Sixth Visitors And Seventh Visitors

During the last week of June we had the pleasure of two sets of visitors from Kansas City. First there was Eva Foster and her daughter Lauren who we know from when we lived at Lake Quivira. They had built a beautiful house in the mid-1990s on the street just south of our house and through mutual lake friends we got to know the Foster family. After the Fosters' visit, Rita Reilly and her husband Tim were in Newburg, NY visiting the Reilly clan, and decided to spend Friday in the City with us. We each knew Rita separately in high school actually before Bill and I met. She was also the Maid of Honor at our wedding almost 34 years ago.


Tuesday after work we met Eva and Lauren on the corner of 53rd and 9th Ave which was exactly the halfway point between our apartment and their hotel. It was great to see them after all these many months away from KC. We ate at a tiny Indian restaurant a couple blocks down where the food is delicious and very reasonable. Afterwards we walked back to our apartment to show them our new lifestyle and enjoy a glass of wine. The next morning Eva phoned to say she had procured tickets at a deep discount price to see "Promises, Promises" starring Sean Hayes and Kristin Chenoweth that night. So again we made plans to get together after work. We met up at the same corner as the night before, except this time we walked further down 9th to one of the best Thai restaurants, Room Service. Everything we ordered was fantastic. We then walked to the storied Broadway Theatre. This theatre has been the venue for all or part of the first New York runs for shows like Funny Girl, West Side Story, South Pacific, Music Man, My Fair Lady, and many more. While we girls saw a terrific show Bill chose to enjoy the sunset and some impromptu piano music at Central Park.

We really enjoyed the show and afterwards bid them farewell. Eva and Lauren were able to see another show the following day, “La Cage Aux Folles" again at bargain basement prices, and later enjoyed the delicacy of the Halal cart that we had highly recommended.

On Friday, the Reillys arrived from Grand Central Station via subway in front of our apartment around 11:30. After a joyous reunion we walked to the Brooklyn Diner, which despite its name is in Manhattan on 57th between 7th Ave and Broadway for lunch. The place is not as reasonably priced as the dives we like to frequent on 9th Avenue, but the atmosphere is great and the food is fantastic. If you get a sandwich or entree salad each serving can be almost four servings so you do get your money's worth. After lunch we went to the apartment for a quick rooftop tour then back to work for Bill and me while they went to the MoMA and Central Park. They returned to our apartment at 4:30 where several glasses of wine were consumed while catching up. We headed to dinner, where else, but 9th Avenue. We were in the mood for Mexican food and found a place that looked interesting at about 49th Street, El Deportivo. We opened the menus but we didn't recognize anything and realized after confirming with the waitress we were in for Puerto Rican food, not Mexican. The big thing that made it something different for all of us was the side orders of green and yellow fried plantains. Once again, it was delicious and affordable. We walked off the meal by heading toward Time Square taking 46th street back over to 7th Ave. We discovered a whole new set of little restaurants during that walk to keep in mind for the next outing. At Times Square we marveled at the lights and got some great snapshots of all of us with the Jumbo-Trons in the background.

It didn’t take long until we couldn't take the crowds anymore and we turned at 42nd Street to Bryant Park at 5th Avenue. We were hoping to enjoy a drink at the outdoor restaurant there, but time was getting away from us, so after a short rest at the Park, we continued down 42nd street to Park Avenue to Grand Central Station. During that stretch of the walk the Chrysler Building was always in front of us, lit up so beautifully against the dark sky.

We had not been inside of Grand Central so that was a real treat to see it. Tim, who grew up in New York State, was pleased to see us enjoy one of the city's finest architectural icons as much as he did. After a long goodbye, we saw the Reillys off at their train back to Newburg.

During these two visits we found out Rita, a court reporter at the Johnson County Courthouse, has been a colleague and friend of Eva's brother-in-law, Tom Foster, who is a Johnson County Judge at the courthouse. Small world, but not surprising as both Eva and Rita know just about everybody back in KC one way or another. What is surprising is they have never met each other.

The week went fast and we cannot say we didn't experience a little home sickness after our visitors left. We used the long holiday weekend to reflect, relax and catch up.