Finally Broadway

My morning was on the complete opposite side of the spectrum compared to yesterday. I slept in late enough to practically make up for lost time that was sacrificed last night for the sake of the concert. To my leisure and content I was able to sleep as late as I needed and then take as long as I wanted to start my morning off. I got in touch with Emily, Simon and Claire and we all decided what we wanted to do that day.

Claire, Emily and I were a little bummed because our plans to go to the color run in Brooklyn fell through. Our RA wasn't able to go with us and Claire had been feeling a bit under the weather, and that in addition to the fact that we hadn't gotten a whole lot of sleep the night before ultimately decided that it probably wasn't a good idea to go run three miles at 8 AM. However, color runs are nationwide, recurring event so hopefully I'll get to participate in one back home.

Annie's red curtain

We all got brunch at a local restaurant down the street. Emily and I initially had another restaurant in mind, but we decided that lately whenever we branch off from Simon to do something on our own we always end up making the worst decision - see Simon's encounter with Anne Hathaway, the band member from Imagine Dragons etc. So, we went were Simon had been eyeing earlier and let's just say we definitely made the right choice. We all got something we liked and it was very filling. So after brunch, we braved back out into the heat and onto the subway to make our way to Times square.

We were running a bit low on time until matinees on Broadway began, so at the tkts booth we had to quickly make an executive decision on what to see. We ultimately decided on Annie because the tickets weren't as expensive as some of the other shows and we were able to get 4 seats together. The musical was amazing! All the child actresses were phenomenal - their voices were incredible and they were so funny and adorable. The other actors were great too - including Jane Lynch as Ms. Hannigan.

For dinner, Simon, Emily and I made our way to Chinatown, and following the advice of the New Yorker couple we met on the 4th, sat down to eat at Shanghai Cafe. We ordered a few dishes and were served quickly (enough to realize that we had ordered WAY too much food). It was all really good though so we managed to finish off just about everything (all the noodles, all the dumplings, all the rice). Just a short walk from Chinatown is Little Italy, so we had some phenom cannolis there (voted best in NYC by some newspaper, according to the sign). I'm no cannoli connoisseur, but I'd have to agree with the paper.

Since we were already downtown, we decided to make one more stop in Greenwich Village before turning in. Greenwich Village is probably my favorite part of NYC so far. I've been there more than a couple times now and I really just enjoy the environment - walking around Washington Square Park to listen to some music or watch sidewalk artists create chalk masterpieces, or even just down the pleasantly-uncrowded streets. It's weird that now we're officially on our very last week in New York, and today was our last Saturday here. I hope to knock off a few more items from my NYC top ten before time runs out!