(no subject)
New York, New York!!
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/esteleru/album?.dir=/60d2 - Pictures
Day One- Sept 21, 2005
I am not afraid of flying! Thank goodness. That was on of my largest fears. Of course, sitting there thinking about Lost and the 9/11 attacks did make me start panicking a little. But I finally got control of myself and was able to enjoy our flight. The last time I flew commercial, I was a baby. Not even a year yet I think. So as you can imagine, I don’t remember it. It was so much fun to look down and see everything passing. Sometimes it was green, and other times it looked like a giant patchwork quilt! We passed over Washington DC, but I was on the wrong side of the plane. Oh well.
We landed at LaGuardia at 1:40, right on time. Didn’t see NYC skyline as we flew in, again, wrong side of plane. But as we were landing, I saw Trump’s plane. That was cool. We had to wait a bit for a van to take us to our hotel. I still couldn’t believe I was in NYC, I think mainly because I hadn’t seen anything that made me go, “Wow! I’m in New York.” That would come later.
Driving to the hotel, Waldorf Astoria, was interesting. People say Atlanta traffic is bad. Hah! Try driving in New York. Now I see why every one walks or takes the Metro. We finally arrived at the hotel and I was floored. It is a beautiful hotel. Very “posh”. Our room was on the 7th floor and had a relitivly nice view.
After we settled in a bit we stepped out to Park Ave and the surrounding streets. This was fun. Just getting to see all the little shops and such. And all the people! Whew! We ate dinner at a little Deli called Rosen’s. Very good. Had some awesome fries. Then headed back up to the room in time to catch Lost. J
All in all, a good first day.
Day Two - Sept 22, 2005
Our morning started with figuring out where to go and how. It was finally decided that we’d take the Metro to the World Trade Center area. We bought a Metro card and took our first trip on the subway. As we were walking down to the subway area, I happened to turn around and look up (no clue why) and there was the Chrysler building. At that moment I went, ohmygosh! I’m in New York City! Took a couple pictures of that.
The subway was pretty quick. I was surprised at its relative cleanliness. It was dingy, but there wasn’t trash all over the floor and seats. Thankfully!
We made it fine to the WTC site. It was really amazing. They’ve done a lot of clean up work in that area. The have already begun re-building tower #7 which collapsed at 6pm. I got a good pic of that with a flag in front.
What impressed me most though was not the site itself, but the church, St. Pauls, across from it. They have little info things on the inside about 9/11 and how the church served the works. It was really amazing. Looking at the church, a small building built in 1766, you would never realize the important role it played. I can also imagine that before 9/11 people used to just walk past it and ignore it. It has some really old graves in it. Some of them you can’t read the inscription on any more.
From there we went to Century 21, a discount department store. I bought mom a Nine West purse. Something I promised her. It was a good price to. (and she really likes it!) They had a lot of designer things “on sale”. (Used to be $200, now $100) I also bought a pair of black knee socks for a costume there. It was a good price, so I figured, why not?
After that we walked ( a looong way) to South Street Seaport. But it was a very nice port and I had a really good Roast Beef and Provolone sandwhich there. Also got a couple good pictures. Though as I was going up the stairs to take a pic of something, I slipped and nearly fell. Thankfully I was already holding on to the railing and caught myself.
We took my first taxi from there back to the hotel. I was surprised really at how clean all the taxi’s were. And very grateful! I wasn’t sure what to expect from them, but was pleasantly surprised. And even though we only ever had one taxi driver whose name I could pronounce, they all drove pretty well and knew where they were going.
We met Miradan from ASF at the hotel and then went and had coffee with her for about an hour. That was a lot of fun. One thing I like about taveling and the internet, is getting to meet people you know online. Miradan was really nice and helped us figure out some subway things. If your ever in New York, don’t miss a chance to meet her. J
We returned to the hotel and got read to go to Phantom. There I discovered my stockings where to light and looked really bad with my outfit. (knee length blue skirt, black shoes) I was crushed. And to think I’d almost brought a pair of black slacks. Then, my stockings (which were thigh highs) kept falling around my knees. So I got into a little corner at a building, and off they came. On our way to the theater I stopped and got some darker pair of stockings, this helped tremendously. We got to the theater district to late to eat dinner, so we shopped a little bit at the theater store. There I bought me a t-shirt that says, “But what I really want to do is direct” and magnet for a friend.
Finally the theater doors opened and we got our seats. Yay! The Majestic is a beautiful theater. And had some rather comfortable seats. We also had third row seats. J It was amazing! We had third row seats in a beautiful theater. Hugh Panaro was a wonderful Phantom. I was afraid I wouldn't like him as I had heard he was similar to Michael Crawford, who (I'm sorry) I can't stand. Voice is way to high. But Panaro had a wonderful voice and I enjoyed it very much. They really all had wonderful voices. It was great getting to see it live. Though I admit a little strange seeing a 30y.o. playing Christine. ;-) It was nice knowing what was going on, after having seen the film and all. Though sometimes I expected something to sound a certain way or to be said one way, and it wasn't. Masquarade was amazing. Some really great costumes. Again, very different from the film. Which is black and white. Play it is much more colorful.
After the play we went to Times Square for my first time. Wow! That was really amazing. It was so bright, and there were sooo many people! We ended up eating dinner at Planet Hollywood in Times Square. I got some kind of chicken appitizer that I could hardly eat because I didn’t like the flavor. Then home again.
More will come later. I'm finished for now.
BTW- This is a public entry. If you are family or the like and would like to leave a comment and don't have a LJ account, you can do so anonymously. Just make sure and let me know who you are!
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/esteleru/album?.dir=/60d2 - Pictures
Day One- Sept 21, 2005
I am not afraid of flying! Thank goodness. That was on of my largest fears. Of course, sitting there thinking about Lost and the 9/11 attacks did make me start panicking a little. But I finally got control of myself and was able to enjoy our flight. The last time I flew commercial, I was a baby. Not even a year yet I think. So as you can imagine, I don’t remember it. It was so much fun to look down and see everything passing. Sometimes it was green, and other times it looked like a giant patchwork quilt! We passed over Washington DC, but I was on the wrong side of the plane. Oh well.
We landed at LaGuardia at 1:40, right on time. Didn’t see NYC skyline as we flew in, again, wrong side of plane. But as we were landing, I saw Trump’s plane. That was cool. We had to wait a bit for a van to take us to our hotel. I still couldn’t believe I was in NYC, I think mainly because I hadn’t seen anything that made me go, “Wow! I’m in New York.” That would come later.
Driving to the hotel, Waldorf Astoria, was interesting. People say Atlanta traffic is bad. Hah! Try driving in New York. Now I see why every one walks or takes the Metro. We finally arrived at the hotel and I was floored. It is a beautiful hotel. Very “posh”. Our room was on the 7th floor and had a relitivly nice view.
After we settled in a bit we stepped out to Park Ave and the surrounding streets. This was fun. Just getting to see all the little shops and such. And all the people! Whew! We ate dinner at a little Deli called Rosen’s. Very good. Had some awesome fries. Then headed back up to the room in time to catch Lost. J
All in all, a good first day.
Day Two - Sept 22, 2005
Our morning started with figuring out where to go and how. It was finally decided that we’d take the Metro to the World Trade Center area. We bought a Metro card and took our first trip on the subway. As we were walking down to the subway area, I happened to turn around and look up (no clue why) and there was the Chrysler building. At that moment I went, ohmygosh! I’m in New York City! Took a couple pictures of that.
The subway was pretty quick. I was surprised at its relative cleanliness. It was dingy, but there wasn’t trash all over the floor and seats. Thankfully!
We made it fine to the WTC site. It was really amazing. They’ve done a lot of clean up work in that area. The have already begun re-building tower #7 which collapsed at 6pm. I got a good pic of that with a flag in front.
What impressed me most though was not the site itself, but the church, St. Pauls, across from it. They have little info things on the inside about 9/11 and how the church served the works. It was really amazing. Looking at the church, a small building built in 1766, you would never realize the important role it played. I can also imagine that before 9/11 people used to just walk past it and ignore it. It has some really old graves in it. Some of them you can’t read the inscription on any more.
From there we went to Century 21, a discount department store. I bought mom a Nine West purse. Something I promised her. It was a good price to. (and she really likes it!) They had a lot of designer things “on sale”. (Used to be $200, now $100) I also bought a pair of black knee socks for a costume there. It was a good price, so I figured, why not?
After that we walked ( a looong way) to South Street Seaport. But it was a very nice port and I had a really good Roast Beef and Provolone sandwhich there. Also got a couple good pictures. Though as I was going up the stairs to take a pic of something, I slipped and nearly fell. Thankfully I was already holding on to the railing and caught myself.
We took my first taxi from there back to the hotel. I was surprised really at how clean all the taxi’s were. And very grateful! I wasn’t sure what to expect from them, but was pleasantly surprised. And even though we only ever had one taxi driver whose name I could pronounce, they all drove pretty well and knew where they were going.
We met Miradan from ASF at the hotel and then went and had coffee with her for about an hour. That was a lot of fun. One thing I like about taveling and the internet, is getting to meet people you know online. Miradan was really nice and helped us figure out some subway things. If your ever in New York, don’t miss a chance to meet her. J
We returned to the hotel and got read to go to Phantom. There I discovered my stockings where to light and looked really bad with my outfit. (knee length blue skirt, black shoes) I was crushed. And to think I’d almost brought a pair of black slacks. Then, my stockings (which were thigh highs) kept falling around my knees. So I got into a little corner at a building, and off they came. On our way to the theater I stopped and got some darker pair of stockings, this helped tremendously. We got to the theater district to late to eat dinner, so we shopped a little bit at the theater store. There I bought me a t-shirt that says, “But what I really want to do is direct” and magnet for a friend.
Finally the theater doors opened and we got our seats. Yay! The Majestic is a beautiful theater. And had some rather comfortable seats. We also had third row seats. J It was amazing! We had third row seats in a beautiful theater. Hugh Panaro was a wonderful Phantom. I was afraid I wouldn't like him as I had heard he was similar to Michael Crawford, who (I'm sorry) I can't stand. Voice is way to high. But Panaro had a wonderful voice and I enjoyed it very much. They really all had wonderful voices. It was great getting to see it live. Though I admit a little strange seeing a 30y.o. playing Christine. ;-) It was nice knowing what was going on, after having seen the film and all. Though sometimes I expected something to sound a certain way or to be said one way, and it wasn't. Masquarade was amazing. Some really great costumes. Again, very different from the film. Which is black and white. Play it is much more colorful.
After the play we went to Times Square for my first time. Wow! That was really amazing. It was so bright, and there were sooo many people! We ended up eating dinner at Planet Hollywood in Times Square. I got some kind of chicken appitizer that I could hardly eat because I didn’t like the flavor. Then home again.
More will come later. I'm finished for now.
BTW- This is a public entry. If you are family or the like and would like to leave a comment and don't have a LJ account, you can do so anonymously. Just make sure and let me know who you are!