Feb 16: Central Park, Audition and the Long Drive Home

We were not in a hurry to get moving in the morning. Aurora's audition was scheduled for 3:12 and she had to be there 10 minutes early. We took the morning more slowly while making sure we were up in time for the hotel provided breakfast, which because it was a Saturday, went until 10.

Neta and Graigry joined me for some time at the fitness center for about 30 minutes. I knew we would have another day with lots of walking, but I also knew there would be 11 hours of sitting so I wanted to get the heart rate up for a little bit.

Kids wanted to experience the subway so we found the nearest station and headed to Central Park.

Riding the escalator up from the station

Chicago is known as the windy city, but on the streets in New York, between buildings in mid-February, it is also quite windy. We faced the wind and made it to Central Park with two hours to walk around before we had to head back for Ro to get to her audition.

Smile & wave, boys. Smile & wave!
Kids wanted to go to the Zoo
(thank you to the movie MADAGASCAR;
the gift shop outside the zoo was as close as we got)

We walked by a big rock, so the kids had to climb it and...

Eric was smelling cinnamony goodness and the kids saw the churro cart so
Eric bought a churro for each person. Such a disappointment!
No cinnamon sugar and stiff as cardboard.
Even the squirrels wouldn't eat them.

I think this was called the Jackelyn Onasis Kennedy Reservoir
We walked up to the south side of it and then headed back.

We weaved out of Central Park for a bit, walked past the Natural History Museum. Kids again wanted to go in (thank you movie: Night at the Museum), but 1 - line was devastatingly long and 2-wasn't going to pay for it. We walked back into Central Park and then back out as we got closer to where the New York Manhattan Temple was. We had to walk two blocks west and south to 65th street and it snuck up on us. We turned the corner, couldn't see it and then Eric said, "Look up!" The Angel Moroni appeared. The temple always helps us look up. :)

We went inside to use the restroom. The church building (for regular weekday and Sunday use) were on the fourth floor and that is where the available bathroom's were so up we went. There were some beautiful pictures from the Book of Mormon hanging in the hallway, some I'd never seen before. 

After our temple potty break stop, we headed back to the hotel for audition prep and check out, which meant another subway ride. We packed everything up (we got a late check out for 2:00) had the van pulled out of storage for us, loaded it and headed the 1.5 miles up Broadway to NYU campus. Aurora's friend Rose (graduated from Herron High School last year and going to school in Rochester) came to support her with the audition, so we dropped those two off and we tried to find a free place to park and wait the 30-ish minutes for the audition to end. 

We finished our NY stay with another park and wait at the edge of Washington Square Park. Nate, Graigry and Eric took a nap while I convinced Neta to come wander around with me. The park was full of people playing ball, chess, at the playground with their kids, walking dogs and/or watching two different musicians.

Then there was this piano guy, who invited people to lay underneath his piano while he played so that they could feel the music with their bodies.

Neta and I went into the playground area for a few minutes, but she got bored rather quickly.

Doesn't she look happy to be here?

At 4:20 with no call or text from Aurora, Neta was back in the car and I went to look for Ro. I got a little turned around and walked around the wrong block before finding the building in which they were doing auditions. When I got to the right place, I found Rose waiting in a room and she said that Aurora went into her audition five minutes before I got there. When Ro did come out, her first words were to the effect that "I bombed that one." Ro grabbed a bagel and we headed back to the van. Ro bid farewell to her friend Rose and we began our trip back to the Midwest.

We didn't get very far before meeting a traffic jam. I don't know what the cause was but no one was moving in the needed direction of the Holland Tunnel. We stood still for about 15 minutes and finally met the round about that led to the tunnel and New Jersey. We were on our way home, estimate time of arrival: five am. The last picture of our trip was maybe 20 minutes into Jersey. We were looking for a rest stop with a potty. This was a scenic view, potty-less rest stop, but I got a good picture of the sunset and my son.

Instead of getting the usual fast food for dinner, Eric stopped at a Flying J, a little bit into Jersey, where they had real food options. The lady that helped dish us up, Lisa, was amazingly sweet. She cut us a deal on the meals we ordered and then when Graigry paid for hot chocolate for Nate and Neta, she gave him the employee discount. It was something that made all my kids very happy and was a wonderful way to start the long drive home. At another point along the Pennsylvania Turnpike, someone in front of us paid our toll. Thank you kind people, from us weary travelers. We greatly appreciate your thoughtfulness. 

We got home just after five am, had a couple of hours sleep before raising the dead for church that started at 10. It was a quick, yet long trip. I'm sorry that Ro's audition didn't go well, but I'm glad it gave us the opportunity to experience a small piece of the Big Apple.