New York Report 4

New York Trip Posts: We're Here / Three Hour Cruise / Report 1 / I'm Trapped / NBC Tour / In the Park / SoHo / Street Shopping / Report 2 / Waiting / The Clinic / At the Trump Tower / Big Green Lady / New York at Night / Report 3 / Day at the Museum / Grand Hall / Wicked / Report 4 / First Impressions of Carnegie Hall / At Last / We're Famous / Terrific Night in NY / Three Favorite Ladies / Guess the Photo / My Group

Let's see, the last time I left you it was Tuesday morning and I was getting ready to head out with my crew for a day on the town. Most of the group took a bus tour of NY City traffic, but we elected to opt out and do a little exploring on our own.

After breakfast at a joint on 45th Street near Times Square with everybody, we broke off and jumped on the subway for a quick trip up to 81st Street and Central Park. We were headed to the Museum of Natural History, and the subway stop is right in the basement. We walked right in, which was pretty convenient compared to the main entrance which was crowded with people trying to buy tickets.

This museum was featured in Night at the Museum, Ben Stiller's film which I saw on Christmas Day. It looked a little more magical in the film.

In reality, there are a great many dioramas featuring various stuffed critters. Nothing came alive while we were there. After an hour or so of cruising among the dead of nature's flora and fauna we actually started getting a little bored. They did have a good rock, mineral and gem collection, including the Star of India Sapphire, but the whole thing got a little old after awhile.

Upon leaving the museum, we crossed the street into Central Park and decided to walk the 28 blocks back to the hotel. We got a good view of the park, including the Strawberry Fields memorial to John Lennon, which is located right across the street from The Dakota where he lived. The words to "Imagine" are inscribed on the memorial (and I still think they're insipid).

At six o'clock the clean-up crew headed over to the Gershwin Theater for a performance of Wicked. I saw the show in Orange County, and this production was a little more lavish in its staging, which of course you can do when you're not moving the production every couple of weeks. The performances were great, but really not that much different than the understudies I saw in the main roles last year. In some ways, I liked the first performances better, but that may have been because I was seated in the second row center in Orange County. This time we were in the first row of the upper balcony.

Today's the big Carnegie Hall performance. We'll be taking the crew over to Carnegie to watch the afternoon performances, and then it's our turn at 8pm tonight. They won't have long to bask in their glory, though, because we have to meet in the hotel lobby at 3:45 am to load the buses for the airport and the trip home. Our seniors graduate at 6:30 pm Thursday night.

There won't be any more reports until I get back, and at that time I'll post a bunch of photos from the trip. We've been to a lot of interesting places, but it will be good to get home.