Christmas in NYC

So-this is the third time I'm trying this blog but this time I'm in Firefox instead of IE-I hope that makes a difference.

My mom and I went to NY for a couple days last weekend; we left Philly early Friday morning and arrived back Saturday about 6 PM-a busy 36 hours. My mom grew up in NY and is the one who introduced me to its charms; the theater and shopping in Midtown, Central Park, and the museums. (I discovered downtown on my own and took her there-in her day Soho was not a place you wanted to go!). We've traveled to NY together many times over the years, but in the past couple years we started a new tradition-the Christmastime visit. Manhattan has that extra special something around Christmas, and I hope to bring some of that right here to Myspace.
First, the Christmas tree at 30th Street Station




We arrived in NY about 10AM, and after dropping our bags at the hotel, we hit the street to start the day. One of those quirky store windows I'm always on the lookout for



We headed towards the Morgan Library to see an exhibit of original drawings from the Babar books and have lunch in their atrium. We also stopped in their museum shop to look for a mini-calendar for Mom's kitchen. (No luck, and we were unsuccessful in the other museum shops we went in. Luckily I was able to find about 15 to choose from on the internet when I got home-one of these days we'll take the sheets off that beautiful Apple she got for Christmas last year.)On the way there we stopped at Lord and Taylor to check out the windows; the place was beautiful, inside and out.








Next stop-MOMA-for the Van Gogh at Night exhibit and a little early dinner. Unfortunately the timed tickets for the Van Gogh were sold out for the evening; Friday night is free and the place was mobbed. We did stumble on this amazing littleexhibit of 20's movie posters that we spent some time looking at-I love to find those little gems, and this one sparkled!
We went to dinner at the Modern Bar Room, which is the casual side of the Modern restaurant; the same great food for less money, and the Friday night happy hour scene is always interesting.

By the time we finished dinner we were done in more ways than one-it was time to officially check in at the hotel and relax in the room.
Some shots on the way back to the hotel








The next morning we slept in a bit and had breakfast (eggs benedict with smoked salmon-yum) at the hotel restaurant Serafina. The idea was to get started on the day at MOMA for the Van Gogh exhibit we missed the night before, so after breakfast we headed out again.



A shot of mom on the stairs at MOMA-I'm so glad I asked her to pose for this!



The Van Gogh exhibit was incredible, unfortunately no pictures were allowed, so you'll just have to go yourself, or you can just follow the link and visit it online-I promise you won't regret it.

After we left MOMA we hopped in a cab uptown to the Met-so much art, so little time. We had to prioritize the exhibits; we'd start with the ones closing first. That meant the Morandi, which is already gone-he was not my cup of tea but mom enjoyed it. Next we went to the enormousexhibit commemorating Philippe de Montebello, who is retiring after many years at the museum. The exhibit displayed some highlights of the acquisitions during his tenure there.
















I'll leave you with some parting shots of the city at Christmas-Cartier tied up with a bow



and of course the iconic




Merry Christmas, happy holidays, and a happy new year to all!

Thanks for reading.

Girls' Weekend in AC Part I

My BFF Pat came to visit this past weekend and I think I can say that we had a great weekend. Eating, drinking, strolling, bike-riding, psychoanalyzing, shopping, and a lot more. We packed a lot into about 58 hours.

Normally girls' weekends entail going away somewhere and staying in a hotel, but for several reasons, including feeling a bit frugal (it's unusual for me but it does happen LOL), we decided to spend this weekend in AC. I found a room for Sunday night at this great new boutique hotel called The Chelsea. AC needs more hotels like this-not a casino, and styled with a mid-20th century modern meets 21st century vibe-like the Rat Pack in South Beach, but with a distinct nod to AC's storied and checkered past.

But more about the hotel later. I mentioned something about frugality-I got a room for Sunday night on the cheap on my favorite travel website Travelzoo.com-check it out for some great deals, both in advance and last-minute, and subscribe to their weekly email-good stuff. So the frugal part is that Pat and I stayed at our house on Friday and Saturday night, then absconded to more palatial digs at the hotel for Sunday. Mark couldn't quite understand why we'd spend money to stay half a mile away, but you get it, right?

So, as you remember, the last time we peeked in on it, my library/guest room was a total mess (version 1 of this blog had the picture, but I'll spare you). Well here's one view of it now (there are some additional cases but you get the idea)

not done yet but MUCH better with Mark's new cases. Plenty of room for our new Aerobed-they make one that sits two feet off the floor so you don't have to climb out, and it's actually pretty comfortable!

Pat arrived after work on Friday night, and after hanging out for a bit, we headed over to Brigantine to meet an old friend of hers for a drink. I won't say any more, because it's Pat's story to tell (or not) but the conversation served as fodder for psychoanalysis for the rest of the weekend.

After sleeping in until about 10 AM on Saturday morning, we left for a leisurely stroll and window-shop through the Pier at Caesars, the mall on the pier formerly known as Ocean One, but NOTHING like Ocean One.

The walk from the parking garage takes you through the lobby and casino, and includes an interesting view of the statues presiding over Atlantic Ave

as well as the neo-Roman hotel lobby

The view looking south from the second floor walkway over the Boardwalk

Some views of the Pier, both inside and out

We had lunch at The Continental, a Stephen Starr restaurant. He's the Philly restaurant juggernaut who is slowly but surely taking over at the shore.The food is just as good, but check out the view from our table!

Beach chairs and sand looking out at the view

So after lunch we strolled down to Ann Taylor, where they reduced the whole store by 25% just for us. We shopped and had some fun taking pictures in the dressing room (no, not those kind of pictures LOL)

After all that shopping, we were thirsty so walked back to the Starbucks. I think Pat was a bit surprised at the view; as she turned away from the counter, this is what she saw

Her reaction made me realize how often I take this splendor for granted-shame on me! More views from the Starbucks

We spent Saturday night uneventfully, relaxing at home with Mark in front of the Phillies game with some take-out Chinese. Early to bed-Friday night was a late night and we knew Sunday would be a busy day, starting with a bike ride on the Boardwalk. The next blog will start with that-stay tuned for Part 2-however I'll be at the ballpark for the Phils game tomorrow night so check back in a couple days.

Good night!

Girls' Weekend in AC Part II

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The Phillies blog I really want to do right now will have to wait; youtube keeps burping back my video, and Myspace doesn't like my pix either. Maybe it's a sign that I need to finish up the girls' weekend-I have to admit I've been very distracted by my Phillies!

Here's a bit of video from Youtube-the end of Saturday's game-the one that clinched the division-called by our Hall of Fame broadcaster Harry Kalas-

So on to the girls' weekend. We started Sunday with a boardwalk bike ride. Normally Mark has no patience for photography on the ride, but I asked him in advance if he would take some shots of Pat and I at some point, so I brought the camera along. We stopped directly in front of the Chelsea (the hotel where Pat and I would be spending that night); here's a long shot of us in front of the hotel

Here we are mugging for the camera

When we got back to the house, Mark made his usual yummy Sunday AM breakfast, and then Pat and I hung out on the back porch with the cats for a while. Mark was on a mission-a fishing mission, that is, and went to get the boat together.

You know how I love my reflections!

Here's Beamer and Lexie relaxing

Slowly but surely we made our way to the hotel; the plan was to hit the beach for a while and then get some early dinner and a drink later on. We were able to get an early check-in, so unloaded our stuff in the room

with its eclectic touches LOL

(small portion of the view)

One of the nice things about the "new" Atlantic City is that they're finally paying attention to the fact that the ATLANTIC OCEAN is right outside-the casinos set up beach bars in the summer and generally use the beach as an asset-at long last. The Chelsea has tent cabanas on their beach, but if you like to be close to the water, the beach valet will set up umbrella and chairs and provide towels. There is no bar service on the beach this year (they probably have to apply for several permits and grease a bunch of palms-maybe next year LOL), so we bought our drinks at the pool bar and took them down to the beach ourselves.

Here's Pat in her chair with her drink-

and the ocean view

Mark and his friends were fishing off the beach, and he called when they were approaching our slice of sand; I wanted to get some shots of Nadya out in the ocean.

Here she is approaching

We didn't know it at the time, of course, but at some point Mark lost the steering and almost beached her-luckily he was able to get control and limp safely home. We thought he was just showing off LOL.

Needless to say, our time on the beach was SO relaxing! The weather was beautiful-one of those amazing September days that just goes on and on. We didn't go in the water though-I stuck my toe in and was not surprised to find it VERY COLD.

Look at this sky-how could you go wrong!!!

Eventually we decided it was time to call it a day; as the sun started setting, the breeze cooled us down and we packed up and headed back to the room. We had dinner at the less expensive of the two hotel restaurants, Teplizsky's. It's Stephen Starr in the style of a 50's Jewish deli. Great atmosphere and food!

The cool drinks menu

My shrimp scampi (on a gorgeous hunk of bread instead of pasta)

Me in the booth, squinting as usual LOL

Sunset over Pacific Ave

You never know what you'll find in a Stephen Starr ladies room-this one had those poetry magnets on the inside of the stalls-waxing poetic in the loo-that's a new one!!

Next stop-the fifth floor.This is party central; the entrance to the outdoor pool and the fancy restaurant with the ocean view, Chelsea Prime, are located here, as well as a pool room and lots of lounging space for the beautiful people.

Looking towards Chelsea Prime

The fireplace

Pat and I had a nightcap at the Chelsea Prime's beautiful bar-Cable Cars-spiced rum and citrus juice, with cinnamon on the rim of the glass-yum!

Jeez-am I squinting again?! Don't answer that! And Pat is SO photogenic-I'd hate her if I didn't love her so much!

I guess we're getting old, because after one drink we headed back up to the room. Since it was Sunday night, I was hoping to watch Entourage, but NO HBO-WTF?-I really should send someone an email about that! Although they are still in the process of opening the place-maybe they just don't have it yet. Anyway, we both had to drive to Philly in the morning and were pretty tapped out from our long day relaxing LOL, so by 10 or so, it was lights out.

The next morning was a blur-we never got our wake-up call, so the knock on the door announcing breakfast was the first we knew of the time. The sunrise was right outside the window, though, so I stopped long enough to get some shots

And it was off to another Monday morning...

Cheers!