da travel journal - day two

the day dawned...early. the alarm clocks they have here sound eerily like punkin saying, "wake up mommy, i'm hungry!" after a brief conversation about why we were not going to order breakfast in bed, we got dressed and went downstairs to the hotel's casual restaurant with our "free breakfast" coupons. we were delighted with the breakfast buffet that made just about every traditional morning food imaginable available for our consumption. the best part, in my humble opinion, was the fresh-squeezed orange juice. you can't get juice like that from a carton, my friend.

we had a few hours to kill before our play, the lion king, was to start, so we decided to take a stroll up fifth avenue toward central park. who needs to pay big bucks to go to a comedy show when you can walk up a street in manhattan lined with stores that sell merchandise so expensive that they need men in black stationed at the doors to alert the salespeople about the few and far between "incoming?" punkin and i had a ball making fun of the "haute couture" [which i told her means ugly clothes] and just how ugly they were.

p: who would wear that anyway?
me: people who get paid to.
p: somebody would have to pay me to wear that.
me: yeah. they'd have to pay me to just take it.
p: i would throw it away.
me: i would wipe my butt with it.
p: yeah! they would have to pay me fifty-hundred dollars to take it and then i would make toilet paper out of it!

i know. i'm a great influence on my child. but come on...have you seen this stuff?? anyway, we made the standard stops at the world of d1sney and f.a.0. schwarz, where punkin got to see toys that were larger, more outrageous and more expensive than anything she's seen before. the barb1e department alone made her head spin. who knew that many dolls existed?? at f.a.0. we cruised through the "stuffed jungle," which consists of giant stuffed animals of the savannah. i noted to punkin that the large elephant was a bargain at $15,000 - and that you could buy a really reliable new car for that much money. it was also on this trek that punkin got to see her first peaceful demonstration. the people were holding signs asking the US to stay out of lebanon and israel and basically slandering hilary clinton. how do you explain that to a frightened 7 year old?

when we reached the park, we were pretty tired, so we took a cab back to the hotel and rested before the play. i've only seen one other musical on broadway before - mamma mia! - but it paled in comparison to the lion king in a big way. the innovative use of costumes and body movements were exquisite and beautiful. the songs and the stroy were familiar enough to keep punkin entertained for almost 3 hours. i'd say it was worth the price of admission and more!

how does one top an event like that? how about an adventure into the unknown...