New York, New York what a Wonderful Town.....

This whole day came about by one of my dear friends and myself wanting to "do something together" to celebrate our birthdays.

What follows in this blog is the result of our decision. Above our some pictures of our day!!

What a great day! I shouldn't describe it this way.....but I have to do it......forgive me now............the day was totally "Wicked"!!!!!

Our day began early with my first train ride into the "big city". We had no problems and arrived as planned. We made our way to the subway ticket area and boarded my first experience on the subway. It was HOT (later we found out that the particular one we were on had a broken central air conditioning. Our second stop was much cooler. When we got off the subway, we enter the beautiful park--Central Park. We walked and walked and enjoyed the different areas. We even were able to see a wedding in progress. Many of the views were simply breath taking.

It was then time to move on to grab a bite for lunch. New York style pizza was on the menu for us and a place to let our tired feet rest...only for awhile. There was alot of the area we still wanted to explore. We then proceeded to the Gershwin Theater for an afternoon of entertainment. Our seats were perfect and as for the performance....BRAVO!!!! We enjoyed the entire show. Seeing the show and how they incorporated the "Wizard of Oz" characters into it was truly ingenious. Lisa and I both enjoyed the show and definitely got our monies worth. In fact, Lisa loved the music some much she purchased the original cast CD of "Wicked". As also when I attend a performance or such, I had tears in my eyes. There's just something about a "curtain call" and/or an encore that gets my emotions rolling.

We decided to just walk and "see what we could find" because we wanted to do a later dinner. It wasn't long until we came across some blocked city streets and for blocks there were tents and areas of merchants and vendors. We enjoyed looking and buying some items, including some gorgeous pashmina's. What a bargain, it was hard to not get too many.

We experienced the area near NBC studios and Rockefeller Center and even saw Lester Holt preparing or broadcasting the "evening news" or something like that. We also decided to venture towards Time Square and enjoy the walking rather than the subway to "take in the sites" so to speak.

We actually found a great little place that was on the corner of 7 avenue (near Broadway) and the M&N store for dinner. The caption "Best Cheesecake" caught my eye!!!! Maxi's Cafe was the name of the place and the caption was definitely true. Best cheesecake, yum, yum.. even writing this now makes me want to have another slice. Portions were extremely large of everything we ordered.

We then walked towards Madison Square Garden passing many sites and I even got a picture of the Empire State blg, which Lisa had to tell what it was, I thought it was somewhere else in NYC.

It was time to return home so we went to the Penn Station area and boarded the train for home. We were both tired and with that we laughed and took silly pictures on the train on the way home.

The blessing of that day was multi-folded!!!! I was with a dear friend, who I love. I was enjoying the beauty and excitement of a city filled with not only new things, but old historic things. I was able to experience new forms of transportation that many use daily and don't even think about. I was able to see God's amazing creation on such a different level. The day also showed me that there is so much to see and do only 2 hours or so from our home. What a blessing just to live were I live!!!

Hey, don't let people tell you New Yorkers are not friendly, helpful people. Everyone that we spoke to on our trip to NYC were friendly, polite and helpful. We felt very safe the entire day.

I know that there will be more trips to the city and different areas of the city. Next time, Greenwich Village and lower Manhattan are on the agenda. Personally a full day enjoying Central Park and the places to eat and enjoy there will be great too. The shows will always be a high priority.

As you can see, the day was very special for me and having a dear friend like Lisa enjoy it with me was the "strawberry on the cheesecake".

Next time an overnight stay!!!!