It turns out that I was walking in NYC along the High Line and took the 1 subway line north to 108 street almost exactly 24 hours before the young doctor who is now in a hospital with Ebola. He’s also from my home state of Michigan, in another Detroit suburb near mine…grosse pointe as it turns out. It is strange how close this horrible epidemic is getting to us all and hard to know what to think. I did get a flu shot today. I hope the young doctor is okay. He sounds like an amazing person.
Filed under New York City
So by midday I had already received a text from delta that my 7:30 pm flight to Des Moines from LaGuardia was delayed til 8:00. By 1:26 or so it was now leaving at 9:30 pm so I leisurely sauntered along the new section of the High Line down to Chelsea Market at 15th street, ready to eat a leisurely late lunch. But no, another text at 4:19 pm had arrived. I figured it was another delay or even a cancellation. But no, the flight was now leaving at 7:35 again. at first I thought I’d read a previous text but I called to check with delta and sure enough, the flight was back on time. And I was late. I rushed out of the market, hustled over to the subway and made it back to 108 th and riverside drive at 5:15, grabbed my bag, skipped my plan to take the m60 bus to the airport and jumped in a cab.
Just my luck I had a newbie driver who took me to the wrong terminal but eventually I made it with time to spare and we will see if this does in fact leave on time. This appears to be a new or revamped terminal, with much improved food, 
fress iPads for use everywhere and lots of plugs to recharge all our gizmos. Now if they could just get the flight notification process under control. And the flights to leave on time. At 7:15 came a development that does not surprise me at all. our flight is now delayed until 8:15. We have a plane but no pilots. Post Script: we finally left the gate around 8:30 and the tarmac about 9 p.m.
Filed under airfare, New York City
Lovely day in the Hudson Valley with my old friends from London. We are staying at M’s gorgeous 1820’s eyebrow colonial farmhouse full of antiques, cozy couches, artwork and great food and drink set on a hill overlooking forty acres and beyond of red, yellow, orange leaves blanketed rolling mountains.
Today we drove about an hour north from Salt Point to Hudson, NY, stopping en route for some Mutsu apples, my favorite at one of many fruit and veg stAnds. Hudson was, as billed, a hipster haven full of NYC types and old storefronts filled with shops – antiques, boutiques, high design furniture, clothing, cosmetics, Turkish ceramics, you name it. we had a good brunch (yes brunch) at Cafe Le Perch (excellent locally sourced eggs, bacon, home baked bread).
We are having a very relaxing girls weekend, five friends who all worked together in London in the early 1980s, two of us Brits still in living in London, three yanks (in NYC, Tucson, and Des Moines). My flight in on Thursday took an unexpected turn…we ended up being diverted to Allentown, Pennsylvania after we ran out of fuel, allegedly, circling over LaGuardia which was messed up due to bad weather. Fortunately we only stayed briefly on the Tarmac in Allentown then flew back and landed in a suddenly sunny NYC.
Circling over
Filed under New York, New York City, Uncategorized
[The Beatles arrive at John F. Kennedy International Airport, 7 February 1964]
I have a particular soft spot for the Queens (NY) neighborhood of Forest Hills because 1) My dear college friend Myra grew up there and I visited her family’s apartment often, spending time with her warm generous parents and sibs 2) My parents spent the first night of their honeymoon at the Forest Hills Inn (see photo below).
[A view down Queens Boulevard, near its intersection with Yellowstone Boulevard in Forest Hills.]
So it was fun to return briefly last Sunday with Myra as well as my son and husband who were relative newcomers to Forest Hills. (Once a fan of the HBO show “Entourage,” my son did wear a “Queens Boulevard” t-shirt inspired by the show until it was in tatters.) We did a quick tour of the fancy part of town with its English-village Tudor-style brick buildings (my friend lived elsewhere, in a high-rise overlooking 12-lane Queens Boulevard, although she admits she didn’t always correct people who assumed she lived in the fancy part) including the Inn and the famous West Side Tennis Club where the U.S. Open was held between 1915-1920 and 1924-1978 (As a kid, I attended a few times there…in the 1970’s, not the early 1900’s.) I also found out for the first time that Myra SAW THE BEATLES !!! at the tennis club when she was all of 7 years old with her older brother. Her biggest memory is of swarms of girls crying outside the venue. When she asked her mother why they were crying, her wise mum replied “Because the Beatles have to go back to England.”
The main characters of Entourage.
We also ate some good appetizers at Agora, a local Greek restaurant, that got a shout out in a recent travel story about Forest Hills. See: Forest Hills is a Gorgeous Queens Neighborhood
Filed under New York City
I knew the NYLO hotel on NYC’s Upper West Side passed muster when I got a thumbs up email from my brother, who also decided to stay there and had arrived at his room before we did. The hotel turned out to be a real find, especially for $120 a night ($151 with tax). The room was small, as expected, but well appointed, huge bed, comfortable linens, edgy but not too edgy furniture, art, light fixtures, clean and streamlined bathroom. Not too noisy at night even though we ended up with a room overlooking Broadway when I had asked for a presumably quieter interior room (my brother’s room got no traffic noise). I found out NYLO stands for New York Loft and the Texas-based hotel chain has outposts in Texas, Warwick (near Providence) (RI) and soon Nyack (NY). Good to know!
Remarkably, the restaurant my uncle had chosen for dinner turned out to be connected to the hotel. It’s called Serefina and it had good affordable Italian food (I had good bolognese, pizza etc). Monday morning we went for coffee and pastries to Irving Farm, a little basement cafe on 79th just south of Broadway (there are several other Manhattan locations). After a quick visit to Zabars for bagels to take home to Iowa (I still miss H&H bagels) we walked across the park to meet my aunt at PJ Bernstein, a good deli on third ave near 71st street (that’s their cheese/meat plate above).
Our flight home from Newark went well despite a few stressful moments when we inadvertently left the subway station at 34th street and had to figure out where Penn Station was – above ground – and drag our suitcases through throngs of people at 5 p.m. At the airport, we somehow ended up again in the TSA pre-screened category but it didn’t make much difference this time around. We still had to stand in the same long line and take out our stuff and even take off our shoes (hrrummphhh). A guy in line ahead of me said that TSA pre-screened only really produces perks at Newark if you’re passing through Terminal C (we were in Terminal A). Whatever…I was just happy we made it to Newark with ample time to catch our flight – and it left on time and we got home on time! Love that direct flight!
Filed under air security, DINING, New York City, Rhode Island, Texas
CAught sight of Naomi watts, Lieb Schreiber and their two tow headed boys looking about as harried as we did this morning in the Newark airport. Keeping it real! Our direct flight from Des Moines went without a hitch. For some reason, d and I were given “TSA preselect” status so we jumped the queue at security, didn’t even have to take off our shoes or take out our liquids. Woohoo. I am usually the person randomly selected for a pat down so nice change. So far so good traveling on thanksgiving day.
Filed under New York City, Uncategorized
So my carefully laid plans have collapsed (twice….long story) and I’m now scrambling to find a hotel room in NYC’s Upper West side the Sunday after thanksgiving – as in this Sunday night. Not my favorite position to be in but at least it’s not the Thursday of Thanksgiving (let’s hope that plan doesn’t collapse…) I’ve stumbled upon the NYLO hotel at 77th and Broadway which is surprisingly affordable ($150 including tax) but the affordability has me a little suspicious. I’ve looked it up on Trip advisor and Yelp, for what that’s worth and I’ve tried to find out if it’s listed on any recent bed bug reports and so far nothing alarming has cropped up so guess we’ll give it a go. It’s only for one night (famous last words)…. (What does NYLO stand for?)
Filed under LODGING, New York City
CDOT, along with numerous community partners, is building the Bloomingdale Trail and Park– a multi-use linear park that will be the first of its kind in Chicago.
As a big fan of New York City’s remarkable High Line park, I was pleased to read in the recent Rails to Trails magazine about a similar park under development in Chicago – roughly scheduled to be useable by fall 2014. Like the High Line, the 2.7 mile Bloomingdale Trail – now under construction – will transform an elevated rail into a recreational trail/park. But there are differences – the Bloomingdale Trail will permit biking (it’s designed to be multi-use); it’s twice the length of the High Line and it runs through four still-bustling urban neighborhoods in northwest Chicago – Wicker Park, Bucktown, Humboldt Park and Logan Square (the High Line does this in spots, as I recall.) For more details, visit the “Reframing Ruin” photo exhibit at the Center for Neighborhood Technology (1741 N. Western Avenue) about the Bloomingdale rail – pre-transformation (presumably what the photo above portrays) into a trail. for more details see: http://bloomingdaletrail.org
Filed under bike trails, biking, Chicago, New York City
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/artsandliving/travel/busreview/
I am contemplating a trip from NYC to DC in August and found a handy roundup of bus options from the Washington Post. (see above) Bolt Bus looks like a good option from what I can tell. Otherwise, Amtrak although it’s pricier.
Prevost X3-45 #0800 departs New York City
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| Slogan | Bolt for a Buck |
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Filed under New York City, Washington D.C.
TakeBetsywithyou
TakeBetsywithyou 