We woke early and headed out to find some breakfast. We decided to bypass Times Square and walked down 49th to 8th where we found a cafe/restaurant. I had been looking for a diner of some sort, but the criteria was somewhere that was showing the World Cup as the Socceroos were playing and this place had a tv over the bar, so decision made!
Breakfast was nice, I think we all had pancakes of some kind. The Socceroos lost. Boo! After breakfast we continued our stroll doing a bit of window shopping.
We needed to be at The Producer's Club Theater on West 44th at 11.45am for Kenny Kramer's Seinfeld Reality Tour! We are big Seinfeld fans and this was the first thing that I booked for this trip. The tour only runs on Saturdays, so I booked this first, then worked out the rest of the itinerary around it. Needless to say, I was really looking forward to it!
The Producer's Club was tiny and a bit grotty. We were herded into a tiny little room where we waited for the arrival of Kenny Kramer. If you've seen him before, you'll know that he is a quite a character (obviously seeming as Kramer is based on him!).
He started out by telling us that we had to wait for a bunch of Aussies who were running late because they had to watch the Socceroos play. Um, we watched the Socceroos game and we managed to get there on time. And the game had been over for an hour already! I was a little annoyed!!
He told a few stories and the late Aussies finally showed up. He continued to make us laugh with lots of funny stories about his life, his friendship with Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld and the real stories behind some of the Seinfeld episodes. Then he explained that the tour was overbooked and there weren't enough seats on the coach for everyone, so he needed volunteers to share seats. What?? I've worked in the travel industry and for tour companies for years and I've never heard anything like it! Anyway, seeming as we were the only ones with kids, it was assumed that our kids would give up their seats. I was annoyed but agreed and as a thank you, he gave us some free merchandise from his store, KraMart.
After some shopping at KraMart and a short break, it was time to board the coach. It was also lunchtime and we needed to feed Harry so on our way to board the coach we tried to find him something to eat. The coach was parked outside a Turkish bakery run by his friends and he asked us to buy our lunch there as they support each other, but there wasn't anything suitable (not only was the food foreign to my kids, it was all sickly sweet and not diabetic appropriate). There wasn't anywhere else close by to grab something so we ended up with a couple of apples and a punnet of strawberries from a street vendor and we rushed back to the coach. By this stage we were the last people on so were relegated to the back seats and we only had 3 seats between 5 of us. The late-coming Aussies all got on the coach and immediately fell asleep! Needless to say I was not happy.
Kramer pointed out sites from Seinfeld as we drove around but I couldn't see anything seeming as I was up the back with two kids sitting on my lap. The highlight of the tour was when we arrived at the diner and stopped for photos.
After that we returned to The Producer's Club where we were dropped off.
The kids got his autograph
and we walked back up to Times Square in search of something to eat. It was around 3pm by that stage and very late for lunch, so rather then spend time looking around and sitting down to order, we just went to McDonalds in Times Square. Talk about madness! I think everyone that was in Manhattan that day was at that McDonalds! We finally got something to eat and found a table and had our very late lunch.
Once we had eaten, we walked back past our hotel again to Top of the Rock. I had bought NY Citypasses so we claimed them and headed through security. The lines weren't bad at all and the elevator ride up was very cool!
I don't know why, but I only took 3 photos from the top and none of the scenery. I must have just been awestruck by the views or something!
We were meeting friends for dinner at 6.30pm, so we went back to the hotel for a bit of a rest and to get ready. Emily was competing in the North American Irish Dancing Championships in Orlando the following week so some other dancers and their families had arrived in New York and we were meeting up with them. The plan was to go to Carmine's but we couldn't make a reservation and when we arrived there was a 2 hour wait for a table, so we abandoned there and wandered further down 44th street and decided on a restaurant (that I don't remember the name of). They couldn't seat all 14 of us together, but they had two tables which was perfect - 6 kids on one, 8 adults on the other.
After a quick dinner, the big girls left the kids with the dads as it was time for our first Broadway show! We walked over to the Walter Kerr Theatre and took our seats just in time for A Little Night Music starring Catherine Zeta Jones and Angela Lansbury. It was the show's last night and Catherine Zeta Jones had won the Tony award the weekend before, so it was a packed theatre and we were in the very back row. Talk about the nosebleed section! It was such a great experience though. I think my favourite thing was the lady who brought her two dogs to the theatre! She had one in her handbag and one on a leash. Hilarious! The show itself wasn't that great (a bit of a boring storyline) but Catherine Z and Angela Lansbury were both amazing and when CZJ sang Send in the Clowns - wow! What a showstopper!
The other girls had flown in from Perth that morning and they were all exhausted, in fact they all fell asleep during the show! So our plan was to go straight home afterwards, but as we exited the theatre we saw the crowds waiting at the stage door for the stars and we thought we can't miss this! So we joined the crowd waiting for CZJ but before she appeared, I heard screams coming from across the street, so I ran over there (risking my life with the traffic!) to see who it was and there was Kelsey Grammer!
Back across the road just in time to see Catherine Zeta Jones
We waited a few more minutes but the security guard told us that Ms Lansbury had already left, so we called it a night and wandered back through Times Square to the hotel.
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