We spent a wonderful 3 days in the Big apple. I've modified NYC's name to be: New York, New York, a lot, a lot!
There is a lot to see,
We saw a lot
A lot we didn't see.
A lot of concrete, bricks, glass, asphalt, and metal.
People! A lot of people.
Taxis, cars, and busses....a lot.
Restaurants, theaters, clubs, and bars.
Museums, and museums, and even more museums.
We walked a lot, covered a lot of sidewalks, but left much more un-trod.
We looked up a lot.

New York City is intoxicating in it's extravagance and excess.

It's changed little since we lived there in 1967-68, but there are a couple of major changes; The sex vendors and hookers from old Times Square and 42nd street are no longer garishly conspicuous. And the numbers of street vendors have diminished dramatically. All the taxis are yellow cabs now, at least in lower Manhattan. We didn't take the time to learn the subway system this trip but from what I saw, the names of the different lines have changed since we lived there. The twin towers had not been built yet.
Before we left for New York, Karen gave us their recent Sept./Oct. issue of AAA's Going Places magazine. In that issue is an article titled Let's eat, Manhattan. It gives ideas and suggestions for places to eat in a 3 day, weekend format. The interesting item that immediately caught my attenttion were the Korean restaurant recommendations. Our centrally located hotel was only a few blocks from K-town so after our bus tour we headed down to West 32nd street. Almost immediately did we encounter the Mandoo Bar (2 W. 32nd St.), where we saw women handmaking Mandoo (Korean dumplings) in the storefront window. Only a few doors down and across the street, we located the Korean BBQ; Kum Gang San. We did sup there and it was everything I expected and more. D. had the teriaki chicken, and I had bulgogi and plenty of kim chi. Unfortunately, these were the only places from the magazine article that we sought out, but rest assured we didn't go hungry, or lack for wonderful places to dine.

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Our train ride aboard Amtrak was a pleasant one on a bright sunny Autumn day and we saw Bannerman's Castle and the U. S. Military Academy at West Point. The train was late leaving and later arriving but since we were playing our itinerary by ear we weren't stressed at all. We arrived at Penn Station at 1330 and took a taxi to the hotel. We could've walked if we'd known how close it was, but live and learn. Since we were early for check in at 1500, we had them store our bags and we had the concierge make reservations for us to take a bus tour. It wasn't the overbooked one I'd tried to schedule before we left, nor was it the Greyline tour recommended by the Frommer's guide, but it was recommended by our concierge and so we went with that and it worked out just dandy.

Our hotel; the George Gershwin is located on East 27th St. just off 5th Ave.
Besides being centrally located; If you look up 5th Ave you can easily see and get a decent picture of the Empire State Building, and if you look south you get a great view of the Flatiron building, so named because of the shape of it's roof.
It does need to be pointed out here that right adjacent to our hotel building and exactly on the corner of E. 27th St. and 5th Ave is the Museum of Sex.















Above left: Bannerman's Castle, above right: West Point. Both taken from moving train across the Hudson River.

I'll leave you here, on the corner of E. 27th St. and 5th Ave to peruse the Museum until the tour resumes later.

Enjoy!