf bag when mercifully it was over. We didn't check luggage so as quick as we could get outside we took a cab into Manhattan through the Lincoln Tunnel. This was convenient but the tolls for the roads and tunnel made it extravagant. I was relieved to sit in a car though!
We got in about noon and our parade view room at the Essex House was not promised until 4pm. We dropped our bags with the Bellman forgetting how cold it was outside and leaving our extra layers and Clay's hat and gloves in the bags. Oh well. On top of that we somehow gave Clay's cell phone number to the desk wrong or it was typed in wrong. Anyway, when we got back after 4pm and the room 610 was ready for us, Clay asked why he wasn't called and we found out they had called some other number. Oh well. The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade view rooms on floors 3 to 8 are available at Essex House for a 3-night minimum for a queen bed for us at $1799 per night. This will definitely be a once in a lifetime experience for us.
Clay wanted to walk by Trump Tower and St. Patrick's Cathedral so we walked that way. At The Plaza I saw a sign for Todd English Food Hall in the basement and we went in. It was like a big fancy food court. We wanted a Chinese place but as we waited it came clear we'd never get a seat so we crossed over to the crepe place. It was very good. We each had a savory and shared a Nutella. We also shared a Nutella hot cocoa. It was a great lunch and affordable. We'll be back as it is open from morning to 8pm.
It was a police state zoo on 5th Avenue a block either side of Trump Tower. I pity people who live around there! We walked on down to St. Patricks and went in. We walked down another half block and across the street to Rockefeller Plaza. We went in the big Lego store and got Mom a new watch for Christmas after some phone consultations. We watched the zamboni and the ice skaters. We walked back by MoMA. We spent enough time in their large gift shop to realize that neither of us love modern art enough to wait in line to pay about $25 pp to go in the museum.
We got our room and waited to 5pm to go back out. We had seen a place about a half block away called Nino's Tuscany that had a sign outside for wood oven pizza. We went back for dinner. We were the first ones! By 6:10pm other people were arriving but I was beat already. We got a salad for Clay and a meat lover's pizza to share. We couldn't finish it. It had no tomato sauce on it! It was alright. We skipped dessert and went to the Food Hall again. Before dinner we had gone to CVS a couple of blocks away and got Coke Zeros for the room. We also checked out a deli/grocery place that is over on 6th Avenue just around the corner from the back entrance here. It is open 24 hours a day so that will work nicely for us!
Tomorrow we hope to visit the Guggenheim and go see the big balloons being inflated for the 90th annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade!
photos
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