New York City here we come! With Big East Tournament basketball tickets in hand we are off to NYC for a week of basketball, sight seeing, theaters, and celebrating my BIG birthday.
We are staying at the Manhattan Club on a timeshare exchange. It is located in mid Manhattan and is a great location.
We bought week-long subway passes and ventured out the first night to an off Broadway theater to see "Million Dollar Quartet" with lots of great music telling a true story. It was a very neat older theater.
Basketball at the Madison Square Garden consumed most of Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Tuesday between sessions we took the subway to Brooklyn to eat at the best steak house in NYC, Peter Luger's. We had a steak for two, German potatoes, their famous bacon as an appetizer with salads. Wednesday night's meal was at Del Frisco's, another famous steak and seafood place. It was located in the Rockfeller Center area. We had their crab cake for an appetizer, steak for Don and fish for me.
Wednesday night we skipped the basketball games to go to the Apollo Theater in Harlem for the famous "Amateur Night." It was GREAT fun!
Thursday morning before the games we went up the Empire State Building. A view of New York from the top!
Thursday evening a Brooklyn HS coach took us out to eat at Babbos. It was a great Italian restaurant.
Friday was sight-seeing day. We took the ferry to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.
Wearing headsets giving lots of information, we walked around the Statue of Liberty area. The inside is still under remodel and we could not go up inside.
Ellis Island was very interesting. Again with headsets we toured through the building and imagined how the immigrants felt as they were processed through.
Saturday we took the subway to the 9/11 Trade Center area. New buildings are going up. Memorials are in the place of the 2 buildings - wonderful fountains using the Trade Center bases. Pictures do not show how wonderful they are. We visited St. Paul's church which served as a refuge to all the workers and volunteers during that tragic time.
We had a famous hotdog from a street cart and then to a matinee theater - Memphis. It was fabulous!
Carmine's was the dinner restaurant tonight! It is a famous Italian restaurant in the Time Square area that serves family style.
Subway again! We really got our $25/week ticket price from the subway.
Sunday Gospel Tour and BIG birthday day!
We signed up for a Gospel Tour for Sunday. The tour bus took us through Harlem and the tour director gave us lots of fun information. The "brownstones" dominate the Harlem area. Real estate is now very expensive in this area.
The church service was very interesting! We enjoyed it and had to leave after an hour and the sermon hadn't even started yet.
The Cotton Club, a famous jazz club, was our lunch buffet restaurant. As we had lunch we were entertained with more music - mostly religious gospel.
Off the the theater again tonight. A hard ticket to come by and a controversial show - The Book of Mormon. Great musical, funny, and well done.
New York cheesecake instead of birthday cake! New York City was a great place to turn 60!
