NYC Extravaganza

Vivian is getting more and more into musical theater, but until this summer, she had never seen a play on Broadway. We have a lot of hotel points saved up, so I thought it would be a fun early birthday present for Vivian and I to take the bus up to NYC on a Wednesday, see a matinee and an evening show, spend the night, wander around, and then take the bus back to Virginia. 

The bus trip went smoothly, and we had just barely enough time to check in at the hotel and drop off our bags before dashing to our 2:00pm show, Wicked!

Vivian absolutely LOVED it. She loved it so much, she cried through most of the second act. After our mad dash to the theater and the emotional catharsis of the show, I needed a drink. Luckily, there was a bar right next door with a drink called a Wickedtini. They also served an excellent Shirley Temple.

Once we had recalibrated, we were ready for our dinner reservation at La Grande Boucherie.

I had picked it because it had a good fixed price menu that included steak frites for Viv and the location was right. The decor was lovely, and our waiter was very nice, but the food was just meh. Still, we got the sustenance we needed. We had some time before our next show, so we went for a walk.

Vivian spotted Wicked themed American Girl dolls, and some of her emotional reactions came back.

Luckily, I had set my sights on a calming (and free!) tourist destination, St. Patrick's Cathedral.

It was a perfect break from the hectic city, and Vivian loved the stained glass.

After walking up and down the aisles, it was time to head back to Broadway for our second show of the day, Funny Girl.

Vivian has never seen the movie, so she didn't know the story, but she knew the famous Barbara Streisand songs. I had forgotten that there was tap dancing in it. Vivian has recently become a tap dancing fan, so she was thrilled by the fantastic tap dancing numbers. There were no tears for this one, but it was another winner of a show.

After the show, we meandered back to the hotel and collapsed.

Even though we were staying at The W, which is generally considered a fancy hotel, there was no breakfast included, so we had to go out and find our own.  We had walked by a bakery called Angelina the night before that looked promising, so we walked back there. I got a delicious coffee, but the pastries were too complicated for Vivian's tastes. Never fear! There is a Krispy Kreme in Times Square that serves freshly made, still warm donuts. Now that's delicious.

Our main activity for the day was a tour of Pace University. Vivian had wanted to see a New York City school, but most of the big ones have to be booked a month in advance. My cousin recommended checking out Pace, and it's in a fun neighborhood to explore anyway, so we headed south.

I wasn't sure how long it was going to take us to get there, so we ended up with about an hour to kill before the tour. That's how we found McNally Jackson Books and passed the time browsing and buying books.

The tour was interesting, but it was a very different vibe from the Georgetown one. There were only a handful of kids, and with the college being IN the city, we had two tour guides, one at the front and one at the back to make sure we didn't get lost crossing the street.  Vivian loved the neighborhood, but it definitely felt like a less academically focused school, and she says that's not what she's looking for.

Our tour guides were very friendly though, and when we asked for a good pizza recommendation, they unanimously recommended Kesté, which did indeed have excellent pizza.

After stuffing ourselves with pizza, we made our way back uptown. We were driving by the big public library building when Vivian asked if we could go check it out. I said sure, and we hopped out of the cab.

This was another perfect, low key activity. The library is free, and they had a cool display room with selections from the collection.

The most checked out book from the library is The Snowy Day, which I thought was a really cool fun fact.

We had a voucher from the hotel for free drinks at the bar, so we went to check it out. We sat at the bar at first, but the bartender asked how old Vivian was. Not 21, so no seat at the bar for her. Still, Vivian was flattered that she asked.

We checked out, and then stopped at Times Square Taco Bell to grab dinner to eat on the bus.

It was a whirlwind of a trip, but Vivian is now completely in love with New York. I'm not sure if that's something to be celebrated or mourned, but she's definitely not the first, nor will she be the last.