Madman Espresso

We popped into this Midtown coffee shop for some reason - probably coffee.

Tick Tock Diner

I'm pretty easily pleased by breakfast - my favorite meal - so long as there is 1. coffee 2. food 3. service and 4. something resembling atmosphere. All four were found here, along with the bonus that the restaurant was right in the hotel.

Bill Moyers

Sometimes while traveling in New York you receive the seemingly random piece of news that your favorite journalist has passed away, an event that makes you pause and wonder. One only hopes that the world appreciates what they had and the magnitude of the loss.

Trattoria Bianca

I for one enjoyed dinner at the Trattoria Bianca, the Italian restaurant right in the New Yorker Hotel. The salad had interesting crispy cheese on it and the pizza crust was thin and crispy (examine the photos closely). The decor was nice and the service pretty good. I'm not saying it was the best meal I've ever had, just that it was completely adequate given the situation.

view from the New Yorker Hotel

Our view from the New Yorker Hotel. Much of what is seen here is the new Hudson Yards area along the Hudson River. At the upper left is Edge Building and the Edge Observation Deck, which claims to be the "highest outdoor sky deck in the Western Hemisphere".

New Yorker Hotel

I recall seeing this 1930 art deco hotel many years ago and saying to myself "maybe some day I will stay there". Stay there we did. It was very close to Penn Station and fairly reasonably priced for NYC. There was however a long line to check in - this is a large scale hotel for a large scale city (although the smaller rooms reflect an earlier era).

Acela: the maiden voyage

After decades of curiosity I finally took my maiden voyage on Amtrak's Acela - the nearest thing to a "fast train" in the US. It was anti-climactic. The fact that we boarded at the wrong end of the train - with lots of luggage at that - didn't help (an error was not entirely our fault). The train did go fast and had a few space age touches, but overall it was not very different from the Northeast Regional train I had just taken from Washington DC to Baltimore. In fact that train may have been newer and more impressive.