NEW YORK... WITH LUKA!

Friday, December 22

This was our day to spend with Sarah and Luka in New York. Enough with the art—we had already feasted. I had a relatively sleepless night—I guess with the NYC adrenaline—but we all managed to be up and out of the hotel by 10-ish, starting out with a brisk walk down Lexington to Grand Central and turning east on 42^nd Street and stopped at a dinner packed with the late breakfast crowd.

With a good breakfast under our belts, we walked on to impress Luka with the New York Library. A fun photo op outside, with the lions...

... on the library steps...

... and a quick visit inside, where we were all scolded in the map room for the crime of whispering too loud in our exploration of one of the great antique globes. Leaving the library, we walked behind to Bryant Park, where we found more crowds patronizing the dozens of brightly lit stalls selling seasonal gifts of all kinds; and a skating rink, where we stood and marveled at the skills—or sometimes the lack therefore—of a hundred or more skaters wrapped in their bright scarves and bulky parkas. The huge Christmas tree had decorative balls that were bigger than Luka’s head!

Walking back north on the east side of Fifth Avenue, we stopped at the Saks store windows, each decorated with an elaborately activated scene from the Snow White story. It was a treat to watch the wonder in little Luka’s  eyes. Then a quite stop at St. Pat’s, so that he could see the cathedral—though the crowds made it impossible to venture far, even down the side aisles. We crossed back to the West side of the street and backtracked to the Rockefeller Center. More crowds. We admired the giant Christmas tree and watched some more skating on the rink...

... but Luka was mightily disappointed not to go into the Lego store; the lines were simply far too long to be worth the wait.

Back on 5^th Avenue, we walked north toward the park and were startled, as we crossed 57^th Street, by the agonized screams of a woman who had fallen in the street and was bleeding quite heavily from the nose. It turned out, when we reached the north side of the street, that it was Luka who had tripped and fallen first, tripping up the poor woman behind him. He was, of course, distraught, as was his mom. But there was really nothing we could do. The injured woman was being helped, and was not looking around accusingly for the culprit. She needed nothing further from us, it seemed, so we took a distracted look at the famous Bergdorf Goodman windows and stepped into the store to warm up a bit and take a sniff of the luxurious perfumes there.

With Luka consoled—and by now quite weary from the long walk—we made a detour into the Plaza basement, where we enjoyed a cup of coffee, a muffin, and some tasty miniature donuts. On the way out, we wandered past a barrier that was supposed to prevent access to a stairway that led up to the ritzy lobby of the hotel---now, as I understand it, converted into condos. We passed big photos of the many celebrities who once entered these hallowed halls and strolled down a corridor that led us past the celebrated tearoom where Ellie and I once, long ago, sipped tea with her distinctly upper class step-mom…

Outside the Plaza we were accosted by a very persistent salesman who sold us, much against our initially better judgment, on a pedicab tour of Central Park! As it turned out, we thoroughly enjoyed being tourists, bundled up, the four of us, under a blanket...

... and listening to the practiced patter of our driver...

... and waving cheerfully at our fellow pedicab and horse buggy riders as we trundled through the park. We made a number of photo stops at various spots along the way...

... including, of course, Strawberry Fields with its memorial to John Lennon...

 At my request, we also made a final stop at the Alice in Wonderland sculpture...

... where Luka had a good time scrambling over the bronze figures with a crowd of other kids.

On to the Met, where Sarah had arranged to meet an old friend of the family, Sherrie Zuckerman—whom we ran into down below the steps at a stall where we had stopped to buy chestnuts (Luka turned his nose up!) Since the museum was open late, we decided to spend some time in the warm—and were astonished by how much Luka loved the whole experience. We charged through ancient Egypt, time-travelled to the armored knights of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, and ended up in contemporary America, with Luka leading us through the whole adventure. A big fan of butts and an ardent lover of butt jokes, he took particular delight in all the naked statues!

Collecting our coats, we decided on a taxi back to the Roger Smith, and from there took a quick walk around the corner to Allora, where we all enjoyed a fine Italian dinner.

An after dinner walk down to Grand Central Station...

... after which we oldsters decided it was time to knock it off for the day, while Sarah and Luka, still full of energy, disappeared off in the direction of Times Square to admire the lights…