New York City: Day 3

Yesterday we attacked midtown Manhattan, so today we went for more downtown areas. We met at the Tkts booth in the South-east and bought Avenue Q tickets. They were $76 ea, but they’re great seats! Yay! I’m so excited about this – it’s going to be AWESOME! It’s Avenue Q after all!

From there, we visited Wall St, Clinton Castle and the Statue of Liberty. We decided to take the boat out to Ellis Island as well, which was fascinating! Something like 70% of all migrants to the US between the 1800s and the early 1900s came through Ellis. That’s an insane number of people, and the museum there is a great demonstration of the rich immigrant history of the USA.

After such a monument-based morning, we spent the afternoon around Union Square and the Filene’s Basement store there. They have erected a large Christmas market in the square, and it’s surprisingly decent. I even bought Ange’s Christmas present there – a cat messenger bag. It’s so cute! (She picked it out herself).

Because we were going to see the musical, we had to eat fairly early on in the evening. The book “New York on under $90 a day” (a gift from Daddy Rendall) mentioned a place in the Lower East Side called “Le Pere Pinard”. Apparently it was at the wrong end of a side street, but served fantastic food, and for $17 for a three-course meal between 5-7pm. Perfect, eh?! It was. Amazingly good food – I had French onion soup, steak and crème brulee. Mmmm…I can still taste it now!

Avenue Q was everything we had hoped it to be, and more. It’s great when you know a musical to go and see it in it’s ‘home’ town. For Ave Q, this has to be New York. It’s set in Brooklyn, and it has NYC stamped all over it. The actors were fantastic, and the songs were even better with the visual cues – the Bad Idea Bears for example. SO worth it! Wicked fun!

After Ave Q we treated ourselves to cheesecake at the newly-opened Juniors Restaurant next door. They reputedly serve the best cheesecake in NYC, and I have to say I think I agree. It was awesome – proper New York cheesecake. Thick, artery clogging goodness!

We’re so spoilt, aren’t we?! Hahaha … so much for backpacker budgeting!