Start Spreading the news...we are going to New York in the Fall this year!

New York City: Day 1

We flew into Newark arriving really late. We are staying in this crazy new modern hotel called Moxy. It is really modern and really small rooms. We have an entire wall with pegs on the wall for our closet and I have to climb over Scott to get and out of the bed. It is nice and comfy but a little loud since they have a bar on the 2nd floor (right under our room on the 3rd floor) and bragged about having the nicest rooftop bar in NYC so we went to check it out last night after arriving. It took us about 20 minutes to figure out how to get to the roof with this crazy elevator service they have here, but turns out we had to go down to lobby, outside to the bouncer and then let in to the magic elevator that would take us to the rooftop. It was loud, crowded, couldn't really even see NYC from there and we just felt old. So we left and came back to the room to sleep!

(Moxy Hotel)

This morning we headed straight to our food tour that went from 10:30-1:30. This is the second food tour we have done here in NYC. I think we did an Italian one last year so this year we did a tour of the lower East side. It was much more enjoyable this year doing it in sunny 70 degree weather verses the frigid temps of January. We also got way more food on the tour this year...too much food! Here are the stops we made on our tour starting with the bakery which was our meeting point. I guess I should mention too that our stops were all Jewish shops or originally catered to the Jewish population.

 Eating knishes (potato dumplings) from Yonah Schimmel's Knish

 Second stop was Russ and Daughters for a sweet appetizer called Rugelach.

 The third stop was our favorite! This is where they filmed the famous deli scene in "When Harry Met Sally". They basically have a bouncer at the front door to enforce their ticket policy. Everyone gets a ticket upon entering and that then becomes your bill you must pay upon leaving. If you lose your ticket, there is a $50 fee that must be paid to leave the deli! We actually saw this in action as one girl in front of us leaving the restaurant misplaced it and they hauled her back in to the deli and she couldn't leave until she produced the ticket or paid $50! But we shared a half a pastrami sandwich and it was to die for!

 Fourth stop was a good old-fashions candy store. 

 They had about any candy you could want there. 

 Our food to taste at this stop though was a sesame candy that looked like fudge but had a different texture. It totally reminded of something I ate while studying in Israel. It was called halvah and was quite good. 

 If you ever needed a joke gift or to find something unique, this was the place. I guess you can order from them online too. 

 Our 5th stop was to check out the new Essex Market that had just recently been moved. But before exploring for a few minutes on our own, we got to do some Olive oil and balsamic vinegar education and testing. 

Our 6th stop was a to try a Chinese dumpling from Vanessa's. This was still in the lower East end but quite close to Chinatown. We took our dumplings to go and found some park benches to eat on. They were pork and chive filled dumplings and really good...we just getting so full at this point!

 Stop #7 was to the Pickle Guys. Not our favorite stop but interesting still the same. The store was basically a bunch of barrels with pickled things. The unique thing about this store is that they pickle things without any vinegar. But they had about any pickled fruit or vegetable you could think of in there. We also tried some fried pickles as a bonus from their next door store that they are just starting.

 Next to last stop was Kossar's to try their bagels and Bialeys. 

Bialeys are a lot like bagels except flatter. Both were really good but we were just so full we could barely split the little sample provided. 

 Then if that wasn't enough food, we ended off the tour at a doughnut shop that beat our Bobbie Flay on a TV challenge with their cake doughnuts. 

 Somewhere between stops #6 and #7 Scott accidentally stepped on the back of my shoe and this was the result. 

 Luckily we had just passed a shoe repair shop so after we finished the food tour, we backtracked a bit to the shoe repair shop where this kind gentleman from Russian Jewish decent quickly fixed my shoe for $10

Our next stop was to the Sea Port TKTS booth to purchase tickets to a show for tonight and tomorrow's matinee. We scored some great seats to see the musical Tootsie and a Play called SeaHall/A Life starring Jake Gyllenhaal.

After we had our tickets in hand, we went to walk the High Line Elevated Park which was built about 10 years ago over a historic freight train rail that now hosts benches, food, flower and herb gardens and views of the city and several murals.

Towards the end of the park, we took the detour that takes you to Hudson Harbors to view the honeycomb shaped structure called the Vessel. The Vessel is a huge new landmark made up of spiral staircases for no other purpose than to be climbed to gain perspectives of the city from different angles, heights and vantage points. It was quite impressive! We both got freaked out a little at the top when we looked down and saw how far up we were and how easy it would be jump (or fall) from the structure. The outside of it is reflective and made me think that is the sister structure to the famous Chicago Bean structure, only this one could be deadly!

We finished off our first day strong with a great viewing of the musical "Tootsie". We laughed through the entire show. The performances were so good, their voices amazing and the they followed the movie pretty closely from what I could remember except for the fact that in the movie the lead dresses as a woman to get a part on a soap opera where as on the stage show, it all revolves around stage shows. Scott was so funny. At intermission he turns to me and says, "The show is great and so funny but they aren't following the story line at all. But I still love it!". I asked him what was different from the movie and he said that the movie takes place in San Francisco  and he isn't an actor but a housekeeper. It didn't take long before I realized he had mistaken Tootsie for Mrs. Doubtfire!

New York City: Day 2

Scott had been out and run over 8 miles in Central Park before I even got out of bed this morning! Nothing gets your daily steps in like getting lost in Central Park!

We made it out of the hotel just in time to grab some Joe's Pizza for brunch before heading to our first show of the day.

Our first showing of the day was a play called "Sea Wall/A Life". It was a drama that only had two actors and one of them was Jake Gyllenhaal, who is a big name in Hollywood. We really enjoyed the play and thought both of the actors were amazing. It is quite something to be able to stand up there and speak non-stop for almost an hour and a half. Each actor gave a monologue for one half of the play. The first half was Sea Life where he shared about his life of meeting his wife, having a daughter, his close relationship with his father-in law and then losing his 8 year old daughter and blaming his father in law. Then after intermission, Jake Gyllenhaal told his story jumping back and forth without a pause between the birth of his daughter and the death of his father. Really though provoking and enjoyable.

We made a quick stop at the TKTS stand to get tickets for a night show and decided on seeing "Oklahoma". We figured it was a classic and we couldn't go wrong with that! We had a few hours to spare before the show started so we decided to take a stroll through Central Park.

After fighting our way back through Times Square and a quick stop at Old Navy to buy a little jacket and some sale items for the grand babies we made it to our theater to see "Oklahoma". All we knew before seeing the show was that most of the show had the theater lights on trying to include the audience more, all actors stayed on stage even when it wasn't their scene and they did away with the big orchestra for a small stings band also featured on stage, we got free chili and cornbread at intermission, and that it was a revival meaning they had made some changes to make it more modern.

Well, all of the above was true, including the free chili and cornbread at intermission! But Scott and I are still not really sure what we just witnessed on that stage. It was so bizarre. It was like Oklahoma meets the zombie apocalypse. It felt like about three or four different storied all smashed into one. I guess they tried to vilify the hero a bit and romanticize the villain a bit more than the original. There were some really dark parts to it, literally and figuratively. There were two times they turned out all the lights as we sat in complete darkness to listen to some very dark conversations about suicide and forced sexuality! We left confused but entertained. Probably a little bit more confused than entertained though.

New York City: Day 3

Started our day off by attending church. We love going to church here in NYC. First of all, the church building is in the same building as the NYC temple and second of all, it is such a diverse ward. And with today being Fast and Testimony meeting, we were reminded of that all over again. The funny thing was that they released a couple from a calling then re-called them to work in the primary. It took me a second but I quickly realized why their names sound familiar - it was Tyson Cantrell and his wife. We knew him as Elder Cantrell and years ago he was one of our favorite missionaries that served in our ward. Unfortunately, he and his wife were not there today but it would have been fun to surprise him and say hello.

After church we found a nice little spot for some brunch and then had to head to Levain Bakery for dessert. We had to. It was just too close not to stop by. We tried a dark chocolate chocolate chip and a chocolate peanut butter chip cookie.

We wandered through Central Park again as we made our way back to the hotel to change clothes before our first show. On our way to the park we passed by the apartment complex where John Lennon lived and was also where died just outside his building.

Our first show of the day was a play called "Betrayal". It is basically a three-actor play (there is a 4th actor that you see briefly during one scene who is also the under-study to the other two male roles). It was creative in the way that it told the story of a broken marriage due to an affair - but in reverse. The  play opens with the end of the marriage and then goes back in time to show how the affair ever got started. The play was done really well and the acting was great. As it should have been since one of the actors was Tom Hiddleston (plays Loki from Thor and Avenger movies). He is kind of a big deal. The kids were totally jealous and are now fighting over our autographed Playbill. Too bad it's mine, all mine!

Then we found a Peruvian restaurant that we loved and would like to go back to in a future trip. It was called Pio Pio and Scott claims they have the best Lomo Saltado he has ever eaten!

Then it was time for the final show: Moulin Rouge. I can't think of a better way to finish our weekend or any show that could produce more of a finale! You definitely feel like you entered the den of iniquity during the pre-show but everything about the show was over-the-top! The theater itself, the dancing, the music, the singing, the stage sets, the acting and the special effects were all I had hoped they would be. There were liberties taken from the movie version but that is to be expected and did not detract from the overall story line. I was afraid I would miss the original soundtrack but it was really fun seeing how they told the story through more current and updated songs as well.

Another successful weekend in the Big Apple. We are already planning for when we can come back!