So when our road trip to Florida got canceled, I pulled out my daughter’s Summer Bucket List and written at the very top was “Visit New York City.” How could I not make this magic happen??
Emma Kelly’s first visit to the Big Apple! I wanted to blow her mind! For her first Broadway production I booked the best seats available! For her trip to the top of the Empire State Building, I bought go-to-the-front-of-the-line express passes! For our adventure through Central Park, I paid for the one hour pedi-cab tour! We took taxis across town! She ate (half of) a $17 waffle! I was a non-stop spending machine!
But she got a bit frustrated at “Wicked.” It IS rather difficult to try to wrap your 8-year-old brain around the complete deconstruction of “The Wizard of Oz” as told through song and dance so I can’t really blame her for giving up on the entire production before we hit intermission. However, during that brief 15-minute window, I managed to explain enough of the plot to get her back on board for act two. By the end of it, she said she liked it. Not exactly the “I want to start taking singing and dancing lessons so I can be on Broadway, too!” moment I was hoping for, but she liked it.
EK really liked Central Park. She learned a bit about John Lennon and she’s become fascinated by Yoko Ono. And a bird pooped on me during the pedi-cab ride, and that’s supposed to be good luck, right?
And the Empire State Building was nice. Of course it would’ve been even nicer if the few hundred other tourists would’ve stepped aside so I could get a better camera angle, but how about those express passes!! That was a huge win!
Other big wins — the Museum of Natural History…the street vendor sausage dog…the “Matilda” musical (she liked it better than “Wicked”)…and Serendipity for frozen hot chocolate with Matthew Hussey!! My daughter is too young to realize what a HUGE deal that was, but I have the pictures to show her one day when she does!
Big losses — topless women wearing nothing but body paint in Times Square….the street hustler offering to babysit my kid so I could go to the strip club which opened up a WHOLE can of worms with my daughter and the constant questions that followed…the money spent on a caricature that looks nothing like my kid…Carnegie Deli being closed “for repairs” (I actually found out it’s because they’ve been stealing gas for 6 years and they owe a ton of money for it)…spending $17 for a waffle and $24 for a so-so reuben sandwich at a deli that WASN’T Carnegie…
The only thing Emma Kelly insisted we absolutely HAD to do before we left NYC was go to Madame Tussauds Wax Museum. Why? Because Emma Kelly was reading a book about New York City for kids and there was a picture of Taylor Swift in there standing next to Taylor Swift when Taylor Swift still had those long, ringlet, prom-girl curls. How old WAS that book?? So that’s the last thing we did before we headed to the airport. We stood in long lines and fought grown adults who would step over an 8-year-old girl to pose next to wax replicas of Kim Kardashian and Puff Daddy Diddy or whatever he’s calling himself this week. And do you know what??? There was no Britney Spears!!! RIPOFF!! Just kidding…….Emma Kelly still loved it. And I loved that there was a replica of the Statue of Liberty’s head, so EK at least got up close and personal with that.
And even though we did a lot, there’s still a lot we didn’t get to do. So next time — which may be a few years from now (because that’s how long it will take me to pay off this trip…) I promised her we’ll do “Aladdin” and “The Lion King” on Broadway and then we’ll take the double-decker bus tour which includes a stop at the ferry which takes you to the ACTUAL Statue of Liberty!
Check out all the pictures from my trip HERE!
