Our Point East, New York City!!

Our view from Jersey.  Not too bad hugh?!!

    Driving through the state of Delaware, we arrived in New Jersey around 6 pm.  We quickly set up the trailer and changed into some nice clothes.  Our goal was dinner and a show on Broadway.
   We changed and headed to the metro to discover that it was going to be a little more difficult to get to New York from New Jersey.  Once we figured out the idiosyncrasies of the New Jersey and New York metro, we made it the Twin Towers plaza.  Even though we arrived at the Twin Towers Memorial, we didn't go see it because we were going to save it for the next day.  At this point we were still Downtown, so we needed to make our wayUuptown to Broadway and Times Square.
    Once we made our way, by metro to 42nd St. we located the ticket office for the discounted shows.  Unfortunately, we arrived a little late and couldn't get tickets to Phantom of the Opera because it started an hour earlier than we thought.  So, what do you do when you are all dressed up in New York City and no place to go?  You go to an Off Broadway show.  Someone gave us a tip to go see The Fatasticks and we could get discounted tickets because we had the kids.  The show started at 8, so we just had enough time to get a bite to eat from a street vendor and then get back for the beginning.
    The food we had from the street vendor was outstanding.  Cecelia, Claire, and I had gyros and Taylor had a hot dog and pretzel.  The gyros were fabulous, the best I have ever had.  This vendor made them a little different than usual.  Rather than have the lamb, vegetables and cucumber sauce,  he added a little spice to it that really brought out the flavors in the meat.  It was a great first time experience.  Not only was it cool, getting the food from a vendor, but standing on the street corner of Broadway and 54th chowing down was a surreal experience.
    After scarfing down our food, we headed down the block a little ways to the theater.  The theater that the Fatasticks was playing in was a small, quaint venue that really allowed us to get up close and personal with the actors.

Enough Said!!!!

   The play is about a boy and a girl, that believe their fathers don't want them to get together, but in reality the dads scheme to get their kids out of the house.  It is kind of a Romeo and Juliet in reverse.  The singing and story were outstanding.  The girls enjoyed their first experience off Broadway.
    Leaving the show, it was around 11pm and the perfect time to go experience Times Square.  All I can tell you is that it is dazzling!!  Even though it is late at night, if feels like midday.  You are bombarded by amazing advertisements from the latest clothing to the newest movie premier.  We liked New York and Times Square better than Vegas, just because it feels safer.

One lucky Man I am!!!!

    After marveling at Times Square and getting sensory overload, we headed out to find The Empire State Building.  It was only a few blocks away, but the buildings are so big and close together that, unless you have a clear view, you can't find distinguishing landmarks.  As we walked along the streets of New York City, we were crooned to by street musicians and entertained by the amazing amount of diversity and languages being spoken.  You could sit for hours in this city and just people watch.  Turning one corner, we were greeted with the top of The Empire State Building as it towered over some of the lower Manhattan shops.  As we got closer, our anticipation of going to the observation tower grew.  We stopped and took a few pictures from the street and then hurried along to our high flying elevator excursion that was surely going to give us our late evening adrenaline shot.  Arriving at the grand entrance to the building, it was just like we had seen it in so many movies.  There was a pleasant doorman waiting to let us in, and then another directing us up to the elevators.  Our journey came to an abrupt end and our adrenaline rush that we looked forward to, suddenly took a back seat to disappointment.   Just before the entrance to the elevator was a toll stop, and our sudden realization that everything has a price came to reality.  It costs $42 a person to ride to the observation deck and $48 per person to go to the highest point.  This was just too high of a price to pay for the iconic building.  Heck, I had just spent $36 per person for a great musical.  I wasn't about to pay those high prices for a ten minute elevator ride and a look over the edge.  Oh well, we got a great picture from the outside.  On the list of ten things to see in New York City, the Empire State Building is one of them.  The term see is the important part of that list, it doesn't say, go to the top.  After the experience of finding out the cost, I have a real beef with Hollywood.  In the movies, they never talk about the fee that has to be paid before going to the top.  I mean come on, do you really think that Meg Ryan would have paid to get to the top in Sleepless In Seattle if she had to pay that money.  No way!  By the way, in that same movie, how did the kid get to the top, if he had to pay that fee?  Anyway, I digress.

    Walking away from the Building, not totally disappointed we headed out to find a ferry to take us home.  Little did we know that all of the ferries quite running at ten pm.  We found this out, after walking a few blocks and getting lost along the way.  Thankfully we found a metro station and just headed back the way we came earlier in the day.  We finally arrived back at the trailer around 1 am.  It was a good start to our visit in The Big Apple.
    The next morning we had a plan to stay in the city all day and then go to a show, hopefully on Broadway.  The first thing we did, was find a ferry that was running and took it to downtown Manhattan near Wall St.  Our goal was to start the day in lower Manhattan and work our way north to Broadway.  Of course after getting off the ferry, we went to find breakfast.  So, what does one eat for breakfast when in New York?  Bagels.  So we hunted down a bagel shop and ate breakfast.  Breakfast was excellent and the bagels did not disappoint.  From there we walked around the financial district until we found the Charging Bull and New York Stock Exchange.  It was amazing to us to see all the security surrounding the stock exchange.  The city even has these concrete barriers that rotate up out of the ground to prevent cars from coming through the streets.  The ironic thing that we found out later, was that while we near The Exchange, they had their computer glitch that morning.  Not saying we had anything to do with it, but it is one of my dreams to pay off all my friends' mortgages, just saying!!!

Taylor and her new friend.  Appropriate for a girl that likes to shop.

    Leaving Wall Street, we headed out to find the Twin Towers Memorial.  Along the way we found The Trinity Church.  It was an absolutely beautiful cathedral in the middle of the city.  Outside, it had a bronze cast of a tree root.  The art was based upon a tree root that fell during the 9/11 disaster.  There is an amazing story that goes along with it, but I will save that for you to look up on your own.
    We left Trinity Church and found the Memorial a block away.  The Memorial is absolutely beautiful.  The waterfalls with the names of the people listed around them brought me to tears.  It is a true example of resilience to see what the people of New York have done to honor and pay homage to such a disaster.  Just seeing the size of the buildings and the surrounding area that was destroyed is awe inspiring.  We didn't go into the new museum that has recently opened because there was such a big line, but I am actually glad that I didn't, because I was so emotionally touched by the outside, I don't think I could have handled the museum.  Until this visit, I had not know how much, watching live on television the second plane slam into the other tower and then realizing at that moment that the first plane was not an accident.

A Powerful Display

    Leaving the Memorial with a heavy heart, we headed out to lighten and lift our spirits by going for a bike ride in Central Park.  We rode the metro uptown and arrived at the station just outside of the park.  At the top of the stairs there was a man advertising bike rental, so we took him up on his offer.  The four of us then took off on an exploration of the Park by pedal power.  It was a little warm, but not overly so, which made for a pleasant experience overall.  We were surprised to find that there are actually hills in the park.  We meandered amongst the walkers and horse drawn carriages throughout our ride.  Many pictures were taken and the girls even rode the carousel.  Overall it was a great way to experience such a famous place.

View from Central Park

    After returning our bikes, it was time for us to head once again to Times Square to hopefully get our prized tickets to Phantom of the Opera.  Arriving just before 3 in the afternoon, we went shopping for a sticker.  For those of you that have been following along, you will know that we are on a quest to get one from every place we have experienced.  This is harder than you may realize.  Some states we haven't been able to find any.  Anyway, as we were preparing to start our search, I noticed that line at the discount ticket booth was getting long, so I left Cecelia and the girls to the shopping and I went and took my place in line.  Fortunately I didn't have to wait long and the line began to move quickly.  There were many people talking about the shows that they wanted to see, and thankfully many of them weren't going to the show I wanted.  Arriving at the ticket booth, I acquired the prized tickets for my family.  Feeling like the best dad in the world, I tracked down my family in the throws of shopping.  The girls were very excited to hear that I had the tickets and that we would be going to the show at 8 pm.
    From this point on, we had about four hours to kill, so we headed out to do some more sight seeing.  We made our way a few blocks away from Times Square and stopped to have lunch.  So, if you have bagels for breakfast in New York, you have to have New York style pizza from a deli.  If the rest of the country had delis like the ones in New York City, there would be a few of us that would be willing to accept the extra pounds.  I don't know how people in New York City stay thin.  When we went into the deli, I wanted to try a little of everything.  I bought pizza, but I wanted a deli sandwich, curried chicken, and to fill up a box from their open buffet.  Fortunately, Claire and Cecelia sampled some things other than pizza and they shared with me.
    With full bellies we headed out to find a summer rain falling in the city.  We had a pleasant walk over to Rockefeller Center.  Along the way, we spied St. Patrick's Cathedral.  It is another absolutely beautiful church in downtown Manhattan that is definitely worth seeing.  It rivals those cathedrals that I have seen in Europe.
    Rockefeller Center is one of those iconic places that I have seen in many movies.  I was surprised to find how small it is in comparison to the movies.  Where the ice rink typically is, there were tables and umbrellas set up for dining.  It was hard to visualize the ice rink, with a giant Christmas Tree overlooking the place.
    After checking out Rockefeller Center, we headed out to get some dinner and find the theatre.  A few blocks later we arrived at the theatre.  One of these days someone is going to have to explain the difference between off Broadway and on Broadway to me, because the show we went to the night before was closer to Broadway than the theatre that hosted The Phantom of the Opera.  I am so confused.
    Conveniently for us, nearly next door to the Phantom theatre was this awesome food court.  For dinner Claire had sushi and Taylor had Japanese Noodles.  Cecelia and I, sticking with the promise to eat something different while in New York City decided to try a place that had butter sauted brussel sprouts, smothered in bacon, carmelized onions, nuts and grapes.  Along with those awesome sprouts, the main dish was a shwerma coated in a wine sauce and then placed over rice.  Need I say,  "Delicioutanding".  This means delicious and outstanding at the same time.  I keep coming up with the same adjectives to describe food in my blogs and I am running out, so I figure I will just make up my own from this point forward.
    After dinner, we had a couple of hours to kill so we found a nice place to sit and rest near the food court.  While all the ladies either read or played on their electronics, apparently I took a little nap.  I don't know for sure if I did or not, but I can tell you that my feet weren't quite as tired and I felt refreshed.

Two beautiful girls, waiting for the Phantom!!

   With a bit more energy than we had before, we took Tay to find some soft serve ice cream and then change for the show.  We didn't exactly have a tux and evening gowns, but we still wore some nicer clothes for the Opera.  When we entered the theatre, the girls were visually excited.  I had scored some great seats and they began to ask questions in anticipation.  They wanted to know the story line, but Cecelia and I just told them they had to watch.  From the very beginning musical number, the girls were mezmerized.  Neither of them seemed to blink during the entire first half.  When intermission arrived, we asked them what they thought, and they were both stunned.  The looks on their face were priceless.  After a short break, the second part of the show began and once again, they were in awe.  The show finally ended and we asked them what they thought.  Claire was enamored by the show and wanted to download the album right away.  Taylor, did not enjoy it as much, because she was creeped out by the Phantom.  I think Claire being older, understood the romanticism better than Taylor as well.  It was a special time spent with the family, one that we all will not soon forget.
   We then left the city for the last time and returned to the trailer via the metro.  We only had one more thing to do in the morning.
    Early the next morning we got up to accomplish our last goal and that was to see The Statue of Liberty.  Unfortunately it decided to rain in the morning so we didn't spend very much time in Liberty Park.  We were going to ride the Stanton Island ferry to see it better, but we had to leave the trailer park early.

Were we in China or NY City?!!!!

   So, to recap.  Of the ten things to see in New York City, we accomplished most of them.  They were Twin Tower Memorial, Times Square, The Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center, A show on Broadway, Central Park, NY Stock Exchange, The Charging Bull, Statue of Liberty, and walking across the Brooklyn Bridge (we didn't actually walk across it,  but we did see it when we went to Wall St. the second morning so we counted it).  The only one we missed was seeing Yankee Stadium.  No great loss there, because a second show on Broadway trumps the stadium.
    Time for a rest, whew!!!