Kinky Boots!

After resting our tired feet in Times Square we walked to the Hirschfeld Theater to see Kinky Boots. I chose this show because Cyndi Lauper wrote the music and lyrics and it sounded like it might be funny. I was hoping it would be a show all three of us could enjoy.

Wow. Kinky Boots blew us all away. Everything about the show was outstanding. The music, the singing, the acting, the story, the costumes, the choreography, the dancing, the transitions, the set design, all of it.

At almost every show I go to I find myself watching what is going on in the wings or behind the scenes. Not this time. It was so engaging, and the transitions (with the set) were so seamless, I hardly noticed them.

I was surprised how much my dad liked the show. He even bought the cd afterward. We were all really sad that Ross wasn't there to enjoy the show with us. We sent him a post card. My parents said I chose well. We all loved the show.

Times Square: My Name in Lights!

I know it is silly, but seeing my name in lights on a huge screen in the middle of Times Square made my day. The screen was on a five minute loop, showing various scenes in high definition. I texted our names and they showed up pretty quickly.

For some reason my mom's name didn't come up the first couple of times I texted it. Finally, it came up.

How cool is that?

Zabar's

We headed to Zabar's after the museum. We browsed all the kitchen goods upstairs and then went downstairs to shop the food. I bought some tea and two hard salami.  I bought quite a bit of tea in New York. Mom threw a crumble cake in the basket and it turned out to be soooo good. If we had been staying closer to Zabar's I'm sure we would have gone back for more.

American Museum of Natural History

We exited Central Park and took refuge in the cool air of the American Museum of Natural History. It got so cold in some areas that I put on my (newest) cashmere sweater. We wandered around and then ate at the museum cafe. 

Ross and I have a thing for octopodes (my preferred plural term for octopus), so I took a photo of this drawing.

The main reason we went to the museum is that my dad wanted to see the special exhibit Spiders Alive! It took us a bit to find the exhibit, so when we did we didn't have to wait for our timed entry.

We watched a short movie about spiders. It was very informative. I didn't know how tarantulas molt. They actually showed a tarantula molting in the film.

I think this was the neatest live spider they had on display. It is a trap door spider. The spider had made a burrow up against the glass and you could see it moving around in there. I could actually make out the trap door on the surface as well.

Here I am posing on a giant spider. I think we all learned something in the exhibit.

After the spiders we went through the Hall of Biodiversity and Hall of Ocean Creatures.  The Hall of Biodiversity was my favorite. So many different and contrasting kinds of creatures in one area and next to each other.

Central Park in July

It was hot, hot, hot! We started at the South end of the park and walked up to 77th St.  They were filming a vampire movie along the mall, supposedly with Nicole Kidman. They closed off the area and we had to walk around. I didn't have my big camera, so I couldn't super-zoom to see what was going on. Celebrity sighting is not really my thing anyway. Nicole Kidman was at Maryland General Hospital filming a movie when I worked there and I went home to get some sleep rather than sulk the halls hoping to get a glimpse of her.

Despite the heat my parents liked Central Park. Next time I go I'd like to start out on the North side and wander my way down.

High Line

I headed to New York City last week and sent out greetings from the High Line. It was our first touristy stop.

There were different flowers blooming this time. And it was a lot hotter than last time (when I went with Kitson in May).

Here's me and my mom, in our white hats.

Another shot of blooming flowers.

I got a paleta on the High Line. Uh, apricot rose-water flavored.

Times Square

Times Square is insane. At 11p shops are still open and it is swarming with people. Also, with all the lights it is bright outside. It's just odd.

Shoe Shopping in NYC: I Love Miz Mooz

Shoe shopping is a must for me when I visit New York City. I love Miz Mooz shoes and shop for them at Infinity Shoes. They have several locations, but the one on Broadway between 3d and 4th is the best. Abbi and his guys are always helpful and patient. I was really sad when I tried on 4 or 5 pairs of shoes and left with nothing. They just didn't have the shoes I liked best in my size.

I dragged Kitson from store to store looking at shoes. The guys on Broadway between Walker and White were not nice or particularly helpful. On a whim we went into DSW. The ONE pair of shoes I picked up happened to be Miz Mooz. Kitson spotted a couple more pair (looking for that distinctive orange box) and I found my new shoes!

I walked the soles off of my tall Miz Mooz boots on this visit to NYC. I took them in yesterday to be resoled. I just love those boots and it is worth the money to have them resoled.

Eddie Izzard: Force Majeure

When I checked out the goings-on for our trip to New York City I discovered that Eddie Izzard was going to be performing at the Beacon Theatre. I bought tickets to the show before I bought plane tickets or booked a hotel. We were a bit worn out from our day, but we enjoyed the show. I particularly liked the running bit about Marc Antony as a chicken. Izzard also talked about how he has been doing shows in foreign languages, completely--except for one word--Fuck. He talked about how he adds it in--I think my favorite was ausge-fucking-zeichnet.

So here is Eddie, playing God, or Darth Vader, not sure which. You can see his lovely red nails. The ring finger on his right hand had the union jack. His left ring finger was blue with a crescent on it-as far as I could tell.

He looked so dapper.

I almost bought merch. Everything said Cake or Death on it. I wanted a baseball cap, but I didn't like that it had a cupcake on it instead of a real cake. I ended up getting a NYC cap in a discount shop.

Eddie is still touring and I just realized he is actually coming to Texas.

Wooden Escalator at Macy's

We went into Macy's--just so that Kitson could see how big it was, and so that we could use the restroom. This old wooden escalator was really cool. I liked the sounds it made.

Central Park

Central Park was my favorite part of the trip. We spent almost 4 hours wandering around.

Kitson made a gigantic bubble.

A photo together near the Mall and Literary Walk.

Kitson took this great photo with reflected buildings.

The Delacorte Clock. On our way back downtown we got to see the animals go around.

Ellis Island

This was my first trip to Ellis Island. After we ate some lunch--that we bought from a deli near Battery Park, we wandered around on the small island 

I got lucky and found Anna Greif, my great grandmother on the wall with the names of immigrants engraved on it.

This is the inside of the registry room. I love the herringbone pattern of bricks on the ceiling.

Kitson with the financial district in the background. The tallest building is Freedom Tower, also known as One World Trade Center. It is the tallest building in the western hemisphere.

Statue of Liberty

This was my third trip to see the Statue of Liberty. I'm not sure any visit will top my last one. This time I didn't buy tickets early enough to go up to the crown, but we did get to go inside the pedestal.

 Selfie on Liberty Island.

Kitson on a reproduction of the Statue of Liberty's foot. Looking at her from afar, you really think she'd be bigger. I would have thought that 3 people could sit on her big toe, but no, it's a perfect seat for one.

Cronut: The Jaw-dropping Breakfast

We bought cronuts from Crumbs bakery, so they were called Crumbnuts. It was tasty, but I had to stretch my jaw open so far to take a bite that it kind of hurt!

NYC Murals

I saw three murals in New York City that I hadn't seen before.

We saw this one from the High Line.

This is in Little Italy--fairly recent, it wasn't there on my last visit.

This one on Houston Street just cracked us up. It continued on to the right, but I couldn't get a photo of the whole thing.

NYC with Kitson: The High Line

Kitson and I went to New York City last Tuesday. We rode the Skytrain and Subway from JFK and then walked to our hotel. The first place we hit after dumping off our luggage was the High Line. It wasn't as crowded as I've seen it before. The weather was nice (if a bit windy), and we saw lots of blooming flowers. I can't get over how cool the High Line is.

Empire State Building

We didn't really have any plans on our last day in NYC.  Ross got a shave--and looked so different without his scruff that I almost didn't recognize him--then we decided to go to the Empire State Building.  I had been with my mom, but Ross had never been.  Because it wasn't summer we didn't really have to wait in lines.  We also took the stairs between the 80th and 86th floors, which helped us bypass more lines. The weather was perfect and visibility wasn't limited at all.

I'm so glad we decided on the Empire State Building.  We couldn't have asked for a better day for it.

Year of the Zoo: Bronx Zoo

We went to New York City as part of our bucket list.  The Bronx Zoo was part of the reason we went.  The weather was great and the zoo wasn't crowded at all. I'd say we were there a good 4, maybe 5 hours. Our favorite was the tigers--because there were 3 tiger cubs that had only been on display about a week.  The Bronx Zoo ranks very highly on my list so far.  I'm hoping if the weather cooperates we can visit another zoo this week.

The children's part of the zoo was neat.  We saw these black swans and a zoo keeper pointed out their nest and we could see their eggs. Overall we did not see a whole lot of zoo staff.  I know we would have asked a lot more questions and learned a lot more if there had been more staff available.

If these cubs playing with their mama doesn't get your oxytocins flowing, then I don't know what would.  I could have watched them for hours.

The cubs have older siblings in the next enclosure.

This polar bear was very active--playing with his stick while balancing on the rock.  Most of the animals were active.  I suppose the nice weather helped with that.

Ross played prairie dog in the children's area.

It was dinner time for the birds of prey.

Ross pet goats.  The babies were spastic.  One was jumping on everything, including his mother.

We didn't get to see everything, but we liked what we did get to see. The monorail was neat--we got to see a sleeping baby deer really up close.  Well, just about everything we saw was up close--including a baboon playing with himself and the tiger who sprayed the glass because a woman was banging on it.  The Bronx Zoo also had the largest number of peafowl of any zoo we have visited so far.  They were pretty tame and begging in the picnic areas.