ShannonAlbert.com - June 2009

Had a great Christmas w/family and sitting at the Kansas City airport waiting for our flight to South Carolina now. Post more later!

After the ferry, we headed for some other areas of NYC.

One side of the New York Stock Exchange. This side used to have the street open to drive on but after the first World Trade Center attack in 1993, the street was closed to through traffic.



The other side of NYSE...


Me insisting on wearing my brand spanking new furry hat so that I don't freeze and so that I can annoy my mom...


View of the church up the hill from NYSE...


Next stop is the area where the World Trade Centers formerly stood and Trinity Church where rescue workers slept, ate and were cared for while working all day and night at the site...

An example of what each pew looked like w/a rescue workers coat draped over the end of the pew...






Across the street is where the towers stood but it's a major construction zone right now. This is what you can see through the cracks in the posts into the construction area...


Future plans...







Shortly after this, our tour ended and we were starving! We asked our tour guide where we should get some good pizza and he recommended John's Pizzeria. We were thinking more of a pizzeria where we could order a slice but this ended up being quite a nice place w/really yummy pizza.

We ate the whole thing...


At this point, we were just exhausted and returned to our hotel room to sleep. We slept for a couple of hours, changed into some nicer clothes and then headed out to see The Color Purple musical.

While in line, we waited along the road that goes between where the Late Show is taped and the Broadway theater...


I have to admit that I've never seen The Color Purple or read the book (despite my love of Oprah and her constant talking about it). The story is so fantastic and this musical is the best thing I've ever seen. The main role of Celie is currently being played by Fantasia and her performance brought tears to my eyes on TV and way more in person. It's so moving, she's so good (critics say even better than the actress she replaced who won a Tony for her role). Her run ends in a couple of weeks and I feel so fortunate to have seen it.

Fantasia's performance of one of her main songs at the Tony awards...


Afterward, we had a late dinner at Rosie O'Grady's Steakhouse and once I finally stopped crying, the martinis and food were excellent. Perfect night.

Tomorrow - Tavern on the Green, FAO Schwarz, Rockettes Christmas show and Rockefeller Center

We chose to take a 5 1/2 hour bus tour of some of the NYC sites. We met our bus and at 8:30, a group of 12 of us were off w/our guide showing us the way.

First stop of off the bus is the Strawberry Fields portion of Central Park which is a memorial to John Lennon. His apartment is across the street from this park and Yoko Ono still lives there.






The top floor belongs to Yoko...


Back on the bus, a foggy view of the Empire State Building...


Flat Iron building as seen in Spiderman...


We eventually stopped at the South Sea Port for a bathroom break, some shopping and for some food. I was so cold that I had to get a big furry hat and some extra socks while we were here.

A foggy bridge view from the sea port...




We then boarded the Staten Island Ferry which is about a 25 minute ride and takes you close to the Statue of Liberty. The SoL is closed for refurbishment so it's not worth it to go there right now.

Foggy skyline view from the ferry...





View of another ferry just like the one we took...

Mom and I headed to Grand Central Terminal and tried to keep warm on the walk. brrrr. But once we got there....wow!



There's a holiday light show taking place where they project images on the walls inside the main part of the terminal and holiday music plays.





Off the main room, a holiday craft fair was taking place. It was so beautiful in this room too and each vendor had a very nice niche. We just may have bought some stuff here. ;)



Then we headed for the main dining course and mom decided she'd try some sushi. I ordered us some miso soup, 9 sushi rolls and some drinks and we sat down to eat it. In mom's words she "didn't love" the sushi. That's fine - at least she tried it. :) I did love it though. We then headed out for some shopping and hit some interesting stores.

This train store had a huge NYC replica setup that had so many tiny, tiny details that we couldn't believe such as a small house w/its own train set inside of it.





Looks real but just a replica...


Right near that shop, the subway...that we won't be taking!


The bakery case in Grand Central Terminal Market...


We decided to leave GCT and just walked. We could see the bright flashing lights of Times Square several blocks away and followed them like a firefly but in between, stopped at a diner for some waffles w/bananas on it (don't ask...we were hungry and cold and it was good). Finally, we made it to Times Square...




Everything moves! and is shiny! and makes noise!


We went in and out of a few stores and our last store was Toys R Us.

The ferris wheel that's inside Toys R us...


I've never felt so overwhelmed by a store other than the World of Disney store in Orlando (incidentally, there's a World of Disney NYC store just down the street from this Toys R Us as well). Too many choices and we left empty-handed.

We headed back to our hotel and started reviewing our plans for tomorrow. Tomorrow we've got a 5 1/2 hour guided shuttle tour in the morning and early afternoon and at night we're going to be seeing The Color Purple!

Made it to the hotel around 3 after a fairly uneventful flight on Midwest. First time flying Midwest and definitely enjoyed their warm cookies and big, leather seats. Cab ride had us holding on tight. Each floor of the hotel has just 6 rooms on it but many floors. We're putting on a bit more layers of clothing and heading out to Grand Central Terminal right now for some food and shopping.

In KC, before take off and waiting to be de-iced


Ready to go! (Notice the difficult reading material I've chosen)


Getting close to landing...





Made it to the hotel!