Ok, so I'm finally getting to blog about Day 2. We had a pretty fun day yesterday. Started out with breakfast at this little deli across the street from our hotel, we of course had to have a bagel with cream cheese...I mean you can't come to NY and not! We then decided to go ahead and do one of those double decker bus tours thru downtown. I haven't done one of these since I was a sophomore in high school, so it was actually pretty entertaining. (Side note: When I came here as a sophomore I came with my HS choir. It was my first trip to NYC and I of course took a ton of pics. Well when I came home to get them developed...let us not forget, that was pre digital camera days...I took them to Eckerds and they freakin lost them! So I felt like this bus tour was my opportunity to make up not ever getting those pics.) We went past Macy's, Madison Square Garden, The Empire State Building, Flat Iron Building, Greenwich Village, SoHo, NoHo, China Town, Battery Park, Little Italy, the Brooklyn Bridge...etc etc. This was one of those tours where you can hop on hop off...but we decided just to sit along for the ride since we have actually seen/walked thru all of these places before. It was perfect weather outside, and we had a very entertaining tour guide. He definitely gave us the typical "forget about it" and "only in NY" lines several times. We hit some traffic heading down Broadway past the Empire State building due to the President being in town speaking to some of the folks on wall street, and unfortunately mom and I had to listen to these two annoying ladies sitting behind us for about 45 minutes. Luckily they got off at Battery Park because I was about ready to turn around and slap them if I heard them say "what did he say" one more time. Shut up ladies and you will hear what he has to say!!!
After our bus tour we had lunch just down the street from the hotel, then mom came back to the hotel to rest, while I waited in line at tkts. Now my adventure at tkts was one that was definitely enjoyable. I love the people that get hired to hand out flyer's to the tourists about the Broadway shows as they stand in line at tkts. They walk around giving their last pitch to try to convince you to go see the show that they are promoting as you wait to buy your tickets for whatever show you plan to go see that night. You have the promo people who are loud and are absolutely perfect for the part, then the ones who walk by and you would not even know they were there unless you were looking at them (side note: I would fire these people because they are worthless at promoting the shows) and then you have those who want to be in the show so badly that they start busting out in to song and dance. These are the most entertaining for many reasons, one...they have obviously seen the show so many times that they have memorized the choreography, two...they think they have amazing voices, and three...they are clearly not in the show yet everyone in line thinks they are because they are "in costume". NO THEY ARE NOT! Do you seriously think someone that is performing in a Broadway show would stand outside for 5 hours prior to the show to hand out flyer's?! NO!!! Not to mention, do you think a true dancer would wear their character shoes out in Times Square?! NO!!! (Side note: obviously the dancers wear them outside during the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade...but I sure as hell wouldn't wear my expensive dance shoes outside just for the fun of it!) So after standing in line for a little over an hour, watching the fun promo people, and crazy foreign tourists taking pictures of people they don't even know, I got our tickets to In the Heights!
After my tkts adventure, I felt the need to walk down to Radio City Music Hall to see the set up for the NFL Draft. Now most people going over that way were actually interested in the draft itself...me on the other hand, I am interested in the set up/behind the scenes stuff. I walked right up to the step and repeat area, looked around, and took some pictures for about 20 minutes before people started to realize that I didn't have any credentials on me. Whoops! (HA!!!) So after they shooed me away, I headed back to the hotel to freshen up for the show.
Then we headed to see In the Heights. I knew the background on the show and have the soundtrack, but I was still so excited to see the show. It's a pretty fun upbeat show with some reality of what goes on in Washington Heights. I was very happy with the show and thought that the cast did a wonderful job. It is always fun to see an OCU alumni up on the stage as well! (Congrats Gabrielle Ruiz!)
So that's it in a nutshell folks! 3 more days of NYC blogging to come!
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