Another Whirlwind Tour

I landed in New York and took a taxi to the Times' apartment on 51st Street.


I crashed the first night but the next night, Dad and Angelika came into the city and we went down to see Sky's new apartment.

We were appropriately impressed. The elevator opens into the main space, which you see here.

Each of the four boys - excuse me, young men - has their own room. Sky's is roomy and full of new furniture.

He even has his own bathroom across the hall!


On my third night, I went to dinner with my former news assistant from Paris. She took me to a wonderful place on top of a building in Hell's Kitchen, near where she lives. It was sort of like a place in Hong Kong on top of the Prince's Building. The view was spectacular.

The next night, Mako came into the city and Sky came uptown and we went to Hakubai, a fantastic restaurant in the Kitano Hotel on Murray Hill. I stayed at the Kitano once in the 1980s.

Mako says the restaurant has true Japanese taste, and indeed it was delicious.


Sky enjoyed it. He certainly has eaten at some good restaurants in his life.

I had coffee jelly for dessert - a uniquely Japanese invention. I've always liked it and loved the way the restaurant served it with ice cream in a porcelain cup.


I didn't do anything on my fifth night in the city. I slept early as I had to get up at about 4 a.m. to catch a flight to Florida. This is a picture looking toward Times Square while I was waiting for a cab.

I arrived in Jacksonville in the morning and drove out to Atlantic Beach to see Mom.

Todd was also in town and so she was happy to have her three sons (and Sharon!) together.

We spent the afternoon at the Ponte Vedra Beach Club, sitting under the umbrellas on the patio that runs along the beach. It was a beautiful day.


The tide was out and the weather was glorious.

It was so nice, in fact, that we went back the next day with swim suits and the brothers swam in the sea.


Then we relaxed on chaise longues under some beach umbrellas and enjoyed the day.

Mom elected to stay on the patio and read, but she had a nice time.

We had a nice dinner that night at an Italian restaurant.

The next evening, after a fairly hilarious hour of searching for Mom's car, which we had somehow misplaced, Todd and I drove down to Mark and Sharon's for a barbecue. Mark grilled some steaks and peppers over apple wood chips on his new grill.

It tasted great and we sat and talked and ate a lemon cream pie that Todd had made a couple of days earlier.

Sharon was serene and patient as ever.

They have a lovely home.

Todd and I were up again at 4 a.m. to go to the airport. I saw Todd off, but my flight was delayed and I ended up with another night in Jacksonville. I went back out to Fleet Landing and spent the night and met Mom for breakfast in the dining room.

It's a lovely room. Mom has a regular place beside the window.

The food is very good. We sat and talked until it was time for me to go.