I Love the City!!

Yesterday went down to New York for my long awaited birthday present of seeing Lion King on Broadway and an overnight in NY. It was Sooo nice, all around! We saw the early show at 2:00...Wow! From the very first moment it started it was fabulous! If you know anyone who's seen this or seen this yourself, you know all the talk about the costumes and the set...just really well done...while I'm not very astute when it comes to recognizing "art-manship" or art-womanship or whatever, the costumes and set were very creative, not in the hollywood sense of "looking exactly like a lion" or whatever, but in the way of creating the "essence" of the character or prop/set piece. Even if you're not so into musicals, it truly was an entertaining show! I love those silly hyenas the best, STILL...they crack me up with their stupid humor. Not to many people appreciate corny stupid humor as much as I do and I miss that as being part of my everyday life---so much has gotten so serious...or maybe I'm just hanging around the wrong people;)

After the show we walked around a street fair which took up a good chunk of blocks just north of Times Square. There was all kinds of yummy food, but since Trav and I had already grabbed a slice of pizza before the show and were planning on dinner a little later, we settled on a bag of kettle corn...yummmeeee!!!! All those vendors there that weren't selling food were selling purses (of course), and pashminas (a bargain, really, at $5-8 bucks a pop)...I should have gotten one because their so handy, particularly when dressing up, us gals need some warmth on those chilly evenings or inside the ice-box airconditioned reception halls at weddings and whatnot...next time...

After we saw enough of the same thing over and over, falafel, sweaters, jewelry, kebabs, lemonade, sweaters, scarves, falafel, belts, jewelry, purses, more purses, get the idea? We turned around and made our way back to our hotel to check in. In the lobby there was a young couple who didn't speak much English at all and the reception guy was trying to explain how their card wasn't going to be charge until they left and then the woman/girl noticed that the price on the new receipt and the price on the receipt she received online was tremendously different so both sides were trying to understand each other (in spanish, since they knew more spanish than english)...and this went on and on, thank goodness Trav and I were comfortably waiting on the red leather couch. For the first 20 minutes, it was fine that we were waiting because god knows when Trav and I have traveled, we haven't known the languages either, but luckily, I don't recall ever having made such a scene in a reception area due to our language ignorance. All good.

We had dinner at a lovely italian restaurant. There were all kinds of special things and whatnot, but I special ordered a "regular plate of pasta" with meatless sauce (they only had the meat sauce on the menu. And a regular green salad...that's how fancy I was feeling. Trav at least ordered from the menu...It's so funny, we don't ever go out to Italian restaurants...we really only go out to eat at Thai, Indian, Japanese, and Chinese places (mostly because of the veggie options). Dinner was delicious nonetheless and we strolled around awhile before heading back to the hotel. We were able to watch a little TV (novelty for us)...whatever baseball game was on, and then lights out, earplugs in (noisy noisy, still), windows closed, a/c on...less noisy...but still not a great night's sleep. Trav and I both commented on how long night seemed to take...usually it's time to get up in no time at all, but we just kept waking up all night...still dark...

So, I always wish that I can stay the night in the city when I go there. I always think I'll be missing out on something. I feel sad leaving... But now this is the second time in the past year that we've spent a night in the city, I must say that I'll be okay with leaving from now on. It's not like we're night owls...we go to bed early;) AND we like to actually sleep when we go to bed. So, the next time we find ourselves in the big apple, we'll enjoy ourselves thoroughly and an hour and 15 minutes later, we'll be home sweet home. (Though we did have a delicious breakfast this morning...Trav had Nutella filled french toast and I had homemade granola with yogurt and fruit...yummy...yes, quite possibly my favorite part of going away anywhere is the yummy food...) On that note, I must go finish making my homemade soup! (And hey, breakfast inspired me to make my own granola today, too...not bad for my first attempt!)