New York - Day Five

Wednesday, April 2nd

And so we come to my last day in New York, I'd seen so much and yet so little, and I know I will be back one day.

New York Philharmonic
Intrepid Air, Sea and Space Museum
Circle Line Cruise
The Lion King
Times Square

New York Philharmonic

I ventured out uptown to the Lincoln Center, walking past some of the buildings for the Julliard school (which I only know because of High School Musical, which is a little sad), and to the Avery Fisher Hall. On various mornings, the New York Philharmonic holds open rehearsals which naturally I was like "YES! I WANT TO GO TO THIS". So I did. It appears to be a Thing for locals-- there were several older residents with newspapers or books sitting with arguably one of the best musical accompaniments you can get to start their morning. If I lived there I'd probably do the same, really. There is no reserved seating or anything so you can just pick a seat and chill there while the Orchestra plays through a few pieces--which was great because I moved around to sit in a box at one point, got to pretend to be all pro. It is a working rehearsal so they stop every now and then to talk, and repeated a few sections.

The Avery Fisher Hall

Me being hipster/artistic.

Lincoln Center Courtyard

Inside the hall, from the back

The Orchestra

View from a box

The music was incredible. Even having played one myself/being involved in music I'm still astonished at what can be produced by pieces of wood, metal and string. It's amazing. Naturally I picked the side so I could watch the trombones,but all the artists were so into their music and I love watching the conductor as well because of their intensity! The only thing that perplexed me was... where did the piano come from/go? The second song featured a pianist so they brought out a piano for them to play (as you do), but I looked up at one point and the piano had magically appeared, nothing else seemed out of place. And then it disappeared while I was moving around, without a trace! I'm sure the explanation is something mundane like they just moved the chairs and wheeled it in and out, but I'd like to believe there was a trap door involved.

Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum

I heard the name, and I was like "YES! I WANT TO GO TO THIS!" (notice a theme here?) Travelling on my own was great, didn't have to convince anyone to go to things, got to plan it all myself, and when I got sick of something I could just leave. Not that travelling with others isn't great as well, alone was just really easy!

Me and the Intrepid

Lego Intrepid

Real Intrepid

Good to know.

Inside the anchor room

Casually pointed at New York

The Intrepid was an aircraft carrier that was decommissioned and going to be broken up into scrap metal before someone intervened and turned it into a museum-- so most of the ship is a museum, with planes on the top deck, information through the sailors quarters, even a Lego replica of itself. I liked the anchor room, with the giant chains and little pieces of art etched in all around by bored sailors. There is also a submarine in the complex (which unfortunately I didn't get to).

Aircraft on the flight deck

Oh and there is a space shuttle too. (I KNOW RIGHT?!) When NASA was decided what to do with all the old space shuttles, they ended up donating them to various museums around the US (possibly the world), and the Intrepid got the Enterprise. It was bigger than I thought it would be, I don't know how big I thought a space shuttle would be, but smaller than it was. The Enterprise was one of the very early shuttles, and it never actually made it into orbit, but did brush the outskirts of space a few times. The cool part is that they were originally going to name it something else, then Star Trek fans everywhere were like "wouldn't it be cool if they named it the Enterprise?" and everyone else was like "sure, why not?" and hence, the Enterprise.

Me and the Enterprise

Circle Line Cruise

Manhattan is in fact an island. Not a terribly big one, but it does take about three hours to go all the way around on a boat. I know this, because that is exactly what I did. It was nice to see the sights of the city from a different perspective, and I finally made it past the Statue of Liberty. I also had some really bad nachos. That was upsetting, but the view was nice.

Freedom Tower, built near the 9/11 Precinct,
1776 feet tall

Another "smaller than I thought"
statue I've encountered

It was a little windy.

Hello city!

Brooklyn Bridge and Manhattan

Me and the city

Possibly the best part of the cruise though was the tour guide. He had the best voice I've heard in a while, and it was delightful to listen to him, and if it would let me upload the video I have of him talking I would, but it's not so I can't. I'll keep trying.

You can get to Roosevelt Island by cable car.

Yankee Stadium

Rotating bridge

There isn't terribly much to see around the very uptown of Manhattan. I did get to see some of the Bronx and a glimpse of Queens, which was exciting but but I was kinda bored by the time we got back to the dock.

The Lion King

The show was fantastic. The costuming and staging was incredible-- rotating Pride Rock rising out of the floor? Sure. Elephant bones to go climbing over, why not? The stampede scene was particularly well done. It was a very different show than Book of Mormon (namely being for kids), and it was also very good. The Minskoff Theatre seemed much more pro than the Eugene O'Neill-- I had to smuggle in food (they checked bags but not jacket pockets :P), and there was a whole group of high school kids in prom gear, all dolled up to fight through.

The Minskoff Theatre

Me and Rafiki 

Anticipation building...

Times Square

After the show, I stayed in Times Square for a while, just watching people. I had a great view of the street from inside the theatre actually, and I stayed there until politely informed they were closing. There really is something magical about the city, it is hard to explain, but I really loved being in New York.

Times Square

So farewell, until we meet again, New York.

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