Taking a bite out of the big apple.

Times Square; where all the action is.

In what is being defined as an “epic” summer for me, the amazing adventures keep coming.  Jeff and I will be celebrating 10 years being married Labor Day weekend.   Jeff came up with the idea to spend the weekend in NYC to mark this marvelous milestone.  Given that the kids were in Orlando and childcare would not be an issue, we decided to celebrate a month early and go the weekend of Aug 2^nd to 3^rd, 2014. 

 

I love that Jeff came up with this idea.  My original plan was for us to take a cruise around the Mediterranean (you know, Greece, Italy, Spain).  Ha!  Once my trip to Israel looked like it was definitely happening, and Jeff got a new job with no vacation time accumulated any time soon, and we didn’t have thousands of dollars to spend on booking a cruise, I let go of that idea.  There wasn’t much to build my case in persuading Jeff to get on board.  I let go of any idea that involved packing a suitcase.  So I was pleasantly surprised when he ran past me the idea to do a weekend in NYC.   I LOVE New York!  Of course, I said yes, pretty enthusiastically I might add.

 

The icing on the cake was Jeff’s Uncle Larry getting us tickets to two of his shows he has a producing role in.   “Beautiful” and “Rocky” was where you could find us on Saturday.  We had these insanely amazing seats for “Beautiful” at the 2:00pm show, met Uncle Larry for dinner afterwards and then hit the 8:00pm show of “Rocky”.  What a fabulous day!

 

Show #1

“Beautiful” is so incredibly well done.  We loved it.  The actress who plays Carole King (Jessie Mueller) is simply mesmerizing. She definitely deserved the Tony for best actress.  I love the way they tell the story of her music.  It has made me want to download the soundtrack.  I highly recommend everyone go see it.  It is well worth the trip to NYC just to see this show. The craziest thing was when I bumped into a boy who was in my sister's class in high school.  I haven't seen him in like 26 years.  He was sitting 3 rows behind us.  Through the magic of Facebook he knew I was there and sent me a message telling me he was there too.  How crazy is that!!?

 

Selfie at Beautiful
  

“Rocky” is another story.  The show is closing on August 17^th because it is not making any money.  However, the last 20 minutes of the show is like nothing you’ve ever seen.  It is pretty wild.  I’ve seen a lot of shows on Broadway over the years and this has got to be the most spectacular ending ever done.  The reason I think the show is not making it is because of the first act.  It’s pretty bad.  All the original music written for the show is not those catchy/memorable Broadway type songs you want to fall in love with.  The actors are great, have fantastic voices, and the storyline follows the movie.  They even work in the music from the movie, which instantly gets everyone tapping their toes in the audience.  But the original score is so lackluster.  There is only one song that I looked at Jeff and said, “this is a great song!”   I bet someone else wrote that one.  J   With that said, the show is worth seeing for the ending – actually all of Act 2 is fun.  That’s when Rocky does the training for his big fight.  They even recreate him running up the Philadelphia Art Museum steps.   The people who created the show did an amazing job of capturing all of the excitement from the movie and bringing it to the live stage.  The choreography, the music, the action and getting the audience involved is pretty fantastic. 

 

Show #2

Dinner with Uncle Larry. 
I thnk you can see the Toppall family resemblence.

After the two shows were over I asked Jeff which he liked better; “The whole show of ‘Beautiful’ or the last 20 minutes of ‘Rocky’”.  His answer was dead-on!  Jeff replied, “I LOVED Beautiful, however, the ending of Rocky was more impressive.”  I completely agree.   Believe me, it was a good problem to have to be able to compare these two shows.   There is nothing like a live performance and to have the seats we had is phenomenal.  Jeff and I wouldn’t have been able to swing those kind of seats.

 

On Sunday we woke up late (7:30am!) and after breakfast hit the city.  I convinced Jeff we wouldn’t die if we took the subway.  Our first stop was Canal Street.  I love shopping for the knock-off designer bags.  Back in the day, my friend Amanda and I used to come to Chinatown and have a ball.  There is nothing like it. 

 

Jeff on the subway. 
Much to his disbelief we were not killed using New York public transportation.

  As soon Jeff and I got off the subway on Canal Street, a woman is standing on the sidewalk asking if we wanted to see Louis Vuitton, Coach, etc.  We followed her to this guy who has a catalog of all the bags for me to look at.  I pick one out and he communicates to someone in his walkie talkie and says it will be 5 minutes.  Got to love the counterfeit designer bag market!   I ended up not getting that bag, but I had a lot of fun.  In one of the other shops, the guy takes me to his back room and shows me what is available to be purchased.  Jeff was a very good sport and let me have as much fun as I wanted. 

 

We then made our way to Little Italy (Mulberry Street, baby!) and had an awesome lunch.  After Jeff’s incredibly delicious Veal Marsala and my gluten-free pasta with a pesto sauce, he started to get very un-Jeff-like and saying how much he enjoys New York City and all it has to offer.    Yes!  I wholeheartedly agree! 

 

Enjoying lunch a sidewalk cafe in Little Italy.

Jeff telling me how great New York City is.

After lunch we made our way to the High Line Park.  It is a mile long park that is above the city.  It was created over railroad tracks and is a neat addition to the city.   They did a great job creating this area with places to sit and trees, grass and flowers along the way on either side of the path.

 

Selfie at High Line Park

 

 Our last stop before getting the bus back to D.C. was Chelsea Market.  I can’t believe I’ve never been here before.  What a cool place.  Jeff and I enjoyed walking through the market and checking everything out.  

 

By the time the bus departed, we had walked 5 miles!  What a great way to spend the day.  My love affair with New York and this amazing Summer I am having continues.  The weather forecast had rain both days we were away.  We packed umbrellas just in case and didn’t need them.  The weather was great…no humidity, no rain and the right amount of cloudiness so it wasn’t hot. 

 

Jeff and I have already discussed the next time we come back to NYC, we will walk around Greenwich Village.  And in another un-Jeff-like move, he actually verbalized a trip he can see us doing when “Frozen” comes out on Broadway and we bring Sam to see it.   Who is this guy?  I am not going to question it and keep him.