NEW YORK CITY --- SPRING BREAK

After WONDERFUL Maundy Thursday and Good Friday services in our newly renovated Our Lady of Nazareth church we took AMTRAK from Roanoke to Manhattan on Saturday. For the first time in several years, Andrew was with us. Oh, I forgot - some of you may not know that Carol's son Andrew moved back to us after 5 years of living with his father.  More about that some other day. For now I'll just say that we are SO HAPPY to have him back where he belongs. Anyway, he's 16 and not easily impressed but did admit that the taxi ride from Penn Station to our timeshare at 225 E 45th St. got his attention. To quote his impression of the ride, "He had a close call every time he moved."

Our regular routine has been to settle into the apartment and go to The Amish Market, our favorite neighborhood market from past trips. Surfing the net while riding on the train I found current reviews that said that it must have changed hands or something. Same good food, but double the prices. A little research found a Trader Joe's about 13 blocks south. Only a legend to us - we had never been to one. WOW - really fresh, pretty good selection and prices right out of our Kroger's in Roanoke ! Who wudda thunk it ? But NO Keilbasa OR Pierogies. Really? In Manhattan? Oh well, we've got a week to find them.

Sunday meant Easter Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral, celebrated by His Eminence, Timothy Cardinal Dolan. There were 6 Masses but only one, 10:15 had the full choir. It is so popular that there is a lottery for tickets. Carol put her name in for two tickets since that was the maximum. Since there were only three of us, in a moment of brain fart, I put my name in for one. As soon as I had hit "Enter" Carol pointed out that one ticket would be pretty useless, if I won, who would go? If I'd put in for two, like she did, at least she and I could go - Mass not being at the top of Andrew's NYC bucket list. For two weeks I listened to Carol tell our friends how stupid I was. Until we received notice that we BOTH had won. So we had three tickets, just like we needed. Just the first Tinkerbell experience but we KNOW there will be more. Mass was amazing. The 7855 pipe organ, although impressive, was too loud so we really didn't hear the choir. It was a moving experience anyway. Cardinal Dolan's homily was centered on Michael Davidson NYFD a 37 year old firefighter who lost his life on Thursday.

REMINDER - If you "click" a picture, it will appear full sized in a new window.

After Mass we walked across town to the TKTS booth. Got tickets to the matinee of Avenue Q and continued on to Junior's for a "snack" - just a hot chocolate and a piece of Cheesecake. I'm pretty sure it's against the law to go to NYC and not eat at Junior's at least once. When we were here last year with Tom, Ann, Sarah and Ben they were raving about a new Junior's item -- The New Yorker Cake Shake, a strawberry "Crazy Shake"—the parlance they use to describe...stuff like this—rimmed with vanilla frosting and graham crackers and capped off with a slice of Junior's Strawberry Cheesecake and a huge dollop of whipped cream. At 2000+ calories, not an every day event for a heart attack survivor but we ARE in NYC. Unfortunately it had been a three day special and we missed out. When we opened the menu this time - there it was - the waitress told us it had been so popular that they had put it on the menu AND they also had a Black and White shake with a piece of brownie topped chocolate/regular layered cheesecake on it. 

We drank our milkshakes, put the cheesecake in boxes and headed to New World Stage  to see Avenue Q. The last time we were in NYC with both kids, Andrew was too young for Avenue Q so he and I went to Million Dollar Quartet while Emily and Carol went to Avenue Q. Both shows were in the same building. If you click on the "New World Stage" link a few sentences back you will learn about this unique space that has 5 stages. It typically gets shows after they've been a success on Broadway but are now drawing smaller audiences. Like Jersey Boys that Carol and I saw on Broadway last year. By moving to a 200 - 500 seat theater, a show can get its life extended - sometimes for years.

The show was hilarious and thought provoking. At the end of the show the actors came on stage and asked for donations for a charity benefiting actors and other theater workers. While we considered how much to give they took some cheap shots at Trump. We learned that when Bush was President, they used the same lines on him. And when Obama was President, they used the same lines - on Bush. We don't know how much money they get from the folks they are playing to - seems to me those people usually just tell others how to spend their money. Just sayin'.  Bless their little hearts.

The evening ended with a quiet walk back to the East Side. Tomorrow we take two tours at the Tenement Museum on the Lower East Side.