NYC Adventure (2010 Days 6 & 7)

Sunday morning- 1st goal: matinee tickets. We helped kids get tix to West Side Story and other shows (Our Town!!) after getting a delicious pastry at a famous French bakery Petrossan. While Jackie walked the street with everybody and their Puerto Ricean flag for the huge parade going down 5th. While she hit H&M and other stores, I (while grabbing a quick Magnolia Bakery lemon cupcake for sustenance) raced over to get matinee tickets for Sherie Rene Scott's show, Everyday Rapture. After scoring our rush tickets ($21 a piece=awesome) and racing back to get Jackie at Rockefeller (while watching CBS set everything up for the Tony Awards broadcast at Radio City, we shopped on the street for a bit to get stuff for Millie and Ellis.

We both really liked Everyday Rapture- a autobiographical show about how Sherie was raised Mennonite and how they don't believe in really performing (unless it's church hymns) and how she was always torn between her faith and her love of singing. The songs were great (esp. her two backup singers) and the show clipped along.

After that, we walked out into pouring rain and realized we were far south enough to try a famous cupcake place- The Cupcake Cafe- by the Port Authority Bus Terminal. The cupcakes all were like mini works of art and I got to eat a huge sweet potato doughnut.

We went back and dropped off our stuff and went to go eat dinner at a great Greek restaurant on 9th. We got the tasting platter for two so it had a big mix of everything Greek and we were the only people in the restaurant. We people watched everyone trying to get out of the rain (and I saw famous Broadway director Jerry Zaks) while some actors were running to the Tony Awards at Radio City.

After that, our group got to see our final show, Billy Elliot. Our seats were better than when Jackie and I had seen it earlier and I still loved it. Some of my students were confused by the fact that it was a drama but also funny (they couldn't figure out if it was a musical comedy or not)- but most people loved it (I think it was my mom's favorite).

After that, it was a stop at a pizza joint for a late night snack and we got to see Memphis get awarded the Tony for Best Musical.

Monday, we had to get up early to pack AND go to the NBC Studios Tour. Some of group opted out of the tour (it was early), but most of us staggered down to the NBC Studio store in Rockefeller to begin our tour. It was fun seeing the Saturday Night Live set (and Dr. Oz's set), but the best was afterwards eating with the Cox's at our famous French chocolate place in Rockefeller Center. We got gourmet hot chocolate with some cake and chocolate truffles.

After that, we packed up and headed back to JFK (where, JetBlue has the nicest terminal with the nicest food)- decompressed from the week, talked to our group about favorite shows (Memphis, Fela!, Our Town were all mentioned) and had an event free flight home to SLC!

Thanks for a great 2010 trip NYC- we'll see you in 2012 (where I am considering doing two trips- a student trip and an adult trip- let me know if you're interested!)