New York was Wicked!!

My sister, Kaiya, and I drove up to NY city on Tuesday to go see Wicked, the musical based on the book by Gregory Maguire. We got into NY around 3:30 in the afternoon and as we were walking from the parking garage to the hotel (which were

right next to each other) my sister notices some action going on across the street from us. She later looked it up online and found out that "in Hell's Kitchen" a teenager had been slashed in the face by another teen ager. She's telling everyone she talks to about it, because that was the most exciting thing during our trip - in her mind anyway.

Anyhoo...we checked into the hotel and decided to walk around the city for an hour or so before we had to get ready for the show. We headed to the Empire State building but we didn't have time to go up to the observation deck. We could have but we would only have had about 15 minutes to take it all in and it really wasn't worth it. We walked to Times Square on the way back (I expected it to be much bigger) and then headed to the hotel to get ready. *Notice the police station in Times Square is lit up in neon as well.

Reason I love going places with my sister: Me, upon seeing a pair of cops on mopeds, "How embarrassing would it be to have to tell your friends you're a moped cop?" Kaiya, "Probably not as embarrassing as having to tell them you're a bicycle cop." Me, "Do you think it's a promotion system? You go from bike cop, to moped cop, to motorcycle cop?" Both of us laugh hysterically.

We ate at Pigalle, the restaurant connected to the hotel. My onion tart came with this FABULOUS sauce, so we asked if we could get some more to dip our bread in. Turns out it was olive oil and pureed chives. Yummy!

From there we went to Wicked, which was at a theater just a couple of blocks from the hotel we were staying in. Our seats were great - up in the back, but almost perfectly centered on the stage.

The show was FANTASTIC! SPECTACULAR!! I'm going to have to start bombarding the Anchorage Concert Association to have them get Wicked up to Anchorage. If any of you get the opportunity to see the show HIGHLY recommend it!

After the show we went for drinks with a friend of Kaiya's from high school. He texted her that he was at the House of Brews just down the street from the theater. Kaiya looked it up on her phone and it directed us to 8th and 46th, so off we went. We get there and do a walk through, but don't see him so Kaiya texts him to ask where he is in the bar. He texts back, upstairs. Well the only thing upstairs from this bar is an apartment, so she texts back, "in the apartment?" He doesn't answer back immediately so we decide to go into the bar and have a beer. I stopped the waitress and asked if there was an upstairs and she replied, "not here, but the other House of Brews does." We were in the wrong bar. So, since we had to walk back past the hotel I made Kaiya go up so I could change clothes since my feet were hurting (yes, Kaiya, I was wearing in appropriate shoes to walk around NY in. Next time let me KNOW we're going to be walking around NY city for EIGHT blocks and I'll wear more sensible shoes). But, had a great time at drinks and then headed back to the hotel.

We left this morning and let me just say that getting OUT of NY is much easier than getting IN. But, got back for Abbie's birthday and my present for her arrived in time. Now I'm doing laundry so I can pack to head to Australia tomorrow. Yeah...so excited!!!