Back in the US of A

Well, NYC is all they say- exciting, stimulating, crowded, dizzying and over the top!
For a long time I have been fantasising about staying at the Algonquin Hotel in New York City. The Algonquin is the place where the famous round table happened. The Algonquin Round Table was a meeting place for the prominent literary figures in New York in the 30's and 40'- authors and playrights and publishers of both books and magazines like the New Yorker. There are tons of gorgeous little stories connected with the hotel. I always swore that if I ever went back to New York and ever got the $ together, I would stay there. As you know, all of that came together, and so I did.

IT WAS FABULOUS!

The room was gorgeous and I actually got to sit at the table that Dorothy Parker and Robert Benchley and other literary figures sat.



Mostly I went to theatre in New York. I saw Hairspray [cute and lively] Doubt [funny and thought provoking] and Forbidden Broadway -a send up of all the shows on Broadway plus other Broadway issues [hysterical and clever!]. The rest of my time was spent navigating my way through a squillion pedestrians [tourists and locals] and trying to swim upstream in Times Square. Everyone is talking on their cell phones while they are walking along, which makes navigating harder. I did take a walk down 5th Avenue to Central Park which was nice. Also went on the city circle line, [thanks Brad for the suggestion] which was a ferry that went all the way around Manhattan Island replete with commentary. Very interesting.

Then I took the train from Penn Station up to Niagara Falls where I stayed at Rob and Clint's -"the only exclusively gay guest house in Niagara Falls". Clint- who originally told me there was no room at the Inn and sent me to the Crystal Inn on the freeway, and then somehow changed his mind and came and got me- recommended this gorgeous restaurant, where I sat outside and got a view of the falls and this man who walked a tight wire between two buildings at about 750 feet off the ground. That was a trip!

The falls were beautiful- and I have some lovely photos of them- from up above and from the Maid of the Mist which is a boat that runs right into the falls. [you get soaking wet standing at the rails-it was a blast!] It rained the whole day, so I hardly noticed getting wet from the Falls. I couldn't help thinking though as we hovered by the thunderous waterfall: "Why are we digging up all this oil with all this energy right here? There must be a lot of waterfalls that we could trap energy from".



From Niagara, I took a bus to Toronto and met Moira. Next day we got on the train to Vancouver. The train took 3 days and the scenery was totally amazing! The train was pretty neat too. Great service. We were in the berths- they are seats in the daytime and the porter comes along at night and turns them into bunk beds with curtains- just like in Some Like It Hot! Every so many cars there was a "dome" car which had a second story with a windowed dome on it and you could see 180 degrees all round. The views were spectacular.We met some really nice women on the trip- Beth and Sue- mother and daughter, who were extraordinary and Helen- from NYC who was lovely and interesting. It made the trip even better.




Now we are in Vancouver and will hang here for 4 days after which we get on the ship to Alaska....whooee! My head is spinning for visiting all these places in such a short time. There are definitely some places I would like to return to- and some things, like the QM2 I can tick off my list forever! And in answer to all your questions: NO I DID NOT RESIST THE FOOD-

Chubbily yours
Genie