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Old 20 Mar 17, 11:40 AM  
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neilhd
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NYC Without the Kids! Jan 2017 - Day Four

Wednesday 11th Jan 2017

Today was the big day - Ele's 40th! I didn't have a card or present or anything for her, as I'd given her those before we left. And the trip was meant to be her present anyway. I woke early again - 05:30 or so, but Ele didn't wake until about 8!

By this time I was already up, showered and dressed. I eventually got her out of bed and shoved her towards the bathroom. She had about 3000 people to reply to on Facebook and text message and WhatsApp and whatever else. We eventually left the room at about 9am.

She wanted to go to Pershing Square Café outside Grand Central Station for breakfast today so we called an Uber to take us there. It didn't take long. It's a very nice place with a great interior. We both had a bacon-and-eggs special deal that they were doing for $20 per person that included toast, homefries, coffee and orange juice. I had scrambled, Ele had poached. The food was no better than our normal Times Square Diner, but the interior of Pershing Square was much nicer.





Once we were finished we went into Grand Central for a look around:




We wandered about here for a while, used their restroom and then left, exiting via the Met Life building. Ele wanted to spend most of her day in Central Park, and we decided to walk there. We headed up Park Avenue, and then switched over to Madison at some point, and then across again to 5th. As we got to 5th we were right by Trump Tower again. The media-frenzy was at another level today, along with some protestors:



The cops were still controlling the road and was asked one what was happening today. Apparently Trump was about to give a press conference. We left them to it and walked up past the Apple store, over the road and into the park.

We walked past the zoo but didn't bother going in. We watched some of the sealion show from the path, like the cheapskates that we are.





We headed into the park. We had no fixed plan, but wanted to see Belvedere Castle and the Turtle Pond, so we made sure we did those bits:





We Face Timed Joe whilst walking around as he was back from school by now. He immediately recognised where we were. We had a good chat for a while and Ele's mum came on to wish her happy birthday as well.

After a couple of hours of wandering (it was warmer today - about +5C) we had a seat and formulated a plan for the rest of the afternoon. Ele had wanted an ice cream of all things, but now changed her mind to cake, which seemed like a far more appropriate plan. We pulled out Google Maps on our phones, and I found the Magnolia Bakery (well, one of them) on the west side of the park, not too far away. It's quite a well-known place so we left the park and headed there, strolling through the Upper West Side.

We took a picture of this street for no other reason than it looked very "New York"



Upper West Side is very nice! Obviously a posh area. On the way to Magnolia Bakery, we came across a little place on one of the side streets called Alice's Team Cup. A quick Trip Advisor review check was promising, so we decided to go there instead. It was, obviously, all done up in an Alice In Wonderland theme and was quite quirky. They specialised, as you might imagine, in tea and cake. Perfect!



They even had Rooibos tea so Ele ordered that, whilst I had normal tea. I had a banana and Nutella cake, and Ele had a Lemon cake. They were, in a word, HUGE:



They were also, in another word, delicious! Somehow I ate it all. The tea wasn't bad either - the first place I've ever come across in the US that can actually do tea properly. We liked the place a lot - exactly the sort of thing we were after.

We walked back down towards Columbus Circle, passing the Lincoln Centre on the way. At one point we came across another Century 21 store, so it would have been rude not to pop in. Ele really wanted some trainers as her feet were hurting. We found some. I had a look for some trainers for me, too, but they didn't have anything (there were probably 500 pairs of trainers for woman in her size, and about 3 in my size!). I did find an Armani shirt for under $40 and bought that though.

We continued back down, crossing Columbus Circle onto 8th Avenue, and thought to pop into the TJ Maxx there to look at shoes for me. Apparently they don't even bother to sell men's shoes - only women's. Typical. I bought an Umbrella though as the forecast was for rain (never used it in the end!).

We got back to our hotel, rested for a bit, then got ready to go out. We were going for dinner at Lincoln Square steak. I had found that restaurant basically by going to Trip Advisor, getting the list of restaurants in New York City, then going down the list until I found the highest-rated steak restaurant. It was rated overall as about number 5 or all restaurants in the whole of NYC. As such, we dressed up smart!

On the way out of the hotel I asked the concierge about the airport shuttle. She said it's something they book, and is $30 per person, and takes quite a while as it goes round other places. A quick Uber check showed that we could probably do it that way for about $70 so we didn't bother with the shuttle.

We booked an Uber right now to take us to the restaurant and we were soon there:




It had warmed up quite a bit now. I was warm enough in just a jacket and shirt.

Inside it was really nice. There was a guy playing a grand piano and all sorts. We were a bit early but that wasn't a problem as they weren't busy. I had put on the reservation that it was Ele's birthday, and her menu actually had Happy Birthday printed on it:



We were given a drinks menu that had about as many pages as an average novel. I ordered a beer and we each had a glass of red wine. I don't know much about wine so basically just picked one that was quite cheap, but not the cheapest…

They gave us an enormous hunk of delicious, crusty bread whilst we browsed the menu. We decided to share some calamari to start with (delicious), and as the steaks were simply huge, we thought we'd share the 24-oz Ribeye. We ordered sides of fries and creamed spinach. Our waiter said that would be enough.

I must say, the service in here was outstanding. Not snooty, like some high-end restaurants might be, but just subtle and superb. If you ever needed the waiter, he was there. If you didn't want him, he wasn't there. The owner came past to say hello and thank us for coming. He asked if the temperature was ok. Ele said she felt a little chilly as there was a small draft from somewhere. He said he would take care of it immediately, and he did.

Whilst waiting for our steak, we got given some mushroom ravioli, compliments of the chef. It, too, was delicious. Our steak soon arrived. They had pre-sliced it for us, and the waiter hadn't been lying when he said the 2 sides were enough. They also bought some sauce. It was plenty for the 2 of us for sure. We were pondering dessert, when the waiter came back again, with a chocolate soufflé with a candle on it, and Happy Birthday written in chocolate sauce. They didn't do anything as crass as sing, but they did also bring with a camera, took a photo of us, and then printed it out and put it in a presentation sleeve for us - free of charge of course. He asked if we'd like any coffee so we both had one. He then said that both the dessert and the coffee were on the house. The owner came by again to thank us again for visiting.

By this point we'd had free ravioli, free dessert and free coffee, and a free photo. And we'd basically shared a meal, so the bill came and it was only $120. And this from a restaurant ranked in the top 10 in the entire city. The top-end of the suggested gratuity was $24. We added $30 and probably should have added more.




We left the restaurant extremely satisfied and called an Uber to take us to Times Square, as we were now going to the Iridium (in between Ellen's Startdust Diner and the School of Rock theatre) for our Albert Lee concert. We were quite early - the show was 10pm and it was only a bit after 9. We had to collect our tickets from the box office, so we went in and the girl looked for our tickets. She couldn't find them, so searched on the computer and still couldn't find our booking. I said not to worry as I had the email. I pulled out my phone, found the email and immediately realised I was a complete and utter moron. When I booked them, it had originally put them in the basket for the 8pm show not the 10pm show, so I had removed them and done it again. Obviously the second time around I had added them for the 10th, not the 11th of January. So our tickets were for last night. I asked if there was anything she could do. This being America, where service is actually a thing, she had a look and said that it would be no problem, we could just come in and we could even keep our preferred seating (we had paid a bit more for that). If that had happened in the UK I would've got a shrug and possibly an offer to sell me a new ticket.

We were still early, so we mooched around some shops in Times Square for a bit, and eventually went back and stood by the box office as it started to rain. They were running a bit behind and we didn't get in until after 10pm. Our seats were right by the stage:



Any closer and we'd have been in the band! The show was great. I knew of Albert Lee more by reputation than anything, and he didn't disappoint. Thoroughly enjoyed it. It was around midnight by the time it finished. The service to get a second drink was a bit slow because they were short-staffed, but it was ok. There was a $15 each minimum on drink, so Ele had a cocktail at exactly $15 and I had 2 beers at $8 each. Worked out well. They did food, too, but obviously we didn't need any of that!

When it finished we left and it was still raining quite hard. The Uber app was playing up so we just jumped in a yellow cab. The driver didn't know where our hotel was so we had to tell him. It was only $5.50 plus tip as it wasn't far. We'd have walked if it wasn't raining.

Once back in our room I eagerly checked today's coffee cup situation. After the previous days of having not enough cups, and then writing a note asking for more cups, we had today got 2 cups. However, they had also not left any coffee, only tea. I wrote another note, requesting coffee, not tea, for the next day. The game was still afoot.

Ele had really enjoyed her day. It was only slightly ruined by the selfish, loud, stupid women who decided that outside our door at 3am was a good place to a very loud conversation with each other. How I resisted the urge to go outside and tell them very rude things about where they could go I will never know.
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Old 20 Mar 17, 01:49 PM  
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redredshopper
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What a fabulous birthday, loving your no kids trip report - I plan on copying it!
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Old 20 Mar 17, 03:01 PM  
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neilhd
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Originally Posted by redredshopper View Post
What a fabulous birthday, loving your no kids trip report - I plan on copying it!
I'd change the names at least - people will get suspicious!
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Old 20 Mar 17, 08:07 PM  
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Melbatb
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What a lovely day! The Alice in Wonderland cafe sounds like a great find!
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2016 Quebec - Kuala Lumpar - New York City 2017 Dubai - Eurocamps France - Ontario and Quebec - So-Cal 2018 Montreal - Bangkok - New England 2019 Argentina - Quebec City - Hong Kong - 2020 Switzerland 2022 Arizona - Costa Med Cruise - Oslo 2023 Hong Kong - Gothenburg
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Old 22 Mar 17, 08:46 AM  
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neilhd
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Originally Posted by Melbatb View Post
What a lovely day! The Alice in Wonderland cafe sounds like a great find!
Yeah it was a great find. We had no idea it was there - as I say we were heading somewhere else - and just came across it. I love it when that sort of thing happens!
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Old 26 Mar 17, 02:14 AM  
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Nesbits
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What a great memorable birthday. Good trip report
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Old 29 Mar 17, 09:14 AM  
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What a lovely birthday.
So the coffee cup saga continues...
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Old 30 Mar 17, 10:16 PM  
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disney owl
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a fabulous birthday
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Old 4 Apr 17, 06:49 PM  
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WileyCoyote
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What a great day , love all of it , Central Park, the tea shop, more shopping , fab meal and how brill that they sorted your tix for the concert. Just brilliant.
lol, 2 cups , no coffee. Love it !
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Old 5 Apr 17, 07:50 AM  
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neilhd
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Originally Posted by WileyCoyote View Post
What a great day , love all of it , Central Park, the tea shop, more shopping , fab meal and how brill that they sorted your tix for the concert. Just brilliant.
lol, 2 cups , no coffee. Love it !
I know, it really was a great day. Ele loved every minute of it - it was exactly how she had pictured her birthday I think.
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