The pearly girls, joan, marion, judy, sandy, joanie, jan and myself started our NYC day as per usual having breakfast in our hotel. We had a full agenda and left for the high line walk at 9:30 , taking the subway to the starting point. The high line walk is an elevated walkway built on an old elevated railway that is approximately 2 km in length. It follows the Hudson River for the most part and has beautiful planted gardens all along the way. Being that it is early fall, the summer plants were mostly finished and there were plenty of grasses, asters, lots of different colours, styles and varieties. There are many resting places along the route and people can be seen stopping for a rest along the way reclining on chaises and benches. The garden way is also scattered with different art works from all over the world. We came across a sculpture of silver shoes in the bushes that were the art work of an artist from qualicum BC.
At the end of the walkway we entered the Whitney Gallery. The 7th floor was dedicated to American artists and we enjoyed, Lichtenstein, Warhol, Hopper and others. There was an interesting display of many different types of mobile art.  Another floor was dedicated to artistic protest and we felt it was depressing to witness.
Leaving the gallery we walked to the nearby Chelsea Market where we had lunch in an Italian cafe, quite delicious pastas, salads and frittatas. All over the Chelsea area we visited many small art galleries, enjoyed a gelato and some windy weather. Soon it was time to head back to  our hotel to rest up for the evening adventure.
We all met up again for drinks in the hotel rooftop bar before heading to the subway.  Our evening was spent in the Bronx at the New York botanical gardens.  This required a  long subway ride including an 8 block  walk to the gardens. We had purchased tickets to the night showing of the Chuhily exhibit  and it did not disappoint !  Large colourful sculptures lit with floodlights were spread about the grounds. It was a magical sight! After our tour of the gardens and exhibits we returned to our hotel via bus/subway and bought some food at the deli on the corner. It had been a very long day.....fit bits were telling us it was over 25,000 steps!
We retired to one room and shared some deli food and wine before retiring for the night.

Day of Galleries

We spent a long time at the MOMA today, probably the favourite of all the galleries we have seen, and we have all been here more than once.
We witnessed a disturbing scene as we were about to end our time there.....a young woman was asked by a guard to leave the premises, she became argumentative and a tussle ensued.....it got quite violent as a number of guards rushed her and wrestled her to the ground and the police were on the scene.....we left not knowing what the problem had been.
Leaving the Museum of Modern Art (which I always find interesting that it is called " modern"art, ) we walked to,The Plaza Hotel where we were reserved for,high tea at 1:45.  Tea was in the Palm Court which is a fantasticlly beautiful high ceiling room with giant palm trees and magicifigant flower displays, smartly attired waiters and exquisite table settings.  We all ordered our own selection of tea and The NewYorker high tea., for the  princely sum of $75 each.  Brought to the table for each pair of us was the three tiered stand full of warm scones, assorted delicate sandwiches, and enough desserts for twice as many diners! We did our very best but could not eat all the desserts.. it was definitely a treat not to be experienced too often!
Leaving the plaza we walked to the Frick museum which was the residence of Henry  Frick, an art collector who made his millions in Steel in Pittsburgh.
Another walk and we came to The iconic Carlyle Hotel ....and the Bemelmans  Bar where the walls are painted with scenes from Central Park and  from the famous children's book The Madeline's , by Lugwig Bemelman the illustrator. Ludwig and his family were allowed to live at the Carlyle for a year and a half in exchange   For the art illustrations which dress the walls to this day.  .after perusing the cocktail list we ordered our poison three .pisco sours, high and tight tequila, passion royal, earl grey martini, and one lone glass of white wine....the owner of which shall remain nameless.
After all this food and drink decadence we sauntered home picking up more wine on the way.
Another great day in the big Apple.

Pearly Girls Take New York!

We arrived in NYC on Wednesday Sept 27 at about 5pm. After picking up our baggage we made our way to curbside for our pre booked car. We were disappointed that a smart looking driver in uniform Was not greeting us with a nicely letter sign! The van was kind of junky and there were other passengers as well! Never mind we arrived and nothing could dampen our spirits.
After sorting ourselves out in our rooms, which are quite lovely, we hightailed it to the 23rd floor for prosecco and snacks.
We had booked dinner at a restaurant in Nolita called the Emporium.......pizza recommended by Sandy's daughter and another friend and it did not disappoint! We saw quite a few interesting shops on our walk to and from. And so ended our first day.
Day Two
We are so busy, such a full schedule here in New York that I hardly find time to record our day! This morning after a quick breakfast at our hotel, The Westhouse, we walked to Central Park enjoying being out and about in the cooler morning air. It would be heating up as the day went on.
We took the subway to Nolita for our food tour, we were meeting our guide Bert at the Little Cupcake Shop on Prince Street. Soon we were off to our first stop, Emporio a pizza joint. But first at the cupcake shop we were treated to a fine chocolate cupcake with sprinkles. Interestingly we had a recommendation from Sandy's daughter Kelly to eat at the Emporio so we had done just that last night. Our guide was most entertaining and informative about the area and the food......pizza was cooked as we watched and then devoured! Next stop was the Tartinery where we were served a glass of red wine along with two sandwich offerings, a rare beef and a chicken dressed with a celery topping. The restaurant was below street level, down a wrought iron staircase, the walls were encased in a grid of iron squares from which lots of black and white framed photos were displayed.....a most interesting eclectic setting.  At the Oficina Latina , a Latin restaurant, we were served a folded over pie containing short ribs. The decor here was a motorcycle theme, with a display of motorcycle gas tanks on the wall and shelves with old helmets. From there   we moved to the Cafe Habana, which appeared to be an old garage turned restaurant......painted messages on the brick walled interior, an old Volkswagen bus was part of the decor. We were served a concoction of corn and cheese with a chipotle sauce, quite spicy.. ...to cool us down we finished with a delicious shot of icy cold watermelon juice.  Our final stop was for a hand painted salted chocolate caramel, a new shop on the tour....of which I forget the name.
We next stopped at the Artist and the Flea for a little shopping.
The Neue (pronounced noise) was a small gallery with just a Klimt exhibition, we were most interested to see the painting "woman in gold" . As the gallery had no other works at this time we were just asked to make a donation instead of the usual fee.
Back at our hotel we enjoyed a glass of wine and a light snack before walking to the theatre district for Come From Away.  This musical is about the planes of people who landed in a Gander Newfoundland on 911.  The theatre was sold out and we could see a group of people sitting not far from us who were waving Flags, which we at first didn't recognize, they were Newfies!  The play was very emotional and we doubted there was a dry eye in the house.
We walked back to our hotel marvelling at the wonder that is Times Square. There is nothing like it anywhere in the world. On our return we picked up wine and toasted our day and said goodnight.