Kids (2 of 12)
The Kids go to see Wicked
Originally this was supposed to be my parents going to see this show with me which is why it was on a Wednesday. But as life turns out, they were sick, the kids were up for it, so we get an ad hoc kids adventure on a school night. To be sure, this isn't something I can do with them often at this stage of their lives because I knew it was going to be a late night. But I really didn't know what to do with the tickets and I sure as hell didn't want to lose out on these entirely. So away we go.
I grabbed Zac from the pick-up line at school then we headed over to the dentist to grab Julia from her appointment. Getting into the car she wasn't in the best of moods, as it often is with kids after you have someone put power tools in your mouth. But she didn't have any cavities and after a bit she came around and felt better. Eventually she snapped out of it and as we were heading into the Lincoln Tunnel they were both excited to be heading into the city. I think until this point the whole idea may have been more of a theory than reality.
Seeing the city and going into the tunnel makes it all real.
I have to say that going into the city on a weekday at 4:00 is ridiculously easy. The total trip time from getting Julia to parking the car was less than an hour and in the end we were on the street before 5:00. When I texted D that we were in, she was shocked we had made it so fast. We dropped the car at Ikon, which is our go-to when we go to midtown as you can walk 2 blocks west out of the thick of it and be in the tunnel in minutes. And for a short trip like this, parking was just $20, which is only slightly more than the tunnel.
I love the city. I did not grow up going in very often and when we did it was pretty much exclusively to go to Yankees games. I have no childhood history of going to Central Park, or midtown, or to Broadway, or any of that. I also worked in the city for almost 10 years and I was a commuter who got in, did his job, then went home. I would venture out on occasion to grab lunch or a haircut but I rarely did anything social while I was in there.
But I really still just love the city when I go in as a tourist. I have been to many cities in my life and I think NYC has a different feel than any other I have been to. I'm sure a lot of this has to do with how often I've been in, and how close we are, and that when I refer to "the city" this is what I mean. But it's just so unique to me that I never tire of going in, at least when work is not involved.
I also really love the fact that I can be the parent of these kids on this adventure and they feel secure with me. I know kids will often times be a little afraid of big, new places like this (with good reason). It makes me happy that I can take them in and we can walk around and they have total confidence in my taking care of them and making sure they are ok. This is truly one of those things I really relish as a parent, being able to show them this stuff in the world and giving them the confidence/security to enjoy it. I really look forward to more of this in the years ahead.
We find a place to eat which satisfies our 3 criteria:
1. Zac wants wings
2. Julia wants something basic
3. I want a beer
We settle on Jasper's Tap House & Kitchen, which is incidentally a 4 star, 2$ restaurant but which I will not be reviewing as I was not necessarily there for the food. It was a choice of compromise between the 3 of us and not a place we selected to go based on the food type and reviews. I will say, it was a good spot for us, we all enjoyed the food, and it wasn't crowded so it was quiet and quick. Yes, it is technically a bar but that adds to the future story the kids will tell about this.
Our waitress was from Ireland and the kids asked me why she came here. I told them to ask and in the end she didn't really give us a good answer other than that she wanted a change in life and her sister was in DC. I expressed that I was surprised she would come now given that most of Europe thinks we are going batshit crazy, and she kind of laughed in that, "Yeah I may have screwed this up totally" kind of way.
Blurry pic but it is what it is. Julia transfixed to the TV which they both could not get enough of. What was on it? Well, college basketball of course, which we never ever watch at home. Kids.
After dinner we had plenty of time to get to the show which was less than 2 blocks away. We got to the theater a bit after 6:00 and were told the doors would open at 6:15. So we stood around for 10+ minutes waiting, and took the obligatory pic outside and sent it off to mom to show her that we had actually made it, and weren't in a bar in SoHo instead.
We head upstairs and the doors were not open yet so we hung out in the lobby and looked at some of the things on display. I'll post the pictures of that when I do the show review but the stuff here was all about the play, and not the theater in general. The Gershwin Theater has a lot of history in it and it also has the American Theater Hall of Fame in the lobby. Somehow we missed it on the way up and figured these trinkets were all they were talking about. On the way out we would realize that there was more but it was too late then, we would need to get home as quickly as possible after the show was over.
Killing time of course means candy for the kids and wine for dad. We consume while waiting for the doors to open.
Eventually we get to our seats and like most shows of this caliber, there really are no bad seats in the house. At this point everything has come together for the kids and this awesome event is about to happen. I think when you bring kids to something like this the scale is so unexpected, they can't help but be in awe of it. The set of Wicked is definitely legit and one of the massive props front & center is a dragon.
We settle in here then wait for the show to start.
I'll talk about the show in another post but suffice it to say that the kids really liked it. This was Zac's first show and Julia's second, though her other shows were Christmas things which to me, pales in comparison to these longer-running productions. They were both happy to have gone and I think (hope) this is something they will both remember forever, like I remember my first every trip to Broadway when I saw Cats. I didn't know what to expect in 5th grade then, but it was so immense, so much larger than life, that I was awed by it. I hope the kids took the same away from this experience.
After the show we made a b-line to the car, and were in NJ in no time. The drive ended up being a bit chaotic due to the Turnpike being closed and then the Pulaski being a mess that it is right now, but in the end we made it in 1 piece and got home a tad after 11:00.
In the end, this whole trip was really meaningful for me to bring them to. I know in a sense I am spoiling the kids when they get to go to something like this. At the same time I work hard and I want to enjoy the long hours I put in. I also want the kids to be exposed to it and for them to get older and want to come back, to do this with us again in the future, and to do it with their friends when they are older, and then with their own kids one day. I know D feels the same way so as much as we spoil them, it's sort of an investment in their future selves.
Really good experience for all of us, them as new theater goers, me as a proud dad bringing the kids to something special.