Archive for May, 2007
Wed 23 May 2007
The Hudson Hotel NYC
Posted by Paula Kirsch under NYC, Travel
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The Hudson Hotel was great! We booked it on Hotwire and had no idea of what to expect! It is a beautiful “boutique” hotel –with no sign on the building which lends to a bit of mystery. The is an outdoor patio, library, and more! We found the accommodations to be comfortable, although the room was small — after all it is Manhattan!
Central Park is beautiful! Saturday morning we strolled through and watched some Little League Baseball. I think every one in the city must own a dog! I have never seen so many dogs out for walks! The weather was beautiful and all of the trees had their leaves. I think if I lived in NYC I would explore a new neighborhood and walk as far as I could every weekend!
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Sat 19 May 2007
NYC
Posted by Paula Kirsch under NYC, Travel
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Before too much time gets away from me I want to post about last weekend. Our trip to NYC was wonderful!
First of all, I must confess that I went to NYC with some trepidation. From months of speaking to my son David, while he is walking to or from classes, I gathered that NY is a noisy place. Maybe even dangerous — I always hear sirens! Expensive, high stress… I really was beginning to wonder why my son liked it so much!
Well… it was fabulous! I found it to be an over-the-top, crazy kind of town! A town of excesses; who ever heard of spending $36 for breakfast for two at a little diner(Brooklyn Diner)!! I mean the pancakes and eggs where good, but give me a break $36!? That’s a fancy lunch for two in Michigan, maybe even dinner!
I also found it to be a town of grieving and rebirth — ground zero — was difficult to fathom for me, having never seen the magnificent buildings that once stood at that site. It just looked like a big construction site to me, and I had to remind myself of the terror I witnessed via CNN on that fateful 9/11 so many years ago. David had flown to NY less that a month later, his first trip there was two years earlier, when he was only 16, with an 18 year old friend.
It is a town of fit people and foot, leg and back pain… all from the enormous amount of walking involved! I hated to take the subway though… I mean it was great to have mass transit… but only being there for a short time I really hated to go underground and miss out on the smells, sights, and sounds, of the wonderful and diverse neighborhoods above. No sooner that my husband and I decided to stop for Chinese food in Chinatown for lunch we found our selves around a corner and in Little Italy! So Italian food became the order of the day! We finally succumbed to the subway after several more blocks, and back to the hotel for a nap!
We were fortunate to get into the David Letterman Show, and saw this great show for — FREE! So even though the city is expensive; there are things to do for nothing! I am not a fan of tours and feel a personal sense of accomplishment by discovering and exploring on my own, even though any tour I’ve been on has been very good. I guess I’m cheap… but I also feel like I’m using Cliff notes, or a cheat sheet for a test! I just like to explore on my own more!
We had dinner with our son, David and his good friend Roy, at Ellen’s Stardust Diner in Times Square. It was not exactly what we were expecting, but I found it to be a quaint little community, an oasis in the city, of aspiring talent and American food, seemingly stuck in the 1950’s.
Now I understand why my son loves NYC! I do too! It is the center of the universe… but I think it is easier to take in small doses that to live there. But then again there could be worse places to live… Detroit (ahem!)
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Wed 16 May 2007
Credit Card Fraud?
Posted by Paula Kirsch under Travel
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Credit Card fraud is a serious problem, but my recent experience with my credit card company was actually pretty funny.
We have had problems twice in the past with this particular card. The first time a fraudulent charge appeared it was for a funeral home in a very bad part of town. I guess it slipped through undetected by our credit card company, it was for a couple of hundred dollars and might not appear suspicious to someone out side of our metro area. The second time a $5000+ charge appeared for steel… that’s right steel! I know I always pick up a few thousand dollars worth of steel on the way home from work… don’t you? On that occasion not one but two, similar suspicious purchases were on my bill. Whatever! We straightened it out and all was well.
Imagine my surprise when, on a recent trip to New York, our card was rejected, first at the ATM for a cash withdrawal close to home, and then at our hotel in New York. Upon calling the Credit Card company my husband was told that they had flagged the account for suspicious activity, because it was being used out of town. I had to laugh! Buying $5000 of industrial steel was not suspicious, but traveling to NYC and using the card at (of all places) a hotel was! (I later found out the ATM withdrawal was denied because we have never used the card that way before.) Fair enough… but the hotel being suspicious is just hilarious! As we were sitting in the lobby I overheard my husband saying to the person at the credit card call center, “I didn’t know we had to tell you we were going on vacation.” Oh yeah, you have to really watch those hotel charges, especially when they are in another town that people actually vacation in!
