Occasionally Interesting, often not

Had a full, fun weekend of ziplines. Left late on Friday and got into Markleeville late. Next morning, up relatively early for a short drive to Kirkwood and their zip lines. They run a series of 6 relatively short ziplines between sets of trees around Chair 7. We had a group of 12 (normally 10), plus 2 guides. Began with a short drive to the snowcat, which drove to the top of Chair 7. Then a short walk up some snow steps to the beginning, with the "beginner" zipline, which is the slowest one. The 2nd line is the fastest, and of course, they're all fun. The most interesting part was the split suspension bridge, which they purposely swung violently to make it more challenging to walk over. Of course, you're clipped in all the time, so no actual danger. Afterwards, we ate a very nice lunch at the Kirkwood Inn. Great onion rings! We drove back to Markleville and had a nap and then bummed around town, such as it is -- it's very small! Spent some time at the art gallery...

Yet another quick trip, this time to New York City. Red eye on Friday night. Fortunately, room available early at the Eventi Hotel (www.eventihotel.com). I had called them earlier and the person who answered was the expected abrupt New York person one expects, who told me that I'd just have to show up and see, but that they weren't booked up on Friday night, so chances were good. But it seemed to have made a difference, because when we arrived, the bellhop told us that a few people were already waiting for rooms to open up; however, we were immediately presented with keys upon checkin. Thus, we managed to sleep for a while, which was fortunate, because we had a busy day, starting with the 2pm showing of The Merchant of Venice at the Broadhurst Theatre, featuring Al Pacino as Shylock. I had stumbled on good tickets on Stubhub while looking for tickets to something else. Good timing. The show was sold out and was really very effectively staged. The lines were delivered in a way ...