Maria's Recital and Avoiding Pathfinders in Times Square

 My sister Maria is the reason for our travels to the Big Apple. She has been attending NYU for the last two years earning her Masters in Musical Theater. In order to earn her degree, she had to perform a recital showcasing herself through singing and acting. We were in attendance and it was an EXCELLENT performance! We laughed, we cried...she is so talented.

Here was the program...a lot of work went into this document...and yes Maria, I read all of it!

Her performance was in here...very New York show business.

After the recital we headed back to Maria's place to eat and re-charge. Apparently this woman had also had a busy day. Poor girl missed her stop too...

oh..side note...see my new green bag? I got it on Canal street in one of those shady shops! It was so awesome...we asked if they had designer names and before we knew it the back wall of the shop opened and we were hurried into a secret room! Inside were walls of designer bags for the taking. After some indecisiveness, I selected the one shown above. The shop woman stuffed it into a black bag, we gave her cash, and she radioed her fellow shop keeper in an unknown dialect to verify there were "no cop" around. Then, as quickly as we came, the little woman hurried us out. It was crazy!

OK where was I, oh yes...after we took a short rest we decided to see some more sights as a family.

First stop: Bryant Park...this was a wishing fountain.

Mom made sure we had some money for wishes...thanks Mom.

Andrew eagerly making his wish....gotta love the man's passion here

Then we were on our way to the "Top of the Rock". Rockefeller Center for those of you not up on your NY lingo.

Inside we ran into NBC Studios...that was a nice coincidence....

Blurry...but you get the idea...$21 a piece later we were on our way to the best views of the city.

Going up...

The TOP! Maria didn't know you had to pay to use those...

View from the top! Maria took this...can you tell?

Another view

It really was one of the best things we did....well worth $21.

Oh no...someone is hungry...how about a cupcake?

 

These things are famous...and I can now attest to their deliciousness

Mine was the chocolate...

Yumm...hit the spot

Wanna try mine?

 Little did we know one block over a terrorism plot was unfolding...

Ignorantly we headed that direction to see if we could get tickets to a show

We didn't make it. The police had several blocks barricaded. The next day we discovered what was going on...scary indeed. Because these types of crowds are not something we enjoy as a family, we left this area and headed back to rest up for our last day in New York.

Nathalie