Arthur Glauberman

The de Young Museum has wonderful exhibitions, an excellent cafe, terrific gift shops tor kids of all ages and fresh flowers in all of their bathrooms! My only complaint is if you are a visitor with a membership in another museum with reciprocity to get “ free admission”, make sure you find out what’s included and excluded! Don’t assume anything and ask lots of questions when getting your tickets.

For the last few days, I walked by Hui Restaurant on 70th between Second and First Avenues and the place was always filled with customers. I decided that we should come for dinner and I’m glad we did. While Hui had lots a very spicy dishes, we chose carefully since I’m not wild about the items that have pictures of hot chili’s next to their descriptions. We started with an appetizer of cold noodles with sesame sauce. It wasn’t spicy but it was very flavorful! We ordered the whole fish steamed with ginger and scallions. It was FANTASTIC! Our waitress, who might also be one of the owners, not only deboned the bass, but proceeded to make sure that we got all the fish that was edible by constantly returning to assist us with this delicate process. I asked her what her name was and she jokingly said: Grade-A! We also ordered Zha Jiang Noodles. Every thing we ate was delicious and while we were pretty full, Grade-A recommended for dessert, a warm mochi ball, called Sesame Sticky Rice Ball. This was possibly one of the tastiest desserts I’ve ever eaten anywhere! While this evening was our first time dining at Hui, we will definitely be returning often!

If you are someone who loves Fox News, The New York Post and a certain political party, you will probably love eating at the Beach Cafe on Second Avenue and 70th Street.

The hike to the peak requires good shoes but you can manage in sandals that offer support ( not flip flops). You need to make reservations in advance but it only costs $5 per person for entry. Parking is more and also requires reservations in advance since the lot isn’t very large. We took an Uber there but decided to take a local public bus back to our hotel. If you’re over the age of 65, it only costs $1.25! Bring water and sugary snacks!

Before traveling to London, friends of ours urged us to visit Bletchley Park where Britain’s most brilliant code breakers played a very critical role in helping to speed up the end of WW2 by one to two years by intercepting German transmissions that were being sent by secret coded messages. The guides who led the tours were well informed and touring the grounds was absolutely fascinating! We took a train to Bletchley Park and the trip from London took about an hour but it was the highlight of our vacation and well worth the excursion.