Across from Erica’s booth, Bob McNally had a booth showcasing his instrument, the Strumstick. It is similar to a guitar but with only 3 strings. The frets are spaced such that the only notes that can be played are in a major key. For the non-musician, this means that no note sounds bad. The tagline for this instrument is “For the musically disinclined.”

It’s true. I watched many people play this instrument who had no musical experience at all. They were amazaed at how well it sounded. Watch and listen to Bob demonstrating the grand strumstick (key of D). The smaller, standard strumstick has a higher sound (key of G).

I had a great time playing with the lady working the booth and other times just playing by myself. I met several really nice people from England, the Ukraine and multiple states. Music is a great way to relate to people. We really enjoyed watching a four year old boy play the electric strumstick for awhile. He was quite entertaining.

Bob also invented an electric version of the strumstick. It has a great sound. If you have 6 minutes, check out this cool little video of him playing the electric strumstick.

If you have always been intimidated by the guitar, try the strumstick. Many people have successfully moved from the strumstick to the guitar after several months of playing the strumstick.

Playing music is fun, a great way to relax, brings people together and allows your creativity another outlet.

Michael

Sleeping in on Sunday was important to recover from all of our activity over the last two days. We made a leisurely stroll to E.J.’s Luncheonette at 447 Amsterdam Ave. This was a great diner with ample portions of food for a decent price. What a wonderful way to start the day.

After that hardy breakfast, we walked over to Zabar’s. Not only does their deli have everything under the sun, the top floor has aisle after aisle of kitchenware. I’ve never seen anything like it. We wandered up and down the rows of food and kitchen gadgets for quite some time. The Zabar’s website claim they have over 40,000 shoppers per week. Incredible!

We took the subway down to Union Square again and did some shopping for shoes and Levis pants. That activity took a lot longer than I had anticipated, but no worries as we found exactly what we were looking for. Next stop was Po Restaurant in Greenwich Village.

Very yummy. This Italian restaurant is a popular place. Fortunately for us, we arrived at a lull in activity. That meant we got the food delivered to our table very quickly. Everything was quite tasty. We had the White Bean Brushetta to start. I had the Po Panini which is a grilled chorizo sausage with goat cheese and onion marmalade plus a salad. Erica had the tilapia special. Very good. After our late lunch we walked around the streets and did some Xmas shopping and enjoyed the variety of wares being offered.

We wanted to end the day with an espresso and pastry from somewhere in Little Italy. After many streets of walking and endless searching we found a place called Ferrara Cafe. Oh my god! The cappuccino was perfect. I had a small cannoli and Erica had a pastry called a lobster tail. It was huge! What a great way to end a fabulous trip.

My travel advice for the day: Get out of your house and go see something you haven’t seen. It doesn’t have to be New York; just somewhere you haven’t been. Explore without planning too much. You’ll thank yourself.

Have a great day!

Michael

We stayed in the Upper West Side around 91st Street and Amsterdam. Erica had a great deal on an apartment from a friend that was 65% less expensive than staying in a hotel.

Day 1

I love photography so we took a subway down to B&H Photo. The store itself is huge with two floors covering every aspect of photography, video, astronomy and a host of accessories. Since it was Black Friday, B&H was packed with people. It looked like a feeding frenzy on a wildlife video. I’ll have to make a visit regularly as the store contains so much.

After the B&H tour, we walked around Lower Broadway so that Erica could find some wholesale merchandise for her store. We spend a little bit of time here and then walked over to the East Village for lunch. We ate at Quintessence Raw Food. It may sound strange to some, but the flavors were fabulous.

Next we meandered around Union Square and poked around a huge craft show. That was fun. There were lots of vendors with a plethora of wares for sale. A quick subway ride took us north to Rockefeller Center where we walked around for a bit and looked at NBC studios and the ice rink. The Christmas tree had been placed near the skaters but it was not decorated yet.

A short walk to Time’s Square took us to our destination for dinner, Ellen’s Stardust Diner. The waiters and waitresses take turns singing show tunes and other songs for the patrons. We had a great dinner and some wonderful entertainment at the same time.

Finally we went to an Off Broadway show called My First Time. Using stories from the website My First Time, four actors sitting on stools portrayed a humorous look at other’s first times (yes, we are talking about sex.). Very funny and well done.

Day 2

We started our day early with a cappuccino, croissant, oatmeal and some fruit. It was very cold outside and we needed some good food to help fend off the chills.

Our main objective for today was to explore as much as possible the massive American Museum of Natural History. We got there right when they opened and started our adventure with a tour of the butterfly conservatory. It was very interesting, informative and quite fun. They had many species of butterflies. I believe our favorite was called Queen of the Philippines. It was huge with a red body, read head surrounded by black and red wings. Wow!

We wandered up to the H2O exhibit and learned all about fresh water and the challenges we face now and in the future to supply clean water to humanity. Our next stop was the enormous mineralogical exhibit. It contained some stunning examples of crystals, minerals and the largest meteorite in captivity (34 tons).

Lunch was off campus at an excellent restaurant serving southern Indian cuisine the back to the museum for a planetarium show called Cosmic Collisions. The movie showed stunning images and video depicting collisions ranging from meteors on earth to galaxies colliding. After walking around the astronomy section, we ended our day with an IMAX movie called Dinosaurs Alive!. We were up close and personal with the 50 foot screen. It felt like we were there.

At this point we had our fill of the Museum of Natural History and decided to walk around Lincoln Center. We ate at Ollies for dinner and then ended our night with the movie, No Country for Old Men. Very intense film with some of the best acting I’ve seen in years. If you don’t like violence, don’t go see this one, but the acting was superb.

Day 3 tomorrow…………………..

Michael

At the end of the day I walked around the grounds for a little while enjoying the tremendous size of the trees. Many were simply huge and walking under them was like entering a tunnel.

The rolling lawns created wide open spaces that made the house and landscape feel even bigger. The views in the distance of the Hudson River and Tappan Zee Bridge were lovely and added to the grandeur of the estate.

For dinner we took a short drive to Irvington and ate at The Red Hat Bistro. I started off with a Red Hat Margarita which was perfectly balanced. I had the crab cake for a starter which was light, tasty and had very little filler. The sauce was spicy. I ate a pan seared cod for the entree. Dessert was an incredible toffee amaretto bread pudding with a scoop of ice cream. This was one of the best desserts I’ve had in a long time. If you are in the Westchester county of New York, I highly recommend this bistro for a fantastic meal.

Michael

For the main course, I ordered the grilled shrimp with serrano sauce, sweet plantain and guacamole. The combination of spicy and sweet was perfectly balanced. I ate until I was stuffed. Erica ordered the pan seared halibut with grilled chayote, sweet plantain puree, and salsa verde. Very good!

The Hell’s Kitchen area of New York City is rich with culture, history, shops and restaurants. I really recommend walking the area, exploring the nooks and crannies plus enjoying the fantastic variety of food that is offered. We walked around for a couple of hours in the evening just absorbing the flurry of activity that seems to never stop in this incredible city.

Michael

No matter where you go, there you are. – unknown

Without new experiences, something inside of us sleeps. The sleeper must awaken. – Frank Herbert

For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move. – Robert Louis Stevenson

Of all the places I’ve been, I had not been to New York City until today. I’m traveling with Erica, who is very familiar with the city. So, it’s really nice to have a tour guide.

After an okay Thai dinner at Pam Real Thai, we went to a comedy show at Carolines. Tonight’s headliner was Tracy Morgan. The club was quite small and intimate and Tracy had many funny moments.

I had always wanted to walk around Time Square, so after the show we took a leisurely stroll along Broadway. There was an incredible number of people out tonight. In fact, at times, it was wall to wall people. But, it was not an issue as one of my favorite pastimes is people watching. New York is truly a melting pot of diverse cultures. It reminds me of London in many ways. The lights around Time Square were dazzling and constantly changing.

I enjoyed exploring many of the stores as we walked back to The Belvedere, our hotel. I noticed that there are Starbucks about every 2 or 3 blocks. I have never seen so many of them in one place as I did today walking around a 10 block area from our hotel. Wow!

Michael