Special Visits

“The heart, like the mind, has a memory.

And in it are kept the most precious keepsakes.” 

― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

While exploring my NYC is a favorite thing of mine, sharing it with special people is even better!  In-between my Food Film Festivals, two very special visitors came to play, Mom and her best Friend!  Upon arriving at Penn Station, we got them settled in their lovely very conveniently located hotel, The Roosevelt.  Then, we hit the ground running.  Heading Downtown to check out Ground Zero area, I took them to my favorite places there, St. Paul’s Chapel and the 9-11 Memorial site.  Both are steeped in history and are beautiful.   We had a lite bite, and settled into the Lobby Bar of the Roosevelt where Kristi met us for a visit.

Saturday was a beautiful fall one, so we headed to a favorite for lunch, the Loeb Boathouse in Central Park.  We weren’t alone, and the restaurant does not take reservations on weekends.  Another lesson learned in simply being nice (and perhaps traveling with “beautiful mature Ladies”).  When I asked the Host apologetically how long we should expect to wait, he looked at me, my Visitors, and said, not too long.  It wasn’t, and he gave us one of the best tables in the house, right by the Lake!   It was, as usual, wonderful    

Then we walked and walked with me taking my Ladies along one of my favorite walks in my Central Park.  I believe I overdid it.  After leaving them at the hotel for a couple of hours to rest, I was back to head to Carnegie Hall to see an American icon, Bill Cosby.  It was a wonderful evening, only to have Mr. Cosby’s “indiscretions” hit the fan, literally, the very next week.  So sad and frustrating.  Not to get sexist?!, but why do so many with the y chromosome feel this type of behavior is okay?

Putting my fun and wonderful visitors on their train Sunday (after they had thoroughly enjoyed a packed St. Patrick’s for Mass), I then jumped on a Bolt Bus myself to Boston.  I felt a real need to just “be” with Katie before she left on her amazing adventure to Sierra Leone.

 

Spending a couple of perfect days with Katie (weather and and every other way), having lovely meals: an amazing breakfast at Sofra and dinners at Tony Maw’s Kirkland Tap & Trotter on the Cambridge/ Somerville line and Ribelle in Brookline with she and some friends, and just walking.  For the first time I finally saw the beautiful, historical Mt Auburn Cemetery.  Mt Auburn is America’s first garden or rural cemetery, as it was concluded that having cemeteries around and under churches was not really healthy.  As a final resting place, it is filled with a who’s who of notable Bostonians, many of the Brahmin families, the Cabots , Cabot Lodges, Lowells.  One of my personal heroes, Isabella Stewart Gardiner rests here, as does Fannie Farmer.  Artists, architects, and authors who have made indelible contributions to the fabric of America rest here, such as Winslow Homer, Charles Bullfinch, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.  Oliver Wendell Holmes also lays here for eternity.  Funny, sometimes one must move away, to see the treasures in one’s “backyard”.  Now I’m getting deep!  (I honestly considered taking over Katie’s apartment while she was in Africa.  It would have made her life easier..and other things..But, I am simply not “done” with NYC.)