Wicked in New York City

Last weekend (yes, its been a crazy week, so I'm just getting to this), Emily and I went to New York City for Emily's belated birthday gift. First we drove to Lancaster PA on Friday night. Then we got up early and took the train from Lancaster through Philly to Penn Station. Here are some pictures of us on the train as well as PA from the farmland in central PA to Philly's skyline and train station.






















Here is Emily when we first got to New York.







She LOVED the vibrancy (my words... she said bright and alive) of the "city". We dropped our bags at the Westin off of Times Square (we were too early to check in). Then we tried to get to the top of the Empire State Building, but found that the lines were too long. So, we bought our tickets for the observation deck for later and left.

You see, we didn't want to be late... the real purpose of the trip was to see Wicked (mom's bday treat to Emily). Wicked is a Wonderful new musical that is now on tour as well (you can see it in LA right now, its been through Toronto and Chicago... not sure where the next stop is). I was a little skepitical as to how great it would be at first, but I'm was in love with it enough to get a tshirt at the end! The plot was supprisingly good and Elphaba (the wicked witch) was AWESOME... one of the best american musical voices I've heard probably ever. Generally the music is quite good and is getting rave reviews... I think there is a chance that it will be able to make a decade long run on Broadway.

Anyways, here are some pictures of that part of the trip.





















Afterwards we checked into the hotel.... some pictures from our window.







Then we went to Little Italy for dinner... very yummy and always fun to eat out on the sidewalk. (For those who haven't experienced NYC in the summer, they shut down the street to car traffic in the summer so that the resturants can use the sidewalks for tables!).








Then, we went to the Metropolitan Museaum for about 45 minutes before it closed... no pictures, we were too in rush to go try and get back to the Empire State Building... here are some pictures from the top.








We of course slept really well that night. The next morning over pasteries downstairs I asked Emily what she wanted to do for the day before we took and afternoon train back. She replied that she didn't know... we got to too much yesterday! We ended up going to the American Museam of Natural History for a bit. Of course, whats NYC during the weekedn without a little sbuway mishap... they were fixing the blue lines and we had to go up to 125th to get back down to Penn Station on 42nd. But it was still fund (Emily loved the sbuways too... thought Vegas needed them :) ).






Then, the long trip back home. I was exhausted the next day at work, but it was worth it!