Spring Break in New York - Part 4

(Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 are below. By now, your feet are aching from all the walking and you need a vacation from your vacation, but this is NYC and there is still so much to do!)

This was our last day in NYC (my feet were happy, but the rest of me was sad). We stayed in Carlstadt, NJ the last two nights and discovered another wonder of public transportation called the bus. Of course we had ridden busses before, but after driving through NYC ourselves, we worried that we'd be stuck on a bus in gridlock traffic with no end in sight. That, my friends, is a surefire way for Dan to completely lose his mind.

Don't let the smile fool you, he is sweating. Only the fear of paying $50+ for parking in the city is greater.

But of course this is NYC public transportation, so we were very pleasantly surprised! From our hotel's bus stop, it was a 15-25 minute ride to Times Square depending on the number of stops along the way. We made a point to avoid rush hour, which also helped. It was more expensive ($8.50/round trip) than taking the train, but still much cheaper and probably faster than the alternative. Dan developed a greater appreciation for New Jersey than he's ever had before.

We had two ideas for how to spend the afternoon - either going to the New York Mets game or seeing another Broadway show. One of Dan's coworkers told us that "Newsies" was playing on Broadway, so we went to the theater to see if we could buy last-minute tickets for the matinee. It worked out, and we really enjoyed it! It's based on a true story of the 1899 NYC strike by the "Newsies" (the poor boys who sold newspapers for a penny) against the newspaper owner, Joseph Pulitzer. We had watched several seasons of "So You Think You Can Dance" on TV, and three of the guys from the show played characters in "Newsies." Recognizing some of the faces made it even more fun to watch!

"Look at me, I'm the King of New York..."

Afterwards, we visited the gorgeous NYC Public Library.

The building was so intricate from floor to ceiling.

There were beautiful paintings on the walls, like this depiction of Moses breaking the Ten Commandments when he discovers the Israelites worshipping a golden calf. Although those people don't look remotely Jewish, I'm just saying.

The Reading Room was a work of art in itself.

They also have the original Winnie the Pooh stuffed animals, owned by Christopher Robin Milne, the son of A.A. Milne, who wrote the books.

How cute are they??

Okay, since you asked nicely, here's one more of Pooh Bear.

That night, we went to our 4th and final hockey game to see the NY Rangers play at Madison Square Garden. Dan said he felt dirty just by being there, but the Rangers lost and made his day. They had personal flat screens in front of your seat where you could watch the video feed of the game. The funny thing was you could change the channel on the screens, so people were flipping to baseball, golf, etc. while watching a live hockey game. This confirmed my theory that Attention Deficit Disorder was invented by Americans.

A celebrity sighting on the Fan Cam!

Our last day of vacation was Easter Sunday. We were looking forward to attending church and spending the afternoon with our good friends Jenn and Eric, and their kids James and Sara. They moved from San Diego to New Jersey over a year ago and we really miss them!

As we got to the church and sat down with our friends, a lady got up to sing, and Dan almost fell out of his pew! It was Beth Fagerlund, his high school history teacher from Long Island over 25 years ago!

Dan went right up to her and her husband after the service to re-introduce himself. She was so surprised & excited to see him again! She's kept in touch with the Jesters over the years and it was nice for Dan to see her again.

We spent the rest of the afternoon catching up with Jenn, Eric, James, and Sara. They're still settling into New Jersey, but they like it so far.

It was a great way to end our trip!

Unfortunately, our flight crew was late for our flight out of Newark airport that evening, so we missed our connection in San Francisco. It was the last flight of the day, so we got 4 hours of sleep in a San Francisco hotel before catching a 6 am flight on Monday morning to San Diego. When we got home, we immediately went to bed for a couple more hours before I had to get up, shower, and work a half day. Dan's on his 2nd week of Spring Break, so he's getting that vacation from his vacation that we all dream of. :)