Elmo Takes Manhattan!

Whew! We're back from a wild Thanksgiving weekend in New York City. 

I had planned to write a detailed diary of our day-to-day doings while we were in the city, but, it was such a whirlwind of activity, I am having trouble sorting out all the details. So, instead, I will provide some highlights and random thoughts:

• Our trip got off to a great start. My Fabulous Sis works on Broadway for a very famous Broadway actress. Our first stop after arriving was to visit Sis backstage at the big Broadway show she is working on now. We got to meet the Famous Actress, and she was so sweet and welcoming to us, I couldn't help but smile. All my little theatre geek friends would have given their eye teeth for this experience! Later, we got a full backstage tour of the show, courtesy of Sis, which was fascinating. Again, the geeks would be SO jealous.

• Also, thanks to Sis, we saw "The Lion King" on Broadway. I hate the movie version, for various personal and professional history reasons (don't ask!), but the show  is amazing. The "Circle of Life" opening number has to be one of the great moments in the history of Broadway.

Also, the show features lots of puppets. Always a plus in my book.

• Went to a White Castle hamburger joint. I love WC, but there aren't any in my neighborhood, so I was thrilled to find one in Mid-Town Manhattan. Unfortunately, this one is the definition of "skeevy". I shan't return.

• At the "Toys 'R' Us" in Times Square, you could pose for a picture with Spider man and Iron Man- for TWENTY BUCKS! I took a pass, but that hurt. Iron Man looked really cool.

• We saw the Macy's parade. We really lucked out. Even though the weather forecasts were dismal, it was a perfect day for the parade: Not too cold, and no wind, so the balloons could fly in all their glory. This was Perfect Wife's first time at the parade (As a former resident of NYC, I've seen it a buncha times). She  agrees with me that it is something you should see once. The awesome-ness of the size of the balloons and the whole "spectacle" of the thing doesn't make up for the awful-ness of fighting the mobs of humanity. Much better to watch at home in your PJ's.

• We went to Macy's. On Black Friday. I now know what it was like to be an extra in "The Ten Commandments". We didn't even get to see Santa. I hope he gets my letter.

• On the web, I have been reading about how great the new  Disney Store in Times Square is. Well, I am sorry to report, it is a huge disappointment. Just a big collection of Disney stuff to buy but without a lot of special features. Would it kill them to have a few character appearances?

• Speaking of character appearances, it seems there is a new trend in Manhattan: Random people dressing up as famous cartoon characters in homemade costumes and posing with tourists for a fee. We saw a lot of this phenomenon as we strolled about, and saw a lotta scary homemade costumes. We saw Spongebob, and Mickey, and quite a few Cookie Monsters,  but the most ubiquitous character had to be Elmo, the little red breakout star of Sesame Street. He was everywhere. In some cases, there were two or three Elmos hogging a corner. Some of the costumes were pretty good looking, but most looked like a homeless person wrapped in a red shag rug. It didn't help that these Elmos collected their tips in a red Christmas stocking hanging from their waist. It looked like Mr. E was exposing himself.

• One other thing, Manhattan is EXPENSIVE! Save your pennies if you're going there, kids.

There were other highlights to the trip, of course. FS prepared a wonderful Thanksgiving feast, and the invited company made it a Thanksgiving to remember.

Next year, though, PW and I returning to our hallowed Holiday tradition of cold Kentucky Fried Chicken, liquor, and spending the day in our pajamas.

All in all though, we had a swell time. Hope you all did, too!