Friday, February 12, 2016

New York Trip Part II


On The Friday Evening, we went to a show. It was and interesting theater that was most likely from the Vaudeville Era. The show was interesting and funny. It was an improv  show...as great as it was I'll spare the details and just say we really enjoyed it. After the show we walked around some more, went find dessert and called it a night.

Saturday morning Nathan and I scouted around for possible souvenirs for the family and kill some time until Matt was done in his meeting and we went to get lunch. We reloaded our metro card, found a map and headed out...Then things got really confusing. There were several lines that were shut down and rerouted for construction, so after the first train we had to get off and transfer lines, finding the right line took a while, and then we finally figured it out and headed toward the train, I got on, turned around as the doors were closing only to see Nathan...standing there on the landing...with his back turned...as the doors shut...As he's turning around just in time to put his hands up to the glass doors...and then off I go...without my child. I am living my nightmare that I had for three weeks before this trip...seriously. The girls standing next to him said that the train would go around and I could get him on the other side. Somehow when I reached the other side there was no Nathan...I see a couple that were taking wedding pictures in the same area and ask where they were five minutes before thinking that maybe Nathan would have just stayed there...No...no, Nathan. I have a moment of panic and freak-out(on the inside). I start walking in the direction that the train he would have gotten on was heading, I was starting to walk pretty fast, so someone asked if she could help me . I told her what was happening and she began to help me in the search, and taking me to one of the ticket booth areas that had subway workers...While heading in that direction Nathan came running down the steps from the top...Someone had decided to help him figure out how to get back too. I don't think that there has ever been a moment in our life where we were ever happier to see each other. So we hugged, got our bearings, and headed back toward the hotel to meet Matt for lunch. 
We had and official New York hot dog from a Hot Dog Cart. We also found the LOVE sculpture to take a picture in front of. Nathan wasn't very keen on taking a picture for me because I made him take one of Matt and I kissing...he was embarrassed. Matt went back to work and we were off on our own again...



Today we decided to brave the subway again and try to make it to Central Park and the Natural History Museum...Nathan had a Donut in the subway and we were on our way. We got back on the subway and after a lot of train confusion because of shut down and re-routed trains we finally got out at Greenwich Village, walked around a bit and found the Lincoln Center, and eventually Central Park. While trying to decide whether we should get back on the subway and continue uptown to the museum and a different part of the park, we spent some time walking around in the park, but after realizing how badly my knee was hurting, looking at the time and thinking maybe if it gets rest we will be able to do more later, we headed back toward the city to find the subway to make sure that we had time to get ready to go see a show that evening. As we were walking Nathan was looking at the street signs and realized we were only a few blocks from our hotel which was kind of ironic because we spent so much of our time trying to navigate the subways...so we walked back, we were a little traumatized by the subway at this point. On our walk back we passed Trump Tower, not that that is of much consequence, but it happened.


Saturday night we had a great time. Something Rotten was a wonderful show and I highly recommend it if you go to a show while in New York. It was a lighthearted and fun take on musicals set in a Shakespeare's time about two brothers trying to make a play that will become the next big hit.  If you are a lover of musicals, it was really fun to see how they used songs from other musicals and blended them into this musical. http://www.broadway.com/shows/something-rotten/             
                                                                                                                                                          
After the show we went back to the hotel, but not quite ready to call it a night and decided to go to the Empire State Building and take in the views of the night life. It was truly amazing.  We arrived at Midnight, there were no lines to have to deal with at that point. Even the workers said that it was probably the best time to view the city and enjoy the view...no crowds. I'm sure that viewing is great either day or night, just to have the opportunity to be up there and have that view is amazing. We were trying to decide the first couple of days which would be better a daytime view or a nighttime view. Hands down being up there at night was spectacular, and a wonderful way to end the night.



On Sunday, our last day, I refused to let my knee end our fun, we got me a brace and kept going…my knee could rest when we got home. Probably not the smartest thing I ever did, but really our last day! We started the morning off at Central Park with Matt, and walked around a bit. I have to say I do regret not going to the Merry-Go-Round in the park…It just looked a little far on a bum knee. We enjoyed some time in the park and then headed back for a quick breakfast and souvenir buying before Matt had to go for meetings.


Nathan and I went to the Museum of Modern Art and saw some great paintings from some of the greats; Monet, Picasso, Cezanne, van Gough, Pollock, Warhol, Seurat, Matisse.
It was amazing to see close up so many of the artists I spent years studying and learning about in college. Seeing these paintings was such a treat, especially van Gough, Picasso, and Seurat. J. Torres Sarcia was one of the artists that impressed me the most in the galleries. I don't remember ever studying his work in the art classes I took in college.  I loved the architectural structure, and geometric and linear forms in most of his work.



Walking out of the Museum it began to snow, so our last day in New York was spent walking around in a light snowfall. There was just enough snow for someone to make a tiny snowman enjoying the night life.



We went to dinner at a pizza place that was an old church retrofit for the restaurant. It had beautiful stain glass with a huge stained glass in the ceiling. I would bet that it is beautiful to see when the sun is shining in. The restaurant owner preserved the architectural elements of the church  so it still had an old church feel. The pizza was very good also. They had a huge brick oven working in the dining area that was visible to the guests. It was interesting to watch them manning the ovens and loading the pizzas in taking them out. It was probably one of the best pizzas I've had. The crust was thin and crispy almost cracker like with a bit of softness in the middle. It reminded me of one of my favorite pizza places in Louisiana.
On the way back to the hotel we found Junior's Restaurant and bought a Cheese Cake to take back to the hotel for the night before we turned in.


The next morning we headed out…It was wonderful and magical, and I hope to one day see it again.

On the plane on the way out We finally got to see the Statue of Liberty Standing tall and on guard at her post on the island. If you look closely it is the little island in the bay...she looked about three inches tall from where we sat...I guess there is always next time...





1 comment:

  1. Love your New York City stories! It's a great, fun city.

    ReplyDelete