Vicki,
This is turning into a classic trip report - please continue

Fabulous report, Vicki! Sounds like you had the most fun possible. If I'd known you were interested in bead stores, my daughter and I could have made some recommendations -- we ransacked them just two weeks before your trip.

AKKK!!! I spent an hour last night typing my last installment on my laptop, only to lose my wireless connection and then have the whole entry disappear when I refreshed.

And now I have spent another hour typing it and wanted to PREVIEW MY REPLY before posting since it was so lengthy, and IT DISAPPEARED!!!!!!!
Vicki <-------very mad at Fodors board.

This is why I type long reports in Word first, then paste them into Fodors. I hope you don't give up; your public is eager for the next installment.

Oh I know how awful that can be but pleeeeease rewrite the rest. We're enjoying it so much. I think the figurines you were looking at are called Netsuke (pronounced netski). Found some info for you here

http://msgboard.snopes.com/cgi-bin/u...3;t=000950;p=1

okay, I'm going to re-write, but I will make it shorter and to the point.
Forgot to mention that we saw Carson Dailey at the NBC studio/store, filming a question/answer session for his New Year's Eve show. I didn't know who Carson Dailey was, but daughter explained. Took several pictures, including his shoes (for some reason, I am always interested in what celebs are wearing from the waist-down when they are on television -- he had on black tennis shoes). Camera STOPPED working at that point, and we got no more pictures of New York! : ((((

Went to St. Patricks. Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. Daughter has been to Europe and seen cathedrals but I have not. How wonderful that it is open to the public. The pews were full, with people sitting quietly. I am not Catholic but daughter converted two years ago for her marriage.

After lunch, we went into a "Walk-Ins Welcome" salon and had shampoos and haircuts! What fun. We are both so excited to have New York haircuts and both of us really think these are the best haircuts we've ever had. Our stylists seemed to cut vertically with the scissors rather than horizontally. The place was called INKS, and for both cuts, (not counting the tips), it was only $82.

I easily sold the tickets to Fiddler, although I hated to let them go. I hated it even more after we saw Doubt. Our seats were HORRIBLE, which of course, we should have expected since the tickets were only $25.00 each. The woman in the box office had assured us "this is a small house...there are no bad seats." We were in the balcony and had to lean forward to see the stage, and even then could only see the tops of the actors heads! I couldn't hear a word of dialogue (have I mentioned I am hearing-impaired and wear hearing aids?), but my daughter, who hears fine, said that she also had difficulty occasionally. The costumes were black (nuns and priest), there were only 4 actors, and the scenery was spare. And I was so diappointed that I could not see the actors' faces or expressions. I was so disappointed that I had passed up joyful dancing and singing (Fiddler) for Doubt. We ate a light, after-the-show, meal at Ollie's Noodles, which I wouldn't recommend. Service was bad and the food wasn't great.

On the way back to the hotel, we got caught up in the crowd that was waiting to see Rosie O'Donnell and Harvey Fierstein at the stage door. We were in the front row. Harvey Fierstein has one of the sweetest and kindest faces I've ever seen. He signed autographs and chatted with the crowd ("don't push..remember my autograph isn't worth anything on ebay"). Rosie O'Donnell was also kind and gracious, allowing herself to be photographed with whoever wanted a picture, and smiling nicely into the camera for each shot. She looked soooo tired, but chatted with the fans, looking intently into their eyes as she addressed them. I was very impressed with her, and I am not a big Rosie O'Donnell fan.

The next day, we decided to take a cab to Penn Station, as we had lots of packages. My daughter and I clutched each other's hands in terror in the back seat as our Slavic driver drove us 13 blocks, honking and "nudging" in front of other cabs. I wished that the cab had side airbags to protect us in case we got broadsided. The fare was only $6.10, and I carefully rounded up to the next dollar, then added another dollar, as per instructions from the Fodors board.

I do want to say that on more than occasion, as we stood pondering where to go, we were approached by natives who said "do you need some help?? All in all, I felt that New Yorkers were very kind.

I am sure we would not have had such a nice trip without the assistance of the people on this board who responded to my post. Thanks so much! I want to go back again in the spring and stay in the financial district so we can see the World Trade Center site, Soho, Chinatown, and Greenwich Village. And then go back again in the fall and stay in the upper West side. Then in the spring again and stay in the upper East side. And on and on!

I even feel like I could handle one of those Chinatown buses now.

What do you think?

Thanks again.
Vicki

p.s. McLaurie: those are the figurines! Isn't it funny that PayPal won't allow them to be sold through PayPal anymore?
Vicki

Vicki, I think you could definitely handle it all!

Great report.

Hey, vickib2! We also saw Carson Dailey at the NBC studio/store, filming a question/answer session for his New Year's Eve show. I also didn't know who he was, but my 14-yr-old niece spotted him. After his question/answer session ended, he signed a few (maybe two?) autographs, and then my niece asked him to have a picture taken with her; and he did! We were there Friday, 12/30, just after 1:00. Went on the 1:30 studio tour.

Fun reporting Vicki! Isn't New York just the greatest city in the world? You never know what will happen or what you might encounter in a short time span. You experienced alot. I love your naive daughter ending up on the Today show. I love Anne Curry but have always been too lazy in the a.m. to get up and go! Happy travels!

Speaking of Ann Curry, my daughter said, frowning, "Ann Curry's hair is too long. It's all the way down her back."

She's very style-conscious. : )

Sorry that the play didn't work out. But glad that you got a chance to see Rosie and Harvey afterwards. Once in a while you'll have a bad play experience but now you'll have to go back for a good play experience!

My Dad has hearing problems and is helped tremendously by the hearing devices in the theaters. Just ask for them when you enter and you'll be directed to the distribution station.

kakalena