I am sitting first row center mezzanine for tonight’s performance. I’m so excited I’m goose-pimply. In only 20 short minutes I’ll be watching David Hyde Pierce and Sigourney Weaver LIVE!
Category: Travel
Afternoon break
I know the hotel is about ready for our seminar to end … If the afternoon break treats are any indication. Sunday we had cupcakes; Monday, brownies; Tuesday, donut holes; today – Rice Krispies treats! See a trend?
The play I’m seeing tonight
Nipped out during our lunch break to pick up tickets to a show tonight. This is the play:
And this is who is in the play:
The Algonquin’s most famous guest
Yesterday evening after classes at the Usability Seminar I walked the few blocks over to the famous Algonquin Hotel, home of the Round Table of wits and bon vivants during the 20s such as Dorothy Parker and Robert Benchley.
I didn’t go to trade bon mots with whoever was hanging around the bar. I went for one reason only: to catch a glimpse of Matilda, the house kitty. The Algonquin has hosted a cat ever since the 1930s, when a wet and bedraggled cat wandered in looking for a warm spot. The generous hotelier provided a dish of milk and a new tradition was started. Ever since, a cat has lived at the hotel. When the cat is a male, he’s called Hamlet. When they have a female, she is Matilda.
This is the 10th cat and the 3rd Matilda in the line. I ducked into the lobby and asked the concierge where Matilda was; he laughed and took me over to the front desk.
From the hotel’s website:
Matilda, the current resident, is very popular with our guests. She has the run of the house (except in dining areas and the kitchen) but prefers to oversee the comings and goings of the many guests who cross her threshold.
Matilda receives mail weekly from friends around the world and has been the subject of countless stories. On one occasion, when her collar was stolen, the “Algonquin Cat-Burglary” was the talk of the town.
Cheesecake!
What would a trip to the Big Apple be without some cheesecake?
When I was 17 I had some bad cheesecake and it put me off this dessert for decades. This creamy, feather-light version has restored my faith in cheesecake. All’s right with the world tonight on 45th Street in Manhattan.
Ah, the music of the night…
Just got in from seeing The Phantom of the Opera on Broadway. Visiting NYC includes wonderful moments. This was one of them.
I was lucky enough to get a ticket at the last minute…. And I had a seat in a box!
A look at the house from my seat.
The view of the stage from my box before the show. That’s the famous chandelier covered in the middle.
New York, New York
In NYC for the Nielsen Norman Group’s Usability Week 2013 conference. Five days of seminars on web site usability. And yesterday in NY… It was snowing! And the St. Patrick’s Day parade was held… Crazy! What a town.
Snow gently falling on Central Park …. Too cold to go across street and get a good picture!
The Temple of Dendur at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Part 4, The Family Reunion
More good stuff on the family reunion. (To catch up, see Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.) Today’s post shows scenes from the restored downtown of Sioux Falls.
Sioux Falls impressed me. The metropolitan area is home to 28% of the population of South Dakota. Downtown hosts a Sculpture Walk with donations from local artists. The sculptures are auctioned off and replaced with new artworks each spring.
Here’s a sample of the beauty we saw on the street:
And there was this … the theater where Dad and his brothers used to go watch movies when they went to town is being restored:
And one last shot – of a lovely group of ladies having lunch at the diner downtown on Phillips Avenue:
Home from the family reunion
Last week we (Mom, Dad and I) spent five days with folks I hardly ever see – my Dad’s three sisters and three brothers. It was time for the Rust Family Reunion.
We traveled 1,361 miles to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, to meet up with everyone. Home base was the Best Western – actually a very lovely place to stay. They let us make our own waffles at the continental breakfast bar.
One morning Aunt Ann and Uncle Bob, two enthusiastic amateur photographers, got up early to catch the morning light – the “golden hour,” as photographers call it. I decided, why not? and trekked to Sioux Falls with them. I’m glad I went.
Why Sioux Falls? Since the majority of Dad’s brothers and sisters still live within a day’s drive of Sioux Falls, that’s where they meet. And since it’s been 25 years since I’ve seen most of these people, I decided to come too.
I got reacquainted with all my aunts and uncles, and several of my cousins, too, including my cousins John and Laura. We drove out to the Rust family farmhouse outside Adrian, Minnesota, about 45-50 minutes from Sioux Falls. John now lives there with his family, on the farmstead the Rusts bought in 1889.
There was more sightseeing … here’s the gravestone for the first Rust to come over from Germany, Harm Rust:
It’s late, so I’ll stop now and break this into multiple posts. But one thing I know: I won’t let another 25 years go by before I see my kith and kin again.
Trip to Savannah in words and pictures
This update is long overdue, but I’ve been busy.
Twenty years ago I lived in a garden.
I lived in a garden with a city tucked inside it.
I lived in Savannah, Georgia, the place Margaret Mitchell described as “that gently mannered city by the sea.”
My stay there lasted four years. The last two I spent in the middle of the historic district, a space of centuries-old churches and homes, all surrounded by private gardens enclosed with fanciful wrought-iron gates, flowering azaleas and sturdy, gnarled live oaks draped with Spanish moss.
All too infrequently I leave the modern world of work, mortgage and 401(k) and return to the garden. The last time was at the end of March, when my Mom and I decided to visit.
When I was in Savannah I attended Wesley Monumental Church. This beautiful church was built as a monument to John and Charles Wesley. Construction started after the Civil War and the sanctuary was finished in 1890.
It was a short trip – only 36 hours – and ended with an adventure. The car wouldn’t start. We got a jump from a gentleman who’d been a neighbor of mine 20 years ago. Once we got going, we took one last turn around the squares and then pointed the car toward Talmadge Bridge and the low county of South Carolina. As we reached the peak of the bridge we looked back for one last glimpse of Oglethorpe’s city on the riverbluff, of tall spires and steeples reaching heavenward through the green leaves, of live oaks in the town squares.
Notes from Aunt Gem 