New York and Boston May 2025 - Part I New York

On the Subway

Monday May 12

Yesterday was a very busy, long day. We got up at 3:30 AM to catch our flight to NYC. The flight was 2.5 hours and uneventful, which is always good. Then we had a 50 minute Uber ride into the city. When we arrived at the hotel our rooms weren’t quite ready so we stored our bags and went around the corner for very mediocre deli sandwiches. It wasn’t Jewish deli for sure! Oh well. I was the one that vetoed the very good Ramen place right next to the hotel. My bad.

Back to the hotel and our room was ready. The room was very nice, with a little bit of a view of Central Park. BUT!!! There was a low-pitched hum throughout the room, and we couldn’t figure out where it was coming from. Very disturbing. We unpacked and then met up with Daniel, Kelsey and Emi. We decided to go ahead and go to Brooklyn, walk around, get a snack, maybe find a playground for Emi, and then head to our Mother's Day dinner reservation.

Oh has Emi changed since March! Her vocabulary is exploding - she says Emi happy, duckies for any bird, especially pigeons. Mama for Mama, and Dada for any man (sorry Daniel). She says Outside! And many other things that I forget. And she has become LOUD! She has discovered screaming, and thinks it’s great fun. NBD if we’re outside, but in a subway car, or a restaurant, not so great. And she’s only 17 months so too young to listen if we say SHHHH. The inter web says to ignore it so you don’t feed it. I’m not sure how good at that I’ll be!

We all used transit express to ride the subway, and google maps to figure out our route. We walked along some tree-lined esplanade in Brooklyn and then made our way to a restaurant with outside seating where we could order a snack for Emi and us to share. We got sweet potato fries and as long as there was ketchup to dip them in Emi was delighted. Also in the plethora of pigeons (aka duckies)!

Then we walked over to Fort Greene where there was a very nice playground. Of course Emi fell asleep right before we got there, but she woke up in enough time to play for about 15 minutes before we headed to the restaurant. The restaurant was VERY good, but it was very very warm where we were sitting. They had the windows open but still. I think our long day was catching up with me. We shared a salad, asparagus, some fried cheese balls, and 3 different pasta dishes, tortellini, lasagna and green ravioli with morels. They were all great.

We took the subway back to the hotel. It was supposed to be an express train but it stopped more than it was supposed to. Who knows. When we got back to the hotel I complained about the humming to the front desk and they offered to move us. A hassle but decided it was worth it. The new room did not hum except in the bathroom, but we could hear the TV in the room next door. I dunno, none of it bothered me; I was so tired. I slept pretty solidly from 9 pm to 6:30. Then I got up to have a cup of coffee and go for a run in Central Park.

It was a beautiful morning and there were so many runners and cyclists out! I ran for 2 miles and then turned around. I know I could do a loop but I hadn’t planned my route so I played it safe.

Central Park Running

Got back to the hotel, took a shower and met Lee for breakfast. Soon we’ll head out with the gang, maybe take Emi to the children’s museum and figure out something for lunch and dinner. Tomorrow and Wednesday we’re babysitting for Emi.

Tuesday May 13.

We ended up walking to a playground in Central Park. it was a great playground for toddlers, little slides, steps, sand, and small hills and valleys made with an artificial substance in different colors. Emi did a little of all of it and enjoyed it all. She is very into picking up trash and throwing it away. Another neatnic! Maybe.

Central Park Playground

It was getting sort of close to lunchtime for some of us. Dan had some work calls to make and Kelsey had a little work to do as well, so we took Emi to Chipolte’s. We got her a kid’s quesadilla but she only ate a bite of it. But she really liked the little bag of chips that came with it and slowly ate them all. I got a salad bowl and Lee got a taco to tide us over. 

When Dan and Kelsey were finished working we walked over to a New York style version of a Singaporean Hawker Stand! It wasn’t exactly the same but it had the same general idea. I got a fish curry that was really good. Dan got a chicken curry, Kelsey got some fried rice and Lee got a biryani bowl. I think we all enjoyed our late lunches! Emi ate some of Kelsey’s rice, a lot of it ending up in her stroller as we found out later! Then we walked back to Central Park and went to their little zoo. It was small but the few exhibits it had were done well, and it wasn’t very expensive by New York standards. We saw snow monkeys, seals, snow leopards and grizzly bears. Emi waved to a grizzly bear that was hanging out right on the other side of the glass. Lee caught it on video, very cute!

We also watched a heron having a fit because a squirrel was in his enclosure trying to steal his peanuts. I was watching him by the railing and he kind of flew at me as well! He definitely startled me! I stayed well away from him after that!

Then we went back to the hotel for a little while to rest before dinner. We both agree that we can’t keep up with the kids like we used to! We needed to stop walking and put our feet up for a while!

Dinner was at a nearby restaurant, I forget the name. I really wasn’t very hungry, so I ordered a charcuterie plate to share. The others got sliders and shared an entree of steak frites. I did have a delicious manhattan! Emi wasn’t hungry yet either. She ate some cheerios and that was about it. Later they got her a pizza and she ate a lot of that. Her stomach seems to be on Pacific Time still.

 

I didn’t run this morning. I’ll run tomorrow, but probably abbreviate it some. Hopefully it won’t be raining but if it is I’ll just tough it out. We’ve had breakfast and we’re just hanging out in the room until they are ready for us to start bbsitting. They’re going out tonight so it’s going to be a long day of Emi, but we have some plans up our sleeves!

Wednesday May 14, New York

First we went back to the playground in Central Park. She found some new places to explore and we picked a lot of dandelions and collected a lot of rocks. We walked to a salad place for lunch and she fell asleep on the way.

Then we took Emi down to Chelsea to look at mattresses. We both want to replace the Temperpedic that weighs too much and I find uncomfortable. We went to a store that sells mattresses recommended by Wirecutter and tried out a few. It’s so subjective, and hard to tell really by just lying on one for a couple minutes. I really need to spend the night in a mattress store. But there was one we thought we really liked. We inquired about kings too but the cost would be prohibitive. We’d have to replace the headboard and all the sheets, and remove the cedar chest from the bedroom to make room, so I doubt that we will do it.

Then we walked over to the Highline and let Emi walk around a little. She smelled the flowers and picked up rocks again. But she was getting hungry and tired. We tried to find something she would like to eat but the place we tried was kind of gross. She did eat some french fries and ketchup, but that was about it.

By then it was time to go back to the hotel. Dan and Kelsey gave us a break before we took over again and took Emi out for pizza. That actually worked out really well. The pizza was good, the caesar salad was yummy (big pieces of anchovies which I love). Emi ate a LOT of pizza. It was impressive, but then she really hadn’t eaten that much earlier.

We went back to the hotel and hung out in our room until they got back. It was late for us, but not that bad, and it didn’t really matter since we’re going to be up late again tonight.

Wednesday May 14

I went for a run in Central Park again this morning, this time going up the east side instead of the west. I was going to shorten the run but lost track of my repeats and ended up doing most of the prescribed workout. It wasn't raining at the start but by the end it had started to come down pretty good.

We took Emi to the Museum of Natural History today since it was raining. We took the subway and got pretty wet in the process. Emi's stroller has a rain shield but we had trouble attaching it and she kept kicking it off. The subway exit we needed didn't have an elevator so Lee flexed his muscles and carried her stroller down the steps. After the first set of steps we got a little wiser and took Emi out of her stroller first. Then one of us would carry her and the other carry the stroller. Eventually we got even smarter and kept her in the stroller but carried the whole thing together. Whew!

Once we found the stroller entrance to the museum we had a great time. I had read that the dinosaur exhibit was the place to take toddlers and that was definitely the case. Emi was enchanted, pointed and cooing and ooing and ahhing, telling us all about them as we walked past. She was a little toddler dinosaur tour guide! 

Telling Us All About The Dinosaurs

When she got tired we put her in the stroller and went to look at more boring exhibits in South America and Africa until she fell asleep.

Dan met us at a nearby Mexican restaurant. Fortunately by then the rain had stopped. We were glad to sit down for a while and Emi woke up in time to eat.

We went back to the hotel for a while. We stopped babysitting around 4 pm because it was time for us to get ready to go out that evening. We took an Uber to our dinner reservations at Chalong, a southern Thai restaurant. It was good, but not as good as Seema, where Sarah and I ate when we were here in November. We got a whole fried fish, pork and shrimp dumplings, a pomelo salad. I liked the salad and my mango sticky rice dessert the best. Oh and the cocktail I got, a souped up Manhattan, was fabulous!

We strolled over to the theatre and were there early, before the doors opened in fact. our seats were fantastic. In the very back of the orchestra, but right in the center with an excellent view of the stage.

I've never actually seen Gipsy before. I hated Ethel Merman and her booming bombastic voice. But Audra McDonald as the stage mother to end all, was perfect. She has a huge voice, but it's beautiful and thrilling without being overbearing.

Gyspy is one of Stephen Sondheim's earliest hits. It came out in '59 right after West Side Story in '57.

There’s a lot of great music in Gypsy, more songs than I actually realized were from it, including "Let Me Entertain You" and "Small World". And McDonald managed to give the songs depth and meaning. For example, “Everything’s Coming up Roses” sounds like it should just be a happy optimistic song, but it actually comes at the end of the first Act when Rose’s heart is broken because one of her daughters, June, has run away. In reality it’s defiant and sad.

The end of the show, when her other daughter, Louise, has become the famous stripper Gypsy Rose Lee, and Rose sings “Rose’s Turn”, was unexpectedly moving. Most of Gypsy is either funny or almost horrifying but that last song brought everyone to tears. It was weird how suddenly the whole audience started crying. Then it was over and we all stood up and cheered. Wow.

It was definitely hard to get up this morning but we have a train to catch!