My Very Touristy Weekend

This weekend I was the ultimate New York City tourist. I spent the better part of two days attending Broadway shows, going on a Central Park walking tour, eating dinner in Chinatown, and dessert in Little Italy. Anytime my parents are in town, despite the fact that they lived in New York City for six years and in the suburbs for 22, they still like to play tourist and I love to join in. 

As I have mentioned one of my favorite things about New York City is TKTS. If you’re flexible and have a bit of time the day of the play to wait in line for discount Broadway tickets it is really the best option around. While putting together my newest furniture additions on Saturday morning my parents asked what play wanted to see I was hesitant with my answer as I knew that many would be sold out, and thus not have tickets at TKTS, especially if they have have recently opened or won a Tony. But after John Travolta’s “AdelevDazeem” fail at the Oscars I have really, really wanted to see her sing in If/Then.  When my mom called to tell me that I would get to see Idina Menzel I was SO excited. After family dinner we head to the theater and boy can that girl sing. And my dad even posted for touristy picture with our playbills which is very rare.

Sunday was the most perfect tourist day I could imagine, but let me back up.  Like any true blogger my first reader was and always will be my mom. She reads Sparkles and Shoes everyday and then lets me know what she thinks about that day’s post. When she read my one about the touristy things I wanted to do in New York she expressed interest in doing the Central Park walking tour of the statues. I was so excited that someone wanted to do it with me that when she came to town this weekend I looked into it. It is astronomical amount of money the tour company wants for a two hour, two mile walk so I decided to put my “Google skills” to work and found a similar, albeit not identical, 10 AM free walking tour of South Central Park.  Despite a a few brief rain showers I learned quite a bit about the park only a few blocks from my house. 

And then the reason that we went on the tour in the first place – The Alice and Wonderland Statue! 

After a quick afternoon break we headed to see The Book of Mormon, which was my brother’s graduation present from May.   Knowing this was on the calendar for months it made me even more excited to see the play and I am so glad it lived up to my expectations.  It was SO freaking funny and the fact that Ben Platt (Benji from Pitch Perfect) was one of the leads made it even better.   I was excited to take a few photos after the wonderful show but when the lights came on and we realized it was the 110th minute of the World Cup Final we rushed out and ran to the nearest bar to watch the last few minutes.  Therefore my plan got reduced to a selfie. 

   
As I mentioned in my dad’s birthday post he is pretty much good at everything and that includes finding phenomenal restaurants.  After Book of Mormon we headed down to Chinatown to an amazing spot that my he found, Joe’s Shanghai Chinese Restaurant.  When we walked in to the small, famous hole-in-the-wall every single table had an order of dumplings so we jumped on the bandwagon.  $5 for the eight homemade pork dumplings?  One of the best deals around.  After the dumplings we got half a dozen other dishes and I only had time to photograph the first one before everyone dug in!  Great find Dad, I will be back! 

And there is really no better way to end a meal in Chinatown with a sweet treat in Little Italy.  Last night I opted for a homemade hand-dipped red velvet chocolate cannoli that was to die for! 

My weekend was amazing and you really can not get more New York than that!