World Class Squash Tournament at Grand Central Terminal This Weekend

Hey, what do you know about the game of Squash? We’re guess your knowledge level is somewhere between nothing and contrived typecasts you’ve made up in your head. Perhaps something about Lord Butterscotch playing on a court in Devonshireberg, England. Lucky for you, Grand Central Terminal is hosting the JP Morgan Tournament of Champions Squash Tournament running today through Jan 26^th. This event is essentially the Super Bowl of Squash Tournaments. Man, it was fun just to type that!

A giant ten ton 21-by-32 foot glass square court in the middle of the Vanderbilt Room smack dab in the middle of New York’s busiest train station with seating for 500. The Men’s bracket features 24 of the world’s best players competing for a big cash purse. The event also includes a women’s tournament and an amateur ping-pong tournament because….squash players like to play ping-pong in their spare time? We have no idea.

The heart-stopping game playing action is free to watch by those who passersby and idle tourists. Tickets start at $20 and all games are at Grand Central terminal throughout the weekend. If you’re looking for an extra shot of style and grace, we suggest stopping by The Campbell Apartment (secretly snuggled in an upper floor at Grand Central) for a drink before or after the match. The Big Adventure has already purchased our tickets. We’ll be the ones with the giant foam finger. Maybe we’ll see ya there.

The Big Adventure's NYC Winter Guide 2011

It's starting to look a lot like…The NYC Big Adventure Winter Guide

With the arrival of the giant 74 foot-tall Tree into Rockefeller Center last Friday,It is starting to look a lot like Christmas in New York City! Decorations are going up all over town and The 78^th Annual Radio City Christmas Spectacular is seducing spectators thrice daily and some stores even answering the consumer call to open stores at 9:00 PM on Thanksgiving Night (blegh).

Aside from the cold and forthcoming snow slush, it certainly is one of the most wonderful times of year in the Big Apples (and, of course, one of the most tourist heavy). Over the next few weeks, The Big Adventure will be occasionally sharing some of the best Holiday Season To-Dos in New York City.

Thought we would start with a blast from the past by recounting our past Winter Big Adventure from a couple of years back. The stops still hold and this would make a tis-The-Season great self-guided Adventure:

 The NYC Big Winter Adventure

Lunch at Havana Central at the West End  Up at 116^th and Broadway -one of the most amazing restaurants in the city. Don’t settle for the other two locations. 

See A College Basketball Game at Columbia University-  Right across the street. You don't get a chance to witness true Division 1A College B-ball often without paying through the nose. Tickets are as little as $10. Cheer on the exciting Columbia Lions and their mascot Roar-ee (sad) 

Grand Central Model Train Display - At the Transit Museum Annex in Grand Central. For the kid in all of us. In this year’s festive display, model trains start off in a living room on Christmas morning, shuttle through a miniature NYC and assorted pastoral tableaux before arriving at Santa’s workshop in the North Pole. Fun! Maybe there will be a NJ Transit train that stops and shuts down periodically with little angry passengers inside.  

 

Grand Central Kaleidoscope Light Show- How do you make practical use of the busiest and largest train station in America? By illuminating the walls with a spectacular Holiday light show throughout the concourse. This is quickly becoming one of the New York’s premiere holiday “Must Sees”

Delicious Holiday Drinks and Food at Maggie’s Place -Across from Grand Central at Madison Avenue at 47^th Street–Maggie’s is often voted as a top stop for holiday drinks which range from their Famous Irish Coffees that use rare whiskey to Hot Ciders and a legendary Peppermint Paddy -a flirty hot chocolate with peppermint schnapps that’s served with a candy cane. More Holiday treats abound.

New York Midtown Holiday Window Gazing  -Finally, Walk up 5^th Avenue to see the best holiday storefronts in the world from Saks Fifth Avenue to Henri Bendel to Bergdorf Goodman to Barney’s and more. You can try and guess just how much that 34 carat diamond in the window of Tiffany’s costs. End at FAO Schwarz or take a load of at the shady but fun Subway Inn Bar. 

Nothing on that list tickle your fancy? More Holiday Big Adventuring to follow...

Chapter One of the Big Adventure Winter Guide

Starting to look a lot like…The Big Adventure Winter Guide

With the arrival of the giant 62-foot-tall Tree into Rockefeller Center this morning (and for some reason an A.M. concert by Bon Jovi), It is starting to look a lot like Christmas in New York City! Decorations are going up all over town and The 77^th Annual Radio City Christmas Spectacular is seducing spectators thrice daily and even a new Broadway Musical based on the movie Elf (we’re skeptical). 

Aside from the cold and forthcoming snow slush, it certainly is one of the most wonderful times of year in the Big Apples (and, of course, one of the most tourist heavy). Over the next few weeks, The Big Adventure will be occasionally sharing some of the best Holiday Season To-Dos in New York City.

Thought we would start with a blast from the past by recounting our past Winter Big Adventure from a couple of years back. The stops still hold and this would make a tis-The-Season great self-guided Adventure:

 The NYC Big Winter Adventure

Lunch at Havana Central at the West End  Up at 116^th and Broadway -one of the most amazing restaurants in the city. Don’t settle for the other two locations. 

See A College Basketball Game at Columbia University-  Right across the street. You don't get a chance to witness true Division 1A College B-ball often without paying through the nose. Tickets are as little as $10. Cheer on the exciting Columbia Lions and their mascot Roar-ee (sad) 

Grand Central Model Train Display - At the Transit Museum Annex in Grand Central. For the kid in all of us. In this year’s festive display, model trains start off in a living room on Christmas morning, shuttle through a miniature NYC and assorted pastoral tableaux before arriving at Santa’s workshop in the North Pole. Fun! Maybe there will be a NJ Transit train that stops and shuts down periodically with little angry passengers inside.  

 

Grand Central Kaleidoscope Light Show- How do you make practical use of the busiest and largest train station in America? By illuminating the walls with a spectacular Holiday light show throughout the concourse. This is quickly becoming one of the New York’s premiere holiday “Must Sees”

Delicious Holiday Drinks and Food at Maggie’s Place -Across from Grand Central at Madison Avenue at 47^th Street–Maggie’s is often voted as a top stop for holiday drinks which range from their Famous Irish Coffees that use rare whiskey to Hot Ciders and a legendary Peppermint Paddy -a flirty hot chocolate with peppermint schnapps that’s served with a candy cane. More Holiday treats abound.

New York Midtown Holiday Window Gazing  -Finally, Walk up 5^th Avenue to see the best holiday storefronts in the world from Saks Fifth Avenue to Henri Bendel to Bergdorf Goodman to Barney’s and more. You can try and guess just how much that 34 carat diamond in the window of Tiffany’s costs. End at FAO Schwarz or take a load of at the shady but fun Subway Inn Bar. 

Nothing on that list tickle your fancy? More Holiday Big Adventuring to follow...

Photos from the Big Winter Adventure

Nothing like Two and a half months to really soak in an event before pictures are posted....ah. Now we can safely look back without any possible accusation of being called too nostalgic too quickly. Enjoy these fine photo selections from our last Big Adventure in December...

Brooke and Phil’s Big Winter Adventure

Saturday, December 8th

We hope that you’ll join us on Saturday, December 8^th for a one-of-a-kind New York, Winter Adventure. Join us for some of it or join us for all of it or don’t join us at all. The more the merrier, so feel free to invite whomever you would like (I just need to make sure I have an accurate ticket count for the basketball game).

12:30 PM or so – Pre-Game Drinks & Dreidels– Location TBD. At a fine Yet-To-Be-Named Tavern. Meet us there, get your ticket, spin your dreidel, win some gelt. This will be on the Upper West Side near Columbia. You can meet us there before…

2:00 PM College Basketball - Columbia University vs. Loyola!

You don't get a chance to witness true Division 1A College B-ball often without paying through the nose. Tickets are a mere $10. Cheer on the exciting Colubmia Lions and their mascot Roar-ee(sad) as they wage war against Loyalo at Francis Levien Gymnasium - Broadway & 120th at The Dodge Fitness Center. We'll meet outside the main box office at about 1:45 (Take the 1 Subway line to 116th Street).

From the game, we'll take the subway down to Midtown (bring your MetroCard) to Grand Central for..

Grand Central Kaleidoscope Light Show

How do you make practical use of the busiest and largest train station in America? By illuminating the walls with a spectacular Holiday light show throughout the concourse. This is quickly becoming one of the New York’s premiere holiday events. See it now so you can say, “I saw it way back in 2007.” Not quite as cool as these guys but still should be pretty neat.

Grand Central Model Train Display

For the kid in all of us. Mighty impressive what they can do with a bunch of model trains these days. When I was little, I could barely get mine to go around the track. In this year’s festive display, model trains start off in a living room on Christmas morning, shuttle through a miniature NYC and assorted pastoral tableaux before arriving at Santa’s workshop in the North Pole. Fun! Maybe there will be a NJ Transit train that stops and shuts down periodically with little angry passengers inside.

5:30 PMish - Delicious Holiday Drinks and Food at Maggie’s Place - Madison Avenue at 47^th Street– One of the best true Irish bars in New York, Maggie’s was voted as a top stop for holiday drinks which range from their Famous Irish Coffees that use rare whiskey to Hot Ciders and a legendary Peppermint Paddy -a flirty hot chocolate with peppermint schnapps that’s served with a candy cane. More Holiday treats abound.

New York Midtown Holiday Window Gazing – Finally, we’ll walk up 5^th Avenue to see the best holiday storefronts in the world from Saks Fifth Avenue to Henri Bendel to Bergdorf Goodman to Barney’s and more. We can try and guess just how much that 34 carat diamond in the window of Tiffany’s costs.

We’ll likely end in the early evening at FAO Schwartz where Brooke will reenact the scene from Big on the actual piano with Robert Logia in person. From there….who knows? The Subway Inn has always been a delightful haven for shady patrons tired after a day of walking.

So, we hope that you’ll don a warm jacket and holiday spirit and join our festive December Saturday adventure. E-mail Brooke or Phil if you have questions….