Our whole family had a nice vacation this past week. The kids spent their vacation with Grandma and Grandpa Lanz and Michael. They had so much fun that they're ready for us to go on another trip already (well, one of them says he's ready)! I spent my vacation in New York City. Darren was in New York as well, although he spent a good part of his days in class for work. We can't complain, though, since work funded the bulk of the trip.
I enjoyed my mornings being lazy in the hotel room until I met Darren for lunch somewhere near his class in the Financial district. My afternoons consisted of visiting the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Battery Park, the World Trade Center site, and the New York City Public Library. Oh, and I mustn't forget Starbucks (literally on every corner, hopefully Caribou can gain some momentum there). I also did a fair amount of reading.
After Darren got out of class, we hurried off to the train for whatever adventure awaited us. It was entirely a matter of seeing what our fortunes would hold and thankfully we seemed to have luck on our side this week.
The first evening we hurried uptown thinking we had scored last minute tickets online to attend a taping of the Daily Show with John Stewart if only we could get there on time. Unfortunately we arrived too late, but our timing was perfect to get two of the last three spots at the Colbert Report down the block! It was a hilarious show (May 6) and I even got to sit in the front row where I got to shake Stephen's hand! The funny thing was that before the show began they announced that they were doing "the Toss" in front of the audience which apparently hadn't been done in a long time. If you watch the Daily Show you understand what this means... that we actually got to be on the Daily Show after all! Haha! (Those were our lines if you're listening for us.) After the show we enjoyed a meal at a fantastic little Russian restaurant! More good luck!
New York City
Fast forward to the next night... We decided to try our luck on Broadway to win last minute tickets for the musical Wicked. Would our streak continue? Darren stopped at Times Square to watch some Fast Money while I went to check out the lottery process. Between 5:30 - 6:00 people can sign up to win one or two of the 24 reserved tickets for that night's sold-out show for only $26 each. We estimated there were a couple hundred people who signed up. We didn't get drawn. Instead we went back downtown to the Seaport where we enjoyed the beautiful view of the Brooklyn Bridge at sunset and a seafood dinner. I had a broiled seafood platter and Darren had a unique experience with the sauted softshell crab. We followed dinner with Godiva chocolate for dessert.
"I won the Wicked Lottery" as the button says
The next night we tried the ticket lottery again - same process, same number of people. This time my name was called! I purchased my tickets and then, since we had time before the show, we went to look for some dinner. I was in the mood for a good burger and we certainly found one at the Heartland Brewery! It's kind of amusing that we went all the way to NYC to eat in the Heartland but it hit the spot and their beers were excellent! We returned to the theater having no idea where we were going to be seated, so imagine our surprise when our $26 tickets landed us in the front row! (Hint for other novices: the word "orchestra" on your ticket means you're sitting in front... right behind the orchestra pit.) We could see the sweat on Glinda's upper lip! The show was great fun!
The next morning Darren didn't have class, but that also meant it was Saturday, our last day in the city. We went over to Chinatown for a little shopping/haggling, Little Italy for lunch, and through SoHo on our way to hop a train to Central Park for a bit of nature. All of those places are crazy busy on a Saturday afternoon! There are so many different kinds of people all doing their own thing. It's truly like you can see the whole world on that one little island! I love it! Unfortunately we had to come home and our lucky streak had worn out which we could tell by the number of times we were asked to be patient as we waited to board our plane and then to take off. But we finally arrived home to sweet children sleeping peacefully in their beds who, despite everything they say, seemed happy to see us in the morning.