New York, New York

In the spirit of adventure and because I really wanted to see a Broadway show, I travelled with my mother and visiting relatives to New York City after only a week at home. We rode the bus down, which was mostly okay until we exited the highway and travelled a hundred blocks in Manhattan traffic. At best, you can make it four blocks per green light. I spent the next hour counting down the blocks to the bus drop off point.

While planning for the trip, we decided to see a Broadway show on our first night in the city. Based on ticket availability and price, I chose The Phantom of the Opera. We got seats in the rear mezzanine, which were just fine for me. I could hear and see all of the show, excepting parts missed because the people in the row in front of us kept moving. Other people had complained online about everything from the ushers shining flashlights in peoples’ faces for cell phone use to an ancient subpar sound system to not being able to see anything without a telescope from the rear mezzanine, but I didn’t have any of these issues. The show was great; the only thing I would have liked was to see more of the pit. Yes, I am aware you go to a Broadway show to see the stage, but I’m a musician¹.

The Majestic Theatre, home to Phantom on Broadway

Day two was spent at the Museum of Natural History, crossing a large portion of Central Park, and at Times Square. The Museum of Natural History is my favorite New York City museum, because they have a giant whale.^2,3 We also saw lots of other animals and rocks, and an entire hallway full of the mussels of New York. Very exciting. The crossing of Central Park was partly thanks to my fabulous wayfinding skills. My home city is Boston, okay? I don’t know how to navigate if I can’t turn kind of left onto a one way street. The grid makes too much sense. And our last event of the day was stopping by Times Square to see vast amounts of people and lights. Why so many people flock to Times Square just to see it, I don’t know, but the lights kind of make it look like year-round Christmas.

Obligatory photo of Times Square at night, since this is a post about New York City

Day three featured the 9/11 Memorial Museum and the Empire State Building. I did not go up the Empire State Building because I’d been not too long ago and it’s a glorified, expensive elevator ride. (See: previous post’s comments regarding the CN Tower.) I had been to the 9/11 memorial a couple times previously, but this trip was the my first time seeing the museum. There was a lot to see; the main exhibit is a detailed walkthrough of the events of 9/11 with photos, recovered items, and audio and video clips. After the Empire State Building, we called it an early night.

Highline Park

The next morning, our last day, we went to Highline Park. It’s an interesting concept – the entire park is built on an old elevated railway bed – but it was surprisingly crowded, and there was a lot of construction in the surrounding neighborhoods. Large portions of the park were surrounded by plastic sheeting and you could hear drills/hammering/large machinery a lot of the time. I’d like to walk it again after the revitalization happens. After lunch, we made another quick stop at Central Park, then caught the bus back to New England. We got caught in traffic. Again.

¹Debatable
²I haven’t been to the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, which I’ve heard is also good.
³Favorites of the Smithsonian museums in DC are the Air and Space Museum and the Natural History Museum. I’m also a fan of giant Lincoln.