Month: March 2024

Long day! Good day.

• We started with a tour at the Met Museum. To get there, Bonnie, Scott and Jordan took a stroll through Central Park; the rest of us figured out how to use public transport (the bus). It would have been a 40 minute walk! And then standing around in a museum for a tour? My feet would have been so sore! They are tired enough as it is! Anyway, the bus was both straight-forward and fun.
• The tour was comprehensive and detailed just how I like a tour to be, and I got everyone else to come with me, too! It covered a good sample of pieces throughout the museum, and a little bit of its history, too.
• After the tour, we broke into groups. Mum and Bonnie went to check out the period rooms in the American Wing, and then left to go get in line at the place on Broadway to see if they could get tickets for a show tonight.
• Meanwhile, Dad, Jordan and I had some lunch in the museum cafe! Then checked out the armoury rooms and some old paintings. Then we caught some busses to get us over to watch a taping of The Daily Show. It was fun seeing the cameras and the (limited) behind the scenes of a TV. We were also asked to laugh and cheer loud because the audience is considered part of the show. I said “woo” and laughed accordingly.
• Supper at Olive Garden!
• We met up at the end of the night in front of the Moulin Rouge theatre, where Mum and Bonnie were able to get tickets, and walked home all together.
• Scott had a nap and found dinner on his own, taking a break from tourist shenanigans.

I’m tired tonight.

The day started with me and Bonnie at a ballet class. It was beginner level but it was challenging and we had to work hard. That’s good! It was good! We can now say that we’ve studied ballet in New York. We also peeked into some of the other classes to see what was going on and saw some tap, a Broadway class, and a stretching class. A contemporary class came into our studio as we left and and it looked interesting, too.

In the afternoon, Dad, Jordan, and I went to MOMA and looked at art. We all art-smart now. I didn’t take photos, but

• I liked Richard Serra’s mammoth, metal Equal
• and if you click here you can see another one I liked made out of stuffed animals.

Now I’m full and sleepy because Mom and me went for a vegan feast. Vegan restaurants are my favourites because, with a dairy allergy, I can eat everything on the menu, and that is what I attempted to do tonight. With panna cotta for dessert!

Dad, Bonnie, Jordan are at the hockey game at Madison Square Gardens. Reports indicate that they are all ecstatic to be in attendance. Me and Mum are watching along from here in our hotel room, hoping to see them on TV.

Today was our comprehensive and entertaining tour of the highlights of New York. It included looking around Rockefeller Plaza, St Patrick’s cathedral, and Madison Square Park. I liked riding the Staten Island Ferry, where we had a nice view of the Statue of Liberty, and the skyline of New York. We lunched on Staten Island! – or at least some people had hotdogs, I had Subway, and some people weren’t even hungry after having too many plates of breakfast earlier.

After lunch included a visit to the 9-11 memorial, which was stunning, and we were given enough time on the tour to take it in.

Then a stroll around Central Park to look at John Lennon’s memorial; and Bonnie and Dad found a hawk in the process of eating another bird.

For supper – or lupper? because it was early at another pub with approx 400 beers on tap? I don’t know the exact number, as I had a banana-pineapple cocktail.

Then a little shopping and then back to the hotel because everyone is tired. We’re watching the Oscars in the wrong time zone and deffo will not be making it to the end.

This trip, involving my whole family, has been a while in the making. We had a loose idea to visit in 2021 for my parents’ 50th anniversary. As that date approached however in the fall of 2021, we decided it wouldn’t be practical to travel. For, you know, reasons. I can’t remember when we decided to do it this year, but hotels and planes were being booked in November; and me and Bonnie booked tours and show tickets a few weeks ago, and now here we are, in New York.

Our hotel was thoughtfully chosen by Bonnie and Jordan. Close to the park and Broadway and easy to get anywhere we might like to go. It’s POURING RAIN right now. As we drove into the city we were driving through puddles that made us feel right at home. Note that we had a driver and mini-van scheduled to pick us up from the airport. Good idea! as we were all stressed out from the traffic just as passengers, nevermind driving; but the driver insisted that it was just normal traffic, which didn’t make us feel better at all! We landed in New Jersey, so we were giddy to experience the Holland Tunnel, the Lincoln Tunnel, and the New Jersey Turnpike – or at least the signs indicating their approach.

For supper we dashed through the POURING RAIN to an Irish Pub that has a How I Met Your Mother theme. Pub food and beer!

Before that, I found the airplane ride quite do-able – 5 hours from YVR to New York is much shorter than 9ish to London. We had a quite short layover in Van, but the wait times at security and customs were manageable and we made it to our gate in time to hear the boarding instructions – so oodles of time. Then on the plane we had seats all together, which was fun for most of us.

Tomorrow is a bus tour of the highlights of NYC.

P.S. Maybe one not-so-great thing about the day was having to get up to be at the airport at 4:30 In The Morning. But everything else was ok. Also we had to wait a looooopng time (loooooong time!) for our checked bags to appear on the conveyer belt over here. Annoying! But our ride waited for us so not too much of a problem.

P.P.S. I forget what I was going to write. So here’s a video I took from the airplane.

P.P.P.S. I remember! This hotel includes breakfast! So excited. I love breakfast.