Wow....it is hard to remember all we did today. We are staying at the Holiday Inn Express at 45th and 5th Avenue, right in the heart of the city, 3 blocks from Times Square and the theatre district and 3 blocks from the public library or St. Patrick's cathedral. Our hotel includes breakfast so we all met there as a group and the guide had arranged a 2.5 tour for us. It was really great because we got a great overview of lower east and west side of Manhattan, traveling to our destination of Battery Park and Ground Zero.
Our first stop was Grand Central station and we walked around the station which is just beautiful...then we trekked on through the Garment District, Meatpacking District, Chelsea, West village, Greenwich Village, Soho and into the Financial District.
We stopped at Battery Park and then went into the World Financial Center to get a bird's eye view of the Twin Towers site. Unbelievable, especially when you consider that the skyscrapers there now are only half the height of the Twin Towers.
We then walked to St. Paul's Episcopal Church, the little church across the street from Ground Zero...this little church as you may remember survived the disaster and it became a shelter for all the volunteers and firefighters who worked relentlessly during that time. Beautiful, moving, experience...
We then returned to our hotel and Jeff and I headed for New York Public Library....I loved the grand reading rooms and the ceremonious spaces. Beautiful architecture and rotundas...and so many special collections rooms. And the lions Patience and Fortitude! Someone got those lions/bookends as a wedding gift (hmmm...Shelly?)
We then went to Bryant Park, a beautiful park that is often featured on Good Morning America...we sauntered around and Jeff could not get a good reading on his GPS (because of the skyscrapers...?) We then called Louise Lund, Chris's Mom (Mindy's boyfriend's mother...) and we made arrangements to meet her for lunch tomorrow. She is an artist who does the windows for Faccionable, a Nordstrom division. Apparantly she works right across the street from St. Patrick's cathedral. She had just returned from the fabric mart.
Then a nap...and since my feet were killing me, Jeff googled "Naturalizers" and off we went to find a store to buy me another pair of shoes. Acckk! I forgot to add an extra pair and a pair of sandals for the theatre. Jeff has the subways almost mastered so we were able to travel there where I tried on about 15 pairs and finally found one that felt good. Ahhh...relief. I made it back to the theatre just in time for the opening of Tennyson Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, with James Earl Jones, Phylicia Rashad (from Cosby fame), and a young actress Anike Noni Rose. I saw this play years ago...but this interpretation seemed so contemporary. It was excellent...but I can't wait to read it since it was published in the 50s.
Then about 12 of us we went across the street to Sardi's, for a nightcap and post-theatre dicsussion....Jane Hallinger, one of our English professors is so good at leading these discussions and we all enjoyed the discussion as well as the coffee, drinks and desserts.
Now home...and I feel wired by the stimulation of the evening. What a great trip this is!
No comments:
Post a Comment