An Innocent Mistake ~ New York Style

It all started out innocently enough. We had headed into the city to try and get tickets for the Carole King musical Beautiful. 

The day had dawned bright and clear and cool. I had two things on my calendar, spend some time with Lorraine (of Lorraine and Jim, who used to live on Culebra - they now live in New Jersey, not far from Ann's) and go see Beautiful. Lorraine showed up and we took a drive to her place, had some good catching up time and then it was time to go to the city. I can't believe I didn't get photos of Lorraine. What's up with that?

To get tickets at a hopefully reasonable price you go to Times Square and wait in line. There is a board with all the shows available and there it was, Beautiful! And then, there it wasn't. The show sold out minutes before we got to the ticket guy. Ok, we'd go see Cats! Nope, not happening, bad seats, high price. Ok...what next?

Just like you see on television!

The Times Square ball

Ann remembered that I'd said I'd love to go to the Algonquin Hotel for drinks, the past drinking and general barb slinging home of many of my favorite writers. It was close by and a perfect distraction from not getting to see the musical.

Very comfortably elegant, this room oozes times past.

This isn't really the Round Table (our server told us they really don't know
where in the place the actual one was located), but it was good enough for me.

After a leisurely time spent over Old Fashioned's, we ventured out to see what else was around. I wanted to steal or buy the menu, a very well done work of art in itself, looking like it had been sitting on the table the last 60 years or so but no go. Our server did give me a lot of post card type memorabilia though. He's worked there 26 years and was perfect, answering our questions and giving us little bon mots of information, as if he had nothing else to do but spend time with us. Mission accomplished!

The first thing we saw was an amazing building that turned out to be the New York Yacht Club. 

Why not go and see if we could get a drink there? What's the worst that could happen beside being turned away? So in we went. It was not the sort of place to pull out my camera so you'll just have to imagine a completely crimson, large room with a square bar in the center. And lots of Harvard memorabilia. Oars and pennants and old photos. We ordered drinks and the bartender put our tab in front of us. Ann said, he probably wants our room number on it. I said, no foul no harm, we'll just pay the bill at the end. He moved the tab to the inside rail of the bar and we carried on.

Strange pods in Times Square. 

I said to Ann, this is interesting, I don't know why the New York Yacht Club is so associated with Harvard. Ann told me a great story I'd never heard before about a time when she was the only woman crew on a team who rowed against Harvard and Yale and others and won. We sat over our very delicious drinks, talking, enjoying the atmosphere, men in suits, woman dressed up (we were neither in suits or dressed up, but no one seemed to make note of it).

While we were sitting there I'd noticed a nice looking woman who came in and sat a few stools down from us. I'm not sure why I noticed her except that she not only looked nice, she looked nice.

Ann got up to use the restroom. A man came up to the corner of the bar and ordered drinks. The bartender said, are you a member? The man said no, but we have dinner reservations. The bartender said, well, I can't serve you if you aren't a member. And he didn't. That is when I knew we might be in a little more trouble than I thought.

The infamous Naked Cowboy of NYC

I scooted over to the nice looking woman and asked her if we were going to have a problem. She said, Are you a member? I said, no. And that's when I found out we were NOT in the New York Yacht Club, we were at the Harvard Club. Hey, the doors were really close to each other!

Ann came back and we started chatting about the islands (her husband travels around the islands and elsewhere, teaching about HIV and preventative measures). About then, he came up to her and the bartender came back as well. I asked if we could pay now and he said what is your room number? I said, we don't have a room number. He said we might be doing dishes. The nice lady said, we'll take care of their bill, don't worry about it. I offered to pay the nice lady and she refused, smiling a lot. The bartender said maybe she'd pay our mortgage too. Funny guy. After a couple of offers we finally said our profuse thanks and left, laughing. Hard. 

Another gorgeous building

What was there to do but try to go to the bar in the New York Yacht Club? The nice lady told us it was beautiful and we really should see it. Alas, they have a better gatekeeper there. A very affable man who asked if we were members or a guest of a member and then kindly told us we couldn't go in. I'm sure between Ann and I we know someone who is a member of the New York Yacht Club, but that wasn't going to help us. We left. Because staging a distraction and racing up the stairs is something we're probably too old to get away with now. And who would pay our bail?

At that point, it was time to catch the bus for home. So we did. 

So, if you are ever in New York and want to go to the Harvard Club...

Have a wonders never end Wednesday. Do something worldly.