NYC: Day 2

NYC: Day 2

Monday was the only full day I had with my two friends, Trever and Cheryl, so I knew it was going to be busy and full of our favorite things to do. We each pretty much like the same things about New York especially the shows. We are Broadway Junkies!

We awoke early for vacation standards; completely sleeping in for Stay At Home Mom standards. 8am...luxurious! We hit our favorite diner in Midtown just a few short blocks away from the Best Kept Secret Hotel in the city (wink!).

The diner?

Cosmic Diner on 8th and West 52nd.

Saucy waitresses with thick New York accents calling you honey and constantly keeping your coffee cup full. I love this place like it was home! Be warned though, when they say sausage on the menu, they mean sausage! 3 big huge Bratwurst sized links of meat. Good Morning to me! (or I should say for my friend Cheryl who had no choice but to share)

With full bellies we made our way down to the other somewhat best kept secret in town. The TKTS Booth down along the South Shore in Downtown Manhatten. The picture above is deceiving. I did take that one at the TKTS Booth in Times Square. (cringe)

I do not like waiting in lines for hours. I do not necessarily like large massive shoving crowds of people. So, I tend to stay clear of Times Square if I can.

The TKTS Booth downtown is much less crowded. In fact, you can get your tickets within 20 minutes if you get there at 11:00am when they open.

For those of you new to NYC and the TKTS Booth, this is where you get same day show tickets for 40% or 50% off the list price. Brilliant!

Since it was Monday and most shows are dark on Mondays we had a limited selection. We chose Rock of Ages and it rocked my socks off! If you are a child of the 80s, like I am, this is so much fun to see. REO Speedwagon, Whitesnake, Journey, Styx. Need I go on? How the creators wrapped all of these songs together to make a linear story line is amazing to me. I haven't seen hair this big since, well...my 9th grade school picture.!

But let's jump back to the afternoon. I had a scheduled tour of Scholastic Publishers that was arranged because of my attendance to the Book Blogger Convention. I could not pass this up considering Scholastic publishes almost everything Kid related that I've loved. Harry Potter, Babysitters Club, Canby Hall, 39 Clues, etc.

I met so many lovely bloggers during this tour including

Angela from Dark Faerie Tales

Pam from Bookalicio.us

Gaby from Starting Fresh

And I know I am forgetting a few others but I am trying to organize all of my business cards I got along the way and remembering faces to cards. :)

Scholastic was a blast! The tour guides were so friendly whether they were publicists or the marketing department. We got a chance to see the Archives where they had all of the older books from my child hood, like the Canby Hall series! They had a giant sized Clifford doll that I knew my son would LOVE but, it was much too big to smuggle out of there :)

They gave us lots of cool ARCs to fill our bags and we got a chance to meet Rick Riordan. He was just hanging out in the offices signing stock! So cool until my camera decided to die right before I met him. Grrr.

After drooling over the glass case of all of the first editions of Harry Potter, we got a chance to meet Young Adult author, Aimee Friedman. She is the author of the South Beach books for Teens. She was a delight! She did a little Q & A and signed copies for all of us.

Then we had a great group photo on the roof and went on our way.

All in all, Monday: Day 2 in NYC proved to be a great start to an exciting week!

I finished out my afternoon with scones and clotted cream at Tea and Sympathy in the Village. Sigh. I wish I was there now.

I will include a pic of that place later in the week because I went there multiple times. I'm a little addicted to the place and the cute, hairy Scottish boys with accents that work next door. :)

Until tomorrow...

Happy reading and as always, thanks for stopping by!

red headed book child