NYC – March 23-27, 2010
This trip has been almost six month in the planning. It started when I visited my friends Jeane and Jay Zorzy. I showed Jeane my DVD of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, and she loved it. I told here the musical was opening on Broadway in March, so we decided to invite my sister and here family and Eric.
Eric and I met Jeane at JKF on March 23. The weather was really bad so we took a taxi to our hotel, which was near the Empire State Building
Eric and I had an interior room with no view, but Jeane had a fantastic view of the Empire State Building
Jeane’s Empire State Buiding
Jeane will probably never live down this mistake. Of course you will read about my big mistake later.
We walked around a bit, in the freezing 37 degree weather, not my favorite. The three of us were dressed like Eskimos. We had a nice dinner at an Italian restaurant across the street from the hotel.
The next morning we braved the weather again, and took a subway to the Frick Collection. This was in a mansion on Fifth Ave. overlooking Central Park . The owner built the house with every intention of turning it into a museum after he died. It was an amazing building. I prefer impressionist art, but Frick’s collection of paintings, furniture and accessories was truly amazing. He spent millions on the collection.
Jeane and Sandy
Eric and Sandy
After the Frick Collection we headed across Central Park to have our lunch at the Levain Bakery. The cookies are $5.00 each and probably weigh half a pound. The park still had plenty of snow on the ground.
The Central Park Trio
We then took the subway to the TKTS booth in Times Square to buy tickets to The Importance of Being Earnest. It starred a famous British actor as the female lead.
We had dinner and walked to the theater. Then the fun started. I could not find the tickets. I knew I put them in my pocket before leaving the hotel, but they were gone. After twenty minutes or so, the ticket booth was able to trace the sale and issue duplicate tickets. But this is a mistake which I will never forget and will probably never hear the end of.
The show was amazing, but I could have done without the ticket drama.
The next morning we took the subway to Christopher Street, the heart of gay NYC. We treated Jeane to two stores; one with really hard core porn and another with regular gay clothing and souvenirs. Jeane opted not to buy Jay a gift at either one.
Christopher Street
We then visited Washington Square. I grew up in NJ and still haven’t all there is to see of NYC.
Eric and Jeane
Washington Square
We met my sister and brother-in-law (Evelyn and Steve) and my niece (Lisa) for lunch at a Mexican restaurant. The $3.00 margaritas were very potent; Eric and I each had two.
We then visited the South Street Seaport and the old Fulton Fish Market. There were lots of interesting shops with plenty of ideas for future art projects. We then split for the afternoon, Eric and I off to the theater and Jeanne with my sister.
That evening we saw a rock musical, Rock of Ages. At first Eric and I weren’t sure we would enjoy the loud music, but after a while we recognized some of the songs and had a great time.
It was finally Saturday, and the day we had all been waiting for. We were going to see Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, the Musical. But first Eric and I went to visit Chinatown and Little Italy. We then started to walk uptown until we hit the World Trade Center
Katz’s Deli
We took the F train to Times Square and waited to meet the rest of the crew.
The musical was amazing; the costumes were more elaborate then in the movie. The singing was live, not synced like in the move. The male actors were to die for – everyone exposed their well defined six or eight-pack. It was one of the best musicals I’ve ever seen. I originally saw it in Sydney
Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (and Chicago
We topped the evening with a nice farewell dinner.
The next morning we were off to sunny hot (hurray) Florida , and Jeane was returning to San Diego
It was a short vacation, but full of lots of fun and excitement.
