It’s our final day in Manhattan. Here’s the return video with one last Bobby Short version of a Cole Porter song, “Take Me Back to New York.”
We say goodbye to our comfy room at the Algonquin Hotel and then dine in the lobby, dreaming of lunching with Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley and other wits at the Algonquin Roundtable. At the reception desk we say goodbye to Hamlet, the Algonquin cat, and the other gracious staff who work at our New York home away from home.
Then it’s back to Penn Station. We always take a sleeper back from New York so we can enjoy some privacy and a final scotch. Unfortunately, Amtrak has eliminated the white tablecloth dining cars that were also a favorite part of our return trip. Out of the window we look again for our favorite sights: a last look at the Manhattan skyline across the Meadowlands, the Trenton bridge sign, the Philly boathouses, the Washington Monument. Then it’s back home to reunite with our five cats, who soon forgive us for leaving them for a week.
We hope you’ve enjoyed our virtual visit. It’s odd, but I feel almost as sad that this visit is ending as I do when our real trip ends. Here’s hoping we can make it back to Manhattan for real later this year.