not about you: May 2005

Hector, Arturo, Steve, Mark

5/15/05
This trip was really a stopover on the way to London, but we had to come through here anyway- why not enjoy it? Arturo had never been here and it was fun to see it all through his virgin eyes. This was definitely a see the sights visit.
We stayed at the Marriott Righa Royal (W. 54th between 6th and 7th), an all suites hotel, thank you. So there was ample room for H. and me in the fabulously comfortable King Bed and room for Mark and Arturo on the tiny fold-out sofa in the living room. We immediately went for a quick stroll up Fifth Avenue, past our formerly-beloved-now-boarded-up-like-a-condemned-flophouse Plaza Hotel, into Central Park, where we were overwhelmed by twittering birds and frolicking squirrels among all the spring greenery. Standing at the southern edge, looking back toward the Plaza and the Sherry Netherland has to be one of the most beautiful views in the world.
We had a late dinner that night at Trattoria Dell'Arte, across from Carnegie Hall. Walked down to Times Square to see all the idiotic tourists like us gawking at the lights, then came back and went to bed to be ready for our big day in Noo Yark City!

Next day, Monday the 16th, we started early with a Gray Line bus tour all through the city until it deposited us down at Battery Park for a hazy view of the Statue of Liberty. We lunched on street hot dogs. Oddly, every single vendor was out of potato chips. Then over to see ground zero, just an ugly construction sight these days, but across the street we enjoyed going through St Paul's Chapel, NYC's only remaining church built before the Revolutionary War. After hours more wandering through the Village, Chelsea, Soho we ended up back up at the hotel. Later, we met Mark B. and Bill for drinks at One if By Land, then dinner at The Red Cat in Chelsea. Mark and Bill were exhausted from their recent week spent by the pool in Miami so they went home, while the four of us walked down to xl, trendy gay bar. Remember the episode of Sex and the City where the girls go to a gay bar and Miranda runs into her colleague in the unisex bathroom, in front of the urinal/fishtank? This is the bar where it was filmed. One really does pee at the fishtank. After a couple of stiff drinks we stumbled out into the arms of an idling taxi that whisked us to our hotel.

Tuesday morning (5/17), we walked down the street to check on the group of Star Wars geeks that were lined up in front of a theatre, waiting for the movie to open in ANOTHER WEEK. They had tents and rocking chairs and televisions while tons of Japanese news crews hovered about them. Took the subway down to Canal Street to do some shopping and basically killed the whole day walking until we left for JFK to catch our 11pm flight to Heathrow... coach class.