Jean Day2

Central Park, The Met, Tarzan, SOHO shopping and the Empire State Building

Jean and I headed to the Empire State Building early in the morning but the lines were so long we decided to take a walk through Central Park up to The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The park is showing early spring colors with daffodils, forsythia, tulip magnolias and many more birds bouncing about. We explored so much of the museum. We like completely different things so it was fun to pull her into the Japanese art section and she yanked me into the Colonial home complete with furnished rooms on two floors. We ate at the restaurant there which I love - nice food and lots of light with a view of Central Park's monolith. We walked a bit down Madison before hopping a downtown bus. We jumped off at Rockefeller Center - beautiful flowers and spring decorations. Folks were still ice skating.

Then we went to the matinee show of Tarzan. My friend Donnie Keshawarz is playing Clayton, the bad guy. We had great seats thanks to Donnie. I love the acrobatics, music and special effects, particularly the opening sequence with the shipwreck and underwater scene. After the show we had an early dinner with Donnie at Vynl on 9th & 51st. Great salads and Jean had yummy mac & cheese. Merle Dandridge stopped by thinking Jean might be Donnie's daughter grown too fast! Donnie's daughter is 5 and she's is growing fast but luckily not that fast. Merle plays Kala, the mother in Tarzan and she has the most amazing voice - by far the best voice in the cast. She was kind enough to pose for a picture with Jean. Then we were off to Monarch to look at dresses before dessert time at Amy's. Donnie and Jean had brownies and I had a cupcake - yum! We parted ways at the theater after seeing a few other cast members hanging about before the next show. I don't know how they do it - two shows for three days in the week plus evening shows the other nights with one night off I think. Yikes!

We headed down to SOHO to look for a dress for Jean. She has her 13th birthday party coming up and her Spring Fling dance. Several dresses we looked at at Macy's and a few stores like Strawberry's were too casual or too low cut. Walking around SOHO makes one realize the majority of merchandise is for women and often overpriced. The sales staff was always helpful. One boutique store had several nice things but all too big. Then we popped into a store, Ariella, and she found the perfect dress. It was a strapless blue-sage chiffon/gauze pleated Grecian fabric overlayed over a white with gold lines underslip. The hem tapered to the back and the gauze pleats were highlighted with sequins for a bit of sparkle and the high waist was accented with a silver knit modern accent piece reflecting flowers but in a more organic and modern line. She looked lovely in it and her face just beamed. The saleswoman found perfect matching shoes and we were set. Jean was so happy.

We headed up to the Empire State Building. I had purchased Express Access tickets but thought I needed to stand in the security line. After ten minutes, a line gaurd told me we could jump the line so we were off! We had VIP access through security, past waiting lines for the first elevator, on and on! What a relief. It took us 10 minutes when it was a 2 hours wait for others. What a fabulous idea. It is so worth the extra money. The lights at night are beautiful. The weather was perfect - no wind and not too cold. Given that a big storm was coming in the next day, we couldn't have been luckier to have such a clear night and perfect weather. Sometimes it is great to have an out-of-town guest come visit to get me out to the touristy but fantastic places around the city.