Day Whatever: Wherever

We're in New York now, after spending about five days in western Massachusetts. Tomorrow we head for Ottawa.

A few days ago we went to the Eric Carle Museum of picture book illustrations, which I really enjoyed. They had an original Very Hungry Caterpillar and an original Brown Bear (of "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See" fame). They also had storyboards for the original version of "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" called Willy the Worm. You may remember that the caterpillar forged himself and then turned into a butterfly. Willy the Worm just got fat. The museum also had an exhibit by some woman whose name I can't remember, whose illustrations were all pencil and watercolor. They were very intricate and really beautiful. The best part about the place was actually the gift shop, which was the largest collection of children's books I've ever seen. Tons of classics, all beautifully illustrated. They also had things that aren't exactly for children, like a whole table of Edward Gorey.

Two days ago we saw Betty Buckley accompanied by Seth Rudetsky. Her voice has obviously aged, but it's still really powerful. She sang Meadowlark and I really didn't like it, but she nailed Memory. William Finn was in the audience, which I was really excited about. I also met Seth Rudetsky after the show. He doesn't look quite what I imagined he would, having spent so much time listening to him on the broadway channel on the XM.

We got back to New York yesterday and haven't really done much since we got here. We had dinner last night with my family at Peter Luger's, and today we had lunch at the Shake Shack. We had a scare this morning where we thought Steve's wallet had been stolen, which would have ended our trip real quick. I had a headache after lunch, so I lay down in the hotel room until dinner.

We had dinner at Hill Country BBQ, which is owned by my mom's cousin. Either his dad is my grandmother's brother, or his grandfather is one of my great-grandfather's brothers. It's a really neat restaurant. They actually have Blue Bell shipped up for the dessert menu. After dinner we went to the top of Rockefeller Center, so I was actually right across the street from the BNL concert I was skipping. I'm afraid of heights and got a little dizzy, but the views were pretty spectacular as long as I stayed away from the edge.