Anyway... breakfast was quick and then we went to the Manhattan Temple. Pretty cool. It was super small and had at least 3 floors from what we could tell (maybe it was only two). To save ourselves a little time (and because it was Gordon and Jessica's anniversary week) we did sealings. Always a good experience. We didn't do too many, but we did help another couple seal some of their family, including sons. We also went and spent a few minutes in the Celestial room as well. Very small and simple, kind of reminded me of the London temple, but smaller.
We caught a bit of luck with our lunch and snack agenda that day (we started wondering if we should have started every day with a stop in at the temple. For once... our meal and snacks were on our way to our next destination, not busy, and also a bit on the cheaper side. Lunch was at Gray Papaya's. A hot dog place with good hot dogs (can you get a really great hot dog without it being some kind of sausage or bratwurst?? A hot dot is sort of just a hot dog) and a whole variety of fresh juices. I think Justin and Jessica liked there's a lot, Gordon and I ended up getting Pina Colada and I think we got the end of the barrel. It was kind of pulpy and not too cold, but we tasted Jessica's (who got the same thing) and it was much better.
Just another block or two up from lunch was our snack place. Levain's bakery. I'm not much of a foodie. I like to eat food that tastes good, and I have a few favorites from a few different places and things I make. But this cookie??? I swear to you, I will go to my grave and never find a better tasting cookie. I can't stress how serious I am. It wasn't even just the flavor of cookie, which was Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter, and it was delicious, but I'm sure that there is at least 2/3 cup of dough that goes in to each cookie. And it was cooked so perfect, a bit hard on the outside -without being burnt- and completely done on the inside, but since it was so big it almost had the texture or feel of the dough. It's hard to explain, but trust me, if you're EVER in New York and regardless of how out-of-the-way it would be for you to stop by Levain's bakery in the Upper West Side, do yourself a favor. Stop and get a cookie. Or two. I just got on their website and noticed that they ship. That could be a problem.
After the cookie experience, we made our way to Broadway. We had a hard time choosing which show to see, and would have been happy with a lot of them, I'm sure. But, we went and saw the musical Once. We all loved it. It was pretty much the first professional theatre experience for Gordon and Jess. I know Gordon saw Phantom of the Opera with our family in San Francisco, but he may have blocked it out of his memory for some reason. It was a small-ish theatre and our seats were decent. You could hear and see everything. The story is made up of a bunch of musicians, so the talent on that little stage was incredible. Each person could sing (of course), and they each played at least one other instrument -piano, accordian, guitar, banjo, cello, violin, etc. It was great music and a great story. Even for a love story -which I wasn't too thrilled at. It was a movie first (came out in 2007 and was an Official selection at Sundance, so I how I missed it, I'm not sure), and I was actually familiar with the main song from my cousin Annie on her blog a few years ago. One other unique part was the stage was essentially set up like a bar, so before and during intermission they actually opened it up and could you get a drink and snacks right on the stage. Pretty cool.
While walking back from the show we had our second of two celebrity sightings. The first one really only counted for Jessica, since the other three of us had no idea who the guy was (she didn't until she got home and looked it up) and doubted the entire time that he was any kind of celebrity. But, we were about 2 feet away from Rizzo from Grease (Stockard Channing) currently appearing in Memphis, which is where she was standing. Right after that we noticed a commotion on 5th ave and stopped to gawk. They were clearing everyone off the street for a block or two and we could see a filming car at the far end. We watched two cars race by and I asked one of the security-type guys what they were doing. He said they were just filming an Altima commericial. I told him he could have told us it was a celebrity in the car and we would have believed him, so he said that Will Smith was in the car and they were doing a movie. A bunch of people around us heard and thought that's what they were really doing. Pretty cool either way, I guess.
We made the trek up to Tiffany & Co on 5th. I had been saving my birthday and even some Christmas money to buy something. Pretty much anything from there on this trip. I walked out empty handed. Maybe on that fictional future trip with my girlfriends I'll bring something shiny home.
I believe after that we made our way to dinner in the West Village at Westville. It was a super small, very local and organic restaurant. We lucked out again and only had to wait for a few minutes for a table, which was nice since there was only about 7 or 8 tables in the place. I guess it pays to eat like Utahns (dinner around 6 instead of 9) because I'm sure places got even busier the later it was.
We made our way to the Empire State Building, but not before getting a shake at Stand4 and walking through Union Square for a bit. Not to over-shadow the cookie I had earlier, but I'm a fan of mint and cookies and cream, and I will almost always get some kind of variation of that whenever I order shakes. Which, is what I got at Stand4. (A really cool-looking and upscale hamburger place, I'm sure it had good food too). Best mint cookies and cream shake ever. Gordon got the same thing (do you notice a pattern?) and he agreed he'd never had one quite like it. It was with the mint, and I'm not sure why it was so good. Maybe it was spearmint instead of peppermint? Or maybe it was fresh mint, what ever kind it was, but it hit your taste buds in a different place and then after you swallowed you got the taste of mint again. Delicious.
We didn't stay in Union Square long. Long enough to watch some chess players, notice a passed out guy and his vomit on the side of him and for me to get hit by a football. Just your regular stuff at Union Square I think. We also saw some cool street-preforming-type guys making huge bubbles out of two sticks with string between them.
I'd like to forget most of the next 3 hours (Justin said it was two, but I think it was closer to two and half or more). We decided to go up the Empire State building at night. Here's a tip for any of you future travelers out there. I like the idea of going up one of the buildings (between Empire and 30Rock) at night and one during the day, you get a different view of the city. However, avoid all the romantic's out there, and do 30 Rock at night. We waited over 2 hours in line. When I went up in 2005, there was no line. None. We may have waited for the elevator to open for us and it is possible we waited for one or two elevators to go down, but no line. This was unreal. And, just when you thought you were through with the line, there was a turn or another escalator, and it was another line. The guys had been in dress shoes all day and Gordon had about had enough. I had abandoned my 'comfy' shoes earlier and was in souvenir flip flops and I'll blame the extra pounds in my front, because my back was killing me. Anyway... other than being stuck in a large group of high school kids (including one that had body odor so bad it was unreal) and a french lady standing behind us that could not stop 'inching' her way in front of us... we found ways to entertain ourselves. However, it had been just Justin and I there is NO WAY I would have stood in line, and I'm not sure what Gordon would have done, but we did it. Got our pictures and got back in line to go back down as soon as we could.
On our way back to the subway/bus terminal we walked up to Times Square so Gordon and Jess could see it at night too. It was a long day and I was sure that my feet wouldn't fully recover in the 6 hours we had back in our hotel before we started our next day. And I was mostly right.
I didn't know "once" was a musical. How cool is that? I absolutely love the movie! The music is breath-taking. There are a couple songs that always make me cry - I had seen the movie literally a few days before Grandma passed away. I'd had food poisoning (was barely pregnant with wyatt) and this was the movie I requested from Red Box. The movie has faded from memory but not the music.
ReplyDeleteSuper cool!