The September Book for Dad
24–28 September 2026Marty · Dad · Melanie · Peter

New York,
then Philadelphia.

Four nights. Two cities. A Saturday designed around the Met, as any civilised calendar ought to be. This is a small book for the trip: the useful bits first, and the good bits very close behind.

Base camp / New York

A sensible
headquarters.

Three nights at the Courtyard Midtown East: two queens, a sofabed, a front desk, and a straight-forward place to reassemble after New York has had its say.

Thursday 24 – Sunday 27

Courtyard
Midtown East

Junior Queen Suite
Two queens + sofabed
866 Third Avenue, New York

Hotel details ↗   Map ↗

Thursday night: UA 274 arrives Newark around 8:00 PM. Uber in, something light nearby, and bed. Melanie’s Las Vegas flight is still to be added.

The day-by-day

A working plan,
not a military campaign.

Times are local. Venue names lead to their own websites when useful; addresses lead to a map. The rest is kept mercifully uncluttered.

Thursday24September

Land, collect selves, settle in.

Newark → Midtown East
  • ~8:00 PM
    UA 274 arrives at NewarkMarty and Dad; Uber to the hotel, roughly 40 minutes.
  • After check-in
    P.J. Clarke’s ↗ Thursday landing pad915 Third Ave · four blocks up. The 1884 saloon that got a skyscraper built around it: bar burger, oysters, and a first-come front bar.
  • Evening
    Melanie arrives from Las Vegas details nextMeet at the hotel. Then the weekend can properly begin.
Saturday26September

The Met. The whole point.

Lincoln Center
  • 1:00 PM
    Macbeth matinee ↗Exact curtain and running time to confirm.
  • ~4:30 PM
    Early dinner, then a proper pauseNear Lincoln Center. Enough time to sit down and have a thought.
  • 8:00 PM
    Così fan tutteExact curtain and running time to confirm.
Sunday27September

Southbound, by the civilised route.

Moynihan → Independence Mall
  • 10:15 AM
    Leave the hotel for MoynihanUber, bags, train. Nothing complicated.
  • 11:20 AM
    Acela 22553 Business Class seats · Car 9 Quiet Car · seats 14D, 15C & 15D · Philadelphia 30th Street, around 12:30 PM. Ticket 2480648076208.
  • ~12:45 PM
    The Ledger Residences ↗150 South Independence Mall West · 2BR · a useful place to land.
  • ~1:15 PM
  • 4:00 PM
    Independence Hall ↗Timed tour; arrive at security by 3:30 PM.
  • Evening
    Dinner in Old City choose this nextThe Garden at City Tavern ↗ is open seasonally for drinks and light bites at 2nd & Walnut; the old City Tavern restaurant is closed.
The useful extravagances

Three stops
worth dressing for.

Click through for menus, visitor details, or directions. One less tab to hunt down while out in the world.

fish first.Friday brunch

Barney
Greengrass

The old Marty & Dad standard. Smoked fish, eggs, and a room that has no need of a reinvention strategy.

Friday dinner / 8:00 PM

Delmonico’s

One of those New York dining rooms that has seen a great deal and refuses to make a fuss about it.

Photo from Delmonico’s official site.

Sunday / 4:00 PM

Independence
Hall

The room where a nation began. Arrive at screening by 3:30 PM; history runs on a timetable.

National Park Service photo.

The Saturday programme

Verdi, then Mozart.

The murderous Scot in the afternoon; Mozart’s emotionally elaborate wager after dinner. They make quite a pair.

Open the Met companion →

1:00 PM

Macbeth

Verdi turns ambition, guilt, and a troublesome prophecy into a very fine afternoon.

8:00 PM

Così fan tutte

Mozart’s sparkling proof that people should never be put through loyalty experiments.

The longer story

Before this one,
there were 30.

Opera trips with Dad across fifteen cities: the Met, La Scala, Covent Garden, Dresden, Venice, Chicago, and a great many formidable evenings.

Open the opera atlas →

2008–201930
evenings
One family history,
in overtures and intervals.