So Kathy and I are back from our latest New York City adventure, and it’s really hard to know where to begin – a remarkable night at the opera? The two spectacular Broadway shows we saw? Our first time at beautiful and historic Carnegie Hall? Our first encounter with the gigantic and glorious Metropolitan Museum of Art? Or the performances of the Tremper Choir that made the whole trip possible? Crossing paths with Marshall? Or any number of other high points worth talking about? (M&M World? The Carnegie Deli? The $9.79 cheesecake we had at Lindy’s?)
No , any discussion of this trip has to begin with the pleasure of taking the trip with our good friend Trevor Parker. (I used to call him my “former voice student” but that just doesn’t sound right anymore.) Trevor had never been to NYC before and it worked out for him to come along with us (he’s on the same spring break as kathy is) so we did it – and what a great time we had. Traveling together can be such a delicate matter if the chemistry isn’t quite right, and when things go badly on a trip there’s no way to escape the fallout. (Some friendships have crashed on the rocks from bad trips.) But we had a feeling that this was going to work and it most certainly did- and we are so grateful about that.
Part of it was that our interests lined up so well and we seemed to find ourselves enjoying the same sort of things. Likewise, we seemed to be driven crazy by the same things-be they honking car horns, tardy city trains, obnoxious kids, and the Rockefeller-level prices of everything out there. (It costs $10 just to blow your nose in NYC.) But we were way too busy enjoying the good stuff to expend too much time or trouble being irritated – and when it was all said and done, this has to count among the very best trips that Kathy and I have ever taken.
It worked out nicely, as well, that when things slowed down a bit and there was a need for added entertainment aside from that which the city itself could offer, yours truly would do something dumb or clumsy and Trevor and Kathy could spend the rest of the day snickering about it. It’s hard to pick out just one example, but the best one would be at lunch time Friday in Rockefeller Center when yours truly, while trying to clear our table before our departure, managed to spill what was left of Trevor’s Cream of Broccoli soup all over the table and my backpack. I have seen some gross sights in my life, but I don’t want to tell you what this little mess looked like. (Let’s just say that Linda Blair from “The Exorcist” came to mind.) Unfortunately, the only napkin handy was one of those tiny little cocktail napkins that wasn’t even close to sufficient, and with no other napkins immediately handy and other customers wanting to occupy our table, I ended up wiping the table off with one of our paper bags, which worked about as well as you might imagine it did. And if all that wasn’t enough, when I went into the restroom to wash off my backpack – which was heavily splattered by this disgusting soup, which looked for all the world like something out of a witch’s cauldron- I flung the backpack up on the bathroom counter and accidentally plopped it in one of the sinks which were equipped with those automatic faucets that turn on via an electronic eye – so the next thing I know I’m trying to rescue my soaking wet backpack out of a bathroom sink and then forced to dry it off via one of the hand dryers. (since there were no paper towels.) It was something straight out of an I Love Lucy episode, and it provided enough amusement for Trevor and my wife to last the rest of the day.
Spilled soup and drenched backpacks aside, it was a glorious trip – and although I shouldn’t speak for Trevor, I can say without reservation that it’s one of the best trips that Kathy and I have ever had.
Pictured above: We took over 700 photos during the trip – you read that right- but the one above is the one and only photo of the three of us together. It was taken at the Carnegie Deli, which is right down the street from Carnegie Hall. We had the most amazingly monumental meal there- but the broad smiles on our faces are even more about the great fun which were having together in this magnificent city.