carolabbotthiking: Part 4 Carnegie Hall NYC Sat am before first 5-hr rehearsal

We first saw the Redeye Grill (home of the dancing shrimp) from our Golden Touch bus: it was literally right across the street from our hotel and from Carnegie Hall. At 8a on Saturday morning, all 90+ of us got the best breakfast buffet of our lives there while our Director debriefed us on what would happen during the rest of our time in NYC.

Not only was the food good but I thought the restaurant had the ambiance of a Parisian cafe and lots of large tables to enjoy socializing with others in the group. The hot buffet had frittatas, egg sandwiches, eggs benedict, Belgian waffles, delicious corn pancakes, cheesy scrambled eggs, bacon, and house-made chicken sausage. Plus they had all kinds of pastries. Bagels cream cheese and lox. Yogurt parfaits and smoothies. An oatmeal bar. We fueled up in preparation for 5 hours of practice.

Got done eating about 9a so we decided to walk from our hotel down to Times Square. Today was our coldest day in NY (17 degrees) and I was glad for my hat, scarf and gloves. Found the theatre for our Broadway show on Sunday night -- Come From Away.

I liked getting a closer view of the New Year's Eve ball changing colors with 2020 underneath it. All the video was dizzying to me: certainly a lot different than the last time I was in NYC. Here's a photo I took of Lora and Karyn at the George M. Cohan statue on Broadway. Cold and clear day and lots of families with children in Times Square and obviously visiting NYC for the 3-day Presidents' Day weekend, so there's a "buzz" even beyond what's probably normal for Manhattan on a regular weekend. Kind of exciting...

At Carnegie Hall, we had trouble finding the gift shop and I got nervous wandering around on the 2nd floor listening to what we later learned was a music competition (figured out we were outside all the box entrances on that floor) until we finally found this museum area with all the memorabilia, which was very interesting and right near the gift shop.

Actually the gift shop was quite small and crowded so I preferred wandering around the displays in this area because it was roomier.

I didn't realize how Isaac Stern almost single-handedly saved Carnegie Hall from the wrecking ball. So glad he did! If you are ever offered the chance to perform there, I recommend doing it; you won't be sorry. Like my childhood friend said "It's every musician's dream"

We hadn't been on the stage yet when I was learning about all the people who had performed there, from Judy Garland to the Beatles. Here are Benny Goodman's clarinet, Gene Krupa's drumsticks, Lionel Hampton's mallets and Leonard Bernstein's conducting baton.