Day 5 - Wicked, Central Park

We slept in late on Randy's birthday.  We grabbed lunch at the hotel headed to the Gershwin Theater to see Wicked. In front of the hotel the street was blocked off because there were all vendors set up there with tents selling all sorts of items.

The musical was just wonderful and if you haven't seen it you should go if you get the opportunity.  You will learn things about the Wizard of Oz story that you never knew and you'll hear some wonderful songs!  I had wanted to see if for years and I'm so glad that I was able to see it in NY.

After the show we grabbed the subway uptown to Central Park.  The park is quite large, 843 acres, and is almost an oasis in the midst of all of the asphalt and concrete.  It boasts more than 35 million visitors each year!  One of the original architects for the park was Frederick Law Olmsted, who designed the landscape for the Biltmore House in Asheville, NC and his granddaughter, the late Dory Brown was a member at Piedmont Craftsmen, where I used to work.  It's a small world! 

There were many people walking, jogging, and riding bikes on the many trails.  Families played on the grass with their children.  There was a carousel, a little league ball field, small lakes... horseback riding is even allowed!  You should look on Wikipedia for some very interesting information about the park and its history.

We walked around until it was beginning to get cold and dark and we were getting hungry.  We wound up stopping at a Chipotle and had a burrito for dinner.  We took our time walking back to the hotel.  By the time we arrived there, we were once again exhausted.  Tomorrow would be our last full day in NY and we still had so much left that we wanted to see!