Chapter 1: The Food
The day we landed we went to the hotel, the Smyth Tribeca, put things in our room, freshened up, watched a bit on our rooms’ LG flat screens, and went to a nearby restaurant and I had a New York meatball pizza with Pellegrino sparkling water for lunch.
That night we went to a restaurant (Minetta Tavern) and I had a hamburger with fries and some others in our group were having the same thing, so I could say the famous When Harry Met Sally line “I’ll have what she’s having” after Meg Ryan’s oohs and aahs.
The next day we gathered in the hotel’s restaurant and I had a New York bagel with cream cheese.
The lunch was a Chinese buffet at a restaurant with a sparkling orange drink.
The supper was a Fettuccini Alfredo supper with both sparking and regular water at an Italian restaurant in Times Square near the location for our play.
The next day breakfast was Greek yogurt with berries and a croissant with sparkling Orange Pellegrino.
The lunch was a McDonald’s McChicken with fries and a strawberry smoothie.
The supper after the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall was chicken tenders with fries, sparkling water, and an ice cream plus some shared New York cheesecake at Rockefeller Center’s café and we had not only a good meal, but we could see the outdoor rink and fountain where Buddy the Elf and Jovie kiss on their date scene.
The breakfast was a brunch at Mom and Dad’s luxury suite with fruit, yogurt and berries, crackers, croissants, and sparkling lemon and sparkling orange Pellegrino.
The lunch was a New York street-stand hot dog with ketchup, mustard, and relish RIGHT IN FRONT OF MADISON SQUARE GARDEN! [See the full story of why this part is great in the Sights chapter]
The supper was at Mercer Kitchen and I had Fish and Chips (Flounder, Ariel’s friend in The Little Mermaid, as opposed to the cod and haddock I order in Canada) with sparkling water and mango sorbet for dessert.
The following breakfast was another yogurt and berries with orange drink.
I had one of the store-purchased New York cheesecakes with a Starbucks strawberry smoothie.
For lunch I had a pizza sub at a Potbelly’s sub shop with sparkling blood orange Pellegrino.
For supper before the Movie On-Location bus tour, I had, yet, another street-side New York hot dog with all 3 condiments.
For breakfast before takeoff I had another New York bagel with cream cheese with water.
Chapter 2: The Sights
From the first plane during takeoff I could see the highway and most of Moncton before dawn.
When we landed in Montreal I could see the Olympic Stadium, home of the Bio-dome and the old MLB team the Montreal Expos.
After customs we headed to our gate and I could hear final boarding calls for places like Chicago, Orlando, Minneapolis, and then finally...Newark, where we were landing.
When plane #2 finally landed in Newark it looked like the opening of The Blues Brothers before Jake is freed and is picked up by his brother…”IN A POLICE CAR!” When we got out of the gate we went up an escalator…and met up with Stephanie, Glen, and Mary!
When we got in the shuttle van, I could see the Statue of Liberty, the Chrysler Building, and the Empire State Building.
Enjoying Smyth Tribeca to the fullest.
When we got into the hotel and finally saw our rooms I could see we had a large LG Flat Screen, a bed, a luxury bathroom with shower, and an excellent street view.
Then we went to a few shops to browse and one had lots of good clothes, and another had great jewelry and another had lots of furniture…and a Steinway grand piano with a picture of New York City above the Steinway logo on the cover.
The first day we went to Schwartz’s Toy Store where the giant foot piano Tom Hanks and his friend/s play with in the movie Big and I was hoping the foot piano would be there so I could play Let it Go from Frozen, but it was not there.
Then I saw the Empire State Building and the inside looks almost exactly like in Elf. The decorations throughout the building were beautifully lit up for Christmas. When we went into the elevator we soon arrived on the 25th floor where we were to meet Glen’s friend at LinkedIn, who would give us the free tour to the observatory. When we went through security, we went onto another elevator, which took us to the 80th floor. And there was the observatory. Too bad it was too foggy to see the buildings from the observatory, but we went anyway. Then we saw the gift shop and I bought the movie Sleepless in Seattle, which ends right in the observatory of that very building with Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks finally together with their son! Mom also bought some souvenirs for McKim House!
Waiting to go up to the observation deck inside the Empire State Building.
After this we saw the giant department Macy’s, AKA Gimbel’s in Elf. We went up several wooden escalators and had drinks at the 6th floor’s restaurant. Between floors Stephanie and Mom bought clothes there and I wanted to see the electronics/movies/music section if there was one.
After this we walked down the streets and I saw and went in St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and I wondered what New York’s bishop’s name was as it is often read in the Eucharistic Prayers before communion at Mass, and I thought of my grandparents, Stephane, and Marilyn. I paid 2 American dollar bills and lit a candle in memory of my grandparents.
After this we walked past several stores and then past Rockefeller Center and saw its giant Christmas tree and its outdoor skating rink where Buddy and Jovie skate in the date scene of Elf before the big fight with Miles Finch. Then, after walking for several miles, that’s right, US miles (if we were in Canada I’d say kilometers) we took a cab back to our hotel room.
We then saw Times Square at night and the lights were unbelievable! It was like giant flat screens and video screens on giant pro arena and field scoreboards.
The following night we went to an Italian restaurant in Times Square [see the menu in the food chapter].
Then we saw It’s Only a Play, at a nearby theater, starring Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’s Matthew Brocerick, Grease’s Stockard Channing, and Stuart Little’s Nathan Lane, whom you may know as Snowbell, the snooty and funny white cat. Each star, on their appearance, got a rousing cheer and applause.
Across from the theater was a huge Marriott Hotel, which, judging by the size, was, I guess, very expensive to stay in.
We took a cab after this through and past the big, amazing lights of Times Square back to our hotel.
The following morning Mom, Stephanie, and I, and Mary, all went to Barnes & Noble, and we went up an escalator...and there was the bookstore. Originally, I was going to buy, that’s right, buy, my own copy of Nop’s Trials, expecting it to be in stock here, but it was not in stock, so instead I bought a Border Collie book and Stephanie bought me a James Herriot book, a compilation of short dog stories, and Mom promised me she would order Nop’s Trials and Nop’s Hope for my birthday, in fact coming up on January 7th.
Then we went to Whole Foods to pick up some local groceries for the hotel room, like small New York cheesecakes, 2 Pellegrino sparking lemonades and 1 Pellegrino sparking orange drink, BBQ chips and nachos, lots of berries, Greek yogurt, and croissants.
Tonight was the big show at Radio City Music Hall, where Warbucks and Farrell take Annie for Camille in the movie Annie, with the Rockettes and a fabulous Christmas Story with real live sheep and camels! There was a huge rising stage, a 3D movie, a giant moving orchestra pit, and 2 huge pipe organ keyboard sets with 2 organists dueling with each other!
Then we had supper at the Rockefeller Center Café and it was amazing. [See the food chapter for the menu} From where I was sitting I could see some Christmas trees and the outdoor skating rink, where some people were putting on skating shows. When I walked around I took a picture of the giant tree where Kevin and his mother meet up near the end of Home Alone 2 and the rink.
The cab that took us home drove, unexpectedly, past Madison Square Garden where the Knicks and Rangers play.
When we got to the hotel, channel 26 had started 24 Hours of A Christmas Story and it was probably the only year I got to see this movie on a hotel’s LG flat screen, and as you see in the picture, something else rare, on the LG flat screen in the hotel, the closed captioning under Miss Shields reads a famous Christmas Story line “You call this a paragraph?”
The following morning Mom gave me my socks back, which I had given her to use as Christmas Morning stockings, and in it were a package of mints from the Empire State Building with the picture on it, shower gel from the hotel, a New York t-shirt, a New York key chain, and 2 extra US dollar bills.
I watched my new Sleepless DVD on Mom and Dad’s suite’s flat screen and took a picture of the Empire State Building scene where Hanks and Ryan meet in the end. We noticed that from the suite we could see the peace tower, which replaced the World Trade Center after the horrible terrorist attacks with hijacked planes on September 11th, 2001, and the Empire State Building, which is beautifully lit at night, as you can see from Kevin’s room in Home Alone 2. We also Face Timed Melody and Erin.
Then we took the subway to a place called the High Line, where there used to be train tracks and a train, now a park, with good views. Also from here we could see the Empire State building.
We looked for a place to have lunch… and where should we find a hot dog stand on a nice sunny day…but Madison Square Garden, where a Knicks game just finished. My memory associated with that arena was that every February the Westminster Dog Show happens in 2 days, and my favorite year was 2005, where there was a Cardigan Welsh Corgi by the name of Harry Potter, and the winner of the herding group, the last group before Best in Show, was, in fact, a Border Collie by the name of Merlin, a big moment for Border Collie lovers like me, and I hoped he would win Best in Show, but he was shortlisted. Other events that happen here include pro hockey games, pro basketball games, college basketball games, and concerts. This building is also Penn Station, a train station. And from where I was standing it looked like a giant mall, linked by escalators. After this…we went in to find a gift shop. Then we found the subway station…and took the subway to our hotel. Tonight we went to a restaurant for supper by cab [see chapter 1 for the menu]. Then we walked down a street past several stores, including the furniture store. Then we picked up a cab and went back.
Madison Square Garden
The next day some of us went to Central Park by subway and it was like living in the movies set there. At a gift shop mom bought a book called Strawberry Fields. We thought of going to the zoo, but we decided to skip it. We walked past the Plaza where Home Alone 2 was set. I took pictures from all angles. Then we walked past this and went past several stores. We went into Tiffany’s Jewelry Store, where the new locket comes from in Annie. Then we walked past several other jewelry and department stores, one more time past St. Patrick’s Cathedral, one more time past Rockefeller Center and its giant Christmas tree, and past Empire State Building, which now had a 2-hour wait to see the observatory due to the now nice sunny day.
The Plaza
We played with the idea of going to Macy’s again, but it was crazy busy. We steered out, picked up a cab, and went to the hotel to relax and freshen up. Tonight we went to Time Warner Center, a giant mall, and we had another street side hot dog, went into the mall, browsed a little, and went to the second floor to watch the Christmas light show and to gather with a group, as this group was to be led with a tour guide to a bus, and this bus was to take us on a guided tour of Christmas movie locations, with clips and trivia on the screen. This took a couple of pit stops, and at one, at Barney’s Department Store, we had to stop for 15-20 minutes, as we witnessed a robbery in progress, where a woman was caught red-handed stealing a purse and was screaming at the top of her lungs, denying that she did it when she knew she was caught, and fighting as security guards, dressed and posing as fellow shoppers, were holding her until NYPD cars came and took her to jail, and someone behind me on the bus said it was not her first time doing this and being caught here. After a few locations, we bailed at a pit stop at Macy’s, flagged a cab, and had it take us back to the hotel room. It was so sad to see New York at night for the last time.
The next morning we woke up, had breakfast, enjoyed our hotel for the last couple hours in which I made a video to thank Franck, our hotel’s concierge as I had not met him yet, flagged a cab, and had it take us to Newark Airport. And it was so sad to see New York City and its amazing sights in the cab’s rearview mirror after such an amazing once-in-a-lifetime Christmas vacation. We went through security and found our gate, and I was expecting to go through customs here. Within hours our plane showed up, and within less than one hour we boarded. We took off, and after less than an hour we landed in Montreal and I saw the Olympic Stadium. After we came out of the gate, we saw Stephanie, Glen, and Mary en route to their gate, next to ours! We gathered, went through security one final time, found a restaurant, and ate together one final time on our vacation. We went to our gates and within minutes Steph and Glen’s plane showed up, then ours showed up. Within hours Steph, Glen, and Mary, boarded their planes and later we boarded ours. When we landed in Moncton it was about 11:30pm! We were so tired.
Thank you, Stephanie, Glen, and Mary, Mom, and Dad, for making this possible. And thank you, Franck and the Smyth hotel staff, for the hotel room and its many great amenities! A thank you to the salesperson at Barnes and Noble who sold me the Border Collie book, a thank you to the LinkedIn people at the Empire State Building for the free tour of Empire State Building, a thank you to the salesperson at the gift shop who sold me the Sleepless movie, a thank you to the waiters at Minetta Tavern, Mercer Kitchen, the pizza place on the 22nd, and the hotel’s restaurant, a huge thank you to the hot dog stand people who sold me the hot dog, and all the people I met who served and helped me during the whole trip, all without whom this trip would not be a huge fun success!