New York was fabulous!

Background note: My mother and I went to NYC from May 20-25 to sell my grandmother’s painting at Sotheby’s, when it turned out to be worth more than anyone in the family wanted the responsibility of owning. The painting is nearly identical to this one.

My mother and I arrived Tuesday morning at 6:00 am, desperately tired and discombobulated. We had originally planned to go out and see the city, but were not quite in a state to do so. Instead we went straight to our hotel, The Yale Club, hoping they might have an open room and willing to pay a half-day rate if so. The gal at the front desk told us there might be something open around 7:30 so we left our things with the bell staff and staggered over to Grand Central Station to grab a bite to eat.

We found a place called Dishes, which had a delightful array of fresh pastries, sandwiches, fruits, smoothies and other such fare. I had a “bagel press” which consisted of a sesame seed(always a favorite) bagel with herb cream cheese, feta, and plum tomatoes pressed on some type of grill. It was absolute heaven! We walked back to the hotel after enjoying our breakfast and inquired about a room. They said nothing was available but maybe around 11:00 when folks started to check out.

We plopped down on one of the couches in the oh-so-elegant lobby and discussed what to do next. Mother had grabbed one of the cards describing the dress code from the front desk and we began to read through. No jeans, no tennis shoes, no casual sandals. Dress shoes, tailored pants or skirts, and dress shirts only. Very strict. Well I’m in basically a sweat suit and thongs and mom’s freaking out about her crocs. We both fumbled over ideas of where to go and what to do, both terrified to walk across the lobby and have someone comment on our attire. I had somehow gotten out of the house without my raincoat so we decided to hit the streets and try to find one as the NY weather had been rather wet. I finally worked up the courage to walk down to the front desk again and inquire as to where I might buy one. We wasted away an hour or so at the suggested spot and came back to find they had found us a room.

The view from our window.

After sleeping for about 2 hours, we decided to relax for the rest of the day, get to bed early and make a better go of it on Wed. A leisurely stroll around the immediate area and dinner sounded like just the ticket. We ate at an upscale Greek restaurant called Ammos which had simply superb, although tiny, Spanikopita. The walnut spice cake with honey, and cinnamon ice cream, was perfect and the rice pudding with fresh raspberries was the best I’ve ever had.

The next day we decided to go to the Trinity Church(the subject of the painting we were selling at Sotheby’s) and ground zero. I must quickly mention the fabulous grilled cheddar cheese sandwich with plum tomatoes alongside a flavorful Thai tomato coconut soup from Dishes, that I enjoyed before setting out. Wow! There was not much to see at ground zero and it was horribly windy and rainy so we didn’t explore as much as we might have otherwise. A church across the street from where the twin towers had been did have a beautiful old graveyard and some rather tear provoking memorabilia from 911.

Origami Crane chains sent in support by children in Asia.

We ducked into a discount designer clothing store, Century 21, to escape from the weather for a moment and were pleasantly surprised. We left with a large bag of goodies including clothing, hats, and jewelry and headed toward Trinity. Trinity Church is beautiful!

I did my best to photograph it from Wall Street like the painting.

Mom in front of the Church.

Of course, I had to take this picture for Jason.

We also stopped by the building where George Washington took his oath as President.

Wed night we went to see The Lion King. It was utterly amazing!

The music, the costumes, the dancing was all so colorful and engaging. The highlight of the show was Raffiki, played brilliantly by Tsidii Le Loka.

After the play, we stopped by Gaby for Dessert. We split an appetizer, goat cheese brie on baguette with greens in a balsamic reduction. It was incredibly delicious. I swear the greens were watercress although mom disagrees. I was talked into the pineapple carrot cake by our waiter who assured me it was like none I had ever tasted. He was right. The tiny square looked more like cheesecake, and the cream cheese frosting surrounding the dense, fruity cake certainly was rich enough to be. It was served with yogurt sorbet, which was again like nothing I’ve tasted. Light yet creamy with a perfect yogurt zing.

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