Practice Run - Chapter 2, Monday and Tuesday

We were so pleased when we found out that it was a relatively short walk from our hotel to Madison Square Garden. Our plan for Monday morning was to get up really early and be at the Garden (we frequent travelers to the Big Apple call it "the Garden") by 7:00 so we could get 3 of the very limited chairs that are set up along ringside. You can sit up in the grandstands, but we wanted to really be able to see the dogs. The Malinois were at 8:00, and the Aussies were in the same ring at 1:00. We figured we'd stick like glue to those chairs for that period of time. There were some serious problems with the planning and execution of the show by someone and when we got to the Garden, we were not allowed in until 7:30 - then we had to stand in a stupid line for 15 minutes. THEN they moved the line through some doors and to some other doors - so hundreds of people running to get to the other doors. What a mess. We barely made it to the ring on time.

If you have ever watched Westminster on TV you know there is a green carpet they show the dogs on. That green carpet is a holy place to dog show people. To actually be ON the carpet at the Garden is very exciting to us. What you see on the TV at night is nothing like it is during the day. There are about 6 rings during the day, and thousands of people. Literally a sea of people watching the various rings. You hear cheers and shouts all day long as someone's special dog wins or looses. Quite fun.

So we watched the Malinois. I slid down a few rings then to watch the Corgi's. We watched some other breeds and then had to go across to another ring to watch the German Shepherd of a friend of Sue's so we lost our prime chairs. After the Shepherd and grabbing a hotdog, we mosied back over to the first ring to watch the Aussies. Had the distinct pleasure of getting to see Beyonce who has won just about everything in the Aussie world, both AKC and ASCA and is the daughter of Riley who my good friends Rhonda and Carol bred. Quite a feather in their cap. Beyonce won the breed and I quickly texted Rhonda to let her know Beyonce would be in the Group ring that night.

We'd decided to go to the Italian Restaurant from Saturday for dinner on Monday night. We'd called and made a reservation for 5. At about 3:30 we were done watching the dogs we wanted to see most and decided to hop a taxi and if we couldn't get into dinner until 5.... we'd just drink! As it turned out, they gave us a table right away. (But we drank anyway). Another great dinner and only $157 this time (only???). We had tickets to go back to the Garden for the groups that night at 8 but is was only around 6 when we finished dinner and we decided we were tired, had full tummies and really just wanted to go back to the room, put our jammies on and watch groups on TV. So we did.

Tuesday was a more relaxed day as our breeds were not showing, so we stopped at our new favorite little bodega on the corner of 32nd and Broadway, for some breakfast stuff to take with us. We watched a few breeds, did some half serious shopping at the vendors and then decided to go to 'our' bodega for lunch. After lunch, Barb and Sue wanted to go back to the room and nap and I decided to go back to the show and watch a couple of breeds. After that I walked around the city a little, then back to the room. We'd had such a good dinner at the Brewery that we decided to taxi back there for dinner monday night. It was yummy again and then it was back to the room to pack and watch groups again and Best in Show. Right after the show it was lights out because we (Barb and Sue) had a 4:30 wake up call to get ready to leave by 5:30. I had showered so I told them to wake me at 5, but I was up by 4:45 anyway. Nice ride to the JFK and essentially uneventful flights home except that when we got to Sacramento, our luggage was not on board. Oh well, better that direction than going! It was all delivered the next day.

Great trip. Great fun... but awfully expensive. Not something you can do often.

P.S. The travel purse and satin dreamy (sleep sack) that I'd bought for Europe and used in NYC to practice, both worked wonderfully.

Becky

+.8

The Practice Run - Chapter 1 - Fri, Sat and Sun

Well...where do I begin? As Dee mentioned, I have been gone for 5 days. I was lucky enough to recieve an invitation from a good friend, Barb, to go with her and another friend, Sue, to New York City to attend the Westminster Dog show. I have been twice before, but it's one of those things that are just too fun to pass up. Barb and Sue both raise Belgian Malinois, a herding breed. Barb also has a Mini Bull Terrier. We flew out of Sacramento on Friday the 11th and arrived in NYC at JFK late that evening. A taxi in NYC is an experience all in itself. There was an accident on 6th Avenue, fire trucks, an ambulance and as we sat there blocked from moving, a guy got out of his car and started yelling at another guy. We thought it would come to fisticuffs. All we knew about the hotel we stayed at was that it was in mid-town Manhatten, used to be a Red Roof Inn and had been completely remodeled 6 months ago. At least it would be clean and hopefully handy to our needs.

Our plan was to spend Sat and Sun sightseeing and then spend all day Mon and Tues at the dog show. Saturday we headed out by taxi to pick up our show tickets to see "Wicked" on Broadway at the 2:00 matinee that day. The tickets were at an Italian restaurant near Times Square. Don't ask me why they were there - couldn't tell you. What we decided, however, was it was a place we wanted to eat. Smelled great and was REALLY nice inside.

We mosied on over to the theater as it was already about 1:00. Probably about a 3-4 block walk (lots of walking in NYC). I expected the show to be good, but it was more like completely fantastic. We all enjoyed it very much. We walked back through Time Square to see if we could get a table at the Italian Restaurant, but there were no reservations available until around 9:30 that night and that was MUCH too late for us. Back outside on the street we started to look around for a place to eat. There are HUNDREDS in that city. A few doors down was a place called the Heartland Brewery. Two couples had just stepped outside, so I just walked up and asked how it was. They liked it so we decided to go inside. Ended up having a truly wonderful meal - for about $180. Yep, that's what it costs to eat in NYC. Thank goodness it was great food.

Barb wanted to see Ground Zero and Sue wanted to see Greenwich Village, so we decided those were out goals for Sunday. It turns out that by walking out the hotel's front door and turning left, then walking for about 10 minutes, we ran straight into Penn Station (and Madison Square Garden). Penn Station is down below the Garden. At the Station we looked totally tourist as we studied a subway map and discussed how to get to the WTC (World Trade Center). We decided the "E" train would get us there. Turns out the "E" train was not running - it was under repair - naturally. So we were re-analyzing our choices when a nice lady with a Jamican accent stepped forward to help us sort it out. Turns out we needed the "A" train which is an express train, but then would have to get off at Fulton street and walk a few blocks to the WTC. As the train approached lower Manhatten, there was an announcement that that train would not stop at Fulton, but would continue on to Brooklyn. We had no desire to go to Brooklyn. We were just pulling into Chambers St and I decided we'd best hop off and regroup. We did and since we were too far to walk (Sue has bad knees) that far, we grabbed a taxi and took that down to Ground Zero. It was an interesting but somber visit to the site and Memorial/Museum. Next we took a taxi to Greenwich Village. A little walking around then a stop for cappuchinos (pepsi for me). A little more walking then a taxi back to the hotel as we had plans to meet friends of Barbs (other Malinois people) to go for Sushi for dinner. Not my choice, but I was trying to be adventurous - after all I did promise to practice that.

Dinner was in a little hole in the wall in..... Greenwich Village. About 1 block from where we were earlier in the day. Who knew? One lady in the group (4 of them) had been an exchange student to Japan while in college and knew Japanese and loved sushi. She did all the ordering and was nice enough to order me Vegetable sushi and vegetable tempura. Yes! I did try some tuna sushi and it was (sorry) disgusting. I did also try hot Saki and it was actually not bad, but nothing I'd go out of my way for. Dinner for the 7 of us was right around $750 dollars. Yes, I said $750.00. OMG!! Amazingly, Sue chose to pick up our part of the tab. Maybe she saw the stricken look on Barb's and my faces?? More later.

Becky
+0/-0 (can you believe it after 5 days of eating EVERYTHING!)

One of Those Coincidences?.....

Ok, so a Scottish Terrier last year, and.....this year.....

A Scottish Deerhound? Hummmm, you have to wonder about those coincidences we talked about in a prior post.

A Day Late...But Still With Love.

I fully intended to post this on Valentine's day, but got waylaid, I guess.  Anyway, I think this is a beautiful love song.  The title is Se Non Ho Te  (If I Don't Have You) by my favorite Italian group Nomadi playing with the Omni Symphony Orchestra (2007).



I also wanted to put in something about the Lucchetti Ponte Milvio in Rome. A few years ago, there was an Italian movie in which the lovers locked a chain around a lamp post on the Milvio Bridge over the Tiber River, and threw the key into the water. Since then, there have been so many people doing it, the lampost was starting to buckle. Instead of outlawing it, they put up a rack for people to put their locks (lucchetti) on, and the tradition continues.

There are places all over Italy where people put their locks, and in the tradition of a country which believes in "amore", it is tolerated, and in some cases even assisted. After all, St. Valentine was a Roman.

Becky Is On Vacation From Our Vacation...

So Becky is off to NYC for the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show...

 Last year's winner.  Is it an omen?

I am not sure if I will hear from her while she is gone, or if she will Blog.  I hope she does because I think this outing is an important part of our planning.  It will give her some practice, and she can maybe get some ideas about what we need to prepare for as far as packing, clothing, etc. 

In any case, I have still been struggling with the trains.  I did, however make a great acquaintance in Vienna on Facebook, and she has given us a wonderful list of cheap things to do while we are there.  I think the best is information about the Vienna Tourist Card that we can buy for 18.50€.  It is good for 72 hours, and we have unlimited use of the buses, subways, and trams.  The site is very interesting, and there are discounts on nearly everything in Vienna that a tourist would want to see, including the Giant Ferris Wheel (cool!).  It is really interesting.  You can book a "cabin", apparently an enclosed area on the wheel, and have dinner. On the site there is even a place to plan your trip to the city.  Or if just interested in the transportation part of it, you can pay 10€ for unlimited public transportation for 48 hrs.  You can get on and off as much as you want.  Thank you, Isabella.

I hope Becky has realized (as I just did), that we are going to be in a country/city where NEITHER of us speaks the language.  I remember being in Albania and not speaking Shqip, but I had an interpreter.  This will be different.  I may need to learn a few German words or phrases, but they seem so difficult.  Maybe with English, my limited Italian, and a little (and I mean very little) German, we will get by.

This little foray into Becky's city actually started with me trying to find out where Wein was.  It is the destination for a train from Cologne that I am trying to figure out, and also a follow up on some things that Isabella (who is another Zucchero fan) sent me.  I will now go back to my train brain drain.



Now this is a committed fan!  The flies are replicas of ones on Zucchero's album "Fly".  Isabella designed the tribal part.  Beautiful tattoo and a good picture of Zucchero with Isabella.

Dee

(even)

 

Manarola

This is one of the villages of the Cinque Terre.  It is where the hostel we will be staying at is located.  If you are following our blog, Kim and Libby, this is where you could be spending some time.  Of course, to be honest, it will be late October, so may not be quite so sunny, but it IS the Riviera...so who knows.




I wish you could see this picture in HD.  If you have an HD screen, you can see the original here.  Amazing.

Dee

"The Coldest Winter I Ever Spent Was A Summer In San Francisco"

I don't know where I read this quote, or who said it, but it loosely applies to my story.

I was thinking about a weekend trip that Becky and I took to San Francisco to see Wicked.  Becky was picking the hotel and making the reservations for this trip, and she picked  a funky little old hotel that looked like the kind of place we like.  It was light years from new, but looked clean, and the location was good. 

She picked me up at the airport in Sacramento, and as we drove into SF we found ourselves on one of their inevitable one-way streets.  After making a second loop around we found a parking place in front, checked in, and then took off to go see something (I don't remember what). 

As we returned, and found ourselves turning onto the street where the hotel was, I had a moment of recognition....

BACK IN TIME:  In the 1950s, our dad was transferred to Hawaii by the Marine Corps.  We drove to San Francisco from Pennsylvania, and then we were put up in the Marine Corps Hotel until the plane was ready. I remember how cold it was, how wet, and that because we were going to Hawaii (Hello...Warm?) we didn't have heavy coats.  I remember my dad taking us to a movie (Pete Kelly's Blues with Jack Webb), and the walk up the street leaning into the cold wind.

BACK TO THIS DECADE:  Our hotel was about 4 buildings in from the corner in front of us. Two buildings from the corner was the Marine Corps Memorial Club and Hotel. 

That moment of recognition still gives me what the Italians call "la pelle d'oca" (goose bumps).  It was one of those times when you are actually transported through space to another time and place; where later, when you have somewhat recovered,  you contemplate with amazement the coincidences in the world, and are they really coincidences or lovely little miracles God gives us to remind us how small the world is and where we are in it.

I can't help but think that somewhere on this trip we may stumble into another little coincidence that will again give "la pelle d'oca" and make another incredible, unexplainable  memory that will remain long after the others are gone.  I hope so.

Dee

There is a Reason Why "Train" and "Bane" Rhymes (as in "the bane of my existence").

ARGGGHHHHH....train schedules!  Becky is having issues with the train routes and schedules in Britain, and I am also having issues with the Continent.  So far, the only relatively easy parts of this trip have been the flights over and back, and the ferry from Newcastle to Amsterdam.  Limited choices mean limited headaches. 

All I really want is a place that will give me a rough idea of how much it is to go from point A to point B so I can estimate our travel expenses.  I really don't need to have exact amounts.  I am realistic, I know the prices will change. I just want to get some idea.  Is that so hard?  Ok, so I also would like it all on one page so I didn't have to jump from one site to another, and one page to another.  Not too much to ask, but you would think I was asking for a free trip to Florence.

Ok, I feel better.  To bed and a new plan of attack tomorrow.  I will approach it with renewed enthusiasm and a clear vision.  And chocolate.  And probably something alcoholic.

OH, No...La Kiwiaise May Go Home

Oh, sadness.... Our Kiwi cousin may be going home.  Her teaching contract is coming to an end, and she is trying to make a decision about what to do. She indicates that the entire visa situation is a nightmare, that she has decided she doesn't want to be a schoolteacher, and she is missing home a bit.  I hope she finds a direction that will enable her to stay in France or Spain so we can connect while we are there.  It would be so very fun.

I hope things work out the way she wants them to, but that we can still meet up.  Although we want to go to New Zealand, we have to wait until Julie can go with us.

Dee
(I don't want to talk about it)