jeanneg
I swam with a dolphin!
- Joined
- Feb 22, 2001
- Messages
- 4,000
Hi everyone,
We're back, but the rest of the group won't be leaving NY until 4pm today. I spent the morning watching the Today Show very carefully because J,P,A&E were planning to be there this morning to watch the live filming. Try as i might, I couldn't spot Eric's bright orange cap anywhere in the crowd. After the very busy 2 days prior, I would be VERY impressed if they were able to get up early enough to catch the show!
Here's a mini-report of our activities over the past few days: John and I arrived Friday morning and took a cab from the airport directly to South Street Seaport. Unfortunately, our flight had to circle for over an hour, so by the time we got there they had already begun selling tickets and the line was several hundred people long. Nevertheless we were able to get great orchestra seats (rows7 and 8) for half price plus $3 service fee for Billy Joel's "Movin' Out." We had 4 in row 7 and 2 in row 8 but they were directly behind one another so it was fine. I wanted tickets to Jersy Boys for us and my sister and BIL for Friday night, but it was still in previews and you couldn't get them from TKTS. So we took the subway back up to midtown to our hotel. We saw lots and lots of cops above ground, but did not encounter any throughout the subway system all weekend. I suspect they probably had some undercover people working there, however. Even though we were often carrying large backpacks, we were not searched once, nor did we see anyone else get searched entering the subway the entire weekend. Nobody seemed the least bit concerned, but that's a very typical NY attitude. Anyhow, we used the subway many times this weekend and i'm so glad we did because it's definitely the quickest way to get anywhere. And besides, I'm such an expert at navigating the MTA system as my husband will wholeheartedly agree (good thing he doesn't read the boards!).
We managed to get GREAT seats to Jersey Boys (3rd and 4th row) courtesy of the Hampton Inn concierge which is able to get the tickets at a considerable discount and then sells them to their guests at a price just under box office prices....a definite win-win situation for both parties. Our hotel was pricey, but great: fabulous location, large clean rooms, 24-hour beverage station, fruit and warm cookies in the lobby and a very nice complimentary HOT breakfast, plus we had a view that Peter was ready to die for! We had an excellent view of a very interesting construction project which doesn't sound like it would be good, but proved to be VERY interesting. Jersey Boys was a super play....I can't rave about it enough. Our performance was only the 4th on Broadway and their first weekend one, and everyone in the audience went wild over it. I suspect this one is going to be around for a very long time. We had loose connections to one of the cast members who was making her Bway debut and so we hung out at the stage door to congratulate her and I have to tell you that everyone in the cast was SO nice and genuinely appreciative of the audience's reaction. I really hope it does well because they deserve it.
Saturday we met JPA&E at Port Authority but they got on an earlier bus so we arrived late. John and I had gone down to Veneiro's (an Italian bakery on the lower East side) earlier that morning so we greeted them with Italian cookies and I LUV NY t-shirts (which we never did get around to getting our picture taken with!) We got them to their hotel, but they couldn't check in yet, so we brought them back to ours and we watched the construction for a little bit. Then we had lunch at a 24-hr diner type place and headed to the Matinee performance of "Movin' Out". All this time it was raining nonstop, and as the day progressed we just got soggier and soggier. The show was pretty good....I think the others really liked it, but the show the night before was so over the top that for us that this one just didn't measure up. But we had great seats at half price and we hadn't seen it before so it was definitely worthwhile.
After the show we sent the others to check-in and John and I went to scout out some evening activites, but my husband ended up abandoning me in his quest for a lottery ticket! We considered doing the nighttime double decker bus, but it was so horribly rainy, we opted to just tour some NYC neighborhoods. We took the subway to Greenwich Village and showed them around the Washington Square/NYU area. From there we walked to SoHo (Sex and the City area), then on to Chinatown where we had a great dinner (and cheap!) and finally to Little Italy for dessert at Ferrara's. At that point we were so wet, that if anyone has photos, I will be very scared to see them. It also started to get a little windy and I think only slightly more than half of the spokes on my dollar umbrella were still functional. When we got back to Times Square, JPA&E did a little exploring at some of the shops, including the mega Toys R Us store.
John and I headed back to our hotel and that was when the skies really started to open up and we had a true downpour. It was not a good thing because, for the most part, the only clothes we brought were those on our back and they were pretty drenched. But despite it all, we had a great time and the others got to see some off-the-tourist-track kind of places.
Sunday we headed downtown again where we spent some time at Ground Zero and had some NY bagels at a very charming eatery. Then it was off to Battery Park where we had to fend off the street vendors. Eric, Anja and Peter posed for some really cute
photos with the Statue of Liberty (Jenn had more sense!) and I hope they will post them when they return. It took us over an hour to get our tickets, wait for the ferry and go through security before we finally made it to Liberty Island. And I'll let "Bad Boy Eric" tell you what he managed to do! It was not a very pretty day but at least it was dry and not muggy like the day before. The skies were too hazy to get a decent photo of the NYC skyline and Eric kept insisting that the Empire State Building does not actually exist! We spent about an hour or so at Liberty Island where we took a ranger-guided tour, but were not permitted inside the structure. Then it was back on the ferry to Ellis Island. We did a fairly quick examination of the museum, but managed to see all the major features. We caught the 4:30 ferry back to battery Park which fortunately gave us enough time to have dinner with the others and still have enough time to catch our flight. So we headed back to 42nd St and ate at the Chevy's which is across the street from the PA where John and I could catch the airport shuttle. Dinner was great (thanks again, Peter) and Eric kept us all entertained with his off-color jokes and "moron quizes" which I failed with flying colors (but would have passed if I had refrained from that giant margarita.) John and i just made the bus to Laguardia, but then our flight was delayed for almost 2 hours so we ended up with plenty of time. We felt a little bad because all throughout the weekend we told them that if they were very vigilant they might very likely spot some celebrities just going about their normal business. Unfortunately, we didn't see any in the city, but we get to the airport and see an AA rep walking through the terminal with Stevie Wonder! It would have been nice if the others were there for that.
Anyhow, John and I got home around 1am this morning, but the others are still enjoying the city. I hope they made it up to the Today Show which is filmed at Rockefeller Plaza. I know they wanted to check out some of the ritzy 5th Avenue shops, including World of Disney, and hopefully Peter got his cheesecake at the Carnegie Deli (we tried to go on Saturday, but the lines were crazy). Finally, I hope Eric will get to see today that the Empire State Building really does exist!
We're back, but the rest of the group won't be leaving NY until 4pm today. I spent the morning watching the Today Show very carefully because J,P,A&E were planning to be there this morning to watch the live filming. Try as i might, I couldn't spot Eric's bright orange cap anywhere in the crowd. After the very busy 2 days prior, I would be VERY impressed if they were able to get up early enough to catch the show!
Here's a mini-report of our activities over the past few days: John and I arrived Friday morning and took a cab from the airport directly to South Street Seaport. Unfortunately, our flight had to circle for over an hour, so by the time we got there they had already begun selling tickets and the line was several hundred people long. Nevertheless we were able to get great orchestra seats (rows7 and 8) for half price plus $3 service fee for Billy Joel's "Movin' Out." We had 4 in row 7 and 2 in row 8 but they were directly behind one another so it was fine. I wanted tickets to Jersy Boys for us and my sister and BIL for Friday night, but it was still in previews and you couldn't get them from TKTS. So we took the subway back up to midtown to our hotel. We saw lots and lots of cops above ground, but did not encounter any throughout the subway system all weekend. I suspect they probably had some undercover people working there, however. Even though we were often carrying large backpacks, we were not searched once, nor did we see anyone else get searched entering the subway the entire weekend. Nobody seemed the least bit concerned, but that's a very typical NY attitude. Anyhow, we used the subway many times this weekend and i'm so glad we did because it's definitely the quickest way to get anywhere. And besides, I'm such an expert at navigating the MTA system as my husband will wholeheartedly agree (good thing he doesn't read the boards!).
We managed to get GREAT seats to Jersey Boys (3rd and 4th row) courtesy of the Hampton Inn concierge which is able to get the tickets at a considerable discount and then sells them to their guests at a price just under box office prices....a definite win-win situation for both parties. Our hotel was pricey, but great: fabulous location, large clean rooms, 24-hour beverage station, fruit and warm cookies in the lobby and a very nice complimentary HOT breakfast, plus we had a view that Peter was ready to die for! We had an excellent view of a very interesting construction project which doesn't sound like it would be good, but proved to be VERY interesting. Jersey Boys was a super play....I can't rave about it enough. Our performance was only the 4th on Broadway and their first weekend one, and everyone in the audience went wild over it. I suspect this one is going to be around for a very long time. We had loose connections to one of the cast members who was making her Bway debut and so we hung out at the stage door to congratulate her and I have to tell you that everyone in the cast was SO nice and genuinely appreciative of the audience's reaction. I really hope it does well because they deserve it.
Saturday we met JPA&E at Port Authority but they got on an earlier bus so we arrived late. John and I had gone down to Veneiro's (an Italian bakery on the lower East side) earlier that morning so we greeted them with Italian cookies and I LUV NY t-shirts (which we never did get around to getting our picture taken with!) We got them to their hotel, but they couldn't check in yet, so we brought them back to ours and we watched the construction for a little bit. Then we had lunch at a 24-hr diner type place and headed to the Matinee performance of "Movin' Out". All this time it was raining nonstop, and as the day progressed we just got soggier and soggier. The show was pretty good....I think the others really liked it, but the show the night before was so over the top that for us that this one just didn't measure up. But we had great seats at half price and we hadn't seen it before so it was definitely worthwhile.
After the show we sent the others to check-in and John and I went to scout out some evening activites, but my husband ended up abandoning me in his quest for a lottery ticket! We considered doing the nighttime double decker bus, but it was so horribly rainy, we opted to just tour some NYC neighborhoods. We took the subway to Greenwich Village and showed them around the Washington Square/NYU area. From there we walked to SoHo (Sex and the City area), then on to Chinatown where we had a great dinner (and cheap!) and finally to Little Italy for dessert at Ferrara's. At that point we were so wet, that if anyone has photos, I will be very scared to see them. It also started to get a little windy and I think only slightly more than half of the spokes on my dollar umbrella were still functional. When we got back to Times Square, JPA&E did a little exploring at some of the shops, including the mega Toys R Us store.
John and I headed back to our hotel and that was when the skies really started to open up and we had a true downpour. It was not a good thing because, for the most part, the only clothes we brought were those on our back and they were pretty drenched. But despite it all, we had a great time and the others got to see some off-the-tourist-track kind of places.
Sunday we headed downtown again where we spent some time at Ground Zero and had some NY bagels at a very charming eatery. Then it was off to Battery Park where we had to fend off the street vendors. Eric, Anja and Peter posed for some really cute
photos with the Statue of Liberty (Jenn had more sense!) and I hope they will post them when they return. It took us over an hour to get our tickets, wait for the ferry and go through security before we finally made it to Liberty Island. And I'll let "Bad Boy Eric" tell you what he managed to do! It was not a very pretty day but at least it was dry and not muggy like the day before. The skies were too hazy to get a decent photo of the NYC skyline and Eric kept insisting that the Empire State Building does not actually exist! We spent about an hour or so at Liberty Island where we took a ranger-guided tour, but were not permitted inside the structure. Then it was back on the ferry to Ellis Island. We did a fairly quick examination of the museum, but managed to see all the major features. We caught the 4:30 ferry back to battery Park which fortunately gave us enough time to have dinner with the others and still have enough time to catch our flight. So we headed back to 42nd St and ate at the Chevy's which is across the street from the PA where John and I could catch the airport shuttle. Dinner was great (thanks again, Peter) and Eric kept us all entertained with his off-color jokes and "moron quizes" which I failed with flying colors (but would have passed if I had refrained from that giant margarita.) John and i just made the bus to Laguardia, but then our flight was delayed for almost 2 hours so we ended up with plenty of time. We felt a little bad because all throughout the weekend we told them that if they were very vigilant they might very likely spot some celebrities just going about their normal business. Unfortunately, we didn't see any in the city, but we get to the airport and see an AA rep walking through the terminal with Stevie Wonder! It would have been nice if the others were there for that.
Anyhow, John and I got home around 1am this morning, but the others are still enjoying the city. I hope they made it up to the Today Show which is filmed at Rockefeller Plaza. I know they wanted to check out some of the ritzy 5th Avenue shops, including World of Disney, and hopefully Peter got his cheesecake at the Carnegie Deli (we tried to go on Saturday, but the lines were crazy). Finally, I hope Eric will get to see today that the Empire State Building really does exist!
I was then shortly tempted to use the screwdriver to unfasten the statue and steal it, but as it wouldn't have fitted in my backpack I decided otherwise 
I feel like I'm on top of the world today!!!
!
