I ate the cake I had, and loved it; I ate the cake I had.

Around the world, with rose bouquets

Oh . . . wow.

Rolf dropped Leta and I off at the Greyhound bus station at 6:30 am. We made it to New York in four hours. Oh, and I tell you, four hours on a bus for $35 round trip, is just wonderful! Especially since I've driven the trip so many times. We just packed a few things into back packs. We walked up 8th Avenue and had lunch at the Time's Square McDonald's - as I always do. (I won't do it again though until the Time's Square construction project is done. It's just not the same for people watching when they have it all torn up. But when it's done, man, it sounds like Time's Square is going to get even brighter. There is going to be a set of red bleachers that are illuminated from below. That is going to set on top of the new TKTS Booth. Then the rest of the plaza is going to be paved with Lucite bricks that will also be lit from below. I can't wait to see it!)

and then - with time to spare - walking around time's square. We did so much walking - back tracking - going the wrong way - laughing as we got more and more exhausted . . .

We got to the Lobby of the Helen Hayes Theatre twenty minutes early. We stood inside to cool off, as it became warmer with the excited gathering crowd. An elderly woman asked us:

"Is this the line? Because I don't want to cut in line."
"Although we're good at it," her friend chimed in.
"we're subtle," said the first
"But it just makes us feel so bad."

We laughed.

The reason for the trip: Grey Gardens closes on 7/29. I SAW IT!



Wonderful Wonderful Wonderful!

It was just amazing. I was the first to lead the standing ovation. Our seats were perfect, in the very center row S. You may be surprised how small some Broadway houses are; row S is the last row in the theater, although there are two balcony's.

Afterward, we hopped in a cab to the Hotel Belleclaire at 77th and Central Park - where we were upgraded to a nice two room suite. We both tried to take a quick nap, seeing that we'd only slept for an hour on the bus - but with all the coffee and caffeine pills we took before Grey Gardens, it wasn't anything more than a timeout for tired travelers.

So, a caffeine pill and martini later, we're walking down Broadway trying to find a cheap dinner . . . when we recognized that we'd have a repeating occurrence of walking aimlessly lost through all of NYC. We'd already walked through and over Time's Square as we looked for the Music Store, now we were backtracking for a Subway Sandwich shop I thought I saw. . . and we walked four blocks back looking for it.

Then a taxi ride 41 blocks back to the theatre district to see:

XANADU
on Broadway
Seriously

We had great seats in Row H on the isle. And the show was brilliant clear eyed fun. It's only an hour and a half long, but just rollicking with laughter. Oh, and we got the tickets for half-price too from BroadwayBox.Com or TheatreMania.com. The show just opened last week, and I bought the tickets during previews, so half-price tickets may not be available right now, but I bet they will be again!

Read about Xanadu here!

And then, and then And gentlemen, and then.... And then we both go marching out into the fray Hailing a taxi and whisking to the Village Hark! The hunger is clawing at our brains Jubilations! We found a open bar with food . . .

(Of course we walked from Christopher Street and 6th, past Marie's Crisis to 4th street looking for a restaurant, and back to the Duplex (at 6th) to find that they didn't have food - so we walked to Marie's Crisis to find that they didn't have food - and back to the Ostia Restaurant next door to the Duplex . . . my hips ache at the thought.)

We sat next to the open floor to ceiling windows, ordered Cosmopolitans and Gazpacho -both of them were a matching yellow peach color - neither the color of cranberry nor tomato. We never did find out why, and we were too drunk to care. They were both delicious, just the wrong color!

Then I ordered Calamari in Squid Ink Oil - which looked like strips of white shoe laces covered with black shoe paste. And it colored my tongue black too. All in all, that little stop cost a flat hundred bucks. Ouch.

And then we rolled over to Marie's Crisis! A low ceilinged dive packed with gay men, and perhaps a bachelorette party. They were singing, from Chicago, *They Had It Comin'* -
the ham fisted piano player banging as a Rugby Player sang the solo. At the end of which, you'd have thought we were there with the entire Gay Men's Chorus of NYC. A complete all male rendition, with full counterpoint followed. It was amazing.

The next morning - feeling guilty that I'd led us walking for blocks, and then backtracking almost to the beginning three times on Saturday - we walked out of the hotel onto 77th Street.

"Which way?" I said.
"To the right." said she.

And off we went looking for Central Park and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. First searching for coffee and water, then for Central Park Avenue.

West End Avenue. Delis and laundromats and gay bars, West End Avenue. Only a block away from Zabars . . . we sing as we cross. . .

and begin to wonder . . . "why is that street called Riverside Drive . . ? Now this must be Central Park . . . where are the skaters and runners and bikers? . . . must be down a few blocks. . . and why is Central Park West called Riverside Drive here. . . WHERE'S THE MAP!"

Yup. Luckily we'd only gone four and a half city blocks in the wrong direction, two and a half over, and two down . . So, another three and a half city blocks back and we found Central Park.

At this point, we are checking the map every ten paces. A jogger stretching his hamstrings against a stone curb wall in the pleasant morning air at the 72nd Street Entrance asks if we know where we are going.

"OH, we're just walking through Central Park to get to the Museum . . . "Leta said.

"Hmmm . . . " he said warily . . . We laughed . . . "Actually we've been lost so many times already . . ." we tumbled over our words to accept his help. Everyone was real nice. Mostly, they always have been.

He set us off on the right path through a section of Central Park I hadn't been to before. Of course there were plenty of half naked men running, biking, skating; young families with children and strollers, dogs on leashes. And it was a beautiful morning, but heating up. We passed the Swedish Cottage for Marionettes, and the Shakespeare Garden - which I made Leta slow down for a look. We passed the Delacorte Theater where they have Shakespeare in the Park. It was *so* not what I expected. I thought they set up a temporary stage on the great lawn for every play! Who knew there is this grand amphitheater in Central Park. Not to mention a castle! There is a Castle! The Belvedere Castle overlooks Turtle Pond . . . And this is all pretty close to the Great Lawn where many different ball games - little league, boys and dads, coed college - baseball and soccer, all the games just seemed to be about to get started.

And without any further double backing - we found the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

"Obviously" I thought, "this is going to be as impressive as the Ufizzi Gallery in Florence. "

And I still think that. It is largely left still for me to explore. But I saw the stunning new Greek and Roman Galleries, the Clark Brother's Collection of Impressionist and Early Modern Paintings (Including works by Degas, Renoir, Van Gogh, Monet, and Seurat - he of Sunday in the Park With George fame.) It was incredible.

After a few hours wandering, having seen just two or three collections, but needing coffee, water, and a lounge chair - we asked a docent how to get to the Roof Garden Cafe.

And even though we had a Floor Plan . . .