Only in New York

We had breakfast in the Plaza Court here in the St. Regis; I’m glad I’m have Titanium status or it would have been really expensive!

After breakfast, we walked down to Radio City Music Hall to start the Central Park Volksmarch.

The first instruction took us right back 6th Avenue to the park; en route, we saw one of many street corner Covid testing places. This one looked more respectable than most of them did.

Soon enough, we were in the park at the General Sherman statue at Grand Army Plaza.

Diane and I had both attended IBM’s Systems Research Institute in the early ’80s; it was a ten-week session in Manhattan, so there were ample opportunities to explore the city. But neither of us did much exploring of Central Park – it was not considered terribly safe territory. Things have changed for the better!

There was a temporary statue of Diane Arbus at the entrance to the park.

The route took us through the Central Park Zoo. We didn’t have time to go see the animals, but we did enjoy the Delacorte Clock’s performance.

There were, of course, flowers, like this wild daffodil we saw en route to the next landmark, the statue of Balto the sled dog.

We continued on, passing the Boathouse and the model boat pond, as well as the first robin of spring and some tulips.

We walked past the Alice in Wonderland statue and the back side of the Metropolitan Museum of Art before reaching Cleopatra’s Needle.

Cherry trees were in bloom, too.

We walked around most of the Reservoir, enjoying the views of the city.

We left the park to walk down Central Park West to the Dakota by way of the American Museum of Natural History and the New-York Historical Society.

Then back into the park to see Strawberry Fields and the Imagine Mosaic.

Our last stop was the Bethesda Fountain.

We picked up sandwiches from Le Pain Quotidien and ate them in our room in the short time before we had to leave for The Ed Sullivan Theatre and a taping of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

We had priority tickets, so we were guaranteed seating as long as we arrived by 4pm. We got there at 3.

A few minutes later, we’d had our tickets and Covid vaccinations checked and received the wristbands that would let us into the theatre.

Once they started letting people in, the line moved quickly.

We stayed in the outer waiting area for what seemed like an hour (but was probably only 30 minutes).

After a first and only chance to go to the bathroom, they let us into the theatre – but we had to turn off our cellphones, so I have no photos. We were warmed up by Paul Mecurio, then instructed on how to be an energetic audience by Mark, the stage manager. And then the real fun started, with Jon Batiste and Stay Human doing a short set, then Stephen came out and did some audience Q&A until it was time to roll tape.

We saw the cold open, heard the credits, and Stephen ran out on stage and the show proper began. It’s live on tape – so there were a couple of re-dos when something went wrong, but nothing major. Alexander Skarsgård was the first guest; they shot the interview in one continuous segment, then they recorded the intro and outro for the commercial break during the interview. Jack White was next – they recorded the interview, then “Maybe Dropping Soon” (which will air some other time, not tonight).

Jon Batiste and the band performed entire songs during each break – they were the highlight of the afternoon.

They set up the stage for Jack White’s first song, recorded it, and then had to reset for the second song (which is in support of a different album, so I expect it’ll air in a couple of months). Stephen took more audience Q&A while they were setting up for the second song – which had to be recorded again due to technical difficulties.

And that was it – everyone left.

I was happy to see a drawing of Ed Sullivan as we left.

I’m looking forward to seeing tonight’s show – not to see myself on TV (we were seated in an area that doesn’t get much love from the cameras), but so I can hear the whole show. Often Stephen and his guest kept talking while the audience was still laughing, and we couldn’t hear the first couple of sentences!

If you can attend a taping, it’s a lot of fun – but it’s a long process!

What city has two names twice?

Our flight from Richmond to New York uneventful, as we like it. Probably the most noteworthy aspect of the flight was that most of the time between “departure” and “arrival” was on the ground, not in the air: 20 minutes from pushback to takeoff, 51 minutes in the air, and 35 minutes waiting to get to the gate. We even saw Jeff briefly at the airport – we emerged from security about a minute before he boarded his flight to Boston.

As we descended into New York, we saw supply chain issues at work – a bunch of container ships (and others) offshore in their own holding patterns.

We’re at the St. Regis on this trip (I decided to burn a lot of Marriott points before yet another devaluation); the room is very nice and has LOTS of storage space (some hotels don’t seem to understand that their guests need places for clothing, toiletries, and suitcases). There’s no view, but we do have a butler!

One of the attractions of the hotel is the King Cole Bar with its Maxwell Parish mural, so we went there to have a drink before dinner. The bar claims to be the home of the Bloody Mary (originally the “Red Snapper”), but neither of us is a fan, so Diane had an Expresso Martini and I had a Charlie Chaplin. And we enjoyed those so much we had dinner at the bar, too, though the menu was pretty limited.

After dinner, we took a short walk down Fifth Avenue to 34th Street, stopping at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

The Empire State Building was lit in support of Ukraine.

We returned along Park Avenue with a brief stop at Grand Central Terminal; the Apple Store was already closed for the night, so we had to content ourselves with a quick photo on the concourse.

Into every life…

There’s a saying in Norway, Iceland, and probably elsewhere: “There is no such thing as bad weather, just inappropriate clothing.” Today was a very rainy day (1.32 inches at my brother’s house so far), and we definitely had brought inappropriate clothing – no rain gear of any kind. My sister-in-law lent us an umbrella and some ponchos (still in their package) and off we went!

Our first stop was Greenwood Cemetery to say ‘hi’ to my mother. We had problems finding her grave the last time we visited, so I was careful to make a note of the location; unfortunately, I only noted the section, which was insufficient to find her. As I was going to the office to get help and remembered that I’d also created a waypoint in the GPS app – and that got us to the right place. I’ve now added an additional line to my note saying that she’s near the “Simon Family Bench”, so I have great hopes of needing to search less next visit.

We grabbed lunch at a Greek restaurant named “Greek Cuisine”; Jeff and I liked it but Diane was not impressed. And then it was off to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts – Jeff wanted to see the mummy and other ancient art, and Diane and I wanted to see the Whistler to Cassatt: American Painters in France which had opened on Saturday. We had a little over an hour, which was just about enough time for the exhibit – I wouldn’t mind seeing it again, but I don’t think I missed much.

Our niece wanted to show us her apartment, so that was our next stop; it’s very nicely furnished and she was a gracious host – but she only was able to take an hour out of her work day before telling us “goodbye”.

And then it was time to say “goodbye” to Jeff; he’s flying out early tomorrow and wanted to see a Tulane friend who lives in Richmond, so we crossed the James and dropped him off before returning to my brother’s house to dry off and pack. Our feet were wet, but we seem to have survived.

Tomorrow, we are off to New York City for the next phase of our trip.

All paintings from Whistler to Cassatt: American Painters in France at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts through July 31, 2022. In order:

The Ten Cent Breakfast – Willard Leroy Metcalf
The Sketchers, 1913 – John Singer Sargent
Lighthouse at St. Malo – Maurice Pendergast
The Birthday Party – John Singer Sargent
Le Pont des Arts, 1907 – Edward Hopper
The Young Sabot Maker, 1895 – Henry Ossawa Tanner
L'Apertif – William J. Glackens

Who Knew?

We did the Richmond Capitol volksmarch today. The start point was Legend Brewing, a micro brewpub on Southside; we had lunch there but skipped the beer in deference to Passover.

The route took us to the Manchester Floodwall Walk and over the James River on the Potterfield Memorial Bridge. There’s a rock-climbing area just before crossing the river, and it was a busy day there.

While crossing, we saw the remains of several bridges that had been used in the evacuation of Richmond at the end of the Civil War.

Our first stop on the North side of the river was the Virginia War Memorial (dedicated to fallen veterans of wars from WWII to the “Global War on Terrorism”). En route, we saw Ethyl Corporation HQ, where my Mom used to work.

Even though my Grandfather had a store only a few blocks from the War Memorial, I’d only been there once or twice in all the time I lived in Richmond, and today was undoubtedly the longest time I’d been on the grounds.

We returned to the river and walked down the Canal Walk to Brown Island.

The walk took us to Shockoe Slip; my mother used to work at Virginia Elevator Company at 1210½ East Cary, which is now Sam Miller’s restaurant.

We continued to East Main Street and passed the former location of Branch Cabell in the Ironfronts (where my brother worked for many years as a stockbroker).

The next stop was Capitol Square, where we walked past the Capitol, the Washington statue, the Stonewall Jackson statue (Old City Hall is behind him), the Civil Rights memorial grouping, and the Executive Mansion.

We left Capitol Square and walked down to Main Street Station; it still has a little passenger service, but it’s mostly being used as a tourist center today.

We continued on Main Street to 20th, passing busy restaurants and the Poe Museum on our way.

On our way back to the river, we passed the Virginia Holocaust Museum and discovered that we had been taking the Richmond Slave Trail for a good part of our walk.

We returned to Legend Brewery and our car via the Mayo (14th Street) Bridge and the western section of the Floodwalk, enjoying the views of the James along the way.

I’d been in Capitol Square and on East Main Street many times while I lived in Richmond, but most of the rest of this walk was new territory to me. Who knew?

Tulips and Butterflies and Turtles, Oh My!

We’ve taken the AmaWaterways “Tulip Time” cruise out of Amsterdam twice – the highlight is the day we get to spend at Keukenhof admiring the amazing tulip displays. I’ve been there a couple of other times, too, and I hope to return.

Somehow, though, I’ve never posted any of the photos I took there to the blog.

We couldn’t go to Keukenhof this year, but we did the next best thing and spent the afternoon at the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden here in Richmond with Jeff, Cliff, and Michael Ann.

We started the afternoon by wandering around their tulip beds, which were in full bloom.