My sister, Opera, lives in New York City and has been urging us to come visit her for years. Finally, with an opportunity to see her perform as the perfect reason, my mom decided that we needed to make it happen. A trip to New York City with my mom, sisters, and one sister-in-law? Yes, please! It was such a bummer that my other sister-in-law, Jazz Hands, couldn't come because she has a new baby, but we promised to do our best to make her feel like she was there by posting lots of photos (a tough one for me, I know). And so, the planning began.
We tend to be a more than slightly
The adventure started bright and early (5:45 am!) on a Wednesday morning as my mom came by so we could drive to the airport together. I'm not a morning person by any stretch of the imagination, but for some reason it's a lot easier to get up super early to go to NYC than it was to get up to do my paper route in high school. Gee, I wonder why. Ha!
When we got to NYC, my mom and I waited at the airport for Martha and Jewel to arrive from Portland. Then we took the air train from the airport, bought ourselves Metro passes and boarded the subway. So fun. This would be my first taste of what our week was going to be like. Lots of subway and bus rides around the city (and A LOT of walking-- like 61,000 steps in 4 days!). I'm just glad that all I had to do was follow the people who knew where they were going.
Martha found a great place for us to stay via Air B&B. The top floor of a Harlem brownstone, just a few minutes walk from Opera's place. Light, bright, clean, and a great deal (with 2 bathrooms!)--perfect. I actually really liked being able to leave the craziness of the crowds behind at the end of the day to return to our quiet place and unwind. I can't imagine staying in a busy hotel in the middle of it all. My sister, Art, got there a little earlier than the rest of us, so she took a few photos out the windows of where we were staying. So cool.
Since it was pretty late in the afternoon by the time we got to the place we were staying, we only had two things planned for that evening. First up, dinner at Harlem Shake:
We were super sad that Jazz Hands couldn't be with us.
It was a bummer that Opera couldn't join us, either, but she had rehearsal. That's why she's in some of the photos from our activities but not in others. We were just glad that she was able to do as many things with us as she did.
I can hardly believe the next place we got to go. I mean, I used to watch the show on tv when I was a kid! Yup....
I'm at The Apollo for amateur night! We bought some cute earrings from a fabulous woman with a table set up outside the theater. How I wish I'd gotten her picture. Loved her!
I took a photo in the bathroom of the theater because it reminded me of Jazz Hands-- they used to have black sinks in their bathroom and she hated trying to keep them looking clean and spot-free. It almost made me feel like she was there with us in spirit. :)
Having a great time.
Two of the contestants were handicapped-- one blind, one in a wheelchair. There was NO WAY we were going to boo them. I mean, would you be able to?
We were all pretty tired from getting up so early to make our flights, and we knew a big day was ahead, so we were pretty happy to head home and sleep after the show. And, since the next day is so big it really deserves its own post. Maybe even two or three. (Boy, how to condense it all? This is kind of daunting!) I guess I'd better just go for it.
1 comment:
It was a great trip and I loved seeing the recap!
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