Spring Break in NYC (part 4)

Our final days in New York were filled with musicals. Thanks to the Theater Development Fund, we were able to see a couple of the shows at 1/2 price. We had to wait in line for a bit, but it was definitely worth it. On Thursday afternoon, we saw Broadway's longest running musical, The Phantom of the Opera. The sets and costumes were gorgeous. We enjoyed the performances too, particularly the Phantom and Carlotta.

What a thrill to be in the Majestic as well! What a beautiful theater!

After wandering a bit, we had a real late lunch (or early dinner?) at a Mexican food place I can't remember. I guess our meals didn't leave a big impression. We also ducked into some Broadway merchandise shops and almost bought all kinds of stuff. Fortunately, we were getting New York tough by that point and didn't succumb to temptation...But then I saw the M&M Factory at Times Square. Since M&Ms are my favorite movie candy, I made friends with the sample guy and got several handfuls worth of fancy new flavors. That place is 3 floors worth of candy coated goodness. Just don't get stuck buying from the bulk bins. I ended up buying $10 worth of M&Ms!



Our second show of the day was a newer musical called Matilda. We went into the experience totally blind. It was a laugh riot and totally heartwarming! I would LOVE to take my nieces and nephews to see it when it tours. We immediately bought the music because we went away singing the songs. If you have an hour to kill, go on YouTube and find some clips to watch like this one. Enjoy!

Our last day in The Big Apple was a frigid one! We sought out the famous Soup Man from Seinfeld, but were disappointed to find that his restaurant has no dining area (No seats for you!). Instead of freezing our tails out on the street we found a nearby burger place called "brgr" where they fed us AND let us sit down inside where it was warm. It was also the first time we got free fountain drink refills all week. Yay!

Weeks before embarking on our NYC trip, we'd purchased tickets to see the Rockettes in their brand new spring show. Unfortunately, they weren't able to pull it together and they had to cancel it. They're going to rework it and try again next spring. We still wanted to visit the famous Radio City Music Hall, so we took a tour of the place.

Built in the 1930s, it is STILL considered innovative and exceptional. From our tour guide we learned that the lounge area was designed to natural slow and quiet crowds with it's huge columns. The hall itself is patterned after the setting sun. The bathrooms still have their original foot operated hand dryers (ahead of its time). The hydraulic systems under the stage inspired technological advancements during WWII and have never malfunctioned, ever. Radio City Music Hall almost had to close back in the 80s because of underuse, but it was restored and now hosts the Grammy's, Tony's, and the NFL Draft.

One neat thing about the tour was seeing some of the dance costumes and meeting an actual Rockette. All the dancers are tall, between 5'7 and 5'10. They arrange themselves by height to create the illusion that they are all the same. The tallest are in the middle and the shortest are on the ends.

Close to the theater is Rockefeller Center. We stopped by the NBC store to check out the merchandise. We would have loved seeing a taping of The Tonight Show or something, but Jimmy is booked out for months. Plus, Emma is still too young. Rick and I still remember going to a Tonight Show taping in Burbank when Jay Leno was still the host. We got to see Renee Zellweger and the band Incubus.

Many friends encouraged us to get a "cronut" while visiting New York. There's only one place that sells them. Apparently, people will line up for hours just to buy one, they're that good. We found Doninique Ansel Bakery on our phones and made out way there. After a rainy trek to Soho, we found that the shop had been closed done by the health inspector an hour prior. MICE!

We were disappointed to miss out on cronuts, but relieved to miss out on the mice. Instead, we found another little bakery called The Birdbath. It was smaller than a postage stamp and no other patrons were in there. We chatted up with the 2 friendly workers behind the counter for a half hour. It was fun to talk to people who actually live in New York and get their take on things. Plus, they gave us some free goodies because they felt sorry for us and our cronut experience. How awesome is that?

To cap off our EPIC week in Manhattan, we saw another newish musical called Once. We knew nothing about that show as well. It was different than any other theater experience we'd had that week. Before the show started, audience members could walk right up on stage (which is set like a bar) and order drinks and snacks. The actors, who also play all the instruments for the show, came out before curtain and had a jam session right on stage. The story was poignant, funny, and romantic all at the same time. It was a truly intimate experience.

We thought the actors portraying the roles of "Guy" and "Girl" were incredible. I think their voices are even better than those who originated the roles. After the show was over, we were very excited to meet "Girl" a.k.a. Joanna Christie. She was so friendly and funny! We were surprised that she had a British accent in real life because she spoke/sang with a Czechoslovakian accent in the show.

It may be a long time before we get back to New York, but we managed to squeeze enough experiences into one week to last us for a LONG time. The kids report that this was the best vacation we've taken together so far. They've been listening to show tunes non-stop. For me, it was a definite bright spot in a pretty dreary winter. I'm so grateful we took the opportunity to visit while we still live in the Midwest. We are truly blessed!



 

Spring Break in NYC (Part 3)

LDS Manhattan Temple

I used to teach an early morning high school seminary class. Each one of my students is precious to me, and I love seeing how they're coming along in the world. One of my favorites, Michael Lenahan, is a piano major at Julliard. We got to visit him at school, where he gave us an inside tour. One of the neatest parts of the tour was walking past the practice rooms and hearing the cacophony of beautiful music. Unfortunately, all the rooms were booked so Michael wasn't able to give us a preview of his upcoming recital.

Jake was excited to see his favorite movie score composer's name on the wall. Emma liked sneaking a peak at the dancer's in rehearsal.

Lincoln Center is right next door to the school, so Michael took us to the center courtyard where we strolled around and took this goofy picture:

Next, we meandered towards a little Thai food place for lunch. On our way, we ducked into an uppity skin care shop and washed our hands with these amazing scrubs and potions. It was fun catching up with Michael and seeing him in his element. I also found it fascinating to hear what it's like to actually live in New York. I'm so proud of him!

We had to part ways with Michael after lunch so he could get back to class. Central Park isn't far form the school, so we made that our next destination. It was so beautiful, even in early spring before the plants come back to life. We hit some of the famous spots like, Strawberry Fields, Bethesda Fountain, Bow Bridge, Belvedere Castle, and Turtle Pond. On our walk we passed by various musicians. Our favorite performer was staked out under the beautifully restored Minton Tiles at Bethesda Arcade. She had a sound somewhere between India Arie and Corrine Bailey Rae, only better! It must have been the great acoustics...

Bethesda Arcade

Bethesda Fountain

Bow Bridge

Belvedere Castle overlooking Turtle Pond

We found ourselves on the east end of the park on 5th Ave, so we hopped on a bus bound for FAO Schwarz. Inspired by all that music, we sought out "The Big Piano" from Big. 

 

We also saw some amazing LEGO creations, including Lady Liberty herself.

All that walking left us a bit peckish, so we followed our GPS to Serendipity for their famous frozen hot chocolate. For $9, we decided to split it four ways. It did not disappoint! Then, we realized we were actually hungry enough for dinner, so we crossed the street for pizza at Patsy's. On vacation, you can get away with having dessert before dinner, right?

We had a little time to kill between dinner and our show, so we stopped at Bloomingdale's to play a round of "Find the most expensive jeans". I also got accosted by a girl at the makeup counter hocking anti-wrinkle eye serum. She gave me a quick demonstration and tried to convince me there was a difference after applying her magic potion. I couldn't see a change, plus I was slightly offended by her telling me I had wrinkles in the first place. Ha!

The night ended with Aladdin, Disney's newest musical. My goodness! This show was a feast for the eyes. The costumes were gggorgeous, as was the theater itself. The Genie stole the show. One of his numbers was something like 9 minutes long, a real athletic feat. If you blinked, you were afraid to miss one of costume changes or special effects. We were also excited to see that the actor playing Jafar was the same man who voiced the character in the original movie. This show definitely gets high marks for production value!

 

Next post: 2 shows in one day!!!

Spring Break in NYC (Part 2)

 

 

You came back for more? Gee thanks! This is where things get really good too! On Tuesday, we took the bus UNDER the Hudson via the Lincoln tunnel and ended up right in Time Square. That place is a spectacle, even in broad daylight! Fortunately, there are a billion coppers keeping things safe (notice them in the pic below). You do have to watch out for Spider-man, Elmo, and Hello Kitty while walking around though. They really want a hug and a picture (for tips of course). We were lucky and saw the (mostly) naked cowboy and a guy with four multicolored rats on his head and shoulders.

 

We wandered around a bit, popping into buildings that interested us. Then, we went below and had our first subway ride over to Grand Central Station. In case you were wondering, yes, it DOES smell like pee in the subway station, and yes, there are crazy people on the subway sometimes. I made the mistake of smiling at a homeless man and he walked up to me and shouted, "WHITE GIRL!" He then proceeded to announce the ethnicity and gender of every person on the train. Tip: don't make eye contact with people on the subway.

Grand Central Station is pretty fantastic. You have no sense you're underground because it's freakin' huge! There are tons of shops and restaurants there. We ended up there at lunch time, so we had our pick of yummy places to eat.

Several friends had recommended sweets at Magnolia Bakery, so we indulged in a little dessert too. We all split a slice of carrot cake and red velvet cake. Talk about heavenly! We give eight thumbs way up for the carrot cake.

From Grand Central Station we traveled by subway to Union Station so that we'd be close to some famous parks and the Flatiron building. It was such a lovely, warm day that tons of people were out and about. One girl was practicing yoga right in the middle of Union Square (and then Rick held her in the palm of his hand).

We continued on Broadway, passing dog walkers, musicians, and Hare Krishnas. Pausing only to grab a quick pic in front of the Flatiron building, we marched on to Madison Square Park. There we stopped longer than normal people to hang at a dog park and missed our Shelby for a bit.

After all the walking, my feet grew mighty sore. You see, I opted to wear cute boots rather than sensible sneakers. I regret that decision, as I now have bruised toe nails. We ended up riding the subway the rest of the way to the Empire State Building. Tip: choose function over fashion when you're walking around New York.



The Empire State recently went through a major renovation to make things more energy efficient and such. We got to learn all about the re-do, plus a lot of history, on our tour. Did you know it took only about a year to complete? It was also the tallest building in the world until 1972. We got to go all the way up to the observation deck! That's 102 floors folks!

The Empire State Building truly has the best view of New York. The picture above shows lower Manhattan in the background. The picture below faces the East River. Can you find the Chrysler building?

 The picture below was taken up on the observation deck. It's surprisingly peaceful up there!

By the time the tour was over, my dogs were barking. We hobbled to the closest restaurant that wasn't $30 a plate. For the life of me I can't remember the name of this place, but it served good Italian-American fare. Also, our waiter was super friendly. He was an actor (obviously), though he wants to get away from performing to become a critic (classic).









Ahhhhhhh. Sometimes there's nothing better than sitting and drinking glass after glass of Diet Coke (until you learn that there are no free refills).

Next up: our first BROADWAY musical!!! Rick scored some amazing tickets for Newsies that were orchestra, stage rightish. Oh man, was this show good! We were so close that we could see the actors spit and sweat. The dance numbers swept us off our tired feet. It's no wonder that they won the Tony for best choreography. And the singing? Superb! The guy who currently plays Jack Kelly puts poor Christian Bale to shame. In fact, I think he's better than the guy on the original cast album (which we bought immediately).

The super cool thing about seeing a live show is getting to meet the performers after. This particular cast was very approachable. We got autographs and pictures with many of the lead actors. The picture below shows Emma with the gorgeous Corey Cott. (Jack Kelly).

 This cutie is Andy Richardson and he played Crutchie. I think he looks like David Archuleta.

And this guy is Jeremy Greenbaum who played Davey.

Oh, what a night! I would see this show again TOMORROW if given the opportunity. Fortunately, there will be a touring production starting this Fall. Tip: Make it your number one priority to see this show! For a little preview, check out the video below. It gets good about minute 2.

Stay tuned for my next post covering Julliard, FAO Schwarz, and Disney's Aladdin!

Spring Break in NYC (Part 1)

Who remembers my Midwest Bucket List from last October? I wrote that post before I knew our family is moving back to Arizona (more on that later). I thought we'd have time to hit at least half of the places on that list. I was mistaken, as we are moving next month. For spring break, we debated about flying to Arizona to search for a new house. Fortunately, we got to take the kids to New York City instead. It was the right choice!

 

The drive from Perrysburg to New York was a bit grim. 9 hours in a car is tough, no matter how many snacks and movies you bring. We decided to veer off the turnpike for a short jaunt to Punxsutawney, PA to get some lunch. Also, since we'd had such a hellacious winter, I wanted to give that weather predicting rodent a piece of my mind for putting off spring another 6 weeks. Alas, he wasn't home. 

Gobbler's Knob, Punxy Phil's home, is the spot atop a smallish mountain where thousands gather each February to see if the immortal groundhog will see his shadow. Apparently, this odd tradition has been carried on for 128 years.

I assumed the town of Punxsutawney would be as charming as the one depicted in Bill Murray's Groundhog Day. I was dead wrong. The movie was filmed in Illinois instead. The actual town of Punxsutawney is pretty dilapidated. We ate lunch there anyway, in an effort to boost the local economy.

We arrived in Secaucus, New Jersey well after dark. Our hotel accommodations were quite nice, especially since we got to stay for free (Rick has a work friend that got us a hook-up). We were pleased to discover that our hotel was conveniently located across the street from the bus stop and all kinds of shopping and restaurants. Back east, it's always nice to be able to walk somewhere close, rather than struggle with traffic and parking. Yay us!

 

After sleeping in SUPER late on Sunday morning, we got spiffed up for church. We found a relatively close meetinghouse for church where Sacrament Meeting started at 2 p.m. Driving in Jersey City was a bit harrowing, even for a Sunday afternoon, but we got there on time. We passed the church a couple times before we spotted it. It was a bit inconspicuous sitting a few doors down from the Dunkin' Donuts. We put our coins in the parking meter and headed up a flight of stairs to the second floor of a nondescript brick building. Once on that level, however, all was familiar. The décor had that distinctive LDS stamp, from the Del Parson art on the walls to that same floral sofa that's in 1/2 the foyers in the church.

 

We found the multi-purpose room the ward uses as a chapel, cultural hall, etc. Not many people were there when we first arrived, but the numbers had grown exponentially by 10 minutes after the hour (Mormon Standard Time). They appeared to only have one priest about Jake's age who both blessed and passed the sacrament, with the help of 4 older priesthood brethren.

 

The testimony portion of the meeting started out in an interesting way. A psychiatrist with a THICK accent kicked things off with a rant about the energy crisis, President Bush, and his revelations on how to solve everything. Fortunately, he was an anomaly. The rest of the testimony meeting was quite uplifting and fascinating. The ward had many cultures represented, like a mini United Nations. It was pretty cool!



Monday morning, we kicked off our Big Apple experience by hopping on the ferry. It was a windy, misty day so we huddled close together. We missed the boat we purchased tickets for because we had trouble getting around in Jersey (surprise!). Fortunately, the folks in charge let us on the next ride to Ellis Island.

 



That first view of the Manhattan skyline is pretty spectacular! The grumpiness we felt navigating the traffic vanished once we realized where we were. It's still strange not to see those twin towers though!

Ellis Island was a great first stop. We stepped back in time and imagined what it might have been like for our predecessors. The museum is well done. We could have spent more time on our audio tour or taken advantage of the family search library. Rick and I did stop for a peck at "The Kissing Post" though.

From Ellis Island we ferried over to the Statue of Liberty. As you can see from our squinty eyes in the picture, the sun started to poke out around that time. It was a relief to have a little warmth, and we ventured out onto the top deck of the boat for the amazing view. 

For those of you planning a trip to see Lady Liberty, you should know that tickets to climb to the crown must be requested months in advance (oops!). Also, be prepared for lots of crowds, standing in lines, and climbing stairs. In a nutshell, the Statue of Liberty may be best enjoyed from a distance.

The reward for climbing the stairs on the pedestal tour is another fantastic view of Manhattan. That's pretty great, right? We didn't stay long up there because we had so many other things we were trying to squeeze into the day. So, we hopped on the ferry again, this time landing at Battery Park. From there we walked along Wall Street, pausing at "The Bull" and marching on towards Ground Zero.



The 9/11 museum is opening sometime this spring, but we were there a little too early to see it. We did get to view the waterfall where one of the towers stood and see some of the names of those who perished there. It is a beautiful, sacred place.

Surprisingly, our stop at Ground Zero didn't take as long as we had planned. We searched out a restaurant so we could enjoy "linner" and a break from walking. Just a block away from the new World Trade Center is a little Asian fusion place called Koko's. It satisfied each of our persnickety pallets.

In my research about 9/11, I read about a church that became a way station for the first responders, and later, the workers at Ground Zero. We found St. Paul's Chapel not far from where we'd eaten. Though it's still a functioning Episcopalian place of worship, it also serves as a museum. As the oldest surviving church in Manhattan, it's rich with history. I'm so glad we visited. You can truly feel the spirit there.

 

To top of our day, we got dessert at Shake Shack. Run, don't walk, to get their frozen custard! We attempted to burn off the calories by strolling around the Battery Park neighborhood. We saw families picking their kids up from daycare, people walking their dogs, and joggers running along the Hudson. It's hard to believe this area was once vacated in the period following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Decades before that, it wasn't much more than a landfill. Incredible! Today it's a beautiful, clean, family-friendly part of town.

 

NEXT POST: Subways, Time Square, The Empire State Building, and our first Broadway show!