Being Part of the 1% for a Couple of Days!

For our 40th wedding anniversary, our oldest daughter Lisa got us a getaway weekend at the Plaza Hotel in New  York City complete with High Tea on Sunday afternoon.  We arrived on Sunday and left on Tuesday.  This is the entrance to the Plaza (just inside the front door).  It is just elegant inside with gilded crystal chandeliers everywhere.  You just wonder who keeps these all clean and sparkling like they do.

 On the same theme, here is the chandelier in our living room.  We also had one in the bedroom and both bathrooms.  The lighting and temperature in each of the bedroom and living room were controlled by an Ipad in the living room!

Warren sitting on the phone with the aforementioned daughter telling her about the suite!  We were on the highest floor of the Plaza (except for the Penthouse) in an Edwardian suite with living room, bedroom and one and one half baths!!

 Here is the desk where I did my computer work!

 I am standing in front of picture of Eloise who in children's literature lived at the Plaza.  When we were sitting in the Palm Court having tea, we could watch the people going by and each time they would stop and take this same picture!!

 This is the vantage point for our tea (you can see the Eloise picture in the upper left hand corner).  I had the chocolate tea and Warren had the New York tea.  It was far, far too much food for two people.  Mine included a chocolate fondue with a plate of fruit and various other things for dipping.  Then there were scones and my new favorite -- Devonshire clotted cream -- yum.  Then there was a tray of samples of all sorts of chocolate goodies.  On top of that, they brought us a special treat of these chocolate covered cakes with two flavors of mousse inside.  They were awesome!!

Here you can see my three tiered tray.  The scones are in the napkin on the mid-level!  That bottom level had pretzels, strawberries, pineapple, bananas, sponge cake and marshmallows for dipping.  I barely got through the fruit.  (I did wrap up some of the top level treats in a paper napkin I had in my purse as I couldn't bare to leave them.)

This is the entrance to the Plaza which is located on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 58th Street right across from Central Park.

Sunday night, we decided it would be best to walk around to walk off some of the tea goodies!!  We also wanted to check out the area a bit but also wanted to enjoy the amenities in our nice suite at the hotel.

Luckily we had done some planning ahead of time -- you can find coupons on the net for much reduced parking prices which we dutifully printed out.  We were surprised that it actually reduced the price by almost 40% ($30/day instead of $51).  We also bought our tickets for the Bronx Zoo online and got a 20% reduction in price -- good deal as it paid for the parking at the zoo.