Getting into the city from an airport is part of the adventure. Grand Central Terminal services commuter rail lines to the north while others head to the awful Penn Station. A new extension of the Long Island Railroad to Grand Central opened in 2023 and offers an easy, comfortable ride from JFK. The magnificent Terminal, now diminished by surrounding skyscrapers, was built in 1913 by the New York Central railroad (hence, the name).

We have a lucky history of good weather on our travels but the odds caught up with us on this trip. The cloudy view from our room high up in the Millennium Hilton includes a nearby Trump tower, the grounds of the U.N., Roosevelt Island, the Queensboro Bridge, and downtown Brooklyn.

We arrived just in time for the June 14, No Kings march down Fifth Avenue. The Empire State building looms over the rain soaked crowd.

It's New York so there is usually something unusual. In this case, a devil-worshipper of ambiguous gender put on a show in front of the New York Public Library. The police looked on impassively.

We prefer off- and off-off Broadway shows and feel comfortable with the informal settings and eclectic audience. In this case, it's a show about Nat King Cole dealing with a prejudiced TV industry, starring West Wing's Dule Hill.

Our next day started with a walking tour in the Chelsea neighborhood (west side 20's and 30's). The famous hotel was managed by an eccentric co-owner from the late 60's through the 70's who rented rooms at varying rates according to whether he liked the guest. He sometimes accepted artworks for payment and many are on display. The place deteriorated during and after that period and, after a recent renovation, now caters to the well-heeled.

We happened upon Tammany Hall on our way to that evening's theater. It actually IS a hall. The Tammany society was named after a native American chief in 1786 and formed in resistance to Alexander Hamilton's elite Federalists. After moving further uptown from its earlier "wigwams," this headquarters was built during Al Smith's run for President, a highpoint in it's history. Just four years later, however, Tammany's difficult colleague, Franklin Roosevelt, withdrew its power over federal patronage and a long decline began. They downsized from here in the 1940s and died in the 1960s.

We went to the Public Theater for the closing night of Goddess, which I describe as a high energy black folk opera featuring great singing and dancing. The audience was ecstatic! This great old Romanesque building originally housed John Jacob Astor's library, the first significant collection freely available to the public. The collection was a founding segment of the New York Public Library and the building eventually was made into a theater and pub.

This familiar shot of the Metropolitan Museum of Art features a banner for an exhibition on Black dress, "Superfine." This is the most visited museum in the United States -- reserve your ticket online and get there early! The Met was founded by members of the New York monied elite in the 1870s, including Theodore Roosevelt's father.

Remember the lyrics to Yankee Doodle ("He stuck a feather in his hat and called it macaroni!")? The meaning of that was a mystery to me until the black dress exhibit explained that a famous Black dandy of the 1770's adopted the popular foppish costume of colorful clothes, walking stick, oversize boutonniere, and cockaded hat, all of which was the uniform of the "Macaroni" A black character in the popular play of the time was named Mungo.

The exhibit on John Singer Sargent depicted a comfortable career as a portraitist of the elite. He got in trouble, however, with his painting of prominent socialite at the Paris Salon of 1884. Her pose is a too dynamic, her neckline is too low, the whiteness of her generously exposed skin calls attention to itself, and, worst of all, the right strap of her dress had slipped off her shoulder in the original. The title is also suggestive: Portrait of Madame X. Singer repainted the strap and moved to London for a while.

There are lesser-known places of respite in Manhattan. This is the seventh floor patio of the well designed and appointed circulating library branch, across the street from the famous NYPL headquarters. We listened to a book discussion on klezmer and related music with audio examples in the adjacent space.

Sharp-eyed viewers will recognize a building pictured during previous trips: the Central Park Dairy. It was intended by park designers, Olmstead and Vaux, as a place of refreshment for adults and entertainment of children. The plan to house cows in the basement was scuttled after a problem with tainted milk. Boss Tweed ordered that it become a restaurant concession but Robert Moses ended that and it had to await restoration a few years ago. It's now a tasteful gift shop but still a lovely place.

Our last visit of the trip was to a powerful exhibit at the New York Historical Society, one of our favorite places. The exhibit was created by Jewish Museum Milwaukee and deals with the background and affects of the anti-Communist hysteria of the late 40s and early 50s. Antecedents include the post-WWI Red Scare during which Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer swept up immigrant "anarchists" and jailed and/or deported them. Emma Goldman, who may indeed have planned violence, and her partner were among them.

An interesting collection of show business personalities protested the kangeroo court mounted by the House Un-American Activities Committee in the late 40s. This committee was founded by Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall and Gene Kelly. A quote from member Gregory Peck: "There is more than one way to lose your liberty. It can be torn out of your hands by a tyrant -- but it can also slip away, day by day, while you are too busy to notice, or too confused, or too scared."