New York City - Travis and me

This isn't a travel entry involving the RV. Travis and I are making a Mother-Son trip to the northeast. We each flew into Philadelphia (he from Montgomery, AL and me from Memphis, TN) on Friday, November 7 where we were picked up by Caesar's in Atlantic City. It was kind of a bleary day, so we just ate the salads that I had picked up in the airport and caught up (it had been a whole week since he had come home for the Auburn/Ole Miss game).

It was kind of neat to approach Atlantic City. I guess it was not what I was expecting. The casino hotels kind of rose up in front of us out of the rainy mist. The Trump casino just looks old. The Caesar's looks like a miniature version of the one in Las Vegas. The ones that we could see off at the marina looked a little more modern and a little newer. Anyway, we got checked in at the VIP counter and went off to locate the Centurion Tower and our ride to the top floor. When we looked out our window, we have a view of Bally's, the boardwalk and the Atlantic Ocean (the hotel actually backs up directly onto the boardwalk). By the time we got acclimated (and lost a little money), it was time for our dinner reservations at the Roman themed restaurant - Bacchanal. It was a six-course feast starting with a really impressive opening course served on a plastic block filled with dry ice which just looked like a frosty mountain with food all over it. On the top level was a martini glass with slices of mozzarella and some type of cherry confit. There were shrimp, more cheese, olives, meat, bread sticks, grapes, etc. We both had the lobster bisque. Travis had the tomato/mozzarella salad while I had the Caesar salad (while in Rome!!!!). My salad had one anchovy on it - which ended my enjoyment of the salad. Everything smelled like fish from that point on. Travis had the sea bass because it had foie gras on it. I had the crab cakes because it had crab in it. Dessert was a really cute little key lime pie circle for Travis and creme brulee for me. The meal was absolutely wonderful, but neither of us was able to eat more than half of any of the courses - just way too much food. Plus, they kept pouring wine into our glasses - which also filled us up. A little more floor time and then to bed. The next day was the NYC trip. Oh yeah - somewhere in all of the activities previously described - the Hertz guy came to pick us up to get our rental car.

Yes, we drove to NYC. Actually, WE did not drive to NYC. Travis drove to NYC. He had pre-booked us a parking space in town, so we were able to navigate directly to it using multiple methods including GPS. All of those great methods of navigation worked beautifully going to NYC. Getting out of town was a totally different proposition since one of us (me) didn't have a clue as to what direction we were heading and kept getting my highly efficient driver confused. It wound up being kind of a rainy, dreary day, but we walked over 20 miles. We went to lots of the big stores and shopped. We actually bought something at Barney's. I almost bought a ring at Tiffany's - well, I thought about how nice the 20 or so carats would look. Tiffany's was my favorite of all of the stores. It was the catalog brought to life plus some more bling added on. Central Park was wonderful. I think we saw the actual bridge and rocks from Home Alone NYC!!! Tavern on the Green was just like I visualized (I liked the dude in the weird suit - the valet - the best). All in all, a delightful way to spend a day with my son. Pictures follow:



We also made a day trip on Sunday to Philadelphia. Actually, since we flew into Philadelphia, we made a trip back. This is a city to which neither of us had traveled. It was not as exciting as NYC. Plus, it was Sunday, so things were a little slow. We tried to have a Philly Cheese Steak sandwich at one of the highly publicized places, but the line wrapped around about 4 blocks. Neither of us figured anything could be that good. Absolutely no place to park or anything. Of course, part of the problem was that the Giants were playing the Eagles that night - so I guess everyone had come to town to have a sandwich. Pictures follow: