NYC 2014 Day #4

The goal this Friday?  A foot rub.  Preferably by a strong-handed Asian woman who would make me weep from pain and gratitude.  But first?  More walking.
Jackie and I love Big Onion tours.  I've done a couple in NYC but Jackie has done a lot.  We arranged 4 guides through Big Onion to do a guided tour of Central Park.
It was a beautiful summer day- and a perfect day for a walk in the park.  We got history, architecture, statues, and a nice hike through the ramble- and I saw places i never would have found on my own.  It was awesome (and definitely will be a repeat on our trip).
We ended at the Met Museum (where I paid a $.50 donation so I could go use the restroom)- but I was happy that students will milling about and running around trying to find works of art.  I love the Met- but instead it was off to try Serendipity again-- with still a 2 hour wait (but I got  salted caramel frozen hot chocolate mix for my parents-- thanks Mom and Dad for watching the girls!  Sorry Millie vomited on your new carpet...)
We were all starving so off we went to the Upper West Side for our annual stop at Levain cookies.  I also made a quick pit stop at Beard Papa's for their amazing cream puffs- and was sad to see that my favorite gelato place (Grom) had moved.  But there was no time for tears- it was down to the Lower East Side for more eating.
on the subway, Kelly DeHaan repeatedly told us that if he did not eat something soon he was going to die.  He proceeded to tell us this every 3 minutes.  I promised him we were going to a street with lots of good places but his faith was waning.
We finally reached St. Marks St. and Crif Dogs.  Voted best hot dogs in NYC, they really are delicious.  Kelly did not make it there though-- he pulled off into Dumpling Man and got 6 dumplings for 2 dollars.
after our dogs, it was foot rub time.  The rest of our group went off to Pomme Frites for fries- and Jackie and I went and got hour long foot rubs.  Mine was awesome.  Jackie's guy was watching a Chinese soap opera on his Ipod the entire time- and contorted Jackie's body so he could more easily watch his movie.  By the end of her massage, Jackie (who had really not been in foot pain) now had a pain in her knee.  Classic Jackie.
Earlier that day, Kelly Riding had demonstrated in our room a "burpee" fitness move that she was working on for a race she was running later in June.  To inspire her, Kelly DeHaan ran back to our hotel room after fries and composed an entire song (with backing tracks) for Kelly to listen to on her race.  If you ever run into Kelly DeHaan, ask him to sing you the Burpee song.  It will inspire you.
That night, the group went and saw Pippin (which Jackie and I had seen in 2013) while Jackie and I went to see Idina Menzel in If/Then.  We were such fans of Next to Normal by the same composing team- and our travel operator had gotten us amazing seats.  Idina was awesome.  In fact, the whole cast was really strong.  The design was great and when Idina sang her 11 O'Clock number, I got chills.  I appreciate that the creators of the musical were trying to do something original and new- but parts of the story didn't really work (we did follow the alternating stories just fine) and I could see where some people would not be sympathetic with her character.  I found the catchiest song to be What the F*** which just kind of played in my head on repeat the rest of the trip.
Sidenote-- two night earlier after Gentleman's Guide we were walking to Shake Shack when Kelly Riding grabbed my hand and said "look behind you at who's been following us the past 2 blocks."  I looked behind and saw a woman with short blonde hair that I didn't recognize.  Kelly then says, "not her-- next to her" and lo and behold there was Miss Adele Nazeem herself asking questions about The Book of Mormon musical. We didn't know what to do so we just kept walking (and pulled Jackie out of line for Shake Shack- which made her mad).  We couldn't figure out how to take a picture subtly, so we just pulled over, said "We like you" and she went on her way.
The rest of the group had widely varying responses on Pippin (which is good), but they were sad that all 4 leads were out on the same night.  Kelly DeHaan also said he had more talented guys that could sing the part of Pippin at his high school than the understudy that night... but all that really mattered is that my feet felt fantastic.