I was very excited to arrive and look at everything. I took a shared airport shuttle for $16 from LaGuardia airport to my hotel in Manhattan . I was very lucky and have a very colorful and talkative driver. He was a local, but he was listening to Caribbean music in the van and he had a slight accent. As we were driving through Brooklyn he was pointing out landmarks and driving through back streets, so I feel that I got a good view of Brooklyn . I loved the cute brownstone buildings. I had always imagined myself living in a similar building. We also saw the 21 apartment buildings that were the infamous projects. You couldn’t tell much from the outside except that they looked fairly cheap from the outside and there were no people about.
This is our hotel room and photos of the view from our window on the 38th floor.
The main activity of this trip was for Andrea and I to see many Broadway musicals. We both LOVE the theatre and musicals especially. We both arrived on Thursday afternoon and departed NY on Sunday afternoon and we were able to squeeze in 4 plays. This was the bulk of our budget for this trip. The following is the list of musicals in the order that I liked them. Andrea and I saw three of the same shows and on Saturday afternoon when I saw Wicked she saw Zanadoo.
Spring Awaking
South Pacific
Mary Poppins
Wicked
Spring Awaking was my absolutely favorite musical to date. This was a German play from the early 1900’s that was adapted in 2006 to become a rock musical. This was a dark show that confronted may issues facing teenagers then and today. It took on pre-marital sex, masturbation, abortion, incest and suicide. Even though this was a period piece it could still describe feelings to today’s youth. I liked that fact that the music was so different than traditional musicals. They had a rock band on stage and didn’t use the typical orchestra. They also had audience members sitting on the stage along with the actors. I did not sit there but was in the front row center. I love sitting so close that I can see the actor’s facial expressions. There was a rather unconformable simulated sex scene on stage just before intermission that included nudity. My friend said afterword that she was glad that she saw this with me and not either one of her parents. I purchased the soundtrack for $20 after the show and I have listened it at least 10 times since I have come home. BTW…I feel ripped off for the $20 CD because I could have purchased it on Amazon.com at home for $13 or on ITunes for $10. Prior to seeing this play I didn’t know anything about it and I am so glad that I took the chance to see it. This musical won the 2007 Tony for best musical and I would recommend it for anyone going to NYC. This is a link to the YouTube.com performance of one of the songs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoWTtjr7TyU
There was a celebrity citing while we were at this musical. Since our seats were in the front row center we had to wait a bit to get out of the building. As we were standing there, Andrea elbowed me and said, "I know that guy!". I didn't know who she was talking about but I saw a very beautiful women walking towards the front of the theatre. As they walked to the stage Andrea Realized who it was, Bruce Springsteen. He was in the audience and we saw him walk to the stage to meet the cast. Isn't it funny how celebrity get special treatment and get to just walk to the stage and do what they want.
South Pacific was my second favorite musical of the trip. It did come in a close second but it didn’t win. We saw this on the first night we arrive in NY when we were so exhausted. But the musical performances perked us both up. I don’t think that I have ever seen this show on stage and I may have only seen bits and pieces of the movie. The cast was fantastic and had really terrific voices. The sets were OK and added to the show but it was the actors that really brought it to life. I especially liked the second song of the performance which had many of the men actors dancing around the stage. This inside the theatre. I did get into trouble for taking this photo. I guess there are rules.
Mary Poppins was my third favorite show. The special effects were great and the music was good, but I don’t feel that I got anything extra from this show over seeing the movie version. At the very end as Mary was leaving the Banks family they had attached the actress to wires and she flew across the entire auditorium up to the front of the second story balcony. I don’t think that I would ever pay to see this musical again.
Finally, Wicked was the most disappointing of the NYC shows. The scenery was very visually stimulating but the story and voices of the actors just ordinary. I was familiar with the story and I had read the Wicked book as well as it’s sequel, Son of a Witch, and the play version didn’t have the strong voice of the book. The book was very political in it’s views and had strong opinions and views of the world. I feel that the play version was very watered down and the ending was extremely disappointing. I feel that when I pay $125 to see a show it needs to be outstanding, fabulous and I want to listen and sing the music for many weeks following the show. I didn’t have this feeling after seeing Wicked or Mary Poppins. However, I am glad that I had the opportunity to see them after all of the hype.
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I would like to point out that Andrea tried to kill me on this trip. We had to walk everywhere we went and our hotel was several blocks from the theatre district. I did a mapquest when I came home to see how far away the first theatre was from our hotel, it was 2.6 miles each way. I would guess that the first day we walked in excess of six miles. I thought I was going to die when we got back to the hotel the first night. My legs were so sore for the rest of the trip. I tried not to complain but...I could hardly walk the next day. Everyday was like this...but I do think that we walked the furthest on the first day. On Friday we went to the MET museum and it was further away than the first play...so I decided to take the subway there. Andrea still wanted to walk so we met at the museum. I think that this compromise fit both of us. She LOVED walking each day and never seemed to get tired. I just couldn't understand this...it became very obvious to me how out of shape I am.
We tried to be very conservative on our spending on this trip because we had already spent so much money on the theatre tickets. It is very expensive in NY to eat in a restaurant, a moderately priced meal would be about $25 per person. As Andrea had been there several times prior to this trip she had good knowledge of cheap places to eat. There was a food court in Grand Central Station building that we went to multiple times. There were several vendors that you could choose from. I ate at this soup and salad place several times. They had some awesome homemade soups and salads that you could choose exactly what ingredients you wanted and they would add the salad dressing, mix it up and chop it for you prior to putting it in the container. I was able to find one of the infamous Black and White cookies from Seinfeld and try it. It was more the consistency of cake than a cookie but it was very tasty. I ate at a McDonald's one time on Saturday night. We had a very busy day and we were running out of time and it was quite an experience. It was located next to where we were seeing Mary Poppins. They had about 10 registers open with several people in each line. I had to wait at least 15 minutes to order and I was starving. I ordered Quarter Pounder with cheese meal and it was (gasp) $6.89 plus tax. The made my total bill $7.12 and I handed the cashier $10.12 which would give me change of $3. After I gave her the money she took it and shut her drawer. I looked at her and asked for my change. The following was our conversation.
Cashier: O...ya I owe you $1.01
Me: No...it is $3 even
Cashier: I will get the manager.....
After about 4 minutes she get a very harassed manager to open her drawer and she takes out $1.01, closes the drawer and hands me the money.
Me: Excuse me, but you owe me $2 more dollars.
Cashier: No, I don't...your bill was $9.13
Me: No it wasn't...the menu board says $6.89 and you added the tax which made my bill $7.12...I gave you $10.12 which makes my change $3
Cashier: OH (with a blank stare)
Me: Am I going to get my change?
She walks away to find the manager again. I don't think that she still understood and the only reason I was so instant on my change was that I already felt ripped of paying $7.12 for a $4 Quarter cheese meal. The 10 minutes it took me at the register to get my food the cashier had the same blank stare. I think that having such an overwhelming amount of customers she couldn't take any additional sensory input. It took me a total of 25 minutes to get my food, but it was good.
I feel like I wasn't overly impressed with NYC although I had a great time. It was very different than downtown Indy but I didn't feel uncomfortable. I never felt unsafe on our many long walks, even at 11:30 pm after the plays. It wasn't as crowded as I expected. I just imagined people everywhere and some places were like that but not all. I felt the most crowded was Saturday night on the way to the play and it was still very active on our way home.
You may have read my various tooth posts...well when I was eating breakfast on Saturday morning out pops my temporary crown for the second time. I didn't know what to to. I had to call my dentists emergency number and because it was the emergency number it only took her an hour to call me back. After speaking to her she determined that I would be fine without my crown until I could get to her office on Tuesday morning. I was fine and it was only a minor uncomfortableness.
As I was in the van going to the airport I met a women who's daughter just moved to the city. She just graduated from college and got a job in the fashion industry. She was helping her daughter get an apartment and settled in the city. The apartment that they finally found was $1695 for a tiny studio in Manhattan. Apparently, this is half of her monthly pay. I couldn't imagine paying that much for a studio apartment. I love the Midwest and our reasonable housing prices. When we drove past a parking garage it was $500 a month to park your car. This is more than my monthly car payment. Andrea told me while we were there that she would love to live in the city. I had the other thought after my visit. I LOVE my car and I like driving places. It is a fun place for visitation only.
My plane was to depart NYC at 7pm on Sunday night and my airport shuttle was scheduled to pick me up at the hotel at 2:30. I thought that this was a bit excessive but since I missed my first plane I decided to comply. I got to the airport at 4pm and as I was departing the van two people come up to the van and ask to take a ride back to the city. They stated that all of the flights out of LaGuarda were canceled for the remaining part of the day. I was hesitant to get off of the van but decided to go inside and investigate. I was happy to find out that my plane was the only scheduled departure for that night. I guess the delays were due to bad weather...I didn't detect any bad weather in NYC. It was a little cloudy and overcast but not bad. I arrive back in Indy only two hours late..this was much better than the tons of stranded people at the airport. I am glad I was able to go home.
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