Yeah it's hard to live so hard to live in the city
Herein lies an account of a day's venture into the city.
Um.
Just so everyone knows, people from my corner of the world generally refer to NYC as "the city" because we're cool like that and we can.
Our (my mother, brother, and I) journey began at 9, and it only took like an hour and a half to get into the city and get ourselves parked. Then we walked the two blocks over to the Discovery exhibition center, got out our super awesome (and pretty) Pompeii tickets (from CostCo, seriously, they have everything there!) and walked right in because, naturally, everyone was going to the Harry Potter exhibit. Now, my mother had previously warned us that she was fairly certain the Pompeii exhibit would be short, because that stuff is old and transporting it is a bitch. But it was actually fairly extensive and we were in there for more than two hours. Then we looked in the HP gift shop, just because. It was awesome and they had some really cool stuff in there. But we decided to have lunch before going through that exhibit, and we walked to the Hard Rock Cafe, where my brother proceeded to drool over guitars and my mother was identifying memorabilia. I spent my time singing along to everything I knew (All-American Rejects, Audioslave, The Killers, and, to my endless delight, Britney Spears). After that, we returned to the exhibition center and went through the HP exhibit. There was a TON of people in there. Our tickets included the audio tour, which consisted of members of the various different departments that worked on the movies. I was feeling super nostalgic when we first walked in, because it's Harry fucking Potter and it's like my childhood is ending right in front of me. They had tons of costumes (and OMG, Emma is so so tiny. Well, she was when they filmed OotP, anyway. I'm between 5'7" and 5'8" and I towered over that mannequin.)and wands and BEDS, HAHA, and everything HP. So then we went into the gift shop for real, and made some decisions about our purchases. My brother got a mug and the MARAUDERS' FUCKING MAP. I got a poster for my dorm room and this:
even though I seriously considered buying a $30 special edition of HPatSS, because the cover was super pretty. So then we walked to Radio City and got tickets for Cirque du Soleil (hooray!) for the three of us and my aunt and uncle. Then we walked to Rockefeller Center and sat for a while because the 12 year old's feet hurt. Cue my mother's eye roll. After a conversation with my uncle, my mother decided our next (and ultimately final) stop was the New York Public Library. OMG PEOPLE, I COULD LIVE IN THERE. It was so fucking gorgeous. My mom was like, "I want that ceiling," and "it just smells like old books in here," so I said, "I KNOW, IT'S GREAT," except it came out more like a blissed-out sigh. Then we walked back to where we parked, and the guy just happened to be moving my mom's car to get to some other guy's car, so score for us. And then, miracle of miracles, it did not take long to get out of the city. And it took like an hour and a half to get home. So now we're all about to pass out, but we had an absolutely lovely day.
Seriously, I recommend both of the exhibits to anyone with the time and inclination, because they were both spectacular.
Um.
Just so everyone knows, people from my corner of the world generally refer to NYC as "the city" because we're cool like that and we can.
Our (my mother, brother, and I) journey began at 9, and it only took like an hour and a half to get into the city and get ourselves parked. Then we walked the two blocks over to the Discovery exhibition center, got out our super awesome (and pretty) Pompeii tickets (from CostCo, seriously, they have everything there!) and walked right in because, naturally, everyone was going to the Harry Potter exhibit. Now, my mother had previously warned us that she was fairly certain the Pompeii exhibit would be short, because that stuff is old and transporting it is a bitch. But it was actually fairly extensive and we were in there for more than two hours. Then we looked in the HP gift shop, just because. It was awesome and they had some really cool stuff in there. But we decided to have lunch before going through that exhibit, and we walked to the Hard Rock Cafe, where my brother proceeded to drool over guitars and my mother was identifying memorabilia. I spent my time singing along to everything I knew (All-American Rejects, Audioslave, The Killers, and, to my endless delight, Britney Spears). After that, we returned to the exhibition center and went through the HP exhibit. There was a TON of people in there. Our tickets included the audio tour, which consisted of members of the various different departments that worked on the movies. I was feeling super nostalgic when we first walked in, because it's Harry fucking Potter and it's like my childhood is ending right in front of me. They had tons of costumes (and OMG, Emma is so so tiny. Well, she was when they filmed OotP, anyway. I'm between 5'7" and 5'8" and I towered over that mannequin.)and wands and BEDS, HAHA, and everything HP. So then we went into the gift shop for real, and made some decisions about our purchases. My brother got a mug and the MARAUDERS' FUCKING MAP. I got a poster for my dorm room and this:
even though I seriously considered buying a $30 special edition of HPatSS, because the cover was super pretty. So then we walked to Radio City and got tickets for Cirque du Soleil (hooray!) for the three of us and my aunt and uncle. Then we walked to Rockefeller Center and sat for a while because the 12 year old's feet hurt. Cue my mother's eye roll. After a conversation with my uncle, my mother decided our next (and ultimately final) stop was the New York Public Library. OMG PEOPLE, I COULD LIVE IN THERE. It was so fucking gorgeous. My mom was like, "I want that ceiling," and "it just smells like old books in here," so I said, "I KNOW, IT'S GREAT," except it came out more like a blissed-out sigh. Then we walked back to where we parked, and the guy just happened to be moving my mom's car to get to some other guy's car, so score for us. And then, miracle of miracles, it did not take long to get out of the city. And it took like an hour and a half to get home. So now we're all about to pass out, but we had an absolutely lovely day.
Seriously, I recommend both of the exhibits to anyone with the time and inclination, because they were both spectacular.