NYC Tours and Travel

The view from my hotel room.

In May, I went to NYC.  The principle reason was to attend Book Expo America.  The BEA is a 3-day event where publishers get to tell booksellers and librarians about upcoming releases.  It's a winning situation for me, I come home each year with over 100 complimentary new books, most are ARCs, Advance Readers Copies.  I get to read books before they are published.  Several members of my Tai Chi class are avid readers, and they've gotten used to reading ARCs, too.  The disadvantage of ARCs is they are not the final printing and may have errors.

Each time I attend BEA, except when it's in LA, I make a week of my visit, giving myself time to be a tourist.  I've been to NYC quite often, so I try to always do new things.  This time I had time for 4 new to me activities.  On Memorial Day. I took the subway to Brooklyn and walked back home to Manhattan via the Brooklyn Bridge.

The rest of my adventures were professional tours.  The first was a walking tour, called Five Squares and a Circle.  It was a great tour.  It started in Greenwich Village, in Washington Square Park and ended in Central Park.  The tour involved a lot of walking and a couple of subway rides.  The tour guide was a historian and I learned a lot.

I've always wanted to see Manhattan from the water.  There are a lot of options, so I did my research and booked the AIANY Around Manhattan Architecture Tour.  We sailed around Manhattan on a small yacht.  Our leader was a member of the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects; the emphasis of the tour was the style and construction of the buildings and bridges of Manhattan.  It was so very interesting.  I highly recommend this tour.

Daryl, our leader on the Food Tour.

My final indulgence was Chelsea Market, The Highline & The Meatpacking District Food and Culture Walking Tour, offered by Foods of NY.  There were many tours to choose from.  I picked this one, leaving a 4 PM, after doing my research because it also included a visit to the nearby Gansevoort Market.  It was a great tour.  Foods of NY actually selects and pays for the food tastings.  During the tour I was on there were 3 "new" tastings and such a great variety.

View from the High Line.

I hope you enjoyed finding out about my NYC trip.  I did raise a few eyebrows since I took this trip four months after Bob had passed away.  My philosophy is "There're no guarantees".  We don't know how long we'll be around or what our health will be like, so just do what you want, when you want, as long as you can.

I already have more trips planned.  In September, my cousin Carol and I are going on The Ultimate Game Day Weekend.  We'll be traveling to Texas and we'll see two MLB games, a college football game, and an NFL game.  Carol and I are both baseball and football fans, but neither of us has seen an NFL game.  This trip is through Jay Buckley's Baseball Tours.  Bob and I and Sharon and Oden went on a tour with them three years ago.  They are a great company.

The family in Detroit.  Oden is now taller than me.

Carol and I are very excited, we booked our flights yesterday, and I booked the dogs at Rover.com and my airport transportation with a local service.  We also have purchased t-shirts of the home teams for all the games.  The family did that for the baseball tour and it's a great idea.

Thanks for stopping by and sharing my life with me,