Girl's Trip and The City: A Mini Series, Part 1

I just flew in from New York and man are my arms tired! (Ba bum ching!) Kay, really sorry for that one. I'm still feeling giddy and some left over exhaustion from our girl's trip to NY. I'm finding that I was so inundated with the sights, smells, action and fast pace of NY, it's taking a bit to find my footing back in reality. For example, when I came home, my family didn't break into a witty and heartfelt song about how they had missed me. At first I found it unprofessional and weird, but I soon remembered I wasn't on Broadway anymore, and it made more sense. Also weird is: I'm not always looking up and taking pictures, I don't seem to need a map to get around, and I'm not meeting random and slightly scary freaks on the street. Aww. I miss the freaks, I do.
Well, since there is so much, and since people have been emailing since our plane landed, asking where the NY posts are, (I got home at 2 am people!) I thought I would post in segments. And believe me, I will make it worth your while. And as a teaser, I am so glad we got pictures to help document the last night because you WOULD NOT believe me if I just told you.
Our flight left at 6 am so, yes, that would have me getting up at 3 am, in order to get ready, pick up the other girls and head to the airport. I set 3 alarms because I was sure I was going to sleep through it. After making it into LaGuardia Airport, prayers were answered and all luggage made it there safely, we got approached by a "driver", named Victor, who said he had an SUV and would only charge us 75 dollars to get us to our hotel, and would give us a terrific route so we could take pictures. Just so my mom is appeased, we did hesitate. This was NY, and we were aware of the fact that we were pretty clueless. Was this a well known plot where women get tricked out of 75 bucks and dumped in the East River?
But Victor and his route were fantastic. We drove through Queens, and over the Queensboro Bridge, also known as the "Spiderman Bridge", since it was the one used in the movie. (My geeky comic book hero side was so giddy it was ridiculous.)

Ok, so we get to our hotel,

And Jill has packed some girly girl preparations. I mean, how could we walk around the city, go to our first show on Broadway, and not give ourselves exfoliating hand and lip treatments? After getting dolled up, we ate dinner at Docks, had oysters for the first time, then headed on foot and made our way through Times Square, to our first show of ultimately 4 for the weekend: In The Heights.

Now, in order for you to fully appreciate later things that occurred over the next four days, you need a tiny bit of back history. This show was essentially what spurred this trip. Beth has this soundtrack memorized, had inflicted it on all of us, built this whole trip around going to see it while it was the original cast, and is the hugest fan of the lead, Lin-Manuel Miranda. (this is the phrase I finally came up with, although the words, obsessed, and crazed seemed to come to mind first) You must understand the "hugeness" of her fan worship of Lin-Manuel, it's vital to the story. Here's a little video I shot, right before the show started.
(This is the only video that seems to be loading slow. If you watch it twice it won't pause.)

In The Heights was incredible, incredible. No words could do it justice. We made a bee line for the stage door to stalk, i mean...somebody get me a thesaurus....wait for the stars of the show for autographs and pictures. The highlight for Beth was of course, getting to meet Lin-Manuel, and as you can see from the pictures, we talked with him, even made him laugh. It's all icing from here on out really.
Beth looked as though she had slept with a hanger in her mouth her smile was so big and permanent. A true trip highlight that should have ended there, but it didn't. More to come.

Beth, "Sonny" and Me

Beth and me with "Benny" and below, Jill with her favorite dancer of the night:)

So, high on our buzz from meeting and chatting it up with the cast, we wanted to go and get this "famously talked about" frozen hot chocolate from Serendipity's. Andrea is tired and calls it a night and heads off for the hotel. We try a couple meager attempts to secure a taxi, but at this point, our feet are sore from wearing our heels around all night, and we impulsively flag down what I guess is referred to as a bicycle taxi but what later was infamously referred to as the "death buggy." It looks like those little trailers you pull behind you on a bike where your kids ride. Because I love you, I managed to hit the record button on my camera to get footage after I could see that this was going to be a spectacle, and also that this could very much be the last footage of us alive. Just the very act of getting us in and situated in the death buggy was crazy, and inadvertently held up a firetruck. Surviving not getting rundown by the FDNY was only half the battle. Then we had to not fall out into rushing NY traffic. Have a look, at what I'm calling "Ode to the Death Buggy."




A cool picture caught as we rode along...

We made it to Serendipity's and survived the near heart attack that accompanied what our bicyclist was charging us. But then realized he had pulled us 20 blocks, so you have to hand it to the man, plus we were all feeling good to be alive.

The general consensus, even though Serendipity's is charming and totally NY so I loved it for that, the frozen hot chocolate, that was featured on Oprah, recommend by friends, and what we risked our lives in the death buggy for, was...eh. Tasted like you had poured hot chocolate on a snow cone if I'm being honest.

For sale while you wait...I think it goes under the category, only in New York.

Tired and ready to cut my feet off at the ankles since we had all worn highly impractical heels to walk around the whole night, we all but threw ourselves in front of an empty taxi to take us back to the hotel.

Upon getting back to the hotel and recounting our wild night, we disrupted Andrea's quiet soul searching and scripture study:) (yeah right!)
And that was only the first day. We still have so much, including the highly entertaining game we played, "who can spot the biggest freak." I will tell you, we found a winner. More tomorrow.