I had high hopes of posting this on Friday, but mom duties won out and I had to shelve it. How on earth did you all handle the suspense of waiting the entire weekend to hear about the rest of the adventure?! Okay, I'm teasing...sort of.
Saturday morning started with a beautiful walk to Central Park. We planned to grab some breakfast on the way, but somehow all the restaurants disappeared so we had our first meal of the day from a cart. Cart food is expensive, did you know?
The highlights of that beautiful park included:
a giant chess competition surrounding Bethesda Fountain,
the awesome views from Belvedere Castle,
Photo credit: Brett
Photo credit: Brett
a tour through Shakespeare's garden,
Photo credit: Brett
a visit to the Strawberry Fields memorial,
Photo credit: Brett
and a celebrity sighting. Brett suggested we perform our favorite Shakespearean monologues while in the Shakespeare garden. I said no. Why? I felt super self-conscious performing in a garden whilst tourists ambled by, but I pushed through that and we retreated to a bench to look up monologues. While sitting there I saw a man dressed in black running clothes and a black baseball cap pulled low, jogging with his dog. He was talking on his cell phone and I heard him say a few words in a familiar English accent. As he passed us I realized why I recognized his voice. I gasped, grabbed Brett by the arm and said, "That was Tom Hiddleston!" She looked at me, a touch confused. She had no idea who he was. "Loki!" was my response. That's right, the actor that played Thor's mischievous brother in the Marvel movies ran by us in Central Park. She suggested we invite him to join us for our monologues. We really should have.
Yes, we have video footage of the monologues. No, I will not post it.
Yes, we have video footage of the monologues. No, I will not post it.
After Central Park, we were famished. Apparently cart food doesn't last forever. This may only impress my brother Jordan, but we got lunch from the Soup Nazi. Or rather, we got soup from the place on which Seinfeld based the Soup Nazi. There really were instructions posted to step up to the window, money in hand, order quickly, then move immediately to the left. We followed the rules, but there also wasn't a line when we got there.
The soup was amazing! I had the ravioli soup and it was one of the best things I ate all weekend. Bonus, it was also one of the most affordable. For $6 I got a cup of soup, a slice of crusty bread, and a banana, all part of the meal. I plan to go back next time I'm in the city.
Once our bellies were full, we went to our fourth Broadway show of the week. Come From Away is about what happened to the planes that couldn't enter US airspace during the 9/11 attacks and the days that followed. Thirty-eight planes were rerouted to the tiny town (that, for refueling purposes, had a giant and mostly unused airport) of Gander, Newfoundland. The locals jumped to action and fed, housed, and clothed seven thousand stranded passengers for at least five days.
You guys, it was transformative.
I'm sure seeing this musical the week of the eighteenth anniversary of 9/11 made it more profound for me, but beyond that, it was a fantastic piece of theatre. There are twelve actors, six men and six women, and they each play several characters. The character changes happened by adding a hat and changing how they walked or throwing on a different coat and suddenly speaking in a different dialect. The set was spartan, but the tables and chairs on that stage became airplanes and classrooms and restaurants and animal shelters and homes. Everything and everyone worked so cohesively.
This was the best show we saw during the whole adventure.
Photo credit: Brett
This woman was my favorite. She played Beverly, the first female pilot for American Airlines. If you have access to the soundtrack (I listened on Google Play Music), listen to her song Me and the Sky.
Photo credit: Brett
He was so funny! His comedic timing was spot on.
Photo credit: Brett
One other wonderful thing that happened after the show? All the audience members I passed on my way out were sharing their own experiences from 9/11, where they were, what they were doing when they found out, how it impacted them. When the show began we were mostly strangers. When it ended we were part of a community. That is the power of theatre.
Photo credit: Brett
Come From Away is a short show, it doesn't even have an intermission, so we had a long stretch in the afternoon. One big park wasn't enough for us that day, so we made our way to Highline Park. We detoured at Carlo's Bake Shop first.
The carrot cake was shockingly not super sweet. I sampled it, sans frosting.
Photo credit: Brett
I had never heard of Highline Park until Brett said it was something she wanted to see. It's a park, populated mostly by wildflowers and cool art pieces, built on an old and unused elevated train line. We walked nearly the entire 1.45 miles. I'm really glad we did it.
Photo credit: Brett
We were running out of time by the end of our walk, so we got on the subway and headed uptown, back to the theater district. We stopped at Kodama Sushi for dinner.
Photo credit: Brett
It was scrumptious. Also, that girl totally photo-bombed our sushi picture.
Photo credit: Brett
After dinner and before our final activity of the night, I took a minute to call home and say family prayers with Bryan and the kids. I stood against a building near the restaurant in a well lit and populated area, Brett took the opportunity to pick up a few souvenirs. Just as I finished the call, out of the corner of my eye I saw two young men walk toward me. As they passed in front of me one of them whispered very quietly, "I have cocaine if you want some." I was so shocked my brain had trouble making sense of what I'd heard. By the time I figured it out, they had disappeared into the crowd.
I'm not sure what about me sent the message that I was interested in such a product, but they were quite mistaken.
After my run-in with a drug dealer, we went to our fifth (Peter's reaction, "So, you're basically binge-watching Broadway") and final Broadway show: Tootsie! It was laugh out loud funny, but also had sooooo much profanity. I'm really glad I was able to see Santino Fontana in his Tony-winning role, but I don't think I'll be recommending this one.
Photo credit: Brett
We tried to find the stage door, but took too long and didn't get Santino's autograph. We did get to chat with the actor that played the best friend, the funniest person in the entire show, so that was cool.
Then we stumbled back to our hotel, because it had been a full day!
*Yup, this title is referencing something too!
No comments:
Post a Comment