Tour Around Manhattan

While we were in NYC, we had an itinerary, but because of weather problems (the power went out at the Statue of Liberty during some storms, so they shut down the ferries for 2 days), our plan changed several times.

One benefit of those changes was that instead of more free time in Times Square (which we really didn't need), Christina and Tony (our bus driver) took us on a bus tour of some famous sights - different neighborhoods like SoHo, TriBeCa, Greenwich Village, etc. and she pointed out where all of the famous people live and where important events happened (where John Lennon was shot outside of the Dakota Building). I LOVED the bus part!!

Anyway, on a more somber note - here are some pictures of the Ground Zero site:

We didn't get a great view from the bus, but it was amazing. And I guess there's a building next to where the Towers were that is empty and looks half-torn down.....well, it is....and it still needs to be fully taken down because of the extensive damage from 9/11. The reason for the 9-year delay?? They are STILL FINDING BODIES IN THERE as they do demolition! WOW.

For one of the nights, we had dinner in Little Italy at a place called Puglia's. It's an old restaurant that has been in business since 1919!

It had great atmosphere and the servers and employees were all Italian - very authentic.

Some of you might've seen the video that I had on my facebook page with people waving their napkins to a song - this is a picture of that little ditty. It was a song that the 'entertainer' for the evening is known for - The Napkin Song. So cheesy, but so funny as well.

Here's my dinner - spaghetti wth A meatball, but a very LARGE meatball!

I just loved the atmosphere - a small, Italian joint in the middle of New York City - how perfect!

And here's Jorge, the entertainment for the evening. I guess he's pretty famous around NYC - even has a proclamation from the mayor!

Another part of the bus tour was a little jaunt through Harlem. Below is a picture of Spanish Harlem - only one part of Harlem.

The rest of the pictures below is just "regular" Harlem. I just couldn't help but sing the Jefferson's theme song while we drove through this area.

Apparently this is an up-and-coming area and even Bill Clinton has rented space for his offices in Harlem. It's getting trendy to live here.

And we drove by the famous Apollo Theater.....

Shopping - Chinatown Style

One of the days, Christina took us to Chinatown - on Canal Street. She knows of a 'special place' to get purses that are SO CLOSE to the real thing that the people could get in big trouble if they were found out. She gave us the hook-up and I ended up with this cool red purse and brown wallet!


There was good shopping to be had in Chinatown - we bought some pashmina scarves and i got a necklace and earrings too. Very cool.

Apparently Little Italy is located smack dab in the middle of Chinatown, so we walked through a different part of it to get to our evening restaurant in Little Italy and I spotted this at one of the outdoor seafood markets - a bucket of frogs for sale! ICK!!

Here's a super cute picture of Mayce's Mom - Terrye. We call her T-Nann. She was a blast to spend the trip with!

After shopping in Chinatown, we took the tour bus over to the South Street Seaport for lunch and free time.

There were a bunch of really cool ships to see and some good shopping too.

I saw this at one of the shops - couldn't resist taking a picture!!


It was kind of a boardwalk area, but since it was cold and rainy, we spent most of our time inside.

We had lunch upstairs in the shopping area and outside on their deck we had a spectacular view of the Brooklyn Bridge!

It looks so depressing because of the weather, but it was an amazing bridge to see!

In this close-up, it looks like a wooden roller coaster - or scaffolding or something....weird......

Great views!

One interesting thing we saw was this parking structure....since not that many people have cars in NYC, the ones that do have to get creative about parking/storage of their cars.

We were intrigued by this structure - it is a car elevator of sorts. I guess you drive into the bottom of the contraption and then it somehow brings the car up so that another one can fit under it.....but my question was: What if you're the car at the top and you want to go somewhere???

Be There Or Be SQUARE

As good tourists, we spent a lot of time in Times Square - the flashy, stereotypical "New York" experience! My first impression was that it was bustling and busy, but also SUPER BRIGHT. The lights from all of the different screens is crazy!

One thing that Christina told us was that tthis past New Year's was the first year that they left up the "ball" that drops each year in Times Square. We walked by it a bunch of times before she told us that - I never would've noticed it if she hadn't mentioned it! See below....

There it is! I guess now it will stay up year-round.

I think a person could honestly get a seizure just looking at everything - I'm surprised that there aren't more pedestrian deaths in this area since people are looking around and up at the buildings and NOT looking where they are walking!

One other observation - there is NOWHERE to sit down in Times Square or that whole area. One day, we had free time in Times Square and were done looking around, so we wanted to sit down and rest for a little bit, but we couldn't find a place to do so! We finally found a McDonald's...not even Starbucks had seating!

While in Times Square, we visited the M&M World store. I have never seen so many products dedicated solely to one brand before! It was insane!

They had this huge wall of M&M dispensing machines with M&M's of every color you could possibly imagine.....(see below)

The only catch: they costed $12.00/pound! WHAT?! I know they are cool colors that no one has seen before, but REALLY?!

We ended up in Times Square at least once a day because all of the Broadway shows are in/around Times Square, so we were there by default.

It was so exciting - during the middle of the day or when we got out of the shows at 11 at night - that place was PACKED and full of lights and activity - simply AMAZING!

We had dinner at Planet Hollywood one of the nights (I know, I know - going east to New York, just to eat at Planet HOLLYWOOD - lame!) and here are Mayce and I right before West Side Story:

And here's Mayce's brother David (left), Cody (middle), and Mayce's Mom Terrye (right) at Planet Hollywood. It was such a good group to travel with - great fun!

On Broadway!

OK, we were pretty lucky that this was a tour group of THEATER students, because we got to go to 4 Broadway shows on our trip!

The first one was called "In The Heights" and it starred Corbin Bleu from High School Musical. I didn't know who that was since I don't watch the show, but oh well - he was amazing!

We had TREMENDOUS seats - 2nd row in front of the stage! The music was fantastic and we even stayed awake for all of it (I know that sounds bad, but we saw this the first night we were there and had basically been awake for 2 days with just 2 hours of sleep on David's floor the night before in San Antonio).

This ended up being my 2nd favorite of the 4 - a great show!

On our 2nd day in NYC, we saw TWO Broadway shows in ONE day! WOW! We saw Mary Poppins at 2pm and it was absolutely AWESOME. This was my favorite of all 4 of the shows we saw.

The theater was beautiful, the acting/singing/dancing was just fabulous and the technical/set maneuvers were incredible (and yes, Mary Poppins DID fly up into the air)!

The architecture and decorating in these old theaters was so much fun to look at.....

However, one thing that I noticed in all 4 shows is that they clearly built the seats a LONG time ago, because they are not meant for tall people. My knees were hitting the seat in front of my in every show - I'm only 5'8"! I can't imagine a 6'4" guy in those seats - he would be miserable.

The 3rd show that we saw (later that same day that we saw Mary Poppins) was West Side Story. And as much as I was thrilled to be in a Broadway show in New York, I was not impressed with this show.

I thought it was kind of cheesy and the story was just not really my 'thing.' We were also exhausted from a long 2 days with barely any sleep. This show was kind of a let-down for all of us, but that's OK - can't win 'em all, right?

This was the theater that we saw West Side Story in - very beautiful!

And last but not least was The Addams Family on our last night in New York. This was by far the show that all the kids on the tour were looking forward to. It starred Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth (Lilith from Cheers!) and was still in previews, so it hadn't officially opened yet.

Here is the upstairs lobby of that theater - very pretty. We were in the nosebleed seats for this show, but that's OK - it's still a great time. We all liked the show, but it wasn't as good as we had all made it out to be in our minds. But Bebe Neuwirth played a GREAT Morticia Addams.

The theater was magnificent and the set design was very well done. It was a great last night in New York!