I had one more free night to use from the Priority Club Sweet Dilemma promotion. We decided to go to New York City. Luckily, a free night was available a few days in advance at the new Intercontinental Hotel located at 44th and 8th Avenue. While checking in Emmanuel at the front mentioned my Priority Club Platinum status and advised us of our upgrade to the 27th floor to a corner room and a 2pm late checkout. Our room had floor to ceiling windows on two sides with a view downtown. We also could see the roof top gardens of the building across the street. The bathroom had large shower with glass tile and rainwater shower head.
About a half hour after we arrived at the hotel a complimentary welcome basket was delivered to our room. It included three pieces of fresh fruit, a small box of chocolates, some dried fruit, a small glass of cashews and a chilled bottle of Evian water. We enjoyed the snack and headed out for our matinee performance of Catch Me If You Can.
Before checking into our hotel we went to the TIX ticket booth to get tickets for a Broadway show. I had printed several coupons from broadwaybox.com to use at the box office, but on Sundays TIX opens at 11 am and the box offices do not open until noon. We thought we would get better seats if we got into the line. After waiting about 20 minutes and talking to a lovely couple, we purchased two center orchestra tickets in the 10th row for $149. We walked down Broadway to our favorite salad shop called Chop’t located at 1460 Broadway, between 41st St & 42nd St. Whether we are in NYC or Washington D.C., we enjoy eating salads at Chop’t. They make their own dressings and each of our favorite salad is our own creation. Both cities offer frequent buyer cards and after buying 9 salads you get one free. Lunch for the two us for two fresh salads was $7.65, since we ate enough salads and saved our cards to get one free. Here is their website http://www.choptsalad.com.
After lunch we walked 7th Avenue to a street fair and my husband bought a new type of skinny wallet for $20 that he seems excited about. Then we walked to the theater. Our seats were perfect and the show was wonderful! If you like musicals, I highly recommend Catch Me If You Can.
Before going to NYC I was doing some spring cleaning and I found a Marriott Dinner for Two certificate I purchased in 2008. These certificates are no longer available. I had purchased a number of them for travel to Europe and this last one I had forgotten about. We used it for our dinner at R Lounge @Two Times Square located in the Renaissance Hotel. The windows of the restaurant look out over Times Square. We shared the mini lobster rolls and an order of steamed edamame. For the main course we both ordered the halibut which was served over grilled cauliflower topped with greens with a side of creamed cauliflower. The food was delicious, the service was wonderful and the restaurant was quiet and spacious. We ordered two desserts a berry bread pudding cake and chocolate caramel tart which was served with fresh fruit and a dark chocolate dipping sauce. Both were delicious to taste, but too big to finish. Our certificate covered the bill and the tip, but we gave our server an additional tip for the great service.
On Monday we walked to Eataly at 5th and 23th Street. Here is the link Eataly. Everything looked delicious, but expensive. I hear both the pizza and the pasta are wonderful and we hope to head back and try some the next time we are in NYC.
Mondays in May are usually a great time for sample sales in the fashion district. While walking on 7th Avenue flyers are sometimes handed out giving information about sales in the area. I got lucky and was handed one at 39th Street about a women’s cashmere sweater sale. We found the address and took the elevator to the 10th floor. I purchase two beautiful cashmere sweaters for a total of $90. If you Google, NYC sample sales many of the sales with dates, times and addresses will be available to plan your sample sale shopping.