Where to begin? New York was wonderful! I had such a good time. It wasn't exactly a vacation, but more of an adventure, and it was great!
We left our house at like 4:30 in the morning to meet up with my brother-in-law and sister-in-law, Brian and Susan. We realized we haven't traveled with them since our trip to California back in 2001, and we'd all forgotten how much fun it is to vacation together. : )
Anyway, plane ride was without incident and we got to NY on time. Our shuttle driver was a bit quirky, searching the airport for us by calling my brother-in-law's first name instead of our collective last name. Who pages someone by their first name? Seriously?
Anyway, after we piled into the shuttle for a long and bumpy trip (we suspect the driver was trying to avoid tolls *grin*, but I think he managed to hit every single pot hole in the NY area), we finally made our way into Manhattan. How cool! It is not, on the surface, that much different than Chicago. Except there is a different feel to the air, a different vibrancy. I liked it.
The traffic is worse because there are more people and the streets are MUCH narrower. But I can see why people live in New York. You can get just about anything you need within walking distance and you've got reliable public transport to get just about anywhere else. But there's a lot of walking, and I liked that too.
Our rooms were ready early at the Library Hotel, thank goodness, so we could drop off our stuff and head back out for lunch. Another instance in which I was grateful to be traveling with Brian and Susan…Greg and I would have wimped out and probably stayed in our room. But with them, we decided to explore a little, get lunch etc. Awesome!
We walked past the New York Public Library, which looks exactly like it does in the film Ghostbusters. I immediately took a picture and texted it to my sister Susan (not to be confused with my sister-in-law, Susan, or my mother-in-law, Sue) and my friend Ed with a silly quote from the movie.
Then we headed down to find the TCKTS booth, where one can supposedly obtain half-price tickets for Broadway shows on the day of the performance. We were hoping to see Spamalot, which Greg and I had already seen in Chicago but wanted to see again. We thought we were early for the booth, which opened at three, but it turned out the line wrapped around behind the building and in several loops. Ugh.
We found the back of the line and waited. During this time, a guy walked by with his friend or girlfriend, openly mocking us, but in a funny way, about waiting in line for tickets when they could be purchased at the box office for half-price. At first, we dismissed him, but when he walked by again with the same girl and she had her tickets and he said the same thing, we decided to check it out.
The Spamalot box office was within sight of the line, so Susan and I went and asked about tickets. Sure enough, we could get four in the mezzanine for five bucks more than what we would have paid at TCKTS and we didn't even have to wait in line!
We celebrated our success with a meal at Junior's. I highly recommend the egg salad sandwich and the Devil's Food Cheescake. Yum.
After lunch, which was really an early dinner, we explored a little more, finding Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum, which I really wanted to see, but I couldn't deal with the $35 per ticket. Ouch!
Eventually, we headed back to the hotel to enjoy the complimentary wine and cheese hour and clean up. I, unfortunately, forgot to bring sandals that went with my brown shirt and khakis, so I wore the pink chucks. I blended in just fine and besides, no one could see my feet once we sat down at the theater. ; )
Spamalot was awesome. It was fun seeing Stephen Collins, the father from 7th Heaven, playing King Arthur. And Drew Lachey, Nick Lachey's brother, played Patsy. They were both very good.
I think the show got out at about ten-thirty, and we wandered back in the direction of the hotel in search of some small meal. We checked out Grand Central, where I would be meeting my friend Stacey Agdern, the following day. Eventually, we found a Friday's where we indulged in some appetizers and slushies.
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