Well, we're snug again in on our own beds and our trip to New York is just a memory, but what a great one!!!
We left Coos Bay on Thursday, the 12th, after dropping Buddy off at the kennel. That was very sad - he was up on his hind feet watching us leave him and trying to figure out what he had done wrong. He just about broke our hearts, but we have no one we can leave him with cause he's so unpredictable with everyone but us. We dropped him off in the van so that he wouldn't associate Janet's car with leaving him. That's the car we use for trips now.
We spent the night in Portland and arrived at the airport around 7:00. We haven't flown since 9/11 and we didn't know what would be involved with the check in process now. It went smoothly though my suitcase had something on the outside that set off sensors so it was swept away for a closer examination. We had non-stop flights both ways and everything going was right on time. It did take a while to find the right shuttle into the city from Newark and that ride took almost 2 hours. Merging from six lanes to two for the Lincoln Tunnel takes some time! We were dropped off at Grand Central Station and had to walk around the corner to find the actual shuttle to the hotel. We both had trouble understanding people - between our hearing and all the accents - New York and foreign - it was a challenge.
We got checked into our hotel, quickly unpacked and hit the streets to begin our great adventure by checking out the holiday lights. We were two blocks away from Radio City and another block and a half to Rockefeller Center. The tree was beautiful and the streets were crowded with sightseers. It was pretty chilly, but a vendor sold us a couple of knit caps for our ears and those helped throughout our stay. Janet also got some roasted chestnuts and we shared a pretzel. Just past Rockefeller Center we were by Saks 5th Avenue and their famous window display. What a treat!
Saturday we got out around 11:00 and found the place that has the Gray Line bus tours. We got a 48-hour ticket that allowed us to get on and off any of the buses. We had to go over to the Times Square area to catch the uptown bus that would take us to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. On the way, we went past Central Park, the Dakota where Lennon was killed, lots of buildings where celebrities live, Lincoln Center, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, the Trump Towers, Harlem and finally to the museums. We really wanted to go to MOMA, but it was closed for renovations so we went to the Metropolitan where they were having a special exhibit on El Greco. I never knew that some painters did multiple versions of the same painting, but it seems as though El Greco did based on the exhibit. The museum was very crowded and after El Greco and a few minutes in the African Art exhibit, we were ready to head for the hotel. The next bus was crowded, but we got seats in the back with a gal who appeared to be alone. We noticed that she was taping and writing down timings. She was (ssshhh) "undercover" checking on the tour. She told us about a stop that was closer to our hotel than the one where the tour ended so we didn't have to walk so far. We headed back to rest before Phantom.
We walked down to 44th St. where the Phantom is staged and waited about 15 minutes before they started letting people in. It was pretty chilly! We had good seats in the orchestra - row Q. Broadway theaters seem to be smaller than others I have been to in New York or Oregon. It is a surprise. The show was excellent. I had already seen it in Toronto three times. The staging was identical to what I remembered. I enjoyed it just as much as the first time I saw it in 1990. This was Janet's first Broadway show (I have been to two others) and she was absolutely enthralled.
After the show, we stopped at a restaurant to get something to eat. We had intended to only get cheesecake, but since we hadn't had dinner, we ordered sandwiches too. We couldn't eat all of those and ended up taking leftovers plus cheesecake with us to the hotel. We had cheesecake for breakfast the next day and pitched the sandwiches later in the afternoon (no refrigerator).
The forecast for Sunday was snow, turning to rain. When we woke up, it was indeed snowing and had set on the sidewalks and cars though the streets were mostly bare. It snowed steadily all morning and when we left for TheLion King we were decked out in our rubbers, rain pants and hooded raincoats - perfect for the conditions. It was actually fun to walk in the snow though the street corners were a little sloppy. Again, the theater seemed small but we couldn't see the size of the two mezzanines. It was renovated by Disney several years ago for this production and they did a fabulous job restoring it to its former grandeur. We were in row M this time and the seats were graduated enough that our view was unobstructed with the stage slightly below our eye level. When the show started with the number the gibbon does, we were totally entranced. The "animals" parade slowly down the aisles on both sides of the theater. We both started crying, it was just so incredible - a rhino on our right and an elephant with a baby on the left. The giraffes moved gracefully across the stage and all the other animals - gazelles, zebras, lions, birds, parading down the aisles and down onto the stage. We knew a little bit about what we'd see because of the DVD of the cartoon we have, but we never could have anticipated how wonderful it would be and the reaction we would have. Everyone was superb and we were especially impressed with "Scar". The actor playing him is actually the stand in on all the main parts and he was excellent in this role. The play follows the movie quite well, but there are also extra things in it. If you ever have the chance to see it, you really need to do that - wherever it is.
After the show, we stopped for something to eat at Bubba Gump's on Times Square. Again, the food was good, but expensive. Janet got a 22oz beer and we didn't know until the check came that it was almost $10. From there we went in search of the tour bus to take the holiday lights tour. By now it was raining and the snow was slush. Because of the weather, they weren't using the regular double decker buses for the tour. The windows on the bus we had kept fogging up and the driver had the heat on so high for them that people were starting to feel ill.
We got off at Grand Central to see the renovations there and learned that Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was largely responsible for saving it from demolition. She helped to pass the law that turns historic buildings into landmarks so they can't be torn down. The renovations on it were just beautiful. We went to one spot where the arch there has perfect acoustics. You stand at one end and whisper and the person at the other end can hear you perfectly. Even with our lousy hearing, we had no trouble at all understanding each other. At the next stop, we decided to leave the tour and get a cab back to the hotel. Taxis are all over the place, but empty ones are few and far between. We lucked out and got the second one I tried to hail. It only took a few minutes to get back to the hotel and we were happy to call it a night.
Monday was mostly sunny but cold. Our Radio City tickets were for 11:00. Now, this place is BIG! It will seat 6,000 people. They started letting folks in around 10:00 for this show. Our seats were in the front row of the mezzanine - great! Lots of people had cameras through the show so I got mine out too. The show was 90 minutes, non-stop and started with a 3-D movie of Santa flying around NYC. It was well done and the whole show was first class. There were 3 shows scheduled Monday, but some days there are six. They are double cast so one cast usually does a maximum of three. It's an incredible production. We went back to the hotel to drop things off and have some lunch. Then we went in search of the correct subway to get down to the World Trade Center site. I told the fellow selling the subway passes that we were tourists. He was very kind - after he got done pulling my leg by telling me the subway had just been shut down. We managed to find the right train and took it all the way to the Cortlandt St. station which just reopened within the last few weeks. That is the station at the WTC. When you go up a level, you're at a rebuilt area right next to the hole. The station has been pretty well rebuilt to get the trains to New Jersey back in service and restore normalcy - if that will ever be possible. They don't really have any signs in the station about the disaster. If you go up to Church St., there are signs on the fencing around the site that explain what happened as well as signs listing all the people that were killed in the four plane crashes. There are some photographs as well, but overall it is very understated. They don't allow people to hang things on the fence and they aren't supposed to be selling anything there though there were a couple of vendors trying to sell books or photos. It is hard to fathom what it was like when it happened or while they were working on the cleanup. There is a cross cut from two intersecting pieces of girder with something on the left arm that looks like part of a fireman's jacket. The scene caused everyone there to pause and reflect.
On the way uptown we stopped at Macy's to check out their windows, but after a brief walk through the first floor we decided shopping wasn't for us and went back to the hotel. We had a package deal with our Radio City tickets for dinner from one of about five places and we chose one close to our hotel called the Cafe Nicole. It was a wonderful meal and the restaurant was on the second floor of the hotel it was in. Janet had a perfect view of Times Square and we could only imagine how the ball will look on midnight at New Year's Eve. This would definitely be a prime viewing spot.
Time to head home from our perfect vacation. We lucked out and had a car take us to the airport because the bus we had reservations on was held up. We were in the airport at 1:00 for a 5:45 flight, but there was one more thing to do before we got our plane. A friend of mine from 1975 lives in New Jersey and she was coming to see us at the airport. We haven't seen each other in over 15 years, but we've kept in touch all this time. She arrived around 3:00 and we had fun reminiscing for a while. It's funny how two people have different memories of shared experiences. One remembers one thing and the other something else. It's always a surprise.
Our plane ended up leaving an hour late, but since it was another non-stop we didn't need to worry about missed connections. We got back to our motel and crashed for the night. The next morning we were anxious to get on the road and get back to our dear Buddy. The gal that owns the kennel figures we trained him to be reticent like our other dog, Loki. Well, Buddy wasn't shy about how happy he was to see us! He was jumping for joy. We were really happy to see that he survived his "vacation" too. When we got home we gave him a bath and washed his bedding. All is now right with our world as we start to save for our next NYC vacation.
