Miscellaneous Fun Stuff

I could have spent longer in New York City because much of our time was programmed with little left for serendipity.  I did not even get a good street crowd scene when we were rushing to see "Wicked" and had to cut through the long lines of fans waiting in line to get their tickets for "Hello Dolly."  It seems that Bette Midler's understudy had been carrying the lead role while Midler was vacationing in Hawaii for two weeks. (Hawaii vs. New York City...wrap your mind around that for a bit.)  Anyway, she was obviously back because the street was so full even cars could not go by!

The Schubert Organization is one of the oldest theater companies in New York and has two corner theaters above on "Schubert Alley."  The brothers were very good businessmen and "by the mid-twenties, the Shuberts owned, operated, managed or booked over 1,000 houses across the United States."  I think their successful history might make a good musical.  One of the brothers had his home and offices in that top floor above.

Notice all the gum in the photo above!!

As a lover of books, I was happy to see that our first hotel had a small library in the lobby.  My granddaughter, who is not really an avid reader, checked it out.  We were staying at The New Yorker which has an Art Deco style.  As some of my readers know I love the Art Deco with its curves and homage to nature.

Above was taken from our hotel room window.  Just a hint of the architecture.

I also stumbled across the New York City Public Library and had to check it out.  New York City has reduced the crime and homelessness substantially in Mid-Town and I was glad to find the library much like any other city library.

I keep hoping by exposing her to books that she will want to read more!

We changed hotels the last two days to use some points for another brand hotel and ate breakfast in their "Bistro" which also had shelves of books above our heads.  Notice anything unusual?

Any good book person would have caught it before even getting that early cup of caffeine.  It annoyed my anal-retentive personality to no end.  One of the books above is upside down!  As a friend pointed out, they could also have used some book stops to keep the books from leaning.

It was a rich trip.