Quick trip to NYC

Continuing with the recent theme of things I could or should be doing with all that free time while Ashley is in school (Thunder game, movie) was a quick jaunt into NYC to see a show.

We are lucky we live close to both New York City and Philadelphia. People in our neighborhood commute to those cities. We, though, only go to each one a couple of times a year. Our most recent trip to NYC was earlier this month when we saw "Newsies." 

There are lots of excuses for not going into NYC -- it isn't cheap, it is only easy-ish (parking is a hassle, the trains don't run as often as I would like, it takes about 2 hours to get to NYC from our house when you factor in driving to the train station, catching a train, etc.). Still, we are lucky it is so close to us.

This week Noemi, a friend from Sustainable Lawrence, is starring in a one-woman off-Broadway show that she wrote and is also producing called "The Fountain of Youth." Anyone in theater will tell you that is a lot of hats to wear for a show.

I took the train in with Noemi -- thus eliminating the hurdle of finding parking at the Princeton Junction Train Station. Since I was going to her show, I took the train back with her and her husband, Ron.

While in NYC, I made a pilgrimage stop to the New York Public Library to visit old friends from the 100 Acre Wood. They moved to NYC in 1987. It was a quick visit. 

I had dinner at The Counter -- a burger place on the corner of Broadway and 41st Street. Bill told us about this place during our last visit to NYC. It is amazing -- I had a vegan veggie burger with goat cheese, grilled pineapples, roasted red peppers, roasted onions and artichokes on a ciabatta roll with a side of sweet potato fries. They also have chicken, turkey burgers, beef, and bison. Lots and lots of choices.

The play was the first half of a double bill. It was fun. I was most impressed that Noemi could easily switch between 10 different characters with a shift in her body language, voice and minimal props. She even played a man. The play was very thought provoking. We talked about it during the ride home.

The other play was "Cowl Girl." Three actors each only playing one role. The actor playing Jason reminded me of my eye doctor. The actor playing Alex bore a strong resemblance to someone I know from SVP. I kept thinking it was them on the stage! Each role showed significant growth in 75 minutes. Both shows were part of an acting workshop. The hope is to hone the productions and keep finding new venues (and new funding) for future productions.

It is always fun supporting a friend in the arts.

I was a bit beat today, though. Not used to coming home after midnight, being up in time for the school bus, and having a full day. I'm ready for the weekend!

Broadway

I have fond memories of seeing Broadway shows over the years. I still remember seeing "Annie" with the Girl Scouts. Joy, a high school friend, just told me seeing that show changed her life. After seeing "Annie" she knew she wanted to be a performer. I have fond memories of seeing her on stage in high school.

Speaking of high school, back in those dark ages I remember the school sponsoring trips to see Broadway shows. I think I saw at least two shows that way, but the one that stands out is "Brighton Beach Memoirs." I remember the mass moving up from the last row to the front of the balcony as there were so many empty seats and it was the custom of the day to move up to the more expensive seats. I also remember thinking in a couple of years Chuck, another high school friend, could replace Matthew Broderick in the lead.

As an adult, I had a meeting in NYC so the company paid for me to spend the night in the city. Don joined me. We went to the TKTS building and bought last minute half-price tickets to see "Miss Saigon." I wish we lived closer so we could take advantage of that deal more often.

i remember seeing "Beauty and the Beast" and "Lion King" with Don early in our marriage. We saw "Beauty and the Beast" a second time to celebrate my sister Melissa's birthday.

When Ashley was 5 we took her to see "Mary Poppins" on Broadway. THAT was one of the most magical experiences of our lives. We were chatting with the stage door manager before the show. He introduced us to each of the actors as they came in for their calls. We were invited inside for a back stage tour led by one of the crew. He let us take pictures of ourselves on the stage, and gave Ashley a broken prop. We were invited back for another back stage tour, which was led by "Mr. Banks." During the second tour we were not allowed to sit on the set. 

A year later we were serenaded by Young Nala and Young Simba after seeing "Lion King." We learned a lot from their moms about what life is like for a young Broadway performer. 

Fast forward a few years to Spring Break 2013. A deal from Disney credit card gave us the push we needed to go into NYC to see "Newsies" on Broadway. The show was phenomenal! The singing and dancing are quite entertaining. Everyone on stage looked like they were living their dreams and having the time of their lives. I will concede, though, that the plot is extremely thin. You go to this show for the dancing not for the plot twists.  On the other hand, this makes it a great show to bring kids to because it is so entertaining.

I feel we had the best seats in the house. The coupon let us choose just about any seat for their discounted price, so we chose wisely. We were 5th row mezzanine in the dead center. The seats, in the balcony, are extremely steep, which meant Ashley could see over the head of the lady in front of her. As we were in the last row before the aisle, we did get her a booster seat so she could see even better.

The theater itself is tiny -- no wasted space on a wide lobby so it is a log jam to get inside, and another one to get out. The traffic flow in the ladies' room was nice (I know some of you care about this). By the time we left there was such a crowd around the actors, who were enthusiastically signing autographs, and we were tired from a long day walking around NYC, so we walked the two blocks to the Port Authority Parking Lot. I think Ashley was asleep before we left NYC.

NYC - High Line

Welcome to New York City's High Line, the latest trend in taking something useless and falling apart and turning it into something beautiful and useful.

The High Line is a handicap-friendly, elevated park running along 10th Avenue from just below 14th Street to 30th Street, with plans to expand to 34th Street in the near future. It is built on old freight rail lines (think rails to trails) from the meat packing district to Chelsea and closer to Grand Central Station.

With wildflowers growing along the path, and pretty vistas of The Big Apple, the High Line is a great place for photo buffs. The scenes along the path are timeless and photogenic in all seasons. It also helps that one end is only a couple of blocks away from my favorite photo supply store -- B&H Photos.







For a more comical shot look for the bleachers facing a giant glass window that stretches across 10th Avenue. Here you can pretend, like Ashley, to be run over by cars. 



A highlight of the stroll was stopping for ice cream cookie sandwiches from a street vendor. They were gooood. Ashley and I split one with dark chocolate cookies with peppermint ice cream in the center. Don had nutmeg cookies with peanut butter ice cream. The other street vendors' fares looked just as delicious.


My biggest complaint about the High Line is that it is too crowded. I was envisioning a cut-through to get from Point A to Point B without having to deal with traffic lights and slow moving pedestrians. Unfortunately the entire path seemed filled with slow moving pedestrians, many (like me) wielding cameras and stopping to take "the best shot."

A couple of days after going on the High Line, the New York Times ran an opinion story about it. The writer has even stronger opinions about the downsides of the High Line, including the demise of local businesses in the wake of gentrification of the former working-class neighborhood. Sounds like a case of too much success is not necessarily a good thing for everyone.

The park is free and open from 7 AM-11 PM everyday. It is worth a visit, especially on a nice day. While there, visit the neighborhoods below it and support the local businesses.

I Bike NYC

by Don

This year I developed a fondness for bicycling in Manhattan, which is quite surprising given my aversion to riding with traffic. What helps me is over the past three years, New York has added 200 miles of bike lanes, some of which are protected bike paths completely segregated from cars.

On four separate days I loaded my bike into the car and drove to New York to explore this new treasure.

On April 30 I went to the Blessing of the Bikes at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine. I stood with my bike in the sanctuary along with hundreds of other cyclists and their bicycles. The priest read scripture, led us in prayer, and sprinkled us with holy water. After the service I joined the Five Borough Bicycle Club for a ride to Brooklyn and to the New Amsterdam Bike Show. Most of this ride was on the Greenway, which hugs the Manhattan coastline. 

Six weeks later I returned for the World Naked Bike Ride. Even though it was June, it was a frigid day and as a result the ride was cancelled. Instead, I cycled to the Plaza Hotel in search of a temporary display of Ai Weiwei’s “Circle of Animals: Zodiac Heads” sculpture. While cycling along 1^st Ave I realized the scope of the bike infrastructure. To my surprise, there were signs directing cyclists to various destinations.

A week later I returned at 8 PM for “Bike All Night.” This turned out to be too disorganized for me. I left the group and explored the Greenway, Broadway, the financial district and Central Park instead.

By far, my longest ride this year was the NYC Century on September 18. This ride, covering 100 miles in a single day, extended into Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx. The highlight was finally making it to the site of the 1964 World’s Fair and posing next to the Unisphere in Flushing Meadows.

Brooklyn Bridge

After touring the Roebling Museum in Roebling, NJ a trip across the Brooklyn Bridge was in order.

We were not alone in our crossing. The bridge was packed with people walking, running, cycling and photographing that day. It was a beautiful day to be in the City.

Anticipating how much walking we would be doing the rest of the day, we only walked part way. It was far enough to show Ashely how Roebling wire supports such a massive structure.

Tenement Museum - NYC

This weekend's adventures took us to the Tenement Museum in New York City.

Katie, a recent immigrant herself, led us on a tour of three tenement apartments and taught us about life of immigrants during the early 20th century. We learned how the struggles of the immigrants from then are similar to those today -- specifically how the mothers struggle to keep the traditions of the old country alive, while the next generation tries to assimilate into the new country.

The Tenement Museum offers several different tours. We chose the tour called "Piecing It Together" (about to be renamed "Sweatshop Workers") because it focused on the life of Jewish Immigrants who worked in the Garment Industry, and Ashley loves sewing. It was one of the tours labeled for children 8 and up.

Tour group sizes range from 1 to 15, ours was on the large side with 12. Katie brought us up to the third floor of the Tenement Museum. Our first stop was a room that has not changed much since the museum acquired the building in 1980. The layers of wallpaper and flooring were clearly visible. 

What stood out most was the size of the apartment -- a mere 325 square feet, or less than a third of the size of our first home in Trenton.

Our second stop was a similar sized apartment that also served as a sweatshop where Harry Levine ran his garment business with several employees sewing for 10-14 hours a day while his wife, Jenny, and their five children tried to stay out of their way.

The third apartment was just as tiny, yet the Rogarshevsky family lived there with their six children. By then the husband and children were working in factories, and not out of their home. Though that apartment was a smidge smaller, it felt larger.

Being in the tiny apartments -- which to this day do not have air conditioning -- and hearing their stories bring their histories to life.

The museum is located a few blocks away from Chinatown, just south of the Williamsburg Bridge.
Unfortunately the museum does not allow photography. However, their website has some nice pictures of the inside of apartments.

http://www.tenement.org/

Statue of Liberty

After months of planning, Don, Ashley and I went to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island this past weekend. While looking out on our snow covered lawn on January 9th I made reservations to climb to the crown of the Statue of Liberty on April 16th, a day that we thought would be the perfect Spring Day. As the day drew closer and the forecast called for cold rain, we hesitated about making the trip. As you can see in the above picture, we had Liberty Island almost to ourselves and the rain held until the ride home.

Don and I had both been to the Statue of Liberty a couple of times. Each time it was extremely crowded, and hot (well, it was summer) and our view at the top was rushed because the people immediately behind us also wanted to see. If this was your experience, it is time to go back.

Tickets now must be purchased months in advance: http://www.statuecruises.com/ferry-service/welcome.aspx

Every 20 minutes the Park Rangers send up a group of 10 people. We climbed all 200+ steps at our own pace. At the top were two Park Rangers telling us what we are seeing, and that swaying is normal. They also took our picture and let us take as much time as we wanted. About 20 minutes later we began the descent on the other side of the double-helix staircase.

We wandered around the museum in the pedestal and then boarded the boat to Ellis Island. Ashely and I had read lots of books about people coming through Ellis Island. We also watched their movie. Nothing compares, though, to seeing the place. It was quiet there, too.

The best part of the day was seeing Ashley's eyes sparkle with amazement at the entire experience. Each time she saw Lady Liberty that day she couldn't believe she actually climbed to the top of her.

She couldn't wait to see her classmates and tell them about her weekend.

If you do plan to go, order tickets soon because the Statue of Liberty will be closed starting in November for scheduled maintenance. Climbing to the crown was definitely the highlight of our trip.