New York in October with the girls!

Still looking back...

In October, I always attend a costume show in New York with my two partners (and friends), Lori and Janet. This year we were able to bring our 3 daughters with us - Kylie, Kenzie and Mattie. Our trip is always a lot of fun but it was especially fun with our daughters along!

We did all the usual stuff. We rode the subway...



We ate at the Stardust Diner where all of the wait staff finds time to sing somewhere in between taking your order and serving your food. There are a lot of talented singers who wait tables there. The food is mediocre but the singing is usually good.



Here is our singing waiter...



Some of us were accosted by the infamous Naked Cowboy in Times Square.



We went to the M&M Factory...



Kylie likes her guys on the heavy side!



We stopped by The Late Show with David Letterman! Unfortunately, you have to be 18 to see the show. Not that we would have gotten chosen anyway! My Letterman trivia is not as good as it used to be when Kacey worked there and I watched it all the time. They ask you questions about the show to be sure that you are a fan before they let you in. Lori and I have watched Letterman from time to time but Janet is a huge liability in this area because she has never watched the show. We usually try to convince the Letterman staff that she speaks no english!



Here are the girls discovering the wonders of Times Square!



We stayed right in Times Square at the Doubletree Guest Suites. It's awesome!



We posed for pictures...





We visited TripAdvisors #3 Top Thing to do in New York (number 3!) which was a visit to the Ground Zero Museum Workshop.



The museum is not located anywhere near Ground Zero and it's not much of a museum at all. It consisted of one small room with pictures and momentos from the rubble. The photographer who owns the museum was supposedly the only one given permission to take pictures of the clean up process. He did this for nine months.



While we did enjoy learning more about the details of that tragic event and we were touched, it felt kind of like we were in someone's rec room and we were looking at their trophy wall. Considering he did this full time for nine months, I would have expected more photographs. The photographer was actually there and he spoke to us which was pretty cool, but he talked more about how he got the shots than the actual shots themselves. It was interesting but I would say it was a bit overrated. Maybe this is the only collection of its kind? That's hard to imagine but I maybe that's what makes it worthwhile. It was okay but I think we all expected something more.



This is a picture of the bus driver who almost killed me.



We had to take a bus to Secaucus, New Jersey because that is where the costume show is held. We were with a group of about 20 people who were loading the bus at the Port Authority. One of the men in line ahead of us opened up the luggage compartment so we started loading our luggage in. When the line of people with no luggage had finished boarding the bus, we were still loading our luggage into the compartment. I was halfway inside the compartment when the bus started pulling away! We all screamed along with a man who was behind us and still waiting to board. The driver came out to see what was going on and the man let her have it in his New Jersey accent that sounded just like a movie character. He told her that she almost killed this woman (me!) She blamed us for opening the luggage compartment (which we didn't do) and muttered under he breath that she didn't see me. We all asked, "What about the other six people who were standing by your bus?" Apparently she doesn't feel the need to use her mirrors. The man assured the driver that he would be filing a complaint. I think she was happy to drop us off and hoped for better days.

We, of course, went purse shopping on Canal St. It's always an adventure!



The fruits of our labors...



We even ran into Curran Redal on Canal St! What are the chances?



We saw several Broadway shows and all at discounted or student prices!

We saw Burn the Floor with Pasha and Anya from SYTYCD. We love Pasha! It was all ballroom and it was so good. The cast were professionals from all over the world. We loved it.



We saw Wicked! We waited in line for the lottery on our first day and I think it was Lori's name that got picked. (For those that don't know, many shows hold a lottery where you go down about 2 hours before show time and put your name in a drawing. If your name is picked you can buy two tickets at the discounted rate of $25 each. Lottery tickets are usually on the front row. They usually allow about 20 lottery tickets per show. Mind you, Wicked tickets are usually anywhere from $75-$200.) Since Lori had already seen it twice, she let Mackenzie and Mattie go (since it was Mattie's birthday!) Kylie was the only other person in our group who had not seen Wicked so we checked back every day and put our names in the lottery but to no avail. Each day the crowd grew bigger and we knew our chances were getting slimmer. Finally on our last day there, with the largest crowd we had seen so far, Kylie's name was drawn! And then Mattie's name was drawn too!! So Kylie, Mattie, Janet and I were also able to see Wicked. It's a great show!



Lori, Janet, Kylie and I saw Shrek the Musical while Mattie and Kenzie were at Wicked the first night. It was a lot of fun. We had purchased student tickets. Then we learned that Shrek has a lottery too and it is much easier to win because there are not very many people who enter it.
Since Mattie and Kenzie hadn't gotten to see it, we all went back and see if we could win them lottery tickets. When you have six chances to win two tickets, your chances are pretty good. We all got chosen for the lottery! We had to turn tickets away. It was awesome!! We had box seats. Lord Farquaad was so funny! We give it a two thumbs up!!





We also discovered a wonderful bakery called Crumbs. They have delicious cupcakes that are way better than any we have tried before and, believe me, we tried them all - almost! One of our favorites was Chunky Monkey which was a chocolate cupcake with banana cream cheese frosting and filling. Yummy! I don't think we tried any cupcake we didn't like, though, we are still trying to figure out why people like Red Velvet anything?



Taste test - round one!



Hmmm... not quite sure. Better taste some more...



Yes, definitely a winner!

Now the biggest challenge of our trip. Getting all of our luggage home and under the weight limit! Somehow we did it!!