Month: November 2018

Tonight was the big night for Patrice’s performance at Carnegie Hall.  But first, we had other things to do.  That’s right……………. EAT!  Patrice and I headed off to Tanner Smith’s (204 W 55th St, New York, NY 10019).  The place had good ratings online but more important it was across the street from the hotel.  Forty degree temperatures will make a restaurant’s proximity to your hotel a major factor in deciding where to eat.   A quick look at the menu had my eyes drawn to one of my favorites. 

Although I love Shrimp N Grits I could not order them because it would violate one of my basic rules of dining.  Never order Shrimp N Grits north of the Mason-Dixon line.   Instead, I ordered the Avocado Smash.  It looked and tasted great but I didn’t take any pictures (Hey, I am just doing this for fun, I am not a professional blogger).

After breakfast we went to the gym to workout.  Then it was time to for Patrice to head to Carnegie Hall for the dress rehearsal. Here is a picture of her at the rehearsal.

No? How about now?

My favorite concert singer.

Erica’s friend Aparna joined us for the dress rehearsal. 

Aparna, Erica and me enjoying the rehearsal.

After the rehearsal, Patrice went back to the hotel to rest her voice and body. Aparna, Erica and I went in search of food. Waiting until the end of the concert for food was not an option. As Erica and Patrice will tell you, it’s important to “Feed the Beast”.

We just needed a small snack because apparently the post-concert meal was supposed to be a real feast. Aparna suggested a “Classic New York Experience”. See below.

The pizza was quick, cheap and great.

We joined Patrice at the hotel then it was off to the Hall. The performance was spectacular. We got a peek-a-boo wave at the beginning of the concert because she got in trouble for a full wave during the rehearsal. The conductor mocked her for waving. I spoke to one of the ushers about the conductor being a jerk. The usher said the guy is a jerk and shared some juicy gossip. Sorry, but on the advice of legal counsel, I cannot share that information on the blog.  Actually, later on, I did some further research and realized that the usher was not talking about tonight’s conductor.  So the dirt wasn’t about him but it doesn’t matter he’s still a jerk.

Tomorrow it’s time to head for home. Usually, ending a vacation is a sad time. This time, not so. The grandsons brought their parents to Hermosa for a visit so we will be seeing them tomorrow.  And there is one other thing that makes going home so good.

This morning we got off to an early start picking up our credentials for Sunday’s Carnegie Hall extravaganza. We saw lots of people in the lobby who represent other choirs performing on Sunday. We then headed off to breakfast at one of our New York favorites, the Brooklyn Diner (212 W 57th St, New York, NY 10019). On our way, we met three of Patrice’s choir buddies and invited them to join us. Unfortunately, we didn’t have Erica with us since she spent the night in Brooklyn (the borough not the restaurant) with one of her friends from college.

On the way to breakfast, we saw this scary sight on 52nd Street just west of 7th Avenue.

Pothole on 52nd Street just west of 7th Avenue

I tried to point out this hole (which was easily 1 foot deep) but no one seemed to care or want to do anything about it.

At the restaurant, we learned that others had a worse experience getting from the airport to the hotel than we did.  Two of our breakfast companions arrived with the majority of the choir members in Newark and took a bus to Manhattan.  The bus took 5 hours to get to the hotel.  Yes, 5 hours.  The other friend at our table has recently moved to Washington D.C.   She took the train from D.C. to Penn Station and then a subway to the hotel.  Her total time travel was a little over 3 hours.  So her travel time from D.C. to NYC was about the same as our time from the plane to the hotel and much less than the choir members who landed in Newark.  But this was not the worst story.  One of the choir members decided to take a later flight leaving LAX at 10 AM.  That flight was canceled and for some reason, she had to fly to Seattle in order to secure another flight to New York and didn’t arrive until 3 AM!

Breakfast was great.  In addition to the fun companions, we had spectacular meals.  I had scrambled eggs with chopped salmon and caramelized onions.  For sides, I had polenta home fries (good and unhealthy) and challah toast.   Challah is a word that does not exist in LA.  The food exists but we just call it egg bread.  You might think it is the same thing but it isn’t.  If you don’t know what to call it (as in Los Angeles) then you don’t know how to make it (like they do in New York).

Patrice shared French Toast and Chocolate pancakes with choir mate, Pat.

Scrambled Eggs with Chopped Salmon and Caramelized Onions. Polenta Home Fries.  Challah Toast.

After breakfast we took a leisurely walk then Patrice headed to practice and I headed to the gym.   A three-mile run helped me work off the calories and the guilt that resulted from such a fantastic breakfast.

Tonight we saw the Broadway hit, “Dear Evan Hansen”.  Patrice and I had tried to see this play numerous times but it was always sold out.  We finally got tickets for tonight’s performance and although it was very good, I have to say I was a little disappointed.  I think all the hype made me expect something much more special.

Following the musical, we headed to the Stagecoach Tavern (834 7th Ave, New York, NY 10019) for dessert.   Patrice’s quest for the perfect bread pudding is on hold and we have declared Masa (1800 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90026) the winner.  Tonight we started a new quest….. the search for the perfect cheesecake.  The Stagecoach Tavern offers two choices, the standard New York style cheesecake and Bailey’s Cheesecake.  We were undecided of which to try so we decided to try ……………………

Both

I’m sure you know the old joke about how to get to Carnegie Hall. That’s right “Practice, Practice, Practice”. Well Patrice practices a lot and it’s going to pay off because Sunday she, and her choir pals, will be performing at Carnegie Hall. When she asked if I wanted to go it seemed like a good idea at the time. Our daughter Erica was going to be in town during this time and it would give us a little getaway with our youngest child. Yes it seemed like a very good idea at the time. Today I’m not so sure.

First let me tell you about our trip to the airport. Going to LAX is never easy. I’ve tried all ways of getting there and none of them seem to work very well. With the exception of having our daughter Lindsay take us. But Lindsay now has a job and a Thursday morning ride from her was not possible. On our last trip I was told by a taxi driver about a new app (Ride Yellow) which is supposed to help the cab companies compete with Uber and Lyft. I downloaded the app and decided to give it a try. We arranged for the taxi to arrive at 6 AM and a few minutes prior to that I received a call that the cab was at our home. I was already impressed since when you arrange for Uber or Lyft they give you a 10 or 15 minute arrival window. Our house is hard to find so the inexperience driver frequently arrives 10 to 15 minutes late. With the driver being early, Patrice and Erica were not ready so I went outside to bring some of our luggage to the cab. I found the driver outside his car screaming at someone on the phone. We live in a very densely populated area near the beach where most people like to be asleep at 6AM. So I approached the driver asking him to be quiet. He told me he had to call another driver because his car had a flat tire.

After lots of screaming from our driver, and threats from neighbors saying they would call the police, we were on our way with our new driver. We were headed to LAX in plenty of time and things seemed to be going according to our plans. At least that is what I thought.

Our plane was listed as “On Time” and we boarded without any hiccups. Oops, I almost forgot, as you might recall Patrice frequently gets singled out for closer screening. This time she (and Erica) passed through without a problem but apparently I triggered the random screening buzzer. After a quick massage of my buttocks (“Something is lighting up by your buttocks sir, so I need to perform a closer exam”) we were ready to board. Once on the plane we started to relax and watch the free “Onboard Entertainment” (All you need is the American Airlines App to stream movies and television shows for free). Everything seemed just fine until we were notified by our pilot that, due to weather conditions in New York our departure would be delayed 45 minutes. About 45 minutes later we were finally airborne and enjoyed the flight except for a few short interludes of turbulence. When we approached New York we got more bad news, our flight was in a holding pattern until the staff at JFK could snow plow the runway. Immediately every airplane disaster movie I’d ever seen flashed through my brain. This final stage of the flight went fine (if you don’t count my soiled underwear) and we exited the plane.

After claiming our luggage we got on line for a cab ride into the city. It always surprises me how few cabs seem to be available for transport into Manhattan from JFK. This certainly isn’t Las Vegas where a 5 minute wait at McCarran International Airport is unheard of.

Waiting for the cab was made worse by the weather. It is incredibly cold here and as I mentioned it has been snowing

I asked our driver how long it would take to get into the city. He said he didn’t know and proceeded to pull out his phone and start to search. Snow, wet highway, lots of cars and a driver doing a Google search on his phone? Can you think of a better recipe for disaster? I offered to look for him. I showed him the suggested route and he nodded. I took that as a good sign.

Unfortunately I was wrong. Google estimated a 1 hour and 29 minutes trip to the hotel. In reality the trip took us 3 hours. The road conditions were awful. Gridlock was the rule. It was a brutal trip and only made worse by my being hungry. My kids know, “Daddy’s hungry” is not something they or anyone else wants to hear. We checked in to the hotel and rushed to dinner at the Topaz Noodle Bar (129 W 56th St, New York, NY 10019) which was very close to the hotel. The food was excellent but take that under advisement since like I said I was very hungry. We had dumplings and pad thai. All was very good.

Sorry no food pictures. I was just too hungry. No more writing either. I was up early and need some sleep.