NEW YORK – Admittedly my experience with New York City’s Chinatown has not been lengthy (I have not been going there ‘since we were kids’) but I have done my fair share of exploring the area and have come to know it quite well.  And while I’ve learned a lot – mostly that this overly crowded section of [...]

  NEW YORK:  It was not a good day to do the Met (aka The Metropolitan Museum of Art).  The weather was crap, gray and sad, verging on showers.  The eastside subway connecting downtown to the Upper East Side was on a very limited schedule due to some seemingly never-ending construction (which usually means long waits and packed trains).  And [...]

    NEW YORK – I’m not a huge fan of Brooklyn; it’s a bit too hipster-y for me.  But I’ve always enjoyed Brooklyn’s main museum located over in Prospect Heights.  Housed in a lovely, turn of the century McKim, Mead & White designed building (the same blokes who designed a bit of the Met and that grand entrance to [...]

  NEW YORK – While I’ve only spent a short time in New York City, I seemed to have developed a rather strange addiction during my tenure living there, which I’ve decided to acronym as CBS.  CBS stands for: Coffee – i.e. the corner bodega or street kiosk coffee Bagels – i.e. the crusty-on-the-outside chewy-on-the-inside kind Slices – i.e. the [...]

  LOS ANGELES – Given all that we love about Downtown LA, what would we suggest if you only had one day to spend in Downtown?  If you’re into the arts, we would suggest starting the afternoon with an art crawl (Route #1).  Begin at MOCA’s Geffen Contemporary in Little Tokyo and check out their latest show, then walk a [...]

  LOS ANGELES – When it comes to Downtown hotels, there’s no better choice for us than the old Los Angeles Biltmore.  Built overlooking Pershing Square in the 1920’s, when Downtown was the center of the city, the Biltmore is one of LA’s last grand dame hotels – classic, opulent, glamorous, from a bygone era.  It’s primarily known as the [...]

      LOS ANGELES – Downtown is one of the few parts of LA where you can find classical architecture – from beaux-arts and art deco to revival – mixed in with a range of starchitectual wows.  As far as LA goes, Downtown truly represents a treasure trove of architectural gems, reflecting not only the area’s rich history but [...]

  LOS ANGELES – Back in the day, the only art venue in Downtown was the Museum of Contemporary Art (or MOCA) on Grand Ave.  This is no longer the case.  The art offerings in the area have become numerous and varied, creating an art scene that is not only vibrant but, in a city that tends to focus only [...]

  LOS ANGELES – Don’t get us wrong.  We love Los Angeles.  However these days, whenever we visit that traffic-clogged, vanity-fueled, sprawling flatness and have a night out it turns out – more often than not – to be a bit more than we expect….and not in good way.  Hollywood seems to be even more touristy (which didn’t seem possible), [...]

    NEW YORK – A quick jaunt over the Brooklyn Bridge from Manhattan to Brooklyn’s Dumbo district brings you to one of NYC’s newest and most unique attractions in recent years (as my friend who joined me said, “only NYC would have something like this”).  There lies Jane’s Carousel, a fully restored 1922 classic carousel encased in a acrylic [...]