New York: Sunday

Dear Ducklings,

Times Square would make Kyla spontaneously combust.  Daddy’s head nearly exploded, and neither of us wanted to linger.  Times Square is the part of NYC where every surface seems to be lit up with flashing lights, ginormous screens, fast moving videos and 100 foot tall ads.  And one or two people. Or more.

Characters wanted to take pictures with you (for tips).

I did not take pictures of the women wearing body paint…and little else.  I was trying hard to not to stare myself.

There was an entire store dedicated to Hershey products and merchandise.  I did not buy this for you because Hershey’s 1) is lousy chocolate and 2) exploits children overseas to make its product.  But the store was fascinating in a weird way.

We walked around the whole area and decided that seeing a matinee would be fun…and get us out of the 98 degree heat.  We chose Paramour by Cirque de Soliel (click here to see some of the amazing stunts). It’s a story, but a somewhat loose backdrop for what is a lot of song-and-dance numbers gilded with Olympic-level athleticism.  We really enjoyed it!

You’d be amazed at the theater—it has splendid chandeliers, velvet curtains, painted ceilings and gilded decorations, none of what I captured well on the camera.

After the show, we dawdled so I could take some pictures.  When we went out into the lobby, a crowd had formed around a team from the show. She is standing en pointe (on her tippy toes) on his shoulders!

 

It was 4:30 and we were ready to tackle NYC again.  We headed for the Highline, an old elevated train track converted into a park.  It’s really jut a long walking path, a few stories above the street.  It wasn’t as beautiful as I had pictured, but we had a lovely walk.

There was a funny “car” made out of old tires as an art installation.

The end of this park put us out a long way from anything, and we decided to meander through Greenwich Village.  After an odd experience with a very intoxicated Peruvian, in which we tried to take his picture for him and he sat on the railing, toppled over onto his head, and couldn’t get himself back up, we decided to start hoofing it back the 33+ blocks back to a Brazilian restaurant we chose earlier. 

The crowds got noticeable, well, crowdier as we got closer to Times Square. More people meant more creativity, and one guy used spray paint and a scraper to make amazing art. It took him about 5 minutes.

On the way back to the hotel for the night, we came across Rockefeller Center, a place I had heard of but meant nothing.  BUT!  Well, the flags and lights caught our attention, the statues and water fountains made us linger.

We tried to make it up to the 65th floor to the bar up there, but it was closed for an event.  I didn’t really want the drink, but I did want the experience!

Since we don’t know this area at all, every corner has the potential of a surprise.  We found St. Patrick's on 5th, the same street as our hotel, and we’ve now added that to our Must See (in the daylight) list. 

When we got back to the hotel room, Daddy tried to draw our path on a digital map.  I’m sure he left out some of our backtracking and circling, but the map spit out 6.8 walking miles today! 

Tomorrow, we’re going to go to either the Metropolitan Museum or the Museum of Natural History.  We have a lot to do and only 6 days to do it all.

It was lovely talking with each of my ducklings tonight.  Until tomorrow!

Love,

Mama

PS Half a block from our hotel, we were bewildered by another crowd, mostly of young people, pointing and running toward something unknown.  It was like a cartoon coming to life.  Daddy was the first to realize they (hundreds of them, broken up only by walk/don’t walk street signals) were playing Pokémon Go.  Here’s Daddy’s summary:

Pokémon Go is terrible.  It’s an affliction upon the city. Yesterday, in Central Park, we became trapped in a sea of stumbling zombies.  Today we faced a herd of people running towards us, led by out-stretched hands clutching their phones. Street crossing signs went unheeded, cabs screeched, people jostled, Pokémon were captured.  I guess.