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Saturday, June 2
Lakeland
3:00 AM - Wake-up
3:30 AM - Depart for Tampa
4:31 AM - Arrive at TIA
5:00 AM - Casually left my cell phone in my pocket at the security checkpoint, entitling me to a free pat-down! It is such an organic part of me now I didn’t realize it until I saw it on the X-ray scan!
5:30 AM - Coffee at Illy’s - the ladies were singing “la la la la dee la …” etc, so I complimented them on knowing all the words.
6:00 AM - On board for the first leg to Atlanta.
Atlanta
7:28 AM - Wheels down and at the gate. Found my gate but I was so early for the 10:04 flight that it wasn’t posted yet and they were serving another destination! Wandered about and almost changed my ticket to take an earlier flight that was at a nearby gate but I decided against it. Don’t change the tune while the music is playing.
9:30 AM - On board for Raleigh. We are delayed. A cabin maintenance worker drove up and entered the cockpit. Suspenseful music in the background … as I dash off a note to Laura. “If I’m late, just put Ian on the plane and tell him to wait for me at JFK”. Tick tock …
10:15 AM - We are told we are just waiting for our pilot - delayed on his inbound flight - and we will leave shortly, which we did, arriving in Raleigh just 30 minutes late. Time to spare.
Raleigh
11:57 AM - RDU has a “Meeting Place” so I settled in to wait for Ian and Laura who stopped to buy him shoes on the way to the airport.
12:15 PM - Kisses and hugs and a quick sandwich before we head for security.
12:45 PM - All cleared and ready to fly. I remembered my cell phone this time!
1:15 PM - On board for JFK.
1:45 PM - Up, up and away!
New York City
3:33 PM - Wheels down and at the gate. Ian is first off the plane. Feels cool. We take the “Passengers without luggage” exit and meander through the terminal to the taxi line which seems really long but moves really quickly. A classic ride into the city with traffic and lane changes and dodging and weaving waiting for the skyline to appear. Ian is all eyes!
4:30 PM - The driver drops us at the corner of 39th and 8th (because 8th Avenue is one-way north and our hotel is south of the intersection). We bob and weave across both streets and check in. Holiday Inn Times Square - the very tiny, very crowded lobby with only two elevators for 30 floors, caused me to forgo the fancy room I had reserved, with a view way up high, to ask for the lowest floor available. We got two soft beds and a bathroom on the fifth, making our coming and going much easier. Why do we need the key card to turn on the bathroom lights?
5:00 PM - We are on the streets and on our way to drink it in!
42nd Street -Times Square
The new New York Times building
43rd Street - The old New York Times building
46th Street - The theatre district
Central Park South - The Plaza
Fifth Avenue - Trump Tower
FOX News
Rockefeller Center - NBC
Bryant Park
Radio City Music Hall
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7:00 PM - Back “home” for a quick nap
7:30 PM - Take a taxi to the restaurant - feet too tired to walk
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8:00 PM - Sardi’s!
Ian immediately spots Lin-Manuel Miranda’s caricature in its place of honor at the host’s station at the entrance. We are among only a handful of other diners and Ian twists and turns to see and identify the celebrities on the walls. Dinner is served. And eaten up! Dee-licious! One of the three women at a nearby table starts a loud, silly face-time chat and I announce - solemnly - to Ian, “I hate her”. We laugh. Dessert is served. And eaten up! Tiramisu to die for. The other group in the restaurant celebrates someone’s birthday by singing - really loud - and one woman finishes with an operatic flourish. I tell Ian, “Now I hate her”. We laugh again. I insist that Ian “walk the walls” to find familiar faces and he sets off. I follow, and we agree that the drawings don’t really communicate the true image of the person but rather hint at it and we are left to read the autographs to be sure of who we are seeing. As I pass the table of the birthday I see “Marvin Hamlisch" and see that he is very recognizable, so I point it out to Ian a few tables away. After I move on a bit, a man at the table signals me to return. “Do you know who this is?” he says pointing to the portrait of Marvin, and I say - obediently - “Marvin Hamlisch”. Then he gestures toward a woman at the table (not the opera singer) and says, “Do you know who this is?”, and I offer “Marvin Hamlisch?” to which replies, “Mrs. Marvin Hamlisch!”. I notify Ian that our presence is requested and he joins me as we recreate the “Do you know who this is?” ceremony for him. He seems delighted and amused even though he does not really know of Mr. Hamlisch by his work. As the group focuses on Ian with questions about college and theatre and such, the loud singer urges him to apply at Julliard and insists they “love your type! Marvin was accepted at age six!!!” It is a lovely moment and we are very happy. Ian needs to lean against the wall outside just to gather himself and let it all sink in.
10:00 PM - Back “home” and down for the count. What a perfect evening.
Sunday, June 3
5:34 AM - Nope!
7:30 AM - Okay. Time for coffee. I leave a note for Ian and head down to the restaurant, where a very friendly bartender takes my order and actually fixes my coffee, and I head for courtyard in front of the hotel.
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8:00 AM - Ian is up and comes to meet me. I send him in to get his coffee so that he can have that experience. We sit and talk and then walk to Penn Station to get the subway to the World Trade Center. We encounter the original station undergoing renovation and enter the new one which also houses Madison Square Garden. We find the subway station, purchase a metro card and go to the platform for the E train. It arrives, we get on, and off we go - the wrong direction!!! We get off, cross over, and get going downtown.
9:00 AM - We get off at the end of the line and pop out onto the street only to find that we can’t see the 104-story tower! How do they hide something so big??? Checking the map and getting our bearings, we walk about and finally spot it. Our approach brings us to one of the two memorial waterfalls and we agree on its beauty and power. Our plan was to at least see the site even if the crowd for the tour was too big to be part of, so we walked around the corner to find the entrance. It was so unpopulated we thought it might not be open, but it turned out that there simply was no crowd at all! I stepped up and asked for two tickets, please - one adult and one senior [65 or older] and the ticket seller gave me a curious look that said “are you trying to beat the system? You’re not 65!” I slip her my driver’s license and she grins as she says her thoughts, so I invite her for coffee!! We all laugh and then Ian and I follow the guides - through the bedrock - to the elevators.
We. Are. Alone. What a ride! We are dazzled. 15 seconds, 102 stories! Five hundred years of New York City’s history. We are landed in a hallway and promised a video but the guide asks us to line up against the wall which turns out to be the “theater”. The still and moving images of all the New York icons flash by to the tune of upbeat music and as it finishes the 60-foot “screen” on which it was displayed raises like a stage curtain to reveal the actual skyline and breathtaking view. The observatory is circular and allows visitors to wander a 360-degree vantage point, but before we enter we are encountered by a souvenir photographer who refuses my request to take our picture with our backs to the camera - to simulate our viewing of the view - so we decline. We are next approached to “rent” an iPad equipped with software that will identify what we are seeing and provide some history - for twenty bucks. We decline, but I tell Ian I can do that for him so he owes me twenty bucks. We take it all in. It is truly beautiful. A video screen on the floor purports to show a live view of the streets below but it feels a little off. Turns out it isn’t real. Nerd note: The heating and cooling vents at the edge of the windows are protected from standing or sitting by two rows of protrusions that simulate the skyline. The restaurant isn’t open yet and the breakfast bar looks a little less than appetizing so we start our trip back down. We are not alone for this ride but the group is cheerful and determined to add to their memories with their own video of the video in the elevator. We all face the walls with our phones and hit record! Again amazing. We exit into the transportation hall and are taken by the striking architecture and I get to tell Ian that the same world-renowned architect who designed it also designed a college campus building in Polk county! We wander through the mall and chat up a security guard at the Conde Nast offices which were relocated from 42nd Street where I worked with the Newhouse family on projects at their newspapers. We traded droppable names and memorable moments and then we moved along. Once outside it was a treat to see the dramatic nature of the work and to just marvel at it all. Artists were busy painting murals as we walked across the street to see the hotel that Phyllis and I stayed in for Christmas in 2005 and the little old church - St. Paul’s Chapel - which was completely unharmed on 9/11 despite being 100 yards from ground zero!
11:00 AM - Through City Hall Park - with a fashion shoot in process - and onto the courthouse area where I noticed The Beekman, an Irish pub Phyllis and I visited when Chris and Petra came to New York. The scene of three “Law & Order” episodes! It wasn’t open even though the door was, but no breakfast to be had. Walking up Broadway through SOHO and Greenwich Village looking for some sidewalk breakfast but not finding it. After another round of spotting hot dog vendors, we agreed that it would make a swell breakfast. When I tipped the proprietor, he kissed the money! As we wearied, we thought it might be best to catch a cab back to the hotel so we could rest a little before our 1:00 PM - checkout. It was.
1:00 PM - Time to go. Two hours till show time! We strolled along 46th Street to spot the Richard Rodgers theater (to make sure it really was there!) and took aim at Grand Central Terminal, and another jaw-dropping moment for Ian. Walking across Times Square I pointed out the ABC studios and the hotel I stayed in during the 2005 winter of consulting. It is so much fun to be with him for all of this.
2:30 PM - With time to spare we find ourselves in line and we are treated to a passionate protester holding a sign touting Caroline Kennedy for President in 2020. She berated the current political climate and urged us all to do and be better. She soon took her movement across the street to address other matinee goers.
2:45 PM - In we go! The crowd settles in. Lights go down.
HAMILTON
3:00 PM - The next three hours belong to Ian who can bring you the story and all its glory and nuance so very much better than I that I will simply leave it to you to find him, sit down, and be enthralled. GRANDAD POWER The two seats directly in from of us were empty! After intermission, the couple next to these moved over one spot putting him in front of me but leaving Ian’s view unobstructed.
5:52 PM - A sprint to 6th Avenue to catch a taxi to Laguardia for our flight at 8:35. I had expected to be in the the theater until 6:30 so I was very relieved to see the cabbie’s clock read 5:56. I didn’t actually believe it until I powered up my phone and it confirmed it. Now I am beginning to think this mission will be accomplished. Google advised the trip would take 30 minutes and it did, exactly! The security line was a pretty long snake but we had plenty of time so we were relaxed. The agent at the end of the line ushered us to the very much shorter TSA Pre-check line and we zipped right through the check point to Ian’s amusement and amazement. “Did you think a man who could put two empty seats in front of us for the play would make you stand in a long and winding line?”. We laughed. Now we found a fabulous dinner in a comfy restaurant that employed iPads at every table for ordering and paying! It worked very well and included an option to monitor our flight information. The food came fast and tasted great.
7:30 PM - At the gate, laughing and reviewing and reliving our last 30 hours, chatting with strangers and wondering how this adventure could be topped. After Ian realized he could not get past “It was … “ (for the hundredth time) we agreed on a suicide pact. We laughed. Again. A lot. Together.
8:35 PM - Pushing back from the gate, sipping on a Mimosa (a Coke for Ian of course) we both just settled into our seats and waited to be home.
Raleigh
10:30 PM - We arrive and Laura meets us for the ride to her apartment. The other brothers are asleep already but Maya and Laura are a hungry audience for our tale. I want Ian to tell it all but can’t help intruding with details until he gets to the play. Then, he is transformed - slowly but certainly - and delivers excitement, insight, and interpretation as engagingly and joyfully as possible. Theatre is in him! I can’t wait to see it emerge in his life.
Monday, June 4
12:30 AM - To bed, to sleep, perchance to dream, but what imagined world could best the one we just lived in?
8:18 AM - Awake. Coffee. Conversation. A chance visit to find the power cord for his laptop puts Ian in my arms for a sweet good-bye. Got to meet his charming friend, Aven. A look, I think, at the real future.
10:30 AM - Off to RDU for a non-stop ride to Tampa.
12:00 Noon - We leave a little late, but no matter.
Tampa
1:54 PM - Wheels down. Safe and sound. On to Lakeland and home to Cleo.
Lakeland
3:00 PM - I am so happy! 60 hours. Five cities. Five airports Five airplane rides. Four taxi rides. Two subway trips. One hotel night. Dining in town and on the street. One utterly amazing Broadway show. 21 sights seen! Encore, please!
Footnote
Gallery See all the stills here