NYC Day 3 - Part 2 Lion King

On Saturday afternoon we went to The Minskoff Theater to see The Lion King on Broadway. Obviously we weren't allowed to take pictures during the performance so these are some of the photos that I have found online and downloaded to give you a good idea what it was like.

Let me first start by saying that the costumes were amazing and probably my favorite part of the whole thing.

NYC Day 4 - Part 1

On Sunday morning Calloway, Roselyn (my m-i-l), Laci (my step-sister-in-law), and I walked to the American Girl store where we had lunch reservations for Mother's Day. Mark had a last minute rehearsal for his concert that afternoon and we left Richard at the hotel, so that we could have a girl's date. This is Calloway with her American doll, Rebecca. She was so excited and as you can see the doll had her own chair and got to eat lunch with us. She even has her own plate and cup.

After lunch we walked up 5th avenue to see some of the more "posh" stores. I was amazed as we walked how many beautiful churches were just stuck in between skyscrapers. 

One of the more famous places that we passed was the Trump Tower....no, we didn't go in, even though it is open to the public.

Next stop, the ever famous, Tiffany's. We got to see the famous Tiffany diamond and we rode the elevator to the 3rd or 4th floor (I can't remember). Tiffany's has 7 floors of fine shopping. 

While there, we picked up a little something for me for Mother's Day....a charm for my bracelet.

I'll have to get a picture of that for ya! Here I am with my famous Tiffany blue box and bag.

Then we went to the Apple Store which looks like a giant glass cube as you approach. It is actually very cool architecturally designed, from the staircase, to the elevator, everything! 

Of course, the famous apple! 

This next building was right across the street from the Apple store. Do you recognize it?

Well, it's the famous Park Plaza hotel. And NO! We couldn't afford to stay there......

You either gotta have some dough or know somebody.....and this southern girl, don't know anybody! 

Stay tuned for a really fun post of FAO Schwarz....

Yes! It deserves it's own post.

NYC Day 3 - Part 1

On Saturday afternoon we went to see Lion King on Broadway. (more on that later) It'll be a post of it's own. Saturday evening we ventured out to see Rockefeller plaza and find a good place to eat dinner. As we approached Rockefeller center we saw the famous Radio City Music Hall.

Here is the NBC studios that I'm sure many of you watch each morning.

Cal had a good view from Grandpa's shoulders.

I loved seeing all of the flags. This is Rockefeller Plaza/Center.

After that we had dinner at some pricey steak place that I don't even remember the name of.

After dinner on our way back to the hotel we stopped by the Disney store in Times Square. It was under renovation, but you could still go in. I wish we could have been there or seen if after they finish. 

This is the cinderella castle inside the Disney store. In this department, they had anything to do with princess that you could imagine, clothes, dolls, etc. 

Including these beautiful chandeliers that hung from the ceiling. 

And a magic mirror on the wall. Basically you stand in front of the magic mirror and wave your arms up and down, and then a picture of a princess appears in the mirror. Calloway got Jasmine and I got Snow White. 

Since we had seen Lion King earlier in the day, she picked a "Simba Pet" as a souvenier. She was so excited about him!

NYC Day 4 is on Sunday, Mother's Day. So you will get to see our all girls lunch at American Girl, shopping on 5th avenue, and some very iconic places.

NYC Day 2 - Part 3

First stop in Times Square was Toys 'R Us. Now this wasn't your regular ole toy store. We are talking 4 floors of any and everything a kid could possibly want or imagine. And don't forget that huge indoor ferris wheel right when you walk through the front doors. And of yes, of course, we went there just to ride the ferris wheel.

Every car on the ferris wheel was themed by a different toy company or toy. We got seated in a car that had Jeffrey (the Toys R Us giraffe) on one side and ET on the other. Cal was so excited and she doesn't even really know who either of them are. 

There was Wonka Land on the 2nd floor where you could get any Wonka candy you wanted. 

Also, on the third floor was all of the action figures and other boy toys.... 

The 4th floor was home to Candy Land (which was themed after the game). 

After our time of preteding to be kids again, we headed off to eat dinner at Bubba Gump shrimp. This was the second Bubba Gump's we've ever eaten at. The first was in New Orleans. 

These are some of our friends from the seminary that met us for dinner. 

The Burnett's chillin' at dinner. Yes, Calloway was sleepy and a little irritable. But boy was she a trooper. She went with us the whole week and did a great job keeping up! I was really proud of how well she behaved despite a grueling schedule. 

During dinner this girl came over and was taking pictures over our table of the building next door. She finally turned to us and said, "You know what's going on over there, right?" And of course we had been oblivious to any activity that direction. She said, "Well in the blue shirt is Mario Lopez and he just got done interviewing Taylor Lautner in the red striped shirt." OMG! I got so excited and grabbed the camera and this is the best shot I could get before they both left and closed the curtains. So, that's as close to fame as it gets for me. 

After dinner we headed down the street towards our next destination but I got hung up when this man walked past us and stopped. He had a rainbow macaw on this steel bar across his back, a green parrot on his shoulder bag, and you can't see it in this picture, but he also had a snake wrapped around his right arm, from his wrist to his elbow.....I knew New York had some interesting people but this guy definitely made my top 10 list.

We were on our way to M&M World when he caught us off guard. Again, another store that was just absolutely huge and outrageous. 3 floors!!! of M&M stuff. Who could believe it! 

Here are Cal and I with one of the many huge M&M guys they had. I hope this somewhat puts into perspective how huge everything was in that store. 

A wall full of any color peanut M&M's you might want. Mark hit up the peanut butter M&M wall and Calloway chose to get some M&M's from the plain wall. They made this family quite happy! 

Then we headed across the street to the Hershey's store...can't get enough chocolate, I guess! Mark was in heaven with all of their Reese's paraphanelia. 

We rode the subway back to Grand Central and I wanted to go in the main corrider to see it in all of its glory. Let me just say that these pictures don't do it justice! 

Then it was back up to the hotel room where Cal played a game on the iPhone before hitting the sack.  

And that was the end of Day 2 in NYC. Stay tuned for Saturday.....

Rockefeller Plaza, The Lion King on Broadway, and more.

NYC Day 2 - Part 2

We stopped for lunch in Central Park. We had hot dogs from a hot dog cart like the one below. I didn't really care for my hot dog to be honest. I thought that it was too spicy. I was actually kind of disappointed.

I was quite surprised when we were walking down one of the paths and passed this huge rocky area. The landscape seemed so uncharacteristic of NYC. 

Then we rode the carousel in Central Park. We all had a great time doing this, even the young and the older! The carousel itself was beautiful. I took pictures of the whole thing. It was very antique looking. 

I think Cal picked this horse because she thought it was a zebra...she has a thing for zebras lately.

(Must take after Aunt Bizby.) 

This is a view of one of the lawn's that people could picnic and hang out in. You can see the skyscrapers in the background peering out over the trees. 

Mark finally finished his rehearsal and met up with us at Central Park. He and Calloway were standing by the Balto statue. Balto is a famous dog because of his contributions to the Iditarod sled dog race, where he saved many people's lives. 

This lady (yes, she was a real person) was standing near one of the paths in Central Park. She was pretending to be a statue and her sign said that if you took a picture to be respectful and pay her. So, I took a picture and let Cal drop in some coins. After I took the picture she did some ballet moves but it was really kind of creepy, to be honest. She was actually an old woman which made it more unnerving.  

This is the area where they do the famous sailboat races. There is even a place here where you can rent sailboats to sail. 

This is the Alice in Wonderland statue. She stands 11ft tall. This is actually a memorial that Lewis Carroll built for his wife. She had a huge love and passion for children and he wanted to have something built that children could play on. It was very neat. 

As we were passing this rock below, Calloway said, "I wanna rock climb!" And so Mark, Richard, Calloway and Casey climbed up this big rock. Calloway was so happy and really excited when they made it to the top. Her shoes were a little bit slippery but she climbed most of the way with a little help from Mark.

As we approache these steps up to the Belvedere Castle (which is in the middle of Central Park.) Calloway told us to stop and let her go first. She is really into this whole, I can do it, Me first thing. 

Belvedere Castle 

Watching the people row boats in a lake in Central Park. (This is on my to-do list for next time.)

Then it was off to The American Museum of Natural History

(Which is the museum feature in the movies "Night at the Museum".)

Although, it didn't look the same.

We came to see the dinosaurs....well, that's what Calloway wanted to see. And she got lucky! The whole 4th floor was full dinosaurs and other skeletons from eras. 

This was the hall of African mammals. These elephants were huge! 

This room had a random assortment of animals. I'm sure it wasn't random but I didn't have time to read any signs to see what stuff was. We got there an hour before the museum closed and certain exhibits were closing early, so we were basically making a mad dash through the museum trying to get to all of the stuff that closing, before it closed.  (Btw, do you see that giant spider at the top....I don't think I'd ever like to meet any of his family members.)

And finally Rexie!

Calloway absolutely LOVED looking at all of the dinosaurs. 

Now, let me explain...at this point, those exhibits that closed early, were closed. So we spent a little bit of time in the Hall of Dinosaurs. This exhibit was footprints from a dinosaur and we thought it would be cool to put in perspective how big they were compared to our hands. Also, just a little interesting FYI. These tracks are molded after the dinosaur tracks found in Glen Rose, TX (which is about an hour from us) at dinosaur valley state park. 

This little guy, who was probably about 10yrs old was playing in the subway. Now the cool part is that he must have been some child prodigy because he was playing tons of classical pieces, all by memory and reall, really, well.

Stay tuned for NYC Day 2 - Part 3 which will show our trip to Toys R Us, Bubba Gump Shrimp, M&M World, the Hershey's Store, and find out what two famous people I saw in Times Square.