New York City touring

     Three more days have passed and my sore, blistered feet are starting to feel the pressure of days filled with activity! We start our day with breakfast in the hotel. Then it is out to explore one of New York City’s many neighborhoods. We finally broke down today and bought a Metro Pass. We found out that seniors get half price for a 7-day pass. How could we resist?

     Tuesday we visited South Street Seaport. This is a 12-block historic district that was a 17^th and 18^th century port. Hurricane Sandy devastated much of the area, so it is being rebuilt and refurbished. We did not recognize it from our previous visits! We stood in line at the TKTS office to get half price tickets to “Something Rotten.”

     Then we walked to the World Trade Center to look at the 9/11 Memorial and the new PATH station with its white flying wings and oculus (which is what they call the area under the center of the wings). It is still not fully open, but was interesting to walk through. We also spent time in Grand Central Station at the food court and the New York Public Library in Bryant Park. We hadn’t been inside the library in years and it is such a magnificent building – quite wonderful to look at. It was built in the early 1900’s on the site of the demolished Groton Reservoir. It is built in the Beaux-Arts style of architecture and is all marble staircases and columns inside. The reading rooms have beautiful wood furnishings, chandeliers, and art work. We spent the afternoon there before going to our musical in the evening. We enjoyed "Something Rotten" and I would recommend it.

Beautiful? graffiti from the Manhattan Bridge

     Wednesday we met my friend, Hildie, who lives in Scarsdale, for dinner and another musical, “Cagney.”  The play is on Broadway, near Times Square. We spent the morning walking around our neighborhood and half way across the Manhattan Bridge (why do you think my feet are sore?)

Central Park

     Thursday we spent in Central Park. We got there at 9 a.m.to get in line for tickets to the evening performance of Shakespeare in the Park. They have a special line for seniors and benches to sit on so it wasn’t too bad. We got the tickets at noon and had the rest of the afternoon to spend before coming back for the 8 p.m. performance of "Taming of the Shrew" done by an all female cast. It was such a lovely day, a little cooler because there was the threat of rain. The park is lovely with all the grass and flowers, lots of people watching, playgrounds, dogs galore, and historic buildings. The birds and the squirrels were also fun to see. We did spend some time in the New York Historical Society Museum & Library. We were disappointed that the 4^th floor was closed (that is where we remembered seeing beautiful paintings in the past). I enjoyed the Art and Whimsy of Mo Willems – an artist I was not familiar with, but I loved his style. He does children’s books and worked on Sesame Street for several years. There was also an interesting folk art exhibit.

Stage set for Shakespeare in the Park