The Longest Day

I wish I could vow to never again take any flight over 5 hours, but I know how much I like to travel, so that won't happen.  We began our Norway trip, unsurprisingly, by flying to Norway. From San Francisco, CA. Via Copenhagen. On SAS, which I had heard good things about. I was a very disgruntled passenger by the time we reached our final destination in Kirkenes, Norway. From 5:30 PM until about 1:30 PM the next afternoon, we were on one flight. With the time difference, that was12 hours. In economy. Luckily, I had paid the extra $35 per seat to select in advance and our row was only 2 seats on the side, not the middle 4 across.  They were possibly the smallest seats I've ever stuffed myself into.  The pocket on the seat in front of us was also one of the smallest I've seen and could barely hold my iPad and a bottle of water. We were given 2 meals, although the only choice was take it or leave it. Edible and time consuming, but enjoyable did not enter the picture. And way too uncomfortable to sleep, but I can seldom sleep on planes anyway. I have rarely been so happy to get off a plane, as I normally love flying. And, in only an hour, we boarded another flight to Oslo - luckily only an hour this time. We were then in Oslo for almost 2 whole hours while waiting for our last flight to Kirkenes, another agonizing 2 hours. We finally arrived in Kirkenes at about 8 PM - 18 hours after our original departure. I was not good company by then.  I was, however, exceedingly glad that I had made the initial leg of the trip, Las Vegas to San Francisco, the previous day! I will now happily tell everyone I know to TRY to book stages unless you easily slip into deep sleep on uncomfortable flights  - and I know some who do. The other option, of course, is to fly first or business class. Sigh. Not for my pocketbook. And I'll try to stay off SAS now that I've experienced their planes and attitudes.

Wrapping up the Big Apple

We've been home for a week now, so I thought it about time to let you all in on the rest of the story.
While we were there and not making a mess out of Tache Chocolates, we had a great time.  We walked - and walked - and walked!  The best way to see New York.  I cannot believe how crowded Times Square has gotten - it's been busy every time we've been there, but this time seemed really bad.  The crowd did allow me to easily stand and gawk at the Naked Cowboy, though.  Since I already had my picture with him, I skipped that;o)  We also used the subway - anyone need a MTA card with $10 still on it?  We took the E (or was it F?) train to Spring St and our favorite pizza place - Lombardi's. We always stop there for the best and most original of all New York pizzas.  They first started selling pizza in 1905!
I had asked Mark to wait until we were in New York to take me out for my (April) birthday dinner and he did a great job of finding a place.  We watch the Food Network way too much and love Chopped.  I hate to say, but the menu at Alex Guarnaschelli's Butter was too "fancy" for us, so Mark chose Marc Murphy's Landmarc.  It's in the Time Warner Center at 10 Columbus Circle, kitty korner from the SW entrance to Central Park. So, from the restaurant's third floor location, we had a great view - and I discovered the Time Warner Center is a mall that I will definitely have to make time to explore more thoroughly on our next visit.  The food was awesome - loved every bite.  Our waiter was a delight, he was friendly and funny and knew the menu inside out.  He was also very knowledgeable about the wine list and we had a lovely discussion about the different wines and wineries.  When he found out we were celebrating my birthday, he brought us a dessert of cotton candy with a birthday candle. Our waiter was either Carl or Eric (I forgot to write it down, but it was one of those names where you're not sure if they spell it with a "c" or a "k" and I would have remembered if it was Mark)  I told him that Marc Murphy NEEDS to open a place in Las Vegas and he should come out and manage it!
 

Our table was at the windows, about where the man is standing.

We also saw two plays - our primary purpose in visiting New York!

The first was A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, which was fabulous.  The cast was all great, but I really admire Jefferson Mays - he played 8 different parts!  Wow!  Fantastic, I can't decide which of his roles I liked best.  And it made it even better that last year, June 2014, Jennifer and I were at the celebration party after it won the Tony Award for Best Musical - yes, I'm holding their Tony (okay, it's a fake one, but it looks real!)

Our second play was It's Only a Play.  We had heard that it wasn't very good, but we loved it.  It had an all star cast and they did a grand job!  Nathan Lane, F. Murray Abraham, Stockard Channing, Matthew Broderick, Katie Finneran, T.R. Knight and Micah Stock made us laugh out loud and have a terrific evening. It didn't hurt that at another Tony party last year, I had actually talked with the author, Terrence McNally, although Jenn had to tell me afterwards, as I don't recognize very many people. (yes, Jenn and I made "the rounds" of Tony parties)

That about wraps up our amazing adventures in New York in 2015.  Stay tuned for more - in one week Jenn and I leave for Norway!!

Mark and the chocolate factory

Mark loves to make candy.  He makes terrific marshmallows and to die for brittles, but he's had a problem with chocolate.  When I saw, on my favorite Travelzoo site, an offer for a chocolate class at a New York artisanal candy store, I rushed to buy it for him.  The offer was for two people, so I went also.  I have no artistic ability and am clumsy to boot, so this was a challenge.  Sivonne, our patient instructor, was great.  She showed us all their machines that temper, enrobe and coat their candy.  Mark was in heaven, but, naturally, now wants to spend big bucks on a counter top tempering machine. The first thing that we did was fill our bags with chocolate. I went first and began as usual - I forgot to step on the off pedal in time, overfilled my bag and had chocolate running down my arms.  While Mark filled his to the perfect level, Sivonne fixed my bag and I cleaned up for the first of many times.  We then piped mendiants (flat wafers) onto parchment.  Mark's were all the same size in nice straight rows.  Mine......well......weren't.  There were many toppings for us to add. Large ones like Kix, Cocoa Puffs, peanuts and granola and small ones such as cinnamon, cocoa powder, ginger and coconut.  That was fun.  Then we moved to grignotines (clusters).  We mixed large ingredients into the chocolate to make it thicker and then used our gloved hands to scoop out the clusters.  Mark managed to make his almost all the same size and again in nice neat rows.  I was beginning to think how good he'd look covered in chocolate - which wouldn't have been difficult as I now had chocolate everywhere, including, somehow, my hair.  While I made another cleaning stop, Sivonne and Mark picked out a mold for our next adventure. Mark chose what he thought was a wreath, but turned out to be a mummy face - by now I was celebrating any misstep he might make and gloated - I knew that MY mold was bunnies😊 First we had to fill the mold with a thin coat of chocolate - yep, you're right, mine was not thin and I once again was covered in chocolate.  That was fixed, I got washed and we took our molds to fill with caramel. (Well, of corse Mark's was perfect!). This time, I was able feel better - Mark overfilled! Well, of course I had too, but was not alone this time. Somehow, though, when we put the thin coat of chocolate on the bottom and scraped off the excess, Mark's were once again just right and I ended up scraping off caramel and chocolate into one big pile - much of it on my person again.

That was our last project and we got to sack up our creations to bring home.  Somehow Mark's bag weighed about twice as much as mine and I wondered how that had happened until I remembered how much I had washed (oh,okay, and licked) off my hands, arms and face.

We had a great time and Mark got a lot of his questions answered and I don't think I gave Sivonne a nervous breakdown.

If you like chocolate, I highly recommend this class.  It's at Tache Chocolate, 254 Broome St, New York NY 10002. (212) 473-3200.

A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder

Yesterday Mark and I saw the 2014 Tony winner for Best Musical and loved it.  Last year, Jennifer and I had attended the Tony Awards and were lucky enough to also attend the Gentleman's celebration party afterward.  Now that we've seen the play, we are happy it won - it was hilarious.  The actors were wonderful and Jefferson Mays, who played 8 parts was beyond description.  His energy level was sky high throughout the play.

After, it was on to the subway to head to Little Italy and our luscious Lombardi's - New York's first pizza restaurant.  As usual, ate too much, but it is soooooo good! We had our usual confusing time at the subway station - couldn't figure out how much to put on our card, weren't sure which direction we should take the train and then, of course, the card didn't work!  Fortunately for us, there was an actual human being at this location and she was able to get us through the turnstile - after providing her with some laughs as we slid the card the wrong way and ran into a still locked turnstile.  

Tomorrow we have a chocolate making class - should be fun - or at least tasty😀

New York, New York

Well, we have once again returned to the bright lights of the Big Apple.  We arrived last night, later than we would have liked due to Virgin America canceling our original flight. We're staying this trip at the Premier, part of the Millennium Hotel Group, just off Times Square on 44th.  Very nice hotel and the first NY hotel we've had that includes breakfast and free wifi!  Always a plus.  And we have a view that includes The Ball from New Year's Eve fame - I'm betting this room would be out of our price range on that night!

So, last night we checked in, dumped our bags in the room and headed out for food.  This was about 9:30 PM, well past our normal time and closing in on bedtime.  But this is New York and everyone was still out and about. We decided on close and easy and headed to Junior's, figuring we could get there marginally before the after theater crowd.  We did, so only had about a 15 minute wait for our table.  Enjoyed the atmosphere more than the food (well, except for the slice of luscious coconut lemon cake we shared). 

I'm trying to start writing this more often, so I'm going to stop now, head out to pick up our theater tickets for today's matinee of A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder and try to write more tonight or in the morning.  

For all you weather fans - it's cold!