After yesterday's marathon, we both slept in this morning! I finally woke up grumpy (although she was happier after a bit of caffeine) and we both got dressed and out the door a little after 9. Our hotel is only a couple of blocks from the harbor (hence "Water Street," the original shoreline was right in front of the door!), so we bought breakfast from a street vendor and ate while watching the ships go back and forth. A word about New York food: This is my second trip here, and I have never once gotten BAD food in NYC! I'll admit, the burger we ate at Planet Hollywood back in 2019 wasn't great, but it certainly wasn't bad. But these breakfast sandwiches - I got turkey bacon, egg, and cheese and my wife got ham and egg - were DELICIOUS! I polished off every bite of mine; Patty could only eat half of hers but took the rest up to our room to have later because it was too good to throw away!
Next stop was Times Square. We hopped on the subway and, by luck or my natural navigation skills, got off at exactly the right spot to wander out into the glory and wonder that is the heart of New York. No matter how many movie scenes you see that are set there, nothing can prepare you for the sheer eclectic weirdness of Times Square. Superheroes, cartoon characters, and scantily dressed performers clamor to pose for pictures with you (for a small fee, of course) while Buddhists try to sell you bracelets to support their local temples and shills for Broadway plays try to hand you fliers. In a single block you will hear six different languages, and people from all over the world are wandering about in every kind of dress (and undress, my wife got to meet the Naked Cowboy for the first time!) imaginable. We dropped by the Richard Rogers Theater where HAMILTON plays every night (I hate that we can't try to squeeze in a performance this trip, but Saturday and Sunday are full of historical, "real" Hamilton related events, and there are no shows on Monday.), and also the Lyric Theater where "The Cursed Child" (a Harry Potter sequel play) was showing. All in all, we had a marvelous time, but then we had to come back to our hotel to get ready for my speaking gig this evening.
We got back to our room, changed, and then headed up to Penn Station to meet several of our Hamiltonian Friends - Sergio Villavicencio, the VP of the Alexander Hamilton Awareness Society; Hamilton scholar and defender Marianne Als, financial scholar Nancy Spannaus (author of HAMILTON VS. WALL STREET), and our own friend and Hamilton aficionado from Texas, Eliza Matic (founder of the "Alexander Hamilton: Life and Legacy" FB page). We had an early supper together, and then hopped on the New Jersey transit for an hour's ride to Elizabeth, NJ. When we got there it was pouring down rain - I mean, an absolute deluge. So we huddled under the railway overpass and called an Uber instead of walking the four blocks to the Snyder Academy. By the time we got there, the rain had quit, and the 200-year-old, un-air conditioned building was rapidly turning into a sauna.
About 20 people showed up for the lecture, including my niece Katharine Smith, who brought several relatives with her. I spoke for about 40 minutes on "President Hamilton vs. the Hamilton of History," then took questions and sold several copies of my book. It was a pleasant time; I got some very interesting questions and everyone seemed to enjoy the lecture a great deal. Afterward, we took a walk through the beautiful cemetery next to the church - many of the graves there over 300 years old! Then we caught the train back and went our separate ways - Sergio to his home uptown, while Patty and I went with Marianne and the others down to Manhattan, since their hotel is only one subway stop away from ours.
By the time we got back, I was so tired and sweaty felt like a banana that had been covered in cling wrap and left on the hood of the car! But a long shower made me feel human again, and reminded me that the 4 PM cheeseburger had completely worn off. So I put on some comfortable clothes and went down on the street, and found a pushcart vendor directly across from the hotel! I got some wings and fries, and now with a comfortably full belly and sore feet, I'm ready to crash until tomorrow, when several more major Hamilton sites wait for us to visit!
Thanks for coming along.
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