New York Day Four

Day four was the first with the possibility of rain in the forecast, but what did fall happened to be when we were in buildings.

We started the day with breakfast at Burger King for Nate and at Dunkin Donuts for the rest of us. As we ate our breakfast looking out on Times Square, there was plenty of people watching to be seen. Including a guy walking along who spotted a half spotted cigarette on the ground, and deciding it was too good of an opportunity to pass up picked it up and lit it up before heading on his way. We also saw a dog pee in the middle of the sidewalk. We also discovered that the hot garbage smell is even worse on Sunday when there is obviously no garbage pick-up. Everywhere pile of bagged garbage...smelly garbage. New York City definitely has a garbage problem.

ANYWAY....after breakfast we headed to the Subway (pros....PROS at the subway I tell you at this point). Out first destination was the Tenement Museum. This was another hint from the colleague of Kyle's. It also did not disappoint. We got ourselves booked on a tour of the building, and with time to spare while we waited we walked around the area. We found a very good little ice cream shop, and also found a small portion of China Town that was probably not as a nice a neighborhood as the China Town we walked through down by the 9/11 stuff.

After great ice cream, we checked out the Tenement Museum store. Lots of neat stuff here. I found a couple of books I would like to read, at a hugely marked up price. So I quickly verified that I could get them at a better price on Amazon, and snapped pictures of them so I could purchase them at home instead. I'm sure the staff didn't care for that, but too bad.

The Tenement Museum building was very neat, unfortunately there were no pictures allowed inside the building. So all I have are outside pictures of the old Tenement Buildings.

So these buildings housed small three room apartments, that often were the home of families of 5-8 people. There is no heat, only the coal fired oven in the kitchen. Often the apartments were also homes to garment shops (the original sweat shops) that also took up one of the rooms during a time that ready made clothing was new and all the rage. It was a fun....if hot tour.

We then headed to the subway to take us to the Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace. This is one of the things that Nate had most been looking forward to. It was free (we didn't think there was such a thing in NYC), and although it is a short tour the tour guide was a very gifted story teller. It was so much fun, and Nate was answering history questions about presidents that nobody else on our tour knew the answers to. Although it was small compared to the Mansions we have toured (Glensheen, James J. Hill House), it was a sharp contrast to the Tenement apartments we had just seen. This time, pictures were allowed in the house.

There was not the best direct route back to the hotel on the Subway, so we walked for awhile to get to one. However there were some neat sites along the way.

Loved this small red building between
the larger buildings

Flat Iron Building

Flat Iron Building, built to fit in a tight space.

Once back at the hotel, we rested out legs and figured out where to have dinner. Once we decided on a great little steak house, we changed into fancier clothes (Broadway was calling after dinner), and walked a couple of blocks to the restaurant. 

The steak house did not disappoint. Also, I was apparently hungry, I got the same size steak and Ben and Kyle and finished mine off before they were about half way done with theirs (and that included time to cut up Nate's steak for him). That NEVER happens. It was a good steak.

The boys were still grumbling slightly about the Broadway Show. The grumbling stopped not long after the show started with the first dramatic music from the pit. They all agreed they had more respect for Broadway and it was definitely worth seeing. I loved every single second of it, cried like crazy at the end, and then spent a small fortune on Phantom related items. I do have to say though that we were the most dressed up (at least in the cheap seats), the addition of snacks in noisy wrappers, and people loudly arguing after the show began was utterly disrespectful for all that Broadway is. Anyway, I'm now as fascinated with Phantom of the Opera as I was with Les Miserables after seeing it on Broadway. I'm glad I decided to ignore the price tag of the tickets, and just go for it. 

The theater was beautiful!

Before the show.

After the show...note bag full of Phantom gear.

After the show.

At the end of the night, with Ben deciding to relax in the hotel room the rest of us took another tour of Times Square. Being Saturday night, it was the most busy we had seen it. Nate was in in NYC groove by then though, and was loving every second of it. We couldn't convince him to have his picture drawn by one of the street vendors, or have his picture taken with the nearly naked girls though. Gotta love NYC!