Day Four: From Central Park to Paris Opera House and a Phantom

This morning, Pam and I slept in and enjoyed it immensely. After a relaxing morning, we made our way to the subway and went to the south of Central Park. We did a little shopping near Carnegie Hall and then caught a pedicab for an hour tour of the entire park.

Our driver was a 25-year-old from Turkey named Umat Sevil--he said to call him Matt. He's going to hunter college studying computer science. He made the tour very fun and informative. We saw everything from Poet's Park to the San Remo, where Steven Spielberg owns the top floor. We stopped a couple times along the way to enjoy the very cool weather and the terrific surroundings. One of the stops was in Strawberry Fields, outside the Dakota where John Lennon was gunned down. The pedicab was definitely a great idea. We saw the entire park and did little walking.

After the park, we found the Brooklyn Diner, a trendy little place on 7th and 57th where we had mozzarella balls and a corned beef sandwich--let's just say the corned beef is not at all like the corned beef I've had from the supermarket. At the diner, we were surrounded by the flavor of New York. We felt like we were on an episode of Seinfeld or something. Very cool.

Pam and I decided to walk back to Times Square, which turned out to be a great idea. It really was only about 10 blocks, and the cool weather made it very comfortable. Along the way, we stopped at a jewelers called Martinique, where Pam purchased some Pandora beads and I splurged for an Ingersoll watch, which will be for Father's Day and my birthday--well worth it, though!  We were walking by a catholic church and were able to sit in for part of an organ recital before evensong. Really cool. We then went back to the hotel and rested. I later went down to the center of Times Square and smoked a cigar and enjoyed being in the midst of the many cultures of people.

For the evening, Pam and I purchased tickets to The Phantom of The Opera, playing now for 24 years at The Majestic Theatre. We ate at a place where we split a seafood special, which contained clams and oysters on the half-shell, lobster tail, and shrimp. The french press coffee was excellent.

The play was outstanding and lived up to our expectations. The Majestic is like attending a play in a museum, and we felt a part of all the many thousands of people who have ever attended any play there. After the play, we went to Juniors and splurged on dessert and espresso. Pam had a huge hot fudge sundae and I had a chocolate mousse cheese cake. Neither of us could finish, though we tried! After dessert, we went back to the hotel and watched a most improbable Mavericks comeback over the Heat, coming from 15 points back with about 5 minutes to go.