Meet the newest member of our family, Nancy!  We found her at a yard sale, for free!  (I think I heard somewhere that there is no such thing as a free kitten.)  We had no intentions of getting a new pet, but there she was playing with Cookie and I heard myself asking "Are the kittens for sale?"  I guess orange kittens are my kryptonite.  She was so cute and playful and she reminds me of our 17 year old cat Sam when he was small.  He won't be with us forever, so I figure he ought to be around to train his replacement.  Hubby had the final veto power, but he wouldn't say no.  He claims he felt outnumbered and threatened by our potential reaction had he said no.  I think he just really likes her too but won't admit it.

She has a wonderful personality.  She is not afraid at all, she doesn't run and hide behind things.  She enjoyed the car ride home and came in and explored and made herself quite at home.  She loves to be petted and purrs very loud.  She is not afraid of Laurel, our English Setter, and Laurel doesn't seem to notice her much.  The other cats are disgusted with her, but they will adjust in time.

This was the day that I had most anticipated - we were going to see "Wicked" on Broadway!  After having another fine breakfast with the French and Koreans, we hiked over to catch the bus at the Empire State Building.  I later learned that we could have caught the bus about a block closer, oh well!

The route was the same we traveled on day two, so it was a little boring for Cookie, but it was all new to Grandma!  I took lots and lots of pictures, I don't think she would remember much of the trip otherwise.  We got front row seats on the top of the bus, which was the perfect photo spot. 

We got off at Times Square a few blocks from the Gershwin Theatre.  We had just enough time to grab a quick lunch, and there was a deli right at the bus stop.  We had a nice meal.  I didn't catch the name of the place.  I tried to look it up on line.  It might have been the Stage Door Deli, but I hope not because the NYC health department shut them down a few weeks ago!  Glad we survived!

Then it was off to Broadway!  For those of you unfamiliar with the show Wicked, it is the story of life in Oz before Dorothy showed up.  It tells the story of the witches Glinda (the Good) and Elphaba (the Wicked) and how they came to be the way they were.  Let me tell you, I was in tears through most of the show because it was so incredibly good!!  Everything was amazing, the set was incredible, the talent was phenomenal.  I have participated in community theater, and quite frankly this show made everything we do at our little theater look like kindergarten productions!  The actress who played Elphaba, Stephanie J. Block, sang so beautifully.  This was what I came to New York for.  I was on top of the world!

Then after the show we decided to explore Times Square.  That's when things went sour!  We ended up in the Hershey store, and much to my surprise I ran into someone I know from home!   What are the odds of that!  Well, I talked to her for a few minutes and she said that we simply must go across the street to the M&M store.  Bad idea!  We went, it was incredibly crowded, and when we tried to go upstairs Grandma fell backwards on the escalator!  I heard a scream and looked behind me, and there she was with her feet up in the air and her head going back down the escalator.  I ran down to her, the escalator was still moving.  I tried to quickly assess how badly she was injured because we were still moving and I was afraid we would get caught at the top.  I yelled for help, the escalator never did stop (although some man came up to me afterwards and told me he how he pushed a button to make it stop, I guess he thought he was heroic).  We ended up in a pile at the top of the escalator, and finally some security guards came to help us up.  Grandma was fine, just badly bruised on her leg and VERY embarrased!  I asked for a chair, it took the security several minutes to find one.  They got her a glass of water.  They asked if my daughter needed anything.  I said, "How about some M&Ms?"  They said they couldn't do that.  Why did they even ask?  I would have paid for them!  It seems after all that they could have gotten us a lousy little bag of M&Ms without us having to stand in line to buy them.  I asked them to hail us a cab, it seems the least they could do for us.

So, we went back to the hotel, feeling horrible.  Grandma and Cookie stayed to rest while I ventured out into the streets to find some dinner and hunt down the souvenirs that we hadn't gotten yet.  Cookie wanted a small Statue of Liberty and I wanted her to have a t-shirt.  There were several shops to choose from.  I walked in one, that appeared to be owned by Pakistanis.  All of the shops have someone guarding the front door.  Well this man noticed I was looking for a statue, and offered to sell me one for less than the sticker price if I gave him the cash!  Well, I told him I wasn't done shopping and that I would take it up front.  He asked me not to mention our conversation when I went to the cash register.  I wonder if the owner knows his security guy is ripping him off!

I returned to the hotel, with more deli food and souvenirs in hand.  We would be leaving in the morning, so we all took baths and retired early.

  So it was Monday, February 18th.  Our plane was scheduled to leave Buffalo at 12:45PM.  I had picked Grandma up from her house the day before.  Needless to say, there was a flurry of excitement in the house, packing and getting ready.  Grandma's repeated questions about what time our plane left and who was taking us to the airport were coming at me quicker as our departure time got closer.  My father-in-law came to take us to the airport.  I knew that Grandma didn't remember him, although she has met him several times.  We arrived at the airport in plenty of time, almost two hours before our flight was originally scheduled, only to find the flight had already been delayed 45 minutes due to weather in NYC.  We checked in, and as soon as our luggage was checked in, then Grandma started asking where our suitcases were, and how many we had, and when we would see them again.  Our flight ended up being delayed two hours, which added to Grandma's anxiety and questions.

The flight was fine, we landed in NYC around 4:00PM.  I had planned for us to avoid rush hour, but since it was President's Day, the traffic wasn't too bad after all.   We managed to find our luggage easily, much to Grandma's relief!  Then, we needed to find a taxi.  We stepped outside and found a taxi stand just outside the door.

Our taxi experiences while in NYC were pretty positive.   We had three different cab drivers, and true to my preconceived notion, none of them were native speakers of English.  I was able to understand them and communicate fine, but I know Grandma had a hard time understanding them.  Our first cab was pretty high tech, there was a flat screen where you could watch various news, weather, or other tv programs - or you could track your cab's progress on a map - pretty cool!  I thought it would make things easier if I handed the cab driver a printout with the address of the hotel on it.  I don't think he was able to read English, because he handed it back and asked me to read it to him.  He got us there just fine.  Cookie was naturally excited with all the sights we saw along the way to the hotel.

We got to the hotel room, which was clean, comfortable and had everything we needed - but boy was it tiny!  Space in Manhattan is certainly at a premium. We were just a few blocks away from the Empire State Building, which we could see from our hotel window.  It was easy to navigate our way around by looking for the Empire State Building.

After we unpacked our bags, it was time to find some dinner and explore our surroundings.  I headed us in the direction of where we needed to go to pick up our tour bus in the morning.  Well, I seriously underestimated how far we would be able to walk.  The standard pace in Manhattan is fast - and I felt like you had to keep up or get run over!  Grandma was very tentative, and was getting tired out quickly.  We only got about 4 or 5 blocks away, and I knew we'd better find a place to eat.  We found a Japanese restaurant on 5th Avenue and 32nd street - Ishihama.  It was a bit pricey, but I figured our first night in NY would be our splurge night.  The Japanese waitresses were very attentive, well actually they were hovering around our table waiting to take away a dish, or clean up your straw papers.  They were very perceptive to see that Grandma and Cookie would do better with a fork and spoon than with chopsticks.  They didn't take my chopsticks away, which I took as a compliment!  We ordered chicken teriyaki, I thought Grandma would like that well enough.  Cookie, who is a sushi lover, couldn't go without some so I ordered a few pieces.  We could have gotten a whole plate full of sushi at home for what two pieces cost, but it was very good.

Then, it was back to the hotel to rest up for our first full day in NYC!