Tag Archives: Airbnb

New York City Blog Aug. 1 — Aug. 7

Five and a half hours to fly from Portland, OR. to NYC. I find that amazing, crossing a continent in less time than it takes to drive to upper New York state.

The Airbnb saga has taught me a valuable, expensive lesson. Check descriptions of the property very carefully. Make sure there’s an indoor toilet. Get in touch with Airbnb if you realize you’ve made a dreadful mistake. When you arrive at the property and realize that the owners are trick photographers, take photos of the garage interior that has the fanciful label, The Garden House.

When I return each July from Portland, Oregon I’m concerned that I’ll find my hometown too gritty, rude, pushy, crowded. Not at all. It’s NYC! The Italian saying, autumn begins in August, applies to NYC. The diagonal lighting, the shadows, the summer crowd returning to Manhattan are precursors of fall. Walking by the Carlyle’s Bobby Short Way, I recalled that wonderful singer’s rendition of “Autumn in New York”.

I went to the Met Breuer at 75 St. and Madison. In its previous incarnation as the Whitney I didn’t appreciate the bunker-like building. Now, I do. Is it cleaner? The Met has tweaked the building’s surfaces, crannies and corners. Before, it seemed dusty. Now it seems polished and open for business. It smells like a new car.The enormous elevator, the bluestone floors, the exhibits that go on forever spell Manhattan writ large, 1966 style with 2016 panache. Unfinished: Thoughts Left Visible is a wonderful exploration of when is a painting finished. Formerly, the exhibits were artsy, exhibits themselves. Now, they present the work in an exciting but understated way. Strolling from one Diane Arbus photo in a current exhibit recreated lonely aspects of 1950s NYC.

New York City / Portland Blog July 24 – July 31

It’s my third and final week in Portland, Oregon.

This was my second year at the Northwest Book Festival. Last year it was rained out. This year, July 30 was balmy and Pioneer Courthouse Square, Portland’s living room, was packed with tourists. I sold copies of The Lemrow Mystery and announced the upcoming sequel, Graphic Lessons, honing my selling skills by borrowing ideas from Ben Adams, the author of The Enigmatologist, with whom I shared the booth. It was exhausting but relaxed in the Portland way.

Setting up a tent in Pioneer Courthouse Square.
Setting up a tent in Pioneer Courthouse Square.
The Lemrow Mystery and Graphic Lessons a Flyer for the Northwest Book Festival
The Lemrow Mystery and Graphic Lessons Flyer for the Northwest Book Festival

A friend and I went to the Columbia River Gorge, Multnomah Falls, drove by ice capped Mount Hood and had lunch overlooking the Columbia.

Lunch overlooking the Columbia River Gorge
Lunch overlooking the Columbia River Gorge

 

Food has ranged from 1950’s Otto & Anita’s Schnitzel Haus’s Dill Pickle Soup to contemporary raw fish at Murata’s in southwest Portland and wonderful seafood at Jake’s. NYC’s Union Square Farmers Market takes an honorable second place to Portland’s Farmers Market. It’s located on the Portland State University’s campus. It provides shady trees, serenades by various musicians and purveyors of everything from oil to wine and stupendous Italian sausage panini/hoagies/grinders.

My Airbnb adventure taught me a hard won lesson: Always read websites thoroughly. I had had excellent experiences on VRBO and assumed that Airbnb owners would be as ethical. I was wrong. I had paid $2700 in advance and was refunded $701. Luckily, my friends found me a housesitting gig and I landed in a charming cottage with a lovely garden.

New York City / Portland Blog – July-11 – July 16

I’m in Portland, Oregon to visit friends, to get to know this charming city better and to attend the 8th Northwest Book Festival on July 30. It’s held in Pioneer Courthouse Square, Portland’s living room. I will be selling copies of The Lemrow Mystery and announcing the upcoming sequel, Graphic Lessons.

Flyer for the Northwest Book Festival
Flyer for the Northwest Book Festival

For my sins I used Airbnb to rent a place that was probably a converted garage with a curious shed called a moon house. Being a New Yorker, I thought the term, moon house, was a touch of quaint Portlandia and didn’t pay the attention to it I should have. It’s an outhouse. Since we don’t have outhouses in NYC, you can imagine my surprise and dismay when I inspected the moon house which is attached to the owners’ house – plumbing, you know. It’s about twenty paces across a crab grass garden. The moon house is a tiny space with a tiny toilet, a tinier sink and a shower that shouts defunct summer camp. The ex-garage or the garden house, as the owner call it, is a dismal room that conjures up the film Psycho, not the Bates motel (if only) but the house on the hill where mom lived. It reeks of solitary confinement and has no running water. For that refinement, you have to go to the moon house. I give the owners full marks for their sense of humor. The wifi password for the ex-garage is goldenroom. They are also superb trick photographers.

Last Friday I was in Cooperstown, N. Y. attending the Glimmerglass production of Sweeney Todd, staying in a wonderful 1950’s motel and having grits and shrimp by the Otsego lake. This week I’m on the west coast, near the Columbia and having green lipped mussels. Somebody’s got to do it.

West coast green lipped mussels
West coast green lipped mussels
East coast grits and shrimp
East coast grits and shrimp