What a trip!

I’ve been figuring out the best way to tackle our two-day trip to NYC. We packed in so much in under 48 hours it wasn’t funny. Getting back to the city was well overdue; now that we went, we will be going back again soon.

Rather than write about our trip chronologically, I will write about subjects. This will keep me from flitting from one thing to another, making the piece hard to understand.

Travel & accommodations

We started the night before our trip by going to our favorite Chinese place, Ala Shanghai, and spent the night in Albany since we had an early train to catch. Again, the weather forecast was not a pretty one with ice and mixed precipitation.

Our whole Amtrak experience was an excellent one! The ride was pleasant, comfortable, and quick. The trip into the city is less than 2 1/2 hours and went very fast. The train was sold out, picking up passengers along the way.

We stayed at the OYO Hotel, 800 ft from Times Square and a 5-minute walk to the Richard Rodgers Theater. It was a great location!

It was a small boutique hotel with only nine floors. The building was old but updated. Our room was on the 6th floor, small but modern, clean, and comfortable. It was perfect. The mattress was incredibly comfortable, and the two pillows seemed customized for me.

The only drawback was that the elevator was extremely slow, so we walked down the stairs to save time. We walked down, not up, since our legs and feet were so tired from all our walking.

Like the rest of the city, the hotel is under construction, which you did not see. It seemed like most of the city’s buildings had scaffolding around them, but this is good when it is raining like it was our first day. Scaffolding = staying dry.

We bought a Metrocard and took the subway everywhere for the rest of the trip. We were a little rusty at first, but we both got back into our NY groove and found the system as second nature as it had been years ago. The subway is the best way to get around the city quickly and affordably.

Ghost town

To say we were shocked and dumbfounded is an understatement. Times Square was empty. There were virtually no people. There is no traffic like it used to have since it is a pedestrian zone, but the were no people!

The usual touristy places like where the late show is filmed and NBS Studios were empty. I took photos to show just how quiet the streets were. It was a little creepy and scary; I can’t imagine how it was a year ago.

Many people are working from home so that accounts for some of the lack of people along with March not being a touristy time of the year.

The streets filled up more in the evening with theatergoers and other visitors, which was good to see. New York is struggling for its economy to come back; it felt good to support it.

Hamilton

We’ve been listening to the soundtrack to Hamilton for years. I’ve heard it hundreds of times and know most of the words to the songs. We lost track of how many times we watched the show on Disney + with the original cast.

Just seeing the Richard Rodgers Theater was exciting! We almost bought tickets right before the pandemic, but they were too expensive for us at the time. This was a major regret of mine during the shutdown of our country. It was sad that the lights went out on Broadway for over a year for the first time.

Sam chose good seats for us in the orchestra section, on the end, in case I need to “go potty.” 😂 Our seats were good; we could even see the expressions on the actor’s faces and close enough to hear their shoes squeak when they did turns.

I may be the only person to notice spin squeaks, but I did because the same thing happens when we do spins in belly dance when the floor is tacky from humidity. It was raining out, so maybe this was the case at the show.

When we got to our seats, I can’t describe how exciting it was to see the stage and be “in the room where it happened.” From our seats, I could see where the actors waited in the stage’s wings to come out and what props they had for the next scene.

I realize most people wouldn’t think to watch the wings of the stage, but I knew the show so well it was cool to watch what was about to unfold in person.

I was concerned I would be disappointed seeing the show live since the original cast is no longer in the show. I was wrong. The actors that night played their roles amazingly close to the original cast with the same passion, emotions, and expertise. Their voices sounded so similar, and their mannerisms on point.

The only character I was disappointed in was Angelica. The actress is excellent, I’ve seen her in other shows, but she seemed to be on stage just performing, not in character. The original Angelica played by Renee Elise Goldsberry made me cry every time she sang “Satisfied” and started the song “It’s quiet uptown.”

When Renee Elise Goldsberry played Angelica, she was Angelica. She was filled with emotion, and you could feel how heartbroken she was. When she was interviewed after Hamilton aired on Disney +, it was the first time any of the original cast saw the show for themselves; she said watching the show, she was a puddle of tears and felt the heartache all over again. She exhibited anguish and sorrow at every performance. The actress we saw had no emotion even though she had a lovely voice.

After the opening number, Alexander Hamilton, while the cast stood at the edge of the stage singing, I was so overwhelmed that I cried. Nothing can ever replace live theater and experience it.

Gluten-free food tour

After being disappointed with the lack of gluten-free food in Vegas, I did my research. I read blogs and followed dedicated gluten-free bakeries and restaurants on social media. I watched YouTube videos of gluten-free restaurant reviews. NYC didn’t disappoint; according to Hamilton, it is the “greatest city in the world.”

We started at Friedman’s, a Jewish deli where the phrase “there’s no such thing as a free lunch” was coined. We asked our server about gluten-free choices; he told us everything on the menu was or could be gluten-free except for the matzo ball soup.

We were in a New York Jewish deli, so we ordered a pastrami sandwich with herb-tossed french fries. We also had an order of potato latkes; again, in a Jewish deli, you get the latkes.

The food was delicious! It felt good to feel normal and order whatever we wanted off the menu without worry. We shared our meals so we could save room for more items to try.

Later that day, we headed up to the upper east side and went to a dedicated gluten-free Parisian bakery called Noglu NY. They have two locations, one in Paris, the other in NY. If I can’t go to a bakery in Paris, I figured I had to go to this one.

The bakery was how I imagined it. The website is in French, so I was relieved the staff spoke English. We had the most sexy-ass quiche I had ever seen or tasted! The crust was brioche-like; the wilted spinach filling was as light and fluffy as a cloud.

Marty and I split the quiche and one of their pastries filled with a caramel-like cream, topped with thinly sliced almonds. Holy shit, you guys, it was just like being in Paris. I was so happy we went.

The next day, we headed back uptown and went to a dedicated gluten-free bakery called Modern Bread and Bagel. I’ve read on social media their bagels are authentic NY bagels, and you can’t tell the difference. Could this be true I wondered?

First of all, unless you have had the real deal, an authentic NY bagel, you haven’t had one. Modern Bread and Bagel’s bagels were exactly as explained. We couldn’t believe we were eating real NY bagels! I almost cried with joy; it was that good.

The staff were friendly and explained the various cream cheeses and other “schmears” to us and their pasties. It was hard to make a choice, but we will be going back there again for sure; it took some of the pressure off.

Marty had his favorite sesame bagel with veggie cream cheese. I had a plain bagel; I wanted to try a plain one to taste the bagel and not the toppings with olive cream cheese. There were whole kalamata olives in the cream cheese!

We also found an everything bagel with housemade lox, cream cheese, arugula, and tomato in our bag by mistake. They told us to keep it and enjoy it. It was my first time trying lox; the sandwich reminded me of a BLT. The lox tasted like the kosher answer to bacon.

Next, we headed downtown to Chelsea Market, which we had never been to before. It is a foodie’s dream place with various food vendors and artisan shops. We stopped at Berlin Currywurst. We had to see if their currywurst was as good as those in Berlin, and yes, it was. It tasted just like my food memory. Everything at Berlin Currywurst was gluten-free except for the buns.

We walked off the currywurst while heading to the Union Square Green Market. It is a farmers market that is open 5 or 6 days a week. We knew a few vendors there and said hello to them. After hearing about this market for so long, it was fantastic to see it.

We also went to Washington Square Park to rest our legs and watch some street performers. It was sunny and warm; the magnolias and daffodils were in full bloom. Spring had sprung in NYC, which felt great.

We kept walking and stopped to check out two more dedicated gluten-free places. Senza Gluten and Posh Pot Bakehouse. Senza was closed for dinner until 5 pm, but we got to go in and see it anyway.

Posh Pop Bakehouse is a sweets eater heaven with over-the-top cakes and other sweets. The whole place is very girlie and all pink, which I loved. The staff was so friendly and passionate about their bakery. They were happy and proud to have such a purpose in the gluten-free community. If you love sweets, you have to go there.

Our last gluten-free food stop was a Thai place called Kati Shop. It was like a Thai version of Chiptoles where you pick your rice, protein, sauce, and toppings. Everything in the shop was gluten-free and delicious. The owner was very friendly and gave us samples of all their curries and explained the dishes in detail. We got so much food for under $25 and walked out of there stuffed and tired.

During the trip we also had drinks and other gluten-free bites in bars so we could sit down and use their bathrooms. Bathrooms are hard to come by since they are for patrons only or in fancy hotels or department stores. Marty found the “best place to take a dump” at the Moxy Hotel. 😂

We packed in so much in two days! We were exhausted while waiting for our train in the comfortable Amtrak waiting area. The train ride home went quickly and was restful. The hour-long car ride also went simple, hitting no traffic.

Tomorrow, I will be writing about how Marty and I went back to a place in Greenwich Village where we had our first date back in 1985. This post is long enough, so I figured I would do it justice and write about it tomorrow, giving us all a break. Lol.

Yesterday and today, I am relaxing because we are back to work tomorrow with so many orders that came in during our time off, which we are thankful for.

What a great trip we had! ☺️