Friend's Experience & Apartment, Wicked, and A Lovely Sunset Cruise

Oh man was today one for the BOOOKS!! Yes I'm VERY VERY sore after yesterday but it was an absolute blast and I'm kind of sad it's over...I wish I had planned today's stuff for the last day of our trip, but oh well. Let me go back a little and explain what helped make today great! Originally the idea of coming to New York stemmed around going to the Friends Pop Up...it's always switching cities, but New York is always one of them so we figured that would the safe bet. Then when we booked the trip we couldn't find ANY October dates for it and we were really bummed. I kept holding out hope it would open, but up till last month I never saw anything. For today we had originally made reservations for Rockefeller Center for the morning. Stace didn't say she cared to go, but we had the time and I figured it's a New York thing so it might be cool to see. Then about a week before our trip she mentioned that the Friends Pop Up finally had October dates and I saw Saturday morning was open. I immediately booked it and said "see ya later Rockefeller!" haha. I figured we could at least see the building from the outside, we just lost our seeing the city from high above reservation, but I knew that the Empire State Building was just as good, if not better so we were fine.

We had to start this morning pretty early, we stopped at this Chelsea Bagel place for breakfast and it was AMAZING! We just got bagels and a smoothie, but they were so yummy! I might need to do more bagels once we get back home haha. We then headed over to the Friend's Pop Up. We had to wait outside, but then saw the gift shop was open so we "walked" that. It was VERY tiny, but I found a cute onesie for the baby and a cool book about ALL the episodes that I was excited to get. Stace got found some goodies too, but we both agreed they could've had a TON more haha. 

How could I pass THIS up?

We finally went out and waiting in line and when we got to go in we were giddy with excitement! They did a great job of staggering people so you didn't feel rushed, they took TONS of photos in so many fun spaces from the show. Being in the apartments was by far the coolest thing. We were literally in heaven and I wanted to soak it all up for as long as I could! We went through the cough in front of the fountain, the apartments and hallway, the "pivot" couch stairway, the marble dog "switching apartments" part, and then ended at Central Perk. It was GREAT!!! Like I can't even tell you how great it was! I almost wish I drank coffee because you could order it at Central Perk, but I just can't stand it so it isn't worth the wasted money.

After we finished that we saw we had just enough time to go by the Friend's Apartment. We knew it wasn't the real one, but the one they used for outside shots, but it was still really really cool to see (once we did finally find it haha). They even had a couple tour groups going there around the same time, we luckily got our pics in before they could crash ours haha.

After that we headed over to where Gershwin Theater was (where our Wicked would be shown) and then stopped for lunch at nearby place. We had to rush, but our waiter was VERY nice about it (I told him the second he brought our water that we were in a rush so the quicker we could get out the best and I think he was happy to do that so it would give him more to wait on to get more tips). We had JUST enough time to eat, pay, and then walk to the theater. 

Now Wicked...that was an AMAZING performance. I was SO excited we got to see it at the biggest theater and in New York City...definitely not off-broadway haha. It was so much fun to watch and the acting and music were amazing! It was hard not to love it. Of course, I always get choked up when the actors all come out and bow and totally teared up when the main ones came out haha. They did a great job and totally deserved the praise.

After the play we headed to dinner, we ran into Hell's Kitchen and knowing the name sounded familiar we ate there. One great thing about New York is since they made the whole "vaccine to eat inside" mandate all restaurants have an outside seating area so we got to eat outside a lot. The weather has been nice so far and it's been nice, however at Hell's Kitchen you still have to show your card to go in to use the restroom...that was crazy haha. We both ordered the 2 tacos entree figuring that should feed us a bunch for our late night....turns out the tacos are VERY tiny and it felt more like a snack than a dinner. They were good though. I got the chicken and Stace got the steak and we swapped one so we both got one of each. 

After dinner we headed to the Circle Line Cruise dock for our sunset cruise. The streets going out felt VERY sketchy and I was a little nervous about walking back and how iffy it would be. Like I said, Larry and I avoided night time as much as we could so being two girls made me feel pretty nervous about being out so late. Luckily, the boat tour was SO great! We saw so many awesome sites, and seeing the skylines all lit up was awesome! We got some great info about different parts of the city (seems the edge has all the really fun stuff like an indoor skating rink, a top golf type range, and a concert/movie in the dark venue...lots of great thing). We even got to see the Statue of Liberty up close and get  some really good shots. I actually felt better on the boat because I realized everyone there had to be a tourist so we wouldn't be the only ones leaving the area so late. It got a little chilly and I was getting hungry so I ordered some hot chocolate and a pretzel to share with Stace. The pretzel was super salty so that was unfortunate, but the hot chocolate was nice....VERY hot!

I was pretty obsessed with her this trip!

Walking back to our hotel wasn't too bad after all. We found some well lit and busy-ish streets and even ran into Madison Square Gardens (I always wanted to see that in person). We did end up walking past some homeless and desperate people, which was really sad to see them all under their blankets in front of a church, but otherwise it was a great day.

It's SUPER late and we have a super early day tomorrow, but I'm SO happy with our choices for today. It was a GREAT day that I'll remember forever!! Now to get as much sleep as I can for tomorrow!