After the show we walked over to Times Square, sat on the curb, and people watched. Two tired girls.

I REALLY wanted to see the play Book of Mormon but since it won many Tony awards… well, it is sold out for six months. Many of the broadway shows have what is known as a ‘lottery’ a couple of hours before curtain. BoM still conducts their lottery even though they could easily sell those tickets. Lottery works pretty much the same at each show – just the price varies. You arrive ~2.5 hours before curtain and put your name in ‘the hat’ – 30 minutes later names are drawn and if you win, you are given the option to buy up to 2 tickets for the show at a reduced price.

I convinced Mom, John, and 2 other people in their tour group to enter the lottery with me and Bailey. So, we had SIX entries. Yippee! Well, when we got to the theatre there was already a large crowd. We put our names in the hat and the crowd kept growing. John estimates there was at least 250 people waiting to win about 25 tickets. We didn’t win.

Well, one of my all-time favorite shows is HAIR and it opened again for a short summer run. Bailey and I walked over to that theatre to buy student tickets. Some theatres offer a limited number of student tickets at a reduced rate each day. You have to arrive when the box office opens (or at a time designated by the theatre) and wait in line for these tickets. Theatre tickets seem to cost from 70.00 to hundreds per ticket. I tend to go to the shows where I can get either lottery or student tickets. Call me cheap. I say frugal. HAIR student tickets are 37.00.

But I digress. When I went to buy student tickets the man said ‘we are starting our lottery in 10 minutes, you should try that first’… the HAIR lottery worked the same way. The lottery price is 27.00 per ticket. So, we entered the lottery and didn’t win. sigh. SOMETIMES the shows have a Lottery Losers Line where lottery losers like me can purchase the next best seats at a reduced price. This varies by show too. (BTW, there is a great website that is updated consistently with this info)

Bailey and I entered the LLL and waited. The lady running the lottery came over to sell us our tickets – but she surprised us instead with a FREE PAIR OF TICKETS! Sweet.

So, since I was now about 80.00 ahead I decided to treat us to a snack at Sardi’s. I had been to Sardi’s last year and loved it. It is steps from this theatre and we had fun eating our cheese and salad plate with diet cokes.

www.sardis.com I’m sure I embarrassed her a little with my dancing during the show. We were in the nose bleed seats so no one noticed. I had fun. My first night in the big city at my fav show after a snack at sardis. yay.

Our flight landed on time at LaGuardia airport. We bought our MetroCards and found the bus that would take us to subway station. Our good trip karma began. We walked out, the bus was there, we got on, and off we went. No waiting. After a few stop and about 30 minutes we were in Harlem at the subway. We took the green train south to Grand Central Station. Since the plane was on time, it was too early to check in . I had pre-planned a few stops in between the subway and the hotel of course… The first stop was easy . . . the inside of Grand Central Station. Beautiful!

When you leave Grand Central, if you look east you will see the Chrysler Building. We didn’t go over, just looked at it from the street. From here we walked west towards the magnificent New York Library.

It was very hot and we were carrying our backpacks so the stop at the library was welcome in more ways than one. The inside of the library is just as spectacular as the outside – but a lot cooler. We looked around for a bit and after we had seen the reading room we exited and started our walk to the Edison Hotel, our home for the next six nights.

The parental units weren’t at the hotel yet and we were hungry so I took Bailey around the corner and we found Daniela’s restaurant. Good Italian food and my first cannoli of the trip. Funny thing about this place… we walked by it a few times and each time the meal prices on the sign kept increasing.

We arrived at the hotel and found the parental units. Our room was not ready so I checked our bags and took Bailey on another walk. This time we walked to Times Square and headed north to Central Park and Columbus Circle. Again, it was very hot and we stopped here and there to rest. At Columbus Circle we took the blue train back to the station near the hotel. This station would become very familiar to us. Our room was still not ready so we sat in the lobby for a while. Bailey was smart and took advantage of the quiet time.

Another nap in the Edison Hotel lobby while we wait for our room.

We had a very early flight to the big apple. Two excited girls ready to go!

The early flight soon caught up with Bailey.

I walked out to get the mail one morning and when I turned around to go back I saw this HUGE bird on the peak of the house. Guess he was just taking a break.