New York City

The first morning, this is what we woke up to - Times Square!  We are really in New York City! The building just left of center will all the billboards has the new years ball on top.  That's THE ball that drops to bring in the new year.

The view out our other window looked to the west and the Hudson River.  Dan went out for an early morning walk and brought back delicious breakfast treats for us each morning - bagels, pastries, egg sandwiches, even the food from the sidewalk carts was something to anticipate.

To begin our introduction to the city, we decided to take a Grayline bus tour on a double decker bus.  This is one of those tours you can get off and on at any stop, explore, and then rejoin the tour when you are ready.  It gave us a much needed overview of the city.  Each time we got on, we sat on top of the bus.

We saw many sites and buildings along the way.  Adam was in charge of one of the cameras for part of the trip, and we have many many many pictures of buildings, signs and people.  I won't include them all here - you can thank me later.

We took the tour down to Battery Park, which was our closest stop to Ground Zero.  This was a sculpture that was at the World Trade Center when it was destroyed.  They recovered it and placed it in Battery Park with all its dents and scars as a remembrance.

This is Ground Zero.  It is under construction as you probably know.  The tallest tower in the center of the picture is the Freedom Tower.  When it is completed, it will stand 1776 feet tall - hence the name.  Bryce visited this spot when he was touring with his Jamboree troop last year.  He was amazed when we arrived on the site.  He said last year they were building the foundation and you couldn't really see anything that looked like a building. 

As we stood on the corner looking at the construction, a man approached us.  His appearance led us to think he was homeless, but as we talked with him, he shared the history and experience of that day we call 9/11.  He had pictures of the skyline, of the planes hitting, of the dust exploding into the streets as the towers came down.  He was an amazing teacher of history.  His motto - Don't let history be a mystery.  We visited with him for quite a while.  As we left, the construction workers told us, "He's the real deal.  He does more in educating people than the museum that has been set up."  In fact, we found out he has been interviewed by several media reporters and has been dubbed, "The World Trade Center Man."  We were so captivated by his story that we neglected to get his picture.

 

The day was slipping away and we had a play at 7:00 pm, so we hopped back on the bus to complete our downtown tour and head back to the hotel.  A quick view of Brooklyn over the East River.

It was exciting to see the United Nations building.

A glimpse of some of the national flags in front of the UN.

We finally arrived back at the room in enough time to grab a quick bite of food, change clothes and head out for the Al Hirschfeld Theatre and the play "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying."  It was starring Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) and we were so excited!

Here we are in the theatre.  The theatres in New York are similar to those in London - small, ornate and a great place to see a play!

Check out those light fixtures.  You can get just a taste of how interesting the theatre itself is to view.  The play far exceeded our expectations!  A month earlier we had rented the old movie to familiarize the boys with the story and music - but we were sadly disappointed in the movie.  But we had already bought the theatre tickets and were looking forward to seeing Daniel Radcliffe in person.

The play was fabulous!  It is set in the 60's, but for the play they had updated the jokes, and the dance numbers and songs were lively and kept the story moving (unlike the movie).  We came out of the theatre humming "The Brotherhood of Man" and Bryce lamented the fact that we had not bought the CD.  We may have to acquire it via the internet.  If you get a chance, go see this play. 

On our walk back to the hotel we stopped for a photo op in Times Square.  It was Thursday night, but it was packed with people, and the billboards light up the area like it is daytime.

When we got back to the room, and were winding down from the excitement of the play, we came around the corner and found Bryce literally in the window.  He had spotted the lights of the theatre (if he was up in the very top corner of the window!)

That got everyone to the window, and then we were all mesmerized by the billboards and activity in Times Square.  One of the electronic billboards (really huge HD TVs) had mormonads running on it.  The Church had just started these ads in the city the week we arrived.  So we watched the billboard until the mormonads cycled around.

What a great start to our week in the Big Apple!