Wicked - A Musical

We watched the musical Wicked at the Gershwin theater during our June trip to NYC.  It was one of the cultural events Nicholas selected for us.

The show was very well attended - nearly sold out. A good percentage of the audience was old woman, and some old man. Another major portion of the audience was seemingly organized high school students going there through school activity. Tourists like us were another major part of the attendees. It was a formal event for us - we dressed up for the occasion! I could sense the suppressed excitement of the audience. I was little bit bored at beginning of the show but enthralled by the singing and the story line as the show went on. 

Wicked is about Elphaba, the illegitimate daughter between wife of the governor of Munchkinland and a mysterious stranger, who was born green-skinned The governor resented the girl. Elphaba grew up to become the notorious Wicked Witch of the West.

At the first part of the show Elphaba was seen as a girl who was abnormal, easily agitated and trying to conform. But her explosion of anger revealed she had mystic power. She evolved into a woman who represented power, justice and truth while the mass was  depicted as weak, prejudiced and fraud.

While most in the audience cheered on for Elphaba since she was suppressed, and a underdog in the society, who eventually "won", I thought that the undertone of the show was to celebrate abnormality, decry normality. It is wicked, I did not cheer on any part of it.

Visiting NYC

After so many visits to Wilderness for vacation, Nicholas wanted to visit civilization! He chose NYC as the destination for our short vacation in Mid June, coordinating with my trip to Boston. He selected all places to visit for the trip:  Metropolitan museum of Natural History, Museum of Modern Arts,  Empire State Building, World Trade Center and memorial park, Grand Central Terminals, Battery Island and Statue of Liberty, Time Square, Wall Street, and High line park,Central Park, and Brooklyn Bridge. 

Nicholas and Mom went to NYC on a Wednesday and I joined them the next evening. We stayed at a midtown hotel, a block away from Empire State building. We used public transportation exclusively - subways, ferry.

The night I arrived at NYC, we went to uptown to have dinner with our old friends and their family. 

On Friday morning we went to Grand Central to have breakfast and also to meet Lily's friend from college there for the walk on  Brooklyn Bridge. A first sight of the grand central was underwhelming because it is dwarfed by surrounding skyscrapers, however I was still amazed by its grandness inside.

After the walk on Brooklyn Bridge and lunch, we went to Wall Street - it was more to feel what is like to walk on Wall street. It is a narrow two lane street with many well known buildings along the way or nearby - NYC Stock Exchange, Trump Building, World Trade Center, St. Patrick's Church, Rockefeller Center, Time Square, Charging Bull

I did not notice then, but realized now that one of the flags at the front of  NYC Stock exchange was Texas' Lone Star flag! There was some special thing on that day related to Texas?

After Wall street,  Nicholas wanted to see the famous charging bull at the financial district, on Broadway. Many tourists were crowded around the the statue, standing in each others way to take pictures. I waited for a few minutes, and got a time when there was no one standing around it to take the picture below

World trade center and the memorial park was our next stop. I visited the original world trade center twin towers before 9/11/2001. Now they were gone and in their places are two deep, huge square pools - make me feel the emptiness and deep sorrow. It is worth a separate post to record my feeling and the old story!

Rockefeller Center's court yard was a popular places - it was quite different from what I imagined via watch TV.

Time Square was just as seen on TV, crowded with tourists, many neon or electronic Billboards hanging over the streets. It was flashy but street was dirty.

Our day ended with a fine dinner at 4 star restaurant and watching the  musical Wicked at Gershwin Theater. I was little bit bored at beginning of the show but  enthralled by the singing and the story line. However I thought the show seemed to celebrate abnormality!  

Grand Central 

Grand Central - the main hall

on Brooklyn Bridge

Wall Street's southern end

Trump Tower

Wall Street Stock Exchange

Charging Bull

World trade center

Court yard at Rockefeller Center

Time Square

Gershwin Theater 

On Saturday, we visited Battery Island and Statue of Liberty. It was a cloudy and somewhat chilly day. We simply walked around the statue and took some pictures. Now the park charges tourists at three levels  - ferry and park, statue pedestal, and the crown. Another flash back for me, it was one ticket to visit all of these places when I visited the statue of liberty last time - I climbed the wooden stairway to the crown!

We went to look at the building Carnegie Hall  and then the Museum of Modern Arts. Nicholas went in by himself, Lily and I went to Rockefeller Center trying to get to observation tower to look down at NYC! The cloud was so thick,  it blocked the view so we took a guided tour of Rockefeller center area instead. It was an interesting tour, I learnt a lot about Rockefeller family history but I have to admit that I forgot most of the stories told already. After the tour, we went to M & M specialty store to buy some special M & M chocolates.  

Our last stop of the day and the trip to NYC was the Columbia University campus - elegant and beautiful.

Statue of Liberty

Carnegie Hall

Museum of Modern Arts 

Rockfeller Center East Entrance 

St. Patrick Church

M & M Specialty Store

Columbia University

New England Aquarium and Boston Harbor

The technical conference I went to at Boston in June had a evening reception at Boston Aquarium. even though Aquarium is a not an ideal place for networking and eating. 

The aquarium is not big, it has a small penguin island near the entrance and big center tank for fishes, sharks, giant sea turtles and a diver just for our event.

The food was spread out all over the places, and the best food that evening was stewed beef which was placed in the back side of a transition balcony, not many people knew. After the beef I did not see many people inside the aquarium any more. Most people went out of the aquarium to the big patio at the harbor side after a while.

I missed a spectacular sunset but the night scene was pretty nice.

A Walk on Brooklyn Bridge NYC

One outdoor activity we had during our NYC trip in June was to walk the Brooklyn Bridge.

Brooklyn Bridge is a hybrid cable-stayed/suspension bridge, one of the oldest roadway bridge in the country. It has pedestrian bridge above the road way, a very popular destination for locals and visitors, to walk and bike. The total length for the walk from end to end is about 1 mile.

We walked the bridge on the morning of June 22nd, with Lily's friend Elaine and her two young sons. 

It was cloudy but otherwise a pleasant day. The walkway had a consistent stream of pedestrians,  and bikers from time and time. It was not crowded. We walked at leisure pace. We could see NYC pretty well from the bridge, Manhattan high rises to northwest , Empire state building to the northeast far way in mid-down, Manhattan bridge a short distance to the east, and the Statue of Liberty to the Southwest. Nicholas led the two little boys by hands, Lily and Elaine chatted all the way, and I walked back and forth to take pictures.

It took us about one hour to walk the length of the bridge to the Brooklyn Bridge park at the bank of East River, directly opposite to lower Manhattan. It is great place to rest and enjoy the view of lower Manhattan across the river. 

We then took ferry to return to Manhattan, and had lunch at a restaurant in Seaport district - Dorlan's Tavern and Oyster bar. Our lunch time happened to be the game time of a  FIFA world cup game. In addition to good food, we also enjoyed the soccer game.

pedestrian and bike lanes on the bridge

First tower from Manhattan side

Cables - and the 1875 Mark

View of Manhattan

Nicholas and two little brothers - Elaine's sons

At Brooklyn Bridge park after walk on the bridge

start of Wall Street

Fifa game and lunch seaport district

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Quick guide: Morning walk maybe better

subway to Brooklyn Bridge station
walk toward Brooklyn bridge
Walk on the bridge
go to Brooklyn Bridge Park
take ferry to Mahattan
have lunch at seaport district - many good restaurants there
go to Wall street after lunch if desired

Freedom Trail - Boston

I went to Boston in mid-June for a technical conference held at Marriott Copley Place. After 3 time visits to Boston, I decided to hike the famed and historical Freedom Trail.

The trail head of the freedom trail is located at Boston Common, in front of Massachusetts Capital, and it ends at Bunker Hill Monument at the other end. The freedom trail zigzags a lot at downtown area, and one could get lost easily. The trick is to follow the red-line, formed by red bricks, in the center of the trail . 

A friend and I set out to hike on a cloudy and hot afternoon.

We started from the hotel we stayed, Marriott at Copley Place. The hotel is over a mile away from the trail head. It was worthwhile to walk from the hotel to the trail head: experience the downtown of Boston -  narrow streets, old buildings and many churches surrounded by high rises, enjoy the view of  Boston library and  the beauty of Boston Garden. Boston Garden is an oasis in the heart of the city. A pair of swans nesting by the pond in the garden made it more appealing.

According to the freedom trail foundation, there are 17 official historical sites along the trail:

• Boston Common
• Massachusetts State House
• Park Street Church
• Granary Burying Ground
• King’s Chapel
• King’s Chapel Burying Ground
• Benjamin Franklin Statue & Boston Latin School
• Old Corner Book Store
• Old South Meeting House
• Old State House
• Site of Boston Massacre
• Faneuil Hall
• Paul Revere House
• Old North Church
• Copp’s Hill Burying Ground
• Bunker Hill Monument
• USS Constitution

We passed by all of them and got into none! There are lots greens along the trail, many grave yards, and churches. The mid section of the trail had decent number of hikers - mostly middle school students in groups, some tourists/visitors like us. Most hikers stopped at the Paul Revere House or old north church. We were among the few people who crossed Charles river via Charleston bridge, wt.talked all the way to Bunker Hill monument. Instead of walking back to the hotel, we walked to the nearest subway station to the monument, we took the train back! Adding the connecting sections to the trail, we walked over 5 miles in 2 hours.

It is really an easy hike. A bit knowledge of U.S. history will make the hike more interesting.

state capital

park street church

granary buring ground

king's chapel

old city hall, now a steak house

a memorial park 

site of Boston massacre 

the ugly Boston  city hall

Faneuil Hall

south meeting place

corner store with the "red-line" trail marker in front of it

Paul Revere Statue

old north church court yard

Copp’s Hill Burying Ground

Charles River

Bunker Hill Monument

Our hiking trail - 5 mile plus long