another lisa

NYC report



Wednesday
- Got up at 4 am to get to the airport early – flight left at 6:30 (what was I thinking when I booked this flight??)
- Arrived about 8 am at La Guardia airport, got a ride to Manhattan from an airport shuttle (paid for round trip so we wouldn’t have to worry about getting back to the airport on Sunday)
- Were able to check in to the Vanderbilt YMCA by 10:30 am (even though official check in time is 3 pm
- By noon 11 am we were on our way and walked for the first of many times over to Times Square
- We had some time to kill before tickets went on sale for the evening performance so we went to NBC for the studio tour (they also have a great candy shop there where we bought a huge bag of M & Ms in rainbow colours
- After the tour, we went to stand in line at the TKTS location at Times Square… we waited just over an hour and got tickets to see Chicago!
- We were so hot, we decided to go watch a movie while we killed time… we saw “Wedding Crashers” (which we found out afterwards was rated R – lots of bare breasts… but noone questioned me taking Zoe – age 15)… overall very funny movie
- After the movie we went for dinner to TGI Fridays- very good meal.
- Then we went to Chicago and it was fantastic… very simple… meaning no constume or set changes… the movie is a souped up version of this play.
Got to bed by about 11:30 pm

Thursday

- Woke up around 10 am – basically this was the first of many days of exhaustion
- Decided to go down to South Street Seaport to check it out, get tickets there as they open earlier, with the loose plan of going to Battery Park, Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island
- This was the first day we took the subways and we got lost at Grand Central station
- Zoe panicked a bit when we were lost and later when we had other issues with the subways (ie. her metro card didn’t always work)
- Then we got lost trying to find the South St Seaport – we found it eventually – I have a pretty good sense of direction, a map and I am not afraid to ask for help if needed!
- Good things always happen while lost in NYC – we found a cute little diner and got lunch for under $10 for the two of us and Zoe got to try a piece of my club sandwich – she has now decided that club sandwiches are the best invention since nutella!
- While in line at the TKTS outlet – a white haired little old man approached me and asked if I might be interested in buying some tickets!!
- I went to see what he was offering – he had tickets to see WICKED, which you can’t get ANYWHERE… this show is sold out for the next two years.
- I was very scared to buy these tickets as I had heard people sold counterfeits on the streets – - I told him that I was visiting from Canada – that it was my daughter’s birthday and she would be heartbroken if these weren’t real tickets
- He took my hand, said “look me in the eyes” and he said “I promise you that you and your daughter are going to see a very special show tonight”
- So I bought the damn tickets – for $125 each!!! (more later)
- Then we went on to Battery park, got tickets for the ferry to Liberty and Ellis Island and WAITED for over an hour just to get through the security tent (man has everything changed in NYC to do with security – more on this later)
- We didn’t get off the ferry at the statue of liberty – just looked at it in passing and went to Ellis Island for a couple of hours (great ice cream here)
- Then we went back to Times Square and got dinner (can’t remember where)
- WICKED continued…. I was very anxious that the tickets were fake but trusted to fate… we got to the security for the theatre, held our breaths and…. They let us in!
- We got to see Wicked!
- It was one of the most amazing shows I have ever seen. Basically it is a prequel to the Wizard of Oz, telling the story of Glinda and the Wicked Witch of the West and how they were friends in high school and what happened to them and how the whole story with Dorothy eventually happened. Just amazing. I hope to buy the music someday.
- Went to a fancy restaurant for chocolate cake after – to celebrate Zoe’s impending birthday… I figured we wouldn’t have a chance the next day to have cake.
- Got to bed before 1 pm

Friday (Zoe’s Bday)
- Got up around 10 and headed out through Brooklyn to Coney Island for the day and early evening.
- Bought a pay one price bracelet for Astroland – a kind of sleazy amusement park – but we had lots of fun on rides (except for one that I had to get off of!!)
- We played some games – Zoe won the biggest huge bear but didn’t want to have to carry it back on the plane so she picked a small prize!!! (I told her I would have taken the big one and then handed it to a small child there… there were many obviously poor families around)
- Walked on the Boardwalk – and spent a lot of time at the ocean collecting shells
- At one point I saw a jelly fish and showed a little girl who shrieked and she ran to her dad (who gave me a dirty look like I was a pervert) and I explained to him there was a jelly fish in the water!! (he hustled his kids away)
- We ate clams, fried chicken, ice cream and BEER (zoe didn’t have beer)… this was the first alcohol I had on the whole trip but it was the perfect setting
we decided to head back early as we were so tired and just watched a movie back in our room as we fell asleep

Saturday
- we walked and walked in a huge circle – first up to Central Park – by the time we got there we were pooped (remember, temps in the 90’s) so we took a horse drawn carriage for a ride around the park – it was very pleasant
- also we had a perfect “brunch” with zoe having a turkey sandwich from a deli and I had a huge salad with tons of fruit in it
- then we walked down to Time Square and stood in line for almost two hours – we were at the head of the line but when it was our turn, they didn’t have tickets for our first choices… so we ended up getting tickets for Sweet Charity with Christina Applegate starring in it
Zoe was quite mopey, whiney and complaining about having to see this show and we had a little tiff – I pointed out to her how lucky she was to be on this trip compared to many children in the world, and that she had already seen two incredible shows – more than most people – blah blah blah… (aka you are the most ungrateful child I have ever seen)… she eventually apologized and said she was just tired, hot and hungry… so we went to eat dinner in China town and got a nice meal there
- The only problem was that Chinatown on Saturday was a big mistake – very crowded (ie. you have to push your way through the crowds) and everyone was shouting… so we jumped onto the back streets and it was a bit calmer – Zoe doesn’t handle crowds well with her social anxiety
- Sweet Charity was really good – with famous songs like “Hey Big Spender” and “If My Friends Could See Me Now”… and the lead was very good at it. The male lead was also fantastic.
- Went to bed around midnight

Sunday
- Got up about 10 and packed up room – left our bags at the storage room for the day
- There was a huge festival going on one block away – they had blocked off about ten blocks of third avenue (really close to the United Nations) and we got to wander around for a while – had breakfast at a deli
- Zoe got her way and we went to Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum
- I have to say that it was a great place to go – but not with small children – even Owen might be too young – it’s kind of freaky – the figures looked SO REAL
- We took tons of pics and maybe someday we will develop them
- I didn’t have a digital camera – so I will have to see if I can get digital copies of them at some point
- The shuttle to the airport insisted that we had to leave at 4 pm for the airport “just in case” so we got to the airport by 4:30 and our flight didn’t leave until 8:40 pm (4 hours of waiting… so I bought a book and read half of it)
- We got back home about 10 pm and Eric was right on time picking us up
- It was sooooo nice being back home...NYC is exciting to visit, but my overall impression is that it is crowded, noisy, smelly and busy. I would not want to live there… and I don’t think Zoe would either.
-the other comment I was going to make was about having to live in a city that is so focused on security... what with the recent London bombings I guess living in NYC is hell...if you are there everyday... there were police and security guards everywhere, not just at the subway... for almost every building you enter, you have to show id and put your bag through x-ray machines constantly and we saw army guys with machine guns in some of the subways!!! I can't imagine living with small children in that type of environment... growing up in fear all the time... ugh.