Weekend in Banff, June 2015

On the afternoon we arrived in Banff there wasn’t a lot of time until dinner so we climbed Tunnel Mountain, a sort of local “Grouse grind” in the late day heat; 4.8 kms but only 260 meters.  Gorgeous views and not a cloud in the sky.  Views east toward Calgary and west towards BC.

West towards Banff, the Bow Valley and BC

East towards Calgary

For dinner we had a reservation at the Jupiter, a sort of Twin Peaks-ish motel with a wonderful modern kitchen.  The outside patio had lovely views but you battle the bugs, the Hwy 1 din not too far away, and the sun slipping away (the Jupiter sits at the far west end of Banff, nestled on a high bench).  

Every chef and their dog does beet salad, but this one, with warm grilled beets and cold cubed beets, with soft creme fraiche and bitter frisee, was particularly good.  Homemade sesame snap put the Polish OTC versions to shame.

Pork Wellington

Saturday we headed out fairly early after a Starbucks stop.  Instead of whizzing down the 1, we took the slower, windier, back route along the Bow Valley Parkway, or 1A.  We pulled into Johnston Canyon at 8:30 and one of the two parking lots was already full.  Hordes were descending on (what I would call) the easy, paved (yes paved) path, much of it along catwalks, to the cascading waters of the Lower and Upper Falls.  A great little diversion but with foreigners in cork wedgies and faux hikers with their gear and poles, it was a bit like the mall.  The lodge, walk and quaint signage was like Hitchcock’s North by Northwest: Bringing civilization to the wild. 

We were done and back on the Parkway in about 40 minutes.  We meandered up towards Lake Louise, taking the exit to Moraine Lake.  It was only just past ten AM but the parking lots were full and we were waved into a roadside spot about 15 minutes walk to the lake. We started out on the Larch Valley/Sentinal Pass route; 11.6 kms return, 725m elevation gain.

The hike started out as a series of switchbacks with some serious elevation.  Then it opened out onto a valley, with more moderate and gentle hiking.  Finally we came out to view of Ten Peaks.  The final portion was a glacial/slide switchback up to a saddle of Sentinel with a view down to Paradise Valley.  Without poles and wary of the slushy terrain, I deferred on the final km, but SS went a ways up on his own.  The valleys has a series of glacier ponds, the Minnestimma Lakes, which made for a wonderful lunch spot looking west towards Eiffel Peak, Northwest to Pinnacle Mountain, and east to Mount Temple.

View in Larch Valley

The perilous switchback to the top of the saddle: I deferred.  Sorry there's nothing to scale but if you squint you can see a small group traversing the snow halfway up.

One of the MinnestimmaLakes, pic by SS halfway up the switchback

We headed back to Moraine; it has the lure of Louise with a little more outback flair.  There were unbelievable hordes of cars, mostly day trippers making their way along the easy one click lakeshore walk.  We decided to drive into Lake Louise for a quick skinny: What a mistake! It was a total gong show, drivers like snipers and looters poaching parking spots.  We lucked out with an early departure and snagged a spot just minutes from the Chateau.  But the hordes put us off and soon enough we were back on the Parkway for a spectacular drive back to Banff.  The Castle Mountain bluffs cover a third of the drive, a huge massif bordering the eastern side.  By the time we’d walked to and from dinner (Earls, nothing special) we’d walked 22.31 kms or 29,447 steps!  Fitbit tells us this is the equivalent of 227 floors.

There's no smiling on the sugar free diet

Castle Cliffs from the Bow Valley Rd

Knowing the parking situation at both Moraine and Louise, we were up, checked out, post-Starbucks and on the road by 7:30.  We arrived at Lake Louise just past eight and snagged a supremo parking spot.  Then we headed up to one of the teahouses, on Lake Agnes, 6.8 km return with an elevation gain of 385 m.  It had fewer switchbacks than Larch Valley, some nice peek-a-boo views of Louise, then flattened out at a small glacier lake called Mirror Lake.  From there a final, short, steep ascent to Lake Agnes, with its waterfall teeming off in front of the teahouse, and the huge “Beehive” behind it.  We had some coffee and tea biscuits before taking a leisurely stroll around Agnes, but not up the switchback to the top of the Beehive.  Then back.  About three hours of very easy hiking.  On our way back, with the full swing of day trippers underway, we met Japanese tourist groups in hiking gear you’d expect to see on Everest, couples in Fendi and Prada, unprepared for walking let alone hiking, children on Walkie Talkies, serious hikers with bear bells, disgruntled tourists ready to return one-third into the hike, and all manner of everything in between.

The ubiquitous shot of Lake Louise

The Beehive above Mirror Lake

En route from Mirror Lake to Lake Agnes

Views west at Lake Agnes

Top of the falls at the teahouse, over Lake Louise

We drove back into Banff for lunch.  We thought we’d make the pilgrimage to the Fairmont as it is a classic.  By this point it was stinking hot, 33 or so, in keeping with the whole weekend mind you, and we were astonished to discover that their common areas were “air cooled” as opposed to air conditioned.  All the interior spaces were sticky and still and stuffy.  Outside, on their most spectacular deck with a vista to kill for, no umbrellas.  Nary a one.  So total exposure.  We traipsed down a few hundred steps (no exaggeration) to the Bow River to the pub they have only to discover three umbrellas, all in use, and myriad empty tables with full exposure.  “But you can eat inside” they beckoned.  Clammy like an armpit, with skin sticking vinyl booths and a sour smell of old beer.  Well, there was one thing truly English about the experience: They were unprepared for hot weather. 

Annoyed, we climbed the hundreds of steps to parking and drove into Canmore where we sat on a shady deck and enjoyed some lovely panini.

We hit over 24,250 by the time we got to the airport (over 18 kms walking). 159 floors, apparently.

Words Fail Jake Gyllenhaal

Or so says the NYT.  We found he handled them quite well.

As for the four day weekend, I could get used to this.

In 1927 the entire cast (all 57) of the Mae West production The Pleasure Man was arrested for indecency between the first and second act

On our final day SS braved the cold  (-10C) for Starbucks and upon his return we sat in our hotel room reading the Sunday New York Times which is just about as perfect a Sunday morning as you can get.  And when all is said and done a maid tidies up.

We did not engage in vigorous exercise, but instead took lunch at Parker and Quinn, off the lobby.  Checked out and left our bags then headed up to see Constellations.  The wind chill was a killer!  The play we choose to bookmark our vac is a short, intellectual contemplation between a beekeeper and a physicist.  The review in the Times is pretty much spot on, so rather than regurgitate, here is the link. 

The Biltmore.  Burnt out and decrepit at the turn of the century

A famous play in its day

Constellations is showing just north of the Times Square hubbub at the Samuel J Friedman Theatre.  It started life in the 1920s as The Biltmore.  Mae West's play Pleasure Man opened here for one night; the cast was arrested.  It was edited to appease morale of the day, but during the matinee the following day the cast was re-arrested.  Which I guess is ironic given that the longest running show in the theatre was Hair, its 1700 plus performances topping out Neil Simon's (Mike Nichols directed, Robert Redford starred) Barefoot in the Park which capped just over 1500.  Wikipedia has a reference to the nude scene in Hair, which was so short and dimly lit that Jack Benny once quipped "Did you happen to notice if any of them were Jewish?"  I guess the most famous thing about the original cast is/was Diane Keaton, who refused to take her clothes off.  As with many things in Times Square, the mid-20th century took its toll.  Opened and closed a couple of times as a theatre and cinema until a fire lit in the 1980s, set by vandals, kept it shut for 14 years.  The Manhattan Theatre Club subsequently renovated, to a tune of $35 million, and renamed the venue.  This is a hugely successful renovation on so many levels but particularly in the phenomenal sight lines, exit corridors, welcoming foyers and exceptional acoustics.  Somehow, though, Biltmore is just so much more Broadway; SFJ sounds like a disease wing at private hospital.

The SJF neè Biltmore renovated; just a glossy $35m re-do

Just ordinary people, like us

I expected Constellations to be a cerebral tour-de-force in the style of Art by Yasmina Reza, but in fact once you got past Jake G doing an English accent (quite believably; a guest commented in the lobby that he did an accent better than Ruth, not realizing Ruth is English) it was immediately captivating and weirdly emotional. 

After the play we went to Macys where we scored a sweet deal on 600 thread count sheets.  The theatre, the shopping.  Then we retrieved our bags and headed out to JFK.  Our 9 p.m. flight was held up several times due to late arrival of the previous aircraft, etc., etc., but given the myriad wind delays, the potential for snow delays, and all the other weather havoc, we were both happy to be airborne at all.  We had the very nice CP business class pods on the way home but there was both a crying baby in front of SS and a ten year old behind me. Ah, the HK wealthy.  The dinner (a salmon salad, lamb chops, cheese course) was not picture worthy.  We both got about an hour shuteye before deplaning at YVR a little bleary eyed.

Another trip down...

A Delicate Balance on The Twentieth Century

Happy Valentine's Day!

Pier-ing across to Jersey

We scheduled four sessions of sitting for today so first thing we headed out to the High Line, the re-purposed elevated spur of an old railway, now a 2.5 km park, for a winter walkathon .  It was cold, but not blustery, so slightly better than yesterday; it was no surprise only tourists and joggers were braving the terrain.  We started at the grim and gritty 34th Street end, walking south to14th.  Then we cut across the rim of the West Village and back up Avenue of the Americas. We passed the church that became a club called Limelight thirty years ago which brought back a few old memories. 



For lunch, or brunch such as it was, we went two doors down to the Archer Hotel where chef David Burke has a Memphis glam reminiscent outpost called Fabrick which is a play on words that nobody gets.  Sort of like Memphis was.  Burke is frequently on chef shows, a (losing) competitor on Top Chef Masters; his food always looked incredibly appetizing but never with the neurotic flair of too many swooshes and tweezer laden edible flowers.  Sorry David, you've been chopped.  (Forgive me for too many foodie mixed metaphors.  Call me the mix master.  Ouch...)  I would write that the food was amazing but in fact it was just competent; some French toast bites, deep fried with a caramel sauce were, however, suitably decadent.


Side of bacon at the next table.  A little too cheffy

Post brunch we headed up to the John Golden to see Glenn Close, John Lithgow, Bob Balaban, Lindsay Duncan, Clare Higgins and Martha Plimpton in Albee's A Delicate Balance.

The Masque at birth

 

 

 

 

The John Golden began life as the Theatre Masque in 1927, but was sold to the eponymous John who renamed it in his own honour, now part of the mega Shubert organization.  Recently, Vanessa Redgrave and James Earl Jones did a revival of Driving Miss Daisy.  Not so recently, Beyond the Fringe did a two year stint (back in the 60s).  And the late Mike Nichols did a year there at the beginning of his career with his then comedy partner Elaine May.  A play called Angel Street with Vincent Price did a three year run here back in the 40s.

The John Golden renovated





Yes there really is an accordion in one scene

The set, the unbelievable, towering, impressive, inspiring and appropriate set, was by Santo Loquasto, who (to date) has worked on 28 Woody Allen movies.  We both found the play funnier, more poignant and not as dated as we expected, although any drawing room drama written in 1966 and presented as contemporary is going to look a smidge out of touch.  Clare Higgins, in a minor role as the neighbour, more or less stole the show, while her husband, Bob Balaban (the NBC exec on Seinfeld who was infatuated with Elaine) seemed to be jettisoned in by accident.  But I think most people show up having fallen in love with Close in Fatal Attraction; Ann Roth dressed her up in suitably draping elegance.  I heard the security guard in the lobby complaining about his job, noting to a colleague "I'm sick of this stupid play and I'm sick of its two stupid intermissions," which made me laugh.  I mean you don't get a bonus for "working" a second intermission.

 

 

 

After our matinee (it was snowing.  Snow day!  Big wet flakes that dripped down your hair but didn't amount to anything on the ground) we walked over to DB Bistro.  Midtown isn't the best place to dine on the planet; if you've never read the NYT review of Guy Fieri's place, it's very funny but to the point. My favorite line is "Did you notice that the menu is an unreliable predictor of what actually came to the table?"  Check it out.  So given the options geared toward the tourist traffic, and the fact that every restaurateur wants nothing more than to turn tables on V Day, I think we did pretty well to get a decent prix fixe pre-theatre (er, sorry, theater) dinner.  They even threw together some fruit for SS as a dessert sub.

A beautiful Valentine's dessert at DB Bistro

 

Off to a musical at eight. The American Airlines Theatre aka Selwyn Theatre opened in 1925.  Played Kaufman/Ferber's The Royal Family as well as Design For Living, and a few other plays that have lived on into revival history, but in the mid-30s became a cinema.  Showed a couple of plays in the late 40s but then became, mainly, a seedy Times Square all-nighter with its share of drunks, addicts, insomniacs and so forth. 

The Selwyn Theatre, 1990, pre-reno

This century, $8 million in renos later, it opened as the American Airlines Theatre.  It is a relatively big house, but wide and squat and about as intimate as you can get for a 740 seater.  We had tickets for the first Broadway revival of On The Twentieth Century (since Madeline Kahn made the debut, infamously walking away from the production after only nine weeks).  Interestingly, Alec Baldwin and Anne Heche appeared in the play, Twentieth Century, from Macarthur and Hecht's script of the movie, which starred Barrymore and Lombard, in 2000.  Brian Bedford did his infamous Lady Bracknell here too.  And last time we were in New York we saw the Odets' revival of The Big Knife with Bobby Cannavale and an awesome character performance from Richard Kind (George Clooney's pre-fame best buddy aka for his long run on Spin City).

 

We loved it.  So did, it seemed, the ultra enthusiastic crowd.  The production was over the top glam and glitz replete with an entire cast wardrobe change just for the final scene, the whole cast exceptional, Kristin Chenoweth hysterical, and start to finish very, very funny.  But will it play to Ohio?  When you see Phantom (the longest running Broadway show in history) queued up a block away, you wonder who will come for a musical comedy that is half operetta, mixes slapstick, farce and dancing shtick all in reference to 1930s screwball comedies?

 

It wasn't snowing on the way back to the hotel.  A balmy 1 or 2 degrees C.  We navigated the Broadway hordes back to the Refinery.

Hotel hallway art, three dimensional collage