The big expense of our NYC trip was Broadway tickets to see The Lion King. It was really the highlight of our trip & I'm so glad we did it! We went back and forth between this and Hamilton, and I'm definitely glad we saw The Lion King. The opening act was so good & nearly had me in tears. It's a pretty small theatre & those performers were incredible! The Lion King has always been one of my favorites...I remember vividly getting the VHS tape in my Easter basket in 1995 shortly after it came out. And I bought a Lion King journal the first time I ever went into a Disney Store, in Penn Square Mall on a field trip in the 7th or 8th grade. All that to say, The Lion King has sentimental value to me, so I loved seeing it on Broadway. The girls loved it as well! Brian, on the other hand...well...he didn't feel very good and he ended up leaving at the intermission. I really think he was completely exhausted and just needed to rest. He ended up meeting back up with us at John's Pizzeria in Times Square for dinner afterwards. Then we finished out the day with a trip to the Empire State Building and Carlos Bakery. I was glad he got to feeling better and was able to enjoy the evening with us!
Our theater loving girl was very excited to see a show on Broadway!
They were playing rock-paper-scissors to see who got the aisle seat for the first half of the show. Pretty sure Mackenzie won.
I tried to sneak and get a few pictures, but I got in trouble...oh well!
The girls both spent some of their souvenir money GMa gave them on Lion King shirts.
This was the view out the window of the Lion King lobby. I didn't realize it was right in the middle of Times Square like this.
We started the morning off riding bikes in Central Park with Brian, before he headed off to meet up with the GoStudents group. You just never know what you're going to see in NYC--the first thing we saw at Central Park was a naked man surrounded by several police officers. We switched directions real fast & I think we managed to keep the girls from seeing too much of that situation! Bike riding didn't exactly go great--there was some kind of race going on in Central Park so there were bikers and runners everywhere...it was just a little chaotic and we really didn't know what we were doing. We also didn't have much time before Brian had to leave us, so we basically just rode around for about 30 minutes and then turned the bikes back in. Then when Brian left, the girls and I found us someone to pull us around the park on a bike! Much better if you ask me! Hahaha! It was actually very cool, because he showed us all kinds of things we wouldn't have known about otherwise. We got to see the original fountain that the Friends fountain was based on, the fountain area from Enchanted (and many other movies), scenes from Home Alone 2, the Alice in Wonderland statue, we got to see the Strawberry Fields Imagine mosaic, and the building where John Lennon was killed, and we went to Belvedere Castle, which was kind of cool. We saw much more of Central Park by doing that bike ride, than we would have on our own. After that I took the girls to the Natural History Museum and we spent a few hours looking around there. Then it was time to make our way back to Times Square for The Lion King. Somehow, I managed to get us completely lost and we almost got hit by a car. Definitely the worst hour and a half of our entire trip. It was not my finest moment & more than one of us was near tears by the time we finally got there. We were planning to go back to the hotel to change and freshen up, but we didn't have time. I wasn't happy about that, but that's just the way it worked out. We ended up going to McDonald's in Times Square and getting some food instead. It was a great morning, followed by a chaotic few hours lost in NYC, leading up to an awesome afternoon on Broadway!
Even on an electric bike, it just isn't my favorite thing to do...
The fountain from Enchanted! They were excited to see this!
The bridge from Home Alone 2:
Millionaire Row in Central Park:
Brian left & we found somebody to drive us around! It was a bit pricey, but worth it to us!
He stopped at several locations and let us get out and take pictures. Our tour of Central Park lasted around 45 minutes with him, and he dropped us off near the Natural History Museum entrance.
This building is in a lot of movies. The only one I remember right now is Smurfs, but I think the girls said it was in Enchanted too.
The Alice in Wonderland statue in Central Park.
The girls didn't really get how cool this was, but I loved seeing the original fountain that the opening scene from Friends is based on. And of course we had to take jumping pics!
Famous people live in these two towers, but I don't remember who...maybe Dustin Hoffman? Ha!
This bridge is also in Enchanted.
John Lennon was shot in front of this building.
We managed to find the very worst street vendor pretzel and fries in all of NYC. No joke. Ick!
The pigeons liked it at least...
Natural History Museum time! They still required masks in here, so it was HOT. I wasn't overly excited about going there again, since I'd already been once, but I'm glad the girls got to see it. Their consensus was the same as mine--not anything like Night at the Museum!
Had to take these pics for Jonah, our very own Abe!
Lost in NYC...
Their expressions tell all...
Girls if you are reading this, I am very sorry that your Mother sometimes spazzes out and gets completely stressed and crazy! I hope this was not the defining moment and what you remember most about our trip to NYC. Everything but this two hour time period was great, right?! I love you & I'm sorry we almost got run over and lost in NYC.
Maybe the best Diet Coke I've ever had in my life...and not because it was just that good, but because I was so thirsty and hot (and so relieved to not be lost anymore) that anything would have been amazing!
