NYC, day 1

It was no longer raining by morning, but it was still rather moist, and the clouds looked foreboding. We hustled over to the St. George dock where the drug dog sniffed our bags. Luckily he was not trained for peanut butter crackers and beef jerky, or we would have been detained.

Sailing Past Lady Liberty

docking at Whitehall

The first order of business was to get lost, but we seem to have failed that test… probably because the subway station was so hard to miss. We did have a bit of trouble getting our tickets since you can’t use a credit card to purchase more than 2 tickets  per day. You need cash to get around in NYC.

And I just realized that I spent 3 days riding the subway in New York City and totally failed to get a picture of it! Scrapbooker FAIL.  I’m not sure which is worse — that I didn’t take a picture on (or of) the subway, or that it took me an entire 2 weeks to realize it.

Anyhoo, off to Times Square we went.  (click on photo to embiggen)

Hello, George Stephanopoulos!

Now we needed to get tickets to a show… but which show?

I'd like it, but it was too girl-oriented for my family

West Side Story (our original choice) was completely sold out. Do not hope to get half-price tickets for certain shows during Spring Break. It probably won’t happen. The USO had a list of shows and we thought we had a deal on some  of them, which led to a lot of fruitless searching, only to end up empty-handed. We only had 2 time slots available to actually see a show, and not all shows were family-friendly or in our price range.

FINALLY!! We were able to purchase 6 tickets to see POTO. It wasn’t as exciting as WSS would have been, mostly because some of us practically have the movie version memorized (that would be MusicMan and myself) … and also because the only tickets we could get were for “standing at the rail.”  That means you stand at the rail behind the last row of seats — not ideal if you are 10 years old, even if you are tall for your age, but we made the best of it.  And they were cheap — very important when you are buying 6 tickets at a time.

Showtime at 2pm, but it was still morning.

So! It was off for a stroll through Hell’s Kitchen.

This would have made a greater impression if we had been able to get tickets to West Side Story.  SuperDad told the boys the history of the area and the name.  We did not witness any grisly murders, although I did begin a love affair with fire escapes.

We arrived at the Hudson River and took in this sight:

My grandfather served on this aircraft carrier in WWII.

But after a while the boys got squirrel-y so I took the requisite lamp post shot and we headed back.

We walked back through Hell’s Kitchen on our way to get lunch and see our show.  This tree made me think of the tenacity of the people who have lived in this neighborhood for many years.

click to enlarge photos

And a few tenacious birds.

More fire escapes, plenty of interesting ironwork and bricks, an old church…

…and something that immediately made me think of Aunt Snow (formerly g):

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After seeing POTO —–>

which was awesome, even though we did have to stand at the rail for the entire show (oh, my aching feet),we headed back over to Times Square.

Look who we saw…

Then we saw someone who wore a few more clothes…

Hmmm…. disco balls make me think about the ball that drops at midnight at Times Square…

But it was really so fun to photograph that I have a whole series of pics to share… some other time…

Let’s head back outside…

Columbus Circle and Central Park

Central Park

I couldn’t remember why I had put FAO Schwarz on the list of things to see and do (some of you may remember that I made that list over a year ago)… until we went inside…

inside FAO Schwarz

About the time your 18yo acts like a Wookie, you should probably think about getting some supper and heading back to your pillow.

Good night, New York!

______________________________________________________________

I got up at 3:15 am to take Music Man to the airport, so I am as foggy in the brain now as the world outside was at dawn today. Still, I was determined to get this post written!

Tomorrow is a busy one, but I will get NYC, Days 2 & 3 written when I can find the time.