The Retired Shows: April 2016

Tuesday, April 12, 2016

New York City

We love our annual spring trip to New York! This year we flew out on a Monday to have many days of fun before the basketball events start.

MONDAY
A 7:00 am flight from CR through Chicago got us to NY by 1:00. We settled into The Essex House by JW Marriott which sits on the south edge of Central Park.


Lunch at the Stage Coach Deli

We made a special trip to the Neue Gallery to see the portrait of "The Woman in Gold" after seeing the movie. The portrait belonged to the Bauer family in Vienna and was stolen, along with others, by the Nazis. The portrait was returned to the family after a long court battle.

The Neue Gallery

We walked back to the hotel through Central Park on a lovely spring day. The trees are flowering and the tulips, daffodils, and blue berries are in bloom.

We finished up our first day by having dinner at La Masseria! It serves authentic italian cuisine and it was delicious. We were treated to complementary appetizers because we know one of the owners then proceeded to a salad and pastas. Don had pasta with lobster and red sauce and I had pasta with clams and garlic, butter sauce.

TUESDAY
We had lunch at the Carnegie Deli - noodle soup with mosha balls and a corned beef sandwich.

By subway and walking we went to the ONE WORLD Observatory. We walked past the 9/11 memorials and the 9/11 museum which we have been to before. The One World Observatory building is the tallest in the western hemisphere. We went up to the 102nd floor and walked all the way around viewing New York.


Don by the Downtown Athletic Club where they give out the Heisman Trophy.

9/11 memorial and museum

One World Observatory

View of the statue of Liberty and Ellis island

We took the subway over to Brooklyn to try out a new steak restaurant - St. Anselm.

WEDNESDAY
A sunny but brisk day enticed us to walk in Central Park again this morning. We enjoyed a ride on the antique carousel. We had 2:00 tickets for School of Rock so we ate lunch from a street vendor. We really enjoyed this musical.

Looking toward Essex House our hotel.

Street vendor food - polish hot dog and chicken kebob

School of Rock was a very fun musical. It involved lots of kids and they were great.

Pizza at Angelo's

An easy subway ride into Harlem for the famous amateur night at the Apollo Theater.

THURSDAY
The main item on our agenda today was the Broadway musical "Hamilton". Don bought our tickets about four months ago and good thing as they are the hottest and hard-to-get ticket now. It's the historical story of Alexander Hamilton. We really enjoyed it!

FRIDAY
Our agenda today included a trip to the Statue of Liberty with tickets to climb to the crown. We took the ferry over to Liberty Island and started the climb. It was not as bad as I had anticipated but it was over 400 stairs, most of which was very small spirals. What a view from the top.

After Liberty Island we got off the ferry at Ellis Island. This is a very interesting museum now explaining the immigration into the USA.

Ellis Island

After landing back on the NYC shore we took a subway to Brooklyn to eat at Peter Luger's, one of Don's favorite steak restaurants. BJ joined us and we order "steak for three".

SATURDAY
Don spent the day in gyms watching players for USA Basketball. I enjoyed a leisurely day. A walk through and to the far north end of Central Park on a sunny spring day was my highlight. We met LJ and Jana for a late dinner at Wolfgang's on 41st. A chef from Peter Luger's started this restaurant with about the same type menu. Steak for two, German fried potatoes, apple strudel.