April 18, 2025 - Today we're headed to NJ to pick up Ellie & Henry's car for Meg and Maddy to use this weekend. And then it's an early dinner at Amsterdam Ale House before walking to the Juilliard for a recital.
lunch on the train
Kitty came out to say hi
I always love a city view from the NJ turnpike
The GWB is packed
See you later, Meg!
I follow several NYC instagram accounts and one of them had a post about free Juilliard recitals and concerts. Their website lists these daily performances and there can be up to 10 or so a day, any time of day. There were 2 recitals at 5:30, a tenor and a viola. We decided on the tenor, Jack Hicks. It was his final recital before graduating from Juilliard. He talked about the pieces he was performing, which all had a common theme about dreams and the nighttime. Such a fun way to spend an hour, I wish we had hit a few more this week, since it was only a 10 minute walk from the apartment.
This is the subway stop we've been using all week, and I love the building across the street from it...it looks very French.
more pretty buildings and cool evening light
We stumbled on this Banksy (Hammer Boy) on Broadway and 79th. It was from his 2013 "NYC residency" where he unveiled a new piece of art every day. I loved the documentary "Banksy Does New York" that tells this story.
*** Kevin wanted me to note that he doesn't condone graffiti. He says Banksy's art should be put on an appropriate canvas rather than public property.
more blossoms
we finally broke down and picked up a lemon cookie and an oatmeal raisin cookie from Levain Bakery. I guess a $7 cookie is worth it??
April 19, 2025 - Today is our last full day of exploring. Ellie & Henry are getting home today, and with M&M out of town, we'll move to their apartment for our last day/night. We packed up early and after dropping our luggage at the apartment we headed to my favorite bagel shop for breakfast. We have a free library tour at 11:30, we'll find some lunch and then spend some time at the Guggenheim.
Pretty walk to Tal Bagels
sesame bagel for me and sausage egg and cheese sandwich for Kev
pretty tile in M&M's entryway to the building
their building is decorated for Easter
The cherry tree in the backyard is blooming. The building is having a tree party on Sunday, which they have every year when it hits full bloom.
my favorite street on the UWS
I had tried to get tickets to the NYC public library tour, but wasn't able to earlier in the week. I scored some tickets for Saturday, so we went back to the library. It was a good tour, but it covered a lot of what we had seen with Janet, but with more information than we had gotten on our own. This is the Publication Room, which we hadn't seen before.
I liked all the paintings in the room, they were buildings around NYC
McGraw Rotunda (which isn't actually a rotunda it's a barrel dome). The tour guide told us that the majority of the library books are stored under Bryant Park (3.5 million books!) and when a book is requested it's brought out of storage by train.
"A good book is the precious lifeblood of a master spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life"
one more view of the Rose Reading room
As we finished the tour, we could see the protest going on outside of the library.
We were headed to Grand Central to grab the subway up to the Guggenheim and it was hard to get there among the crowd as they were headed for Madison Ave
More Chrysler Building pics
we stopped for a slice
more pretty blooms
Another free entrance with our Newfields Membership!
The exhibition was "A Poem for Deep Thinkers" by Rashid Johnson
I love the mosaic murals
and the floating plants
more mosaics
A few permanent pieces I liked (this one was made with the salon papers used by a hair dresser)
"Dining Room on the Garden" by Pierre Bonnard
Next we enjoyed a beautiful walk back to Meg & Maddy's across the park
the park was FULL
views of the Met through the red buds and forsythia
a softball game with a view
Yet another view of the San Remo
the great yard was hopping
I think the cherry tree behind the apartment, popped even more while we were gone for the afternoon
We got a face-time with M&M...they're engaged!!!!
and we added in Elaine!
April 20, 2025 - Today Meg and Maddy are getting back from their Engagement weekend and Meg invited a few people to help celebrate at the local Brew Pub, Craft & Carry. Meg told Maddy they would meet up with Elllie & Henry to celebrate their engagement and instead of it being just them, we'll all be there. We hope Maddy doesn't suspect anything!
One last trip to Tal
Tal Bagels "appetizing" (what a weird sign!)
I think the tree has even more blooms!
Elaine sent decorations, and we executed for her.
Happy Engagement!
We got to Craft & Carry a bit early to grab some tables. Fran and Sally got the window seat!
Everyone is showing up and Randy & Alta made "Mad & Meg" t-shirts that were a big hit!
Maddy was surprised!
Fran was pretty excited about the engagement
the old roomies are back together
The t-shirts looked GREAT!
The Berkeley gang
One last selfie in front of Craft & Carry
