From Times Square to South Street Seaport

Our day began early when we met my Australian cousins for breakfast at their hotel in Times Square. My cousins are touring the U.S. for 7 weeks during their summer break and just happened to be in New York the same weekend we were! We had a fun visit and look forward to hosting them in Portland in mid-January.

Our next stop was Behind the Emerald Curtain at the Gershwin Theatre. If you are anywhere near NYC and remotely interested in the theatre, I cannot recommend this backstage tour of "Wicked" highly enough. It's hosted in an entertaining fashion by two actors from the production. Their passion for their work was inspiring.

At the conclusion of the Emerald Curtain tour, we hopped aboard a Gray Line bus tour of downtown New York. We had an entertaining guide and enjoyed seeing some of the smaller neighborhoods of New York on our 2.5 hour ride.

And what visit to Times Square would be complete without lunch at the BK Whopper Bar? Our verdict? It tasted... well... like a Whopper.

Our final stop of the day was South Street Seaport. We learned on the bus tour that we could get half price broadway tickets on Saturday for Sunday matinees at the TKTS booth at SSS so that was our first stop. We enjoyed views of downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn across the river while listening to a Christmas choral concert near the tree in the first picture.