If one storm is good, why not have another? Our annual summer RV trip across the USA was cut short by Hurricane Irma - now that we’re leaving on our fall trip, why not thrown another storm induced monkey wrench in things - Tropical Storm Philippe.
Anticipating getting our last minute preps done, I’d awakened a bit earlier than planned this am. Thank goodness, because at the top of my in-box was a flight cancellation from Jet Blue (sent at 2:47am - who checks email at that time?). Our non-stop from Naples to New York City (JFK) was being replaced by a late night sleepover in Logan Airport - arrive at midnight and leave for NYC at 5:35am - who thinks of these things? At least we would still have made our cruise on Monday but we would have missed dinner at Osteria al Doge and “Beautiful” on Broadway. Argh - what to do and what kind of last minute flight booking extortion were we going to have to deal with?
Delta non-stop into LaGuardia. $800 for two first class tickets. Why first class? We were traveling all carry-on our original Jet Blue jet; now we’re on a CRJ which basically has no carry-on space for roller bags. The other factor was that we have no “status” on non-Star alliance flights so if we’d gone coach, we wouldn’t have had room to stow our cell phone by the time we could board.
Arrival at LGA scheduled for 4:28 after ATC delays - more stress until Valerie says, “Why don’t we eat dinner after the play?” On to Open Table, dinner res at Osteria al Doge moved from 5:30 to 9:45... Girls are so smart....
Getting Uber from Laguardia Terminal C - after departing baggage pickup, walk across the street to the median, Passenger Pickup Point #1 is to your left. It was about a 30 minute ride into mid-town Manhattan with fair amount of traffic in the rain. Arrived at the Best Western Premier Herald Square - our second stay at a BW Premier.
Really love our location - a block off of Broadway - great reception and a modern, European decor in room. Room not expansive but efficient and clean. I am liking these BW Premiers - great locations in the middle of the action. By the way, Keen - a steak house and rated very highly on Trip Advisor is on the same block, same side of the street as the BW Herald Square.
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| BWP - Herald Square Room |
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| View from our room |
Walking to the Stephen Sondheim and stopping along the way for a drink. Destination - The Knickerbocker Hotel St Cloud roof top bar. Sticker shock - $17 and $22 for a glass of wine. But nice setting and if the weather had been better the view from the rooftop would have been awesome. All together I think we may have walked 8 blocks from our hotel to the theater - easy walk even though it was raining and windy.
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| Orchestra Pit Front Row Seats |
The theater was lovely - the seats were impeccable thanks to our American Express card - Row A 107 and 108 in the Orchestra - basically front row center - the orchestra conductor’s head was right in front of us. Beautiful was amazing - the lead who played Carole King (Chilina Kennedy) brought an empathy and energy to the part that just blossomed on stage in front of us.
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| Our Playbill |
After the play it was time to head to Osteria al Doge - and best of all, since it was raining cats and dogs, we found a short cut right across the street from the theater through a parking garage breezeway that kept us dry most of the way. On the far side of the garage, we made a quick right and there was Osteria al Doge.
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| Caprese - Osteria al Doge |
Osteria al Doge gave us a perfect table up front where we could see folks walking by under their umbrellas and getting a feel for the rhythm of NY streets on a rainy Sunday night. By the time we finished dinner, the rain had left up quite a bit so it was a pretty dry 8 block walk back to our hotel.
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| Osteria al Doge |
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