New England Splendor Tour-Day 9, 10 and 11

Day 9 - Thursday, October 1st

We arrived in New York City for the next 2 days. Had a city tour of the Big Apple, saw the Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Rockefeller Center, Greenwich Village, visited the World Trade Center Memorial and then had time to do some shopping. They were filming 30 Rock at Rockefeller Center so some of the group saw Alec Baldwin. We saw Grant’s Tomb, the building where Martha Stewart and the Food Channel broadcast from.

There are 20,000 restaurants in NYC, 37,000 cops and they need 3,000 more. There are 600 McDonald’s, 200 Starbucks, 13,000 yellow cabs, 200 languages are spoken in NYC and 45,000 traffic lights. The Empire State Building is the tallest bldg. in NYC and gets 500 lightning strikes per year. They also have cameras mounted on most corners in NYC. We saw Donald Trump’s Trump Towers with all the marble walls and the water wall inside. Drove down 5th Avenue and visited St. John’s Cathedral. The Statue of Liberty can fit in the middle of the cathedral without its base because the ceilings are so high. It's magnificant inside with the stone work and statuary.

Staten Island has the largest Italian community in the city. Any building that is over 6 stories high, has water towers on top needed for water pressure. It’s a common site to see old water towers – a landmark in NCY. We drove through Hell’s Kitchen which is the theatre district in New York City. Saw Lauren Bacall and Bernie Madoff’s apartment buildings. Also were Jackie Kennedy lived at 1040 West Park Ave. and John Lennon.

Drove around Central Park. It's 2 miles long and ½ mile long with a total of 840 acres. The New York Marathon begins in Central Park. It contains a zoo, lake, tennis and soccer fields, 2 ice skating rinks and of course, Tavern on the Green, which was a sheep barn at one time where we had lunch. Also saw Yoko Ono’s tribute to John Lennon, Strawberry Fields, located just inside Central Park.

Went to a Broadway musical at 8 PM. Saw Jersey Boys. Jersey Boys is a musical biography of the Four Seasons—the rise, the tough times and personal clashes, and the ultimate triumph of a group of friends whose music became symbolic of a generation. Far from a mere tribute concert (though it does include numbers from the popular Four Seasons songbook), Jersey Boys gets to the heart of the relationships at the center of the group—with a special focus on frontman Frankie Valli, the small kid with the big falsetto. In addition to following the quartet’s coming of age as performers, the core of the show is how an allegiance to a code of honor learned in the streets of their native New Jersey got them through a multitude of challenges: gambling debts, Mafia threats and family disasters. Jersey Boys is a glimpse at the people behind a sound that has managed to endure for over four decades in the hearts of the public.

Day 10 - Friday, Oct. 2nd

We had a 9 AM NBC Studio Tour so headed back into New York City. We were staying in New Jersey because prices are cheaper. The tour was very interesting. I saw where Saturday Night Live broadcasts from, where Jimmy Kimmel's stage is (Johnny Carson also had his show there) and I got to be an anchor and read off the monitor. The make-up people have 90 seconds to get
guests ready for appearances. Saw Robert Bazell, one of the reporters for NBC and Amy Bodard, the TV anchor with Lester Holt on Saturday’s Today Show. Also stood behind the desk of Brian Williams where he does the nightly news. After the tour we started to head home. Had a farewell dinner en route to Cleveland, Ohio, our nights destination.

Day 11 - Saturday, Oct. 3rd.

A day of travel homeward bound allowing us time to reminisce about our experiences in New England, the sights we saw, the meals we enjoyed and the priceless friendships we made. Arrived home in Appleton around 8 PM.