Thursday, April 22
Woke up at 4am to fly from Oakland International to JFK in New York City. We took a taxi from JFK to Brooklyn, guiding our ill-informed taxi driver to our Carroll Avenue Apartment in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn. The tax driver had a new GPS device he didn’t know how to use—thank goodness for Jacki’s maps! We ate dinner at Coco Rocco, an excellent Peruvian restaurant on 5th Avenue that was recommended in our landlord’s guest guidebook. We then toured the neighborhood around our comfortable brownstone apartment.
Friday, April 23
Jacki and I ate breakfast at Ozzie’s Café on 5th Avenue and Garfield Place in Brooklyn. We then walked through Prospect Park in beautiful spring weather and saw many families enjoying the sun. There were a lot of strollers, many double-wides.
After changing clothes (Manhattan is more formal, and we didn’t want to look too casual), we took the R Train to the World Trade Center area. We toured the 911 Memorial visitor’s center until the grief was too much.
It was a short walk to Goldman Sachs’ new headquarters at 200 West Street where we met Reid outside, were given security clearance, and took a tour of the Mortgage and Currency Trading Desks with over 250 traders hard at work. The three of us ate lunch in company cafeteria with views of the Hudson River and Statue of Liberty. Reid told us his perspective about recent S.E.C. suit against Goldman. The new $2+ billion building was spacious (in particular the lobby) with artwork and design features that one would never see in a government-type building.
We left Reid and took the subway to High Line Park in the Meat Packing District. Jacki and I loved the whole idea of a park constructed upon
an abandoned elevated train track threaded between old brick warehouses. We, and many others, admired the blocks of plantings, public art, and architectural features that echoed the old railway. We then toured the nearby Chelsea Piers on the Hudson; Kurt was not impressed. We walked to the West Village for pizzaat John’s on Bleecker Street. Neither of us was impressed.
We then took the subway to Rockefeller Center and saw the sunset from the Top of the Ro
ck. It was a beautiful evening with breathtaking views of the city as the downtown building lights came on. We were finally impressed.
Afterwards, we walked to Bryant Park to enjoy the moonlight and city lights through park’s trees, then took the R Train from Times Square to our vacation home in Brooklyn.
Saturday, April 24
We started the day with a delicious breakfast at the Blue Sky Bakery – hellagood muffins and coffee on Brooklyn’s version of 5thAve. We then walked to the Grand Army Plaza to see
the Park Slope Farmer’s Market. It was well attended by locals (with lots of kids in lots of strollers) and had a good selection of vegetables, bakery items, fruit, and plants for sale. We made a couple of small purchases, then continued around the Brooklyn Public Library to the Brooklyn Botanical Garden. The garden was in all its spring glory with azaleas, lilacs, cherry trees, and tulips in full color. There were pretty good-sized crowds of people enjoying the beautiful sunny day.
After a quick stop back at the apartment, we took the subway up to the Bronx to see Ira. He took us on a walk past the house where he will be living in next year, then on to Enzo’s 
Restaurant, a wonderful Italian place on Arthur Avenue, the heart of Little Italy in the Bronx. After a delicious lunch and some good conversation, Ira took us through the Fordham campus to the New York Botanical Garden. After a tram ride around the garden, the three of us walked over to the crabapple grove that was in full bloom, followed by a jaunt through the conservatory where Colonel Mustard was pulling out his revolver… oops, wrong story.
We said goodbye to Ira, then hopped onto the Metro North train back to Manhattan. The train was jammed with high school students dressed to the nines on their way to the city for their prom night. A quick trip through the teeming crowds of Grand Central Station and Times Square brought us back to the subway, which we boarded for the ride back to relatively peaceful Brooklyn.
Sunday, April 25
We took a scouting trip in the rain to Penn Station for Monday’s
trip to Washington DC. After finding our way through that difficult underground maze, we had a healthy lunch at the very crowded Whole Foods at Columbus Circle. Next for us was a tour of the Museum of Art and Design where a new show was being installed called Dead or Alive. We then visited the Apple Store on 5th Avenue and tried the newly released iPad along with hundreds of other consumers under the magic Apple marketing spell. Jacki and I then walked through Central Park, noting that the ball fields were marked as unplayable with large red flags.
We shopped and then waited out of the rain at Loehmann’s and the Starbucks on 75th and Broadway while Reid worked on a Goldman Sachs team project in his apartment. Finally, we met with Reid and roommate Alex at their handsome apartment on 75th Street, then Reid took Jacki and I to an elegant dinner a couple of blocks away at an Asian fusion restaurant named Citrus. We had a very interesting discussion about Reid’s work, Reid’s work, and more of Reid’s work. Jacki and I returned home to Brooklyn where we got ready for an early start in the morning. A thunder and lightning storm added some drama to the evening.
Monday, April 26
We took the subway to Penn Station in Manhattan and boarded the Amtrak Regional train to Union Station in Washington DC. The journey passed through Newark and Trenton, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and a few other cities along the way before arriving in Washington. We got our first celebrity sighting of the vacation when we saw Spike Lee boarding the taxi behind us outside Union Station. Our cab driver chose to listen to Rush Limbaugh at top volume in the taxi on the w
ay to our hotel on M Street in Georgetown. We were not amused.
After settling in, we walked pat George Washington University to the White House where the New York Yankees were visiting for their World Series greeting from the President. Jacki and I got our second celebrity sighting when Yankee General Manager Brian Cashman came out and signed some baseballs for a couple of fans just outside the White House gate. We walked around the White House (admiring the new vegetable garden), through the World War II Memorial, and along the Reflecting Pool in the rain where pairs of ducks were feeding with their ducklings.
Then we walked through the Vietnam War Memorial in the rain, fitting weather for such 
a somber place. The memorial was near the Lincoln Memorial, which we visited next. There, National Park Rangers were playing a recording of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech over a loudspeaker to commemorate the greatest speech of the 20th Century (so the Ranger said) made a few steps away. We spent quite a lot of time inside the Lincoln Memorial, including listening to a half-hour talk by an obviously well-informed and interesting Ranger. We were impressed and touched by the monument and the man (Lincoln). We returned to our hotel via the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the Watergate complex. We had dinner at a tiny, nearby eatery that had crepes and bubble tea.
Tuesday, April 27
We awoke early, had breakfast at Baked & Wired, a small bakery/coffee place a block from our hotel, and walked to the White House for our 9:30am tour. We were a bit surprised to find the sidewalk in front of the White House was closed off – the same place where we took pictures the day before. The security to get into the White House was not too strict, though we had earlier given our SSNs and other info for background checks, so apparently they had enough info about us. We toured the downstairs East Wing rooms, including the Library, the Vermeil Room, and the China Room. We then went upstairs and saw the East Room where entertainers perform for the Presidential Family. This is where, the day before, the Yankees were received by the President.
While in this room, we asked the Secret Service Agent (SSA) on hand about some red markers out on the lawn that Kurt had observed when looking out the window. The SSA confirmed Kurt’s suspicion that they were for a helicopter, and hinted that we might want to stick around awhile because they were put out there in the morning and were not always on the grass. Shortly thereafter, further indications led us to believe, correctly, that the President’s helicopter (Marine I) would be landing. We staked out a good spot by the window and got to see the helicopter make a landing about 150 feet in front of us. A group of people (staffers? visitors?) were standing nearby to watch. After about 20 minutes, President Obama strode out of the White House, gave a quick salute to the Marine on site, and bounded up the stairs of the chopper. Kurt saw him shake the hands of the pilots, then go further in. Staff members accompanying the President climbed on board through a different hatch, and a few minutes later, they took off. It was very exciting to see, and the friendly SSA said that it is quite rare for the President to leave in this manner while White House tours are taking place, and that we were very lucky to get to see him. The SSAs stationed in each room were extremely personable and were happy to answer questions and tell stories. We saw the Green Room, the Blue Room, the Red Room, and the State Dining Room before exiting the White House.
We next went to the White House Visitor Center and looked at the displays. A walk up the street brought us to a White House gift shop full of tacky gifts, including a number of Sarah Palin items. Kurt was disgusted. He did, however, buy some pencils picturing the White House and President Obama.
We had a quick lunch at a nearby restaurant then took the Circulator bus back to the hotel where we collected our camera, Chapsticks, purse, and a few other items which were not allowed on the White House tour. We took the metro subway to the Capitol South station that is right next to the Capitol, the Library of Congress, the Supreme Court Building, and other important places. Instead of the usual New York subway station advertising, Jacki and I noted the ads of defense contractors in the Washington metro station. Pictures of military drones with such slogans as, “Before you see the threat, we have destroyed it,” stopped us in our tracks.
Before taking our VIP tour of the Library of Congress arranged by Jacki’s congresswoman, we obtained LOC Reading Cards at the Madison Building, where we were briefed on how to do research at the LOC from a Librarian named (no kidding) Marian. Actually, from what she told us, we doubted her credentials as a degreed librarian. We took a tunnel route from the Madison Building to the Jefferson Building, where the tour started. After spending a good amount of money at the Library Shop (gift shop), we joined the tour and got to see the surprisingly ornate interior of the building. It was most impressive, and we were told that it was built in the 1890s for the sum of $6,100,000. After leaving the Library at closing time (5:00pm), we noticed signs put up for a Democratic Caucus gathering for legislators and their spouses to be held in the Library.
We took a walk around the area, checking out the Supreme Court building, a residential area that we considered staying in, and the Capitol building (just the back side). A quick Metro ride brought us back to Foggy Bottom and a walk back to our Georgetown hotel for a rest before going out for dinner at a nearby barbecue restaurant called Old Glory. We got caught up in a trivia contest, but left early because of a couple of cigar-smoking guys out on the deck nearby us. We then walked through a few streets of Georgetown that were filled with high-end chain stores and lots of well-off-looking people before returning to our hotel for the night.
Wednesday, April 28
We again had breakfast at Baked & Wired, noticing the café had a blackboard with a customer-contributed list of their favorite suicidal authors (Sarah Palin was on the list). We then wa
lked to the Foggy Bottom Metro station and took the subway to the Smithsonian stop. We went directly to the National Holocaust Museum and got in line for timed tickets to see the permanent exhibit. Our ticket was for 11:45 am, so we crossed the mall to the American History Museum. Highlights from this museum were: the lunch counter from the Montgomery, Alabama Woolworth’s where southern civil rights protesters sat in their ultimately successful attempt at integration; the First Ladies exhibit showing gowns of White House wives and hostesses (some were daughters or daughters-in-law); the giant flag that waved at Fort McHenry in Baltimore during the War of 1812 and inspired Francis Scott Key to write the Star Spangled Banner; and the popular culture exhibit that included Dorothy’s ruby slippers from the Wizard of Oz, Kermit the Frog, Fonzie’s leather jacket, Archie Bunker’s chair, and a few other objects. We had lunch in the museum cafeteria, then walked back to the Holocaust Museum where w
e spent the next few hours seeing all the very sobering exhibits.
Next, we walked down the Mall to the Kennedy Center, where we saw a free concert by Balla Kouyate, and his World Vision group. They played wonderful African music from Mali. We walked back to the hotel and regrouped, then went to dinner at Taj of India restaurant on M Street near our hotel. It was a great meal.
After dinner we took a taxi to the Lincoln Memorial and were surprised to see many tourists out and about. There was a full moon, and we had a lovely walk down the Mall to the Was
hington Monument, then up to the White House. Everything was beautiful in the moonlight. We ended up taking a taxi back to the hotel because the Circulator bus we intended to take had stopped running earlier. Got back to our hotel after 11:00 pm.
Thursday, April 29
Once more, we had breakfast at Baked & Wired, then checked out of the hotel. We boarded the Circulator bus and rode it to Union Station (about 40 minute ride), where we left our luggage at the Tiburon Lockers for a few hours. We walked to the Capitol nearby. Jacki went into the Library of Congress Jefferson Building to see the exhibit of Jefferson’s library and to see the beautiful building one more time. Kurt enjoyed the outdoors, taking time to sit on the steps of the Supreme Court and walk around the Capitol Building to soak in the atmosphere on this beautiful sunny day.
We met up again and walked to the American Museum of Art where we had lunch and saw the Chester Dale collection of Impressionist art, which was very impressive. Many pieces by Degas, Mary Cassatt, Renoir, Monet, Picasso and others were included. We then took a leisurely stroll back to Union Station, collected our luggage, and boarded the train for New York.
The Amtrak Regional train went through these stations: Thurgood Marshall Airport; Baltimore; Wilmington, Delaware; Philadelphia; and Newark, Jew Jersey. While passing through Philadelphia, we could see a rowing competition on a River. We arrived at Penn Station and boarded a 3 train back to Brooklyn and another fine dinner at Coco Rocco.
Friday, April 30
We started the day with a trip to the laundromat. While the clothes were washing, we had breakfast at Blue Sky Bakery across the street. After dropping the clothes off at the apartment, we took the subway to Manhattan to have lunch with Ira. We stopped off at 
Times Square to see about getting half-price tickets to a Broadway show, but the TKTS booth was not yet open. Times Square was, as usual, packed with people of all kinds from all countries.
We then went on up to Lincoln Center where we met Ira who had come down from the Bronx via the Fordham Ram Van. The three of us walked up to 71st and Columbus where we had lunch at Big Nick’s. We got to hear about Ira’s classes and life at Fordham, and we told him about our trip to Washington DC. Our usual waiter, Mike, was there and we had a fun and interesting conversation with him. Turns out he is from Greece, not Italy as we had thought. Mike said he has been in this country for 15 years and has a green card. He has given up motorcycles because of the cost and lack of time to ride. His mother and Jacki are happy about that.
The three of us (not Mike) then walked down Columbus to 67th Street to the Apple store, where we all played with iPads and looked around for a while. It was then a short walk back to Lincoln Center where Ira caught the Ram Van to return to school.
After seeing Ira leave, we returned to the TKTS booth at Duffy Square in Times Square where Jacki bought discount tickets to the musical Avenue Q. We returned to Brooklyn on the subway where Jacki stuck up a conversation with a young woman who was born and raised in Brooklyn and worked as an accountant for Price Waterhouse. She gave us good recommendations on visiting Williamsburg (where we could see Hasidic Jews and hipsters living off their trust funds) and other sites in Brooklyn. Back in our apartment, we changed clothes and had some leftover dinner from the night before. We rode the Q Train back to Manhattan, viewing the Brooklyn Bridge and Statue of Liberty in the setting sun from our train on the Manhattan Bridge. We walked to a heavily crowded and raucous West 50th Street to the New World Stages where we saw the humorous musical, Avenue Q. After the play we returned to our Carroll Street home dog tired.
Saturday, May 1
We bought breakfast at a bakery on 5th Avenue in Brooklyn to have in our apartment then took the G train to Williamsburg in search of hipsters and Hasidic Jews. We found the latter in droves along Marcy Avenue this warm weather Sabbath, walking in traditional Orthodox Jewish clothes that are almost impossible to describe with words. The sight of grandfathers walking hand-in-hand with grandsons, women walking with daughters, and children playing on sidewalks and balconies begged for photos but we refrained in respect for such pious lives.
We continued walking north, where we saw increasingly Latin neighborhoods with small restaurants and graffitied warehouses, with the very occasional hipster scurrying for cover from the sun. We ended up at the tiny Grand Ferry Park to enjoy views of the Williamsburg Bridge and the Lower East Side of Manhattan. We sat in the shade eating popsicles from an ice cream truck and listening to the East River lap against the rocks as boats passed by.
Jacki and I retraced our steps to the G train for a return to the Carroll Gardens neighborhood and a walk through the Gowanus Canal surroundings. We had cold drinks on this hot day at the Fall Creek Café on Smith Street before a visit to the art gallery/museum/store/library called Proteus Gowanus on Union Street. This place, mentioned in The New Yorker, had what they called a Reanimation Library of LOC cataloged used books that intrigued us librarians.
We returned to our apartment on Carroll Street to freshen up before boarding the subway 
to Manhattan and our last dinner with Reid. We met Reid outside of his apartment on 75th Street and took some photos of him, though he was suffering from a cold he had caught earlier in the week. Reid took us for a short walk through Riverside Park, under the Westside Highway to one of his favorite spots, The Boat Basin. It was easy to see why Reid likes this restaurant so much because of the hundreds of twenty-somethings having the times of their young lives at the top of their lungs.
While waiting for a table overlooking the Hudson and then having dinner, we reviewed the past difficult week for Goldman Sachs both in the media and in the U.S. Congress. Reid seemed unfazed by all that was happening around him and we left him in good spirits but with a bad cough at his apartment. Jacki and I strolled around the Upper West Side for our traditional last bakery dessert (why does the carrot cake always look much better than it tastes?) and more cash at the Wachovia ATM (why do New York vacations have to cost so much?). We returned to our apartment a little faster than normal using a new 2 Train to the Q Train transfer technique Jacki had learned tonight from a helpful subway traveler.
Sunday, May 2
We woke to another hot, muggy day and shocking news on the Internet of a car bomb that was discovered last night in Times Square, a half-hour after Jacki and I had passed through there while transferring subway trains.
After breakfast at Blue Sky Bakery we took a hot, brisk walk past a few stoop sales to the Brooklyn Botanical Garden for souvenirs. Upon dashing home (Kurt had to go to the bathroom in the worst way), we discovered that our Jet Blue flight scheduled for later in the day had been canceled, due to “weather.” There were thunderstorms predicted, but as it turned out, the afternoon was of fine weather with a little cloud cover but no storm. We both suspected that Jet Blue canceled the flight for some other unexplained reason. In any case, Jacki booked us for Monday’s afternoon flight and we fervently hoped that it would leave as planned. We took the rest of the day easy, with Jacki doing a little shopping and Kurt’s intestines working overtime while he read the Sunday New York Times and caught up on this blog. We were lucky th
at our apartment had not been rented for Sunday and so we were able to spend another night in Brooklyn. To finish off this day of rest we took the subway to Brooklyn Heights and slowly walked along the Promenade, buying dinner at a deli on Montague Street. Jacki and I shared a leisurely meal sitting on a bench looking at the lights of lower Manhattan twinkle on at dusk. Upon finishing, we walked through the quiet, posh neighborhood for the return to Park Slope.
Monday, May 3
We woke up to light rain and further heavy uneasiness if Jet Blue would see fit to fly a jet through cloud cover this day. After having breakfast from a 5th Avenue bakery, calling a car service, and finishing packing, Jacki and I walked for several blocks on 7th Avenue to where the pretty brownstones of Park Slope faded to more generic Brooklyn walkups. Upon returning to 621 Carroll, we waited for the car service to arrive and admired with apartment owner Sherry how New Yorkers move their cars on street sweeping days and the strategizing necessary to avoid suffering a $100+ parking violation. At noon our suitcases were loaded into the trunk of an old Town Car for the always-prompt car service ride to JFK. During the drive down Park Boulevard, Jacki spotted a colon health clinic with a sign admonishing passersby not to “let your colon dig your grave.”
We arrived at JFK three hours early for our flight which was probably wishful thinking that our early arrival would somehow bring a quick flight home. Such was not the case when the plane was late to arrive to the gate and the JFK air controllers would not let our plane take off into a slightly dark cloud. We did make it home, albeit in separate rows of the airliner, with three unhappy babies muffled, thankfully, by Jacki's earplugs.
All in all, it was another wonderful trip to the East Coast.
