I always like to do something special on my decade birthdays. Well, on the 10th I only pinned the tail on the donkey, and on the 20th I was merely taking finals, I think. But on the 30th I was in Ft. Lauderdale, and on the 40th I was in London, and on the 50th I rented an apartment in DC (I was living in the hinterlands at the time) and invited friends to visit all week.
And now the 60th.
On Friday morning, May 11, 2007, at 10:00 a.m., I left Union Station in DC with two good friends, Peg and Patty, and we rode the Acela Express to New York City. We went straight to our hotel, the Waldorf Astoria, where a nice receptionist, upon learning it was my birthday, upgraded me to a suite with a big living room and a fireplace and a big bedroom and a walk-in closet and, well, it was pretty much what you'd expect at the Waldorf.
My sister Cindy joined us a little while after we arrived, and we took a cab to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and toured a Louis Comfort Tiffany exhibit.
Then we went back to the hotel and dressed for the opera. We saw The Barber of Seville at the Met and then we returned to the hotel where we were joined by friends Greg and Tammy and finished the day in the suite with two bottles of Dom Perignon and some wonderful chocolates and cakes we'd bought at some specialty shops.
On Saturday morning we went to Dean and DeLuca and Zabar's and stocked up on cheeses and breads and olives and prosciutto and pastrami and oh, just a wide assortment of really good things to eat, and took them back to the suite and had a feast. Then we took cabs to see a matinee of The Lion King which was beautiful to look at but really more suited to kiddies, I think. Everybody else really seemed to enjoy it.
Then we went back to the hotel and changed for dinner at Fleur de Sel, a nice little French restaurant recommended by a contact I made via the New York Times website food section. It was a great dinner, though a bit pricey -- the tasting menu always is. Frog legs and snails and soft-shell crabs and venison and squab and on and on and on for eight courses. Nice.
Then back to the hotel for a bit more Champagne before crashing.
The next morning we took the the leftovers from Zabar's to Central Park and had a picnic by a duck pond and then headed back to DC on the Acela. It was all just fantastic.
Now how to top all this for my 70th?