2011 was a great year.

It's August 2012.

2011 WAS a great year. It started with our return from London and ended with a Christmas trip to NYC. Time sharing a week each in Myrtle Beach and Williamsburg/Busch Gardens, two Airstream trips to Asheville, and one to Baltimore, NYC and State College, PA.

We all have our health. Andrew and Emily had very successful  years in school. Carol's job went well. I played a lot of Bluegrass. And even got paid a couple of times.

The following is a blog I intended to finish and post in January..

"Life happened" and I haven't opened my Blog except for "bumping" Tinkerbell since then.

I give up in trying to "catch up" on my blogging. It apparently ain't gonna happen.

What occurred to me this week, with encouragement from a dear friend - thank you Mary - is that this Blog was to be about my journey. And that journey didn't end when I remarried and settled down with my new family. YES, we continue to travel as much as possible. But my life is the journey regardless of where I am. Trips are going to continue but the blog may go in the direction of in-betweens - whether while on a trip or here in Salem.

SO - Here's our Jan 2012 trip to NYC.

Jan 22 is Carol's birthday. And I knew she had a long weekend coming. My mistake was in thinking they coincided. I was making plans for a NYC trip for the weekend of her birthday when she reminded me, last Thursday evening that the long weekend was a day away.

So the planning became as hectic as the usual trip. Make reservations at East Rutherford Fairfield Inn for Sat and Sun nights. Make sure the car was ready for long trip. Contact our cat sitter. Tell the bank that we're going to the city so they can "unblock" our credit cards. Get lots of cash from the ATM because the "unblock our credit cards" never seems to work. Check the TKTS boards to make sure at least some of the shows we want to see are half price.

I took a nap Friday afternoon. At 11:30pm Carol and Emily took some Benedryl and crawled into the car. Andrew was with his Dad for the weekend. I drove straight through to NJ, arriving at the hotel desk at 7:30am.

"Good morning. We've got a room reserved for tonight and tomorrow night. Any chance of an early check in?"

"Sure. When?"  

"Ahhh, right now?"

So we showered, ate the free hotel breakfast, caught the bus and were at Port Authority before 9:30.

The family has gotten so used to NYC that we didn't take a single picture. Please use the links !

The plan was to split up - Carol and Emily would go straight to the Times Square TKTS booth which opened at 10 for Sat matinee. I took the subway to the South Street TKTS booth which opened at 11:00 and would have tickets for Sat night and Sunday matinee performances. Carol scored first with tickets for Sat matinee "Rent". We REALLY came to see "Anything Goes" with Sutton Foster and Joel Grey. It wasn't available at TKTS for any of the performances we would be able to go to. SO - next choice - well, after standing in line for an hour waiting for it to open, the South Street office disappointed me with no shows we really wanted to see. So, back uptown to meet a thawed Carol and Emily in the lounge of the Doubletree Hotel. My favorite resting place for years had been the third floor of the Marriott Marquis. Huge open floor space because the Marquis Theater entrance is on the third floor. I've been using it for the rest and the rest rooms since 1985. Last summer they took all of the benches out. And they hassle people who are sitting on the floor. The restrooms are still some of the nicest in the city ;o)

After I warmed up with a cup of Starbucks, we headed a couple of blocks north to my favorite Thai restaurant. It was closed. In fact it closed so long ago that it was a different restaurant that had closed. So we walked over to 9th Ave to find a new one. I stopped a lady on the street - hey, it worked in Paris - and asked her. She directed us to one she said was the best of many in the area. I wondered if we should believe her - she had an English accent - but we walked up to it. I checked it out and decided it was too expensive for our tastes. I don't eat Thai in a restaurant with tablecloths. A couple pushing a stroller came by, so I asked them. They said, "Oh, that's one's OK, I guess. But OUR favorite is "Pam Real Thai". We walked back down to 47th and had some of the best Thai food I've ever eaten. Carol and I ordered off the luncheon special menu. Emily stayed with her favorite Pad Thai. Carol had Shrimp Fried Rice, I had Frog's Legs. Carol and Emily both tried some of mine. Both thought it was too coarse and chewy but I loved it. Cheapest meal we've had in the city and lots of take home left overs to heat in the microwave in the hotel breakfast area.

A quick walk back uptown to see the matinee of Rent and a 20 minute bus ride back to the hotel for an early bedtime. Hey, I had been up since 11:30pm the night before.

Up and out in time to for me to get in line for Sunday matinees at TKTS. STILL no "Anything Goes." But I did get tickets to "Godspell". About froze my toes off. Grabbed  the tickets and walked across the street to the Doubletree to meet Carol and Emily. We just enjoyed the warmth and the people watching (we were right across from the front desk).

Godspell was wonderful. None of us had seen it before. I hadn't even heard the soundtrack. It's a little backwards to be aware of Stephen Schwartz's work because of his "Children of Eden" which a wonderful Roanoke group called "Logos Theatricus" (Theater of the Word). The main members are parishioners of our Church. Well, Yeah, he wrote the music for "Wicked" and "Pippin" too. But WE know him for "Children of Eden."

Right after the show, Carol and Emily headed to Junior's to get our names on the wait list for a table. I got back in line for evening tickets. STILL no "Anything Goes" so I picked "Wit" starring Cynthia Nixon.  The Times Square TKTS booth has an express line for "plays" as opposed to "musicals" so I joined Carol and Emily in just a few minutes. As always, Junior's provided wonderful food at - for NYC - reasonable prices with three big doggie bags of left overs. And we were so full we didn't even split a piece of cheesecake.

A man in line behind me at TKTS said that they'd seen "Wit" in 1999. He said, "It's pretty rough." He was right. It was heart wrenching but uplifting at the same time. It's hard to believe how often we could laugh at a 47 yr old woman being given experimental treatments for Stage 4 Ovarian Cancer. Nixon was incredible. I was so busy with my handkerchief that the man sitting on the other side of Carol gave her tissues. In 1999 "Wit" won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Best New Play from the New York Drama Critic's Circle and just about every other drama award EXCEPT for Tony awards because it wasn't staged in a "Broadway" theater. 

Although there are over 100 theaters in the Broadway area, only about 40 of them are considered "Broadway" and Tony Awards onlu go to productions staged in one of those. The main criteria is that they seat at least 500. After that I think it's pretty much politics.  "Wit" is back in NYC in a "Broadway" theater so it's eligible for the Tony awards. I predict at least Best Play and Best Actress in a Play. Maybe even Best Male and/or Female Supporting Role and some technical ones as well. Hi, this is me in August of 2012 - Both the play and Nixon were nominated but neither won.

Four blocks to Port Authority, up three floors HOORAY the escalator was working  and the bus was waiting for us !

Uneventful drive home Monday.

IS ANY ONE PAYING ATTENTION???


ONE         MORE         TIME

We didn't get to see any of the shows we had hoped to. 
Didn't eat at Carnegie Deli. 
Found more "Favorite" restaurants from my past that have closed. 
WAY too cold to do anything outside. 
Didn't make it to any museums. 
Ran out of steam and came straight home Monday.

AND HAD A WONDERFUL TIME ANYWAY !

Planning is good.

But the most important thing is to plan to have fun.

This is the second time we've done this trip in three weeks. I've created "Broadway junkies" in my new family. Three years ago they had never been to Manhattan. Now our currency is TKTS. When either of the kids starts with "I want that...." in a store, Carol or I say, "Well, we could get that. But it's half the price of a Broadway ticket. Do you really want to spend our money on that thing instead?"

I told a friend that I was trying to give the kids memories instead of things. She said, "You can't make them have memories. The most you can do is give them your time. And that's the most precious thing you have to share."