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Published: February 14th 2009
There is a second page to this blog, be sure to click page 2 at the end of the first page to see the other photos.
As we left San Fran, I couldn’t help thinking that this may be the last time we come here. I had mixed feelings to whether I liked the city any more; however the guy I sat next to on the plane said that if we had gone out of the tourist areas we would have felt differently. (No homeless people, no scalpers, etc.)
It was a long and bumpy flight to NYC, we finally arrived and I was a little disappointed at JFK, I’m not entirely sure what I expected, but I thought it would be more ‘Grand’ - perhaps it is in the international terminal.
The shuttle from the airport took 2.5 hours!! (It should only be 45mins) but it was an interesting experience. We got chatting with the other occupants, one of which was a mayor of a town called Dawson Creek in Canada. (I’m not entirely sure why he was in a shared shuttle!) The Latham hotel is much nicer than the hostel in San Francisco. (However we later
discovered the rooms heating system was broken- too hot and shifted rooms) The concierge was incredibly friendly and helpful, he directed us to a restaurant called Heartlands brewery (which has become a favourite of ours). The restaurant is next to the Empire State building; afterwards we found out that the visibility was 15 miles, so we went up. It was great to get a bird’s eye view of Manhattan; it’s really very pretty at night. (See photos). By now it was about 1am, so we went off to the hotel ready for an action packed day to follow.
The next day we started with a subway ride to Battery Park, where we took the ferry to Liberty Island. The seas were so rough; they were surprised the ferries were actually running. But because it was so windy and cold, it was actually a good day to go, there were hardly any people there, and no lines to get into the statue. The security is very stringent, we had to go through three check points before being allowed into the statue, even stricter than at the airports. It is 156 steps up the statue - you can actually only get to
just underneath her feet. The museum is quite interesting there too, and the views of the city are gorgeous. After Liberty Island we took the ferry and then subway to Times Square. We found some real New York Pizza; I have never seen a pizza so huge in all my life! - We just had one slice. We were on our way to TKTS where you can get half price tickets for the Broadway shows. We had been busy saying “no thanks” to all of the people trying to sell us tickets to a comedy show and for a bus tour, but luckily Jahan listened to one of the guys on a street corner, because he was giving away free tickets to the David Letterman Late show! So off we went to be in the audience of the late show. It is filmed at 4:30pm to be shown later that day. It really was such an amazing experience. He had Ashford and Simpson on the show, they wrote the song “Aint no mountain high enough” which happens to be one of the songs we are singing in Carnegie Hall on Monday! (They also performed it on the set for the
audience) He also had the Jonas brothers on the show. We had never heard of them, but apparently they are the latest boy band in the USA. We actually got to meet them when they came out the back entrance later. - It was so funny to see all the screaming little girls! After the show we went for dinner at TGIF and then on to the show ‘Stomp’. The show was in a small theatre of only about 200 seats. Somehow we managed to get tickets for less than half price and in the front row! The show was fantastic, where the actors dance and make music using props like garbage cans, road sings, sticks, plastic bags... etc- we also got to meet some of the actors afterwards. We were just buzzing at the end of this; it really had been such an amazing 28 hours so far in NYC. Yesterday we went on the hip hop tour. I had really wanted to see some other neighborhoods and this was a great way of being able to visit Harlem and the Bronx without ending up somewhere that was unsafe. The tour guide is hip hop legend Grandmaster Chaz, he
has been in the hip hop scene in the Bronx since it began in the 70’s. He has several albums out and is well known in the Manhattan area. He took us on a 4 hour bus tour with less than 10 tourists on the bus. We went to places that hip hop began, showed us graffiti walls and took us for lunch to a soul kitchen, where you pay for your buffet by the pound. It’s interesting that graffiti here is viewed as an art form, they don’t have graffiti all over shop forints like we do, they have walls that are set aside for good artists to paint and they are really valued as a unique part of the local culture here. After the tour we headed to Macy’s - I had heard they had a sale, and they did! 50 -75% off. Oh it’s so lucky I don’t live here, the store takes up one entire block, has four floors of men’s wear, four of women’s wear and two floors just for shoes! Not to mention all the other smaller stores within it, such as an electrical store, gift shops, restaurants, etc. We finished off the night
with a trip back to Heartlands brewery for dinner and had the most amazing chocolate pudding in the world. The chorus have mostly arrived by now and we are into rehearsals from Saturday onwards. Another update will come next week sometime.
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Mummy Su
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Hiya from NZ!
Hi guys! Looks like you are havin a great time over there. Looks cold but no snow!? Stomp is in Auckland at the moment.Your niece is in love with the Jonas brothers! She will be so jealous,did you think to get autographs? Sammie has them all over her wall. I don't know where you guys went in San.Fran,but we loved the place we must have been lookin in totally different places! We explored and found fab. places! Keep in touch and stay safe Luv'n'hugs.xxxxx