New York Trip Day 2

Friday, April 17, 2009

Today was our tour day. We went on a bus tour of the highlights of New York City. I was pretty excited about it. It was pretty interesting in some parts, but not nearly as interesting as I was expecting. We did see some interesting sights though!

My favorite parts were: riding on the Staten Island Ferry, seeing the Brooklyn Bridge (I mostly enjoyed that because I hadn't gotten to see it last time we came), seeing the hotel that the survivors of the Titanic stayed at, and seeing the New York Public Library. The rest was either something I'd seen on our last trip or something that I didn't find very interesting. My least favorite part of the tour was when they pointed out a statue of General Sherman...

We had lunch at the place where we saw the Brooklyn Bridge. They had a food court there. Mom and Grandma-Mona got some sort of Chinese food, Dad grabbed another slice, and I had a "Nathan's" hot dog. Oh and we saw something that was genuinely hilarious....a Cajun restaurant...except it wasn't really Cajun....

Here are a few pictures:

Here we are in front of the Brooklyn Bridge

Dad and I on the Staten Island Ferry passing in front of the Statue of Liberty

Here I am leaning on my favorite cuddle spot of Mom's: her left shoulder. I had a headache and had had enough of that tour...

Me in front of Saks Fifth Avenue

After the tour, we got ready to go to Nony and Franks apartment for supper. It was fun going over there again. Nony and Frank cooked some interesting food. I like the green noodly things. I'm not sure what it was, but it was yummy. The rest was all a little strange for me and included alot of mushy vegetables, which aren't really my favorite...

Dessert was amazing, though. We had some sort of incredible chocolate cheesecake! It was like heaven for my tastebuds.

After supper, we visited for awhile, Mom fixed a button on Nony's wedding dress that she'd get to wear again on Sunday, and then Frank brought us all back to the hotel. But before we went inside, we stopped to see the lights of New York City at night. We were right across the river, and according to Frank, had the perfect view. Well, Frank was right:

Tomorrow is shopping day. I'm packing up everything I don't need for tomorrow because tomorrow, we're going to stay at Frank's parents house in New Jersey.

New York Trip Day 1

Last week, Mom, Dad, Grandma-Mona and I went on a fabulous trip to New York City and New Jersey! Here is a day by day account of all the fun!

Thursday, April 16 2009

We woke up this morning at 3:30 AM! But I wasn't one teeny bit tired! :-)

We finished all our little details with the packing, told Lydia and Nathan goodbye, jumped in the van (Me, Mom, and Dad were very excited!), and cranked the van and got ready to take off! Unfortunately, as soon as we cranked the van, it would start up just fine...then die. We tried again, and the same thing happened. So we tried again and again and again and when Dad pushed on the accelerator, it would go. So, we made it to Grandma-Mona's house, right down our street. Instead of driving to the airport in our handicapped van, we switched all the bags into Grandma-Mona's car. THEN, we left! We were on our way to NEW YORK!!

Well, we got about 10 minutes down the road before realizing that we had forgotten a very, very important suitcase! There was no other choice, we had to turn back. Thankfully it was VERY early in the morning and we had barely any traffic. So, we sped down the road at Cullen fast speeds to get back to our house and then to the Lafayette airport on time. I've never seen my mother drive the way she was driving this morning at 4:15 AM....

Thankfully, we made it to the airport in time...barely. We got our boarding passes, checked our luggage, and headed to security. That's where we met some troubles. I made it through without any problems. Mom and Grandma-Mona both had to get their bags searched. And Dad, well he got his hip replaced years ago and something in his artificial hip ALWAYS makes the security things go off. So, they had to search him all over. Meanwhile, I was on the other side of security while there were announcements like "Last call for flight 2008 to Atlanta" being said. I didn't know what to do! I was telling the lady at the counter, "They're right there! They're coming!!"

Well, it all worked out. We made it onto the airplane in the nick of time! Not long after, we took off! I'll admit, I do get a smidge nervous about flying. It was only my 3rd time ever being on an airplane. But, once we got going, I was just in awe of the beauty of everything. At first, it was still really dark outside, so all we could see were tiny lights in big groups where all the cities were. After a little while, though, we started to see the sunrise! It was so pretty! We were flying through the sunrise!

We had a very nice flight. I listened to "Into The Woods" while I read "A Little Bit Wicked" and looked out the window alot. I am simply amazed with the view of the ground from an airplane!

Eventually, we got to the Atlanta airport. I'll admit, I had a small freakout inside when the landing gear came out. It made a huge noise and I thought the airplane was broken. And I was ready for us to go plummeting down to the ground. That's me with my over active, dramatic imagination... We had about a 50 minute layover. The airport in Atlanta is ginormous! There was even a subway like thingy to get you to the correct terminal!

We had a little time to kill...so...

We waited....

Then we got on the other airplane. This time I got to sit next to Dad. We had a fun time eating peanuts, Biscoff cookies, drinking Coke, laughing, looking out the window, and listening to "Defying Gravity" while we were defying gravity!

Eventually, we arrived in Newark, New Jersey. Frank picked us up from the airport and drove us to the hotel. Our hotel was right next to the river that's in between New York and New Jersey. So, we weren't technically staying in New York, but according to Frank, New Jersey is pretty much just another section of New York City. So, we got ourselves settled. Me and Grandma-Mona in one room and Mom and Dad in the other. Luckily, we were RIGHT next door to each other.

We went across the street to a mall to eat lunch. We got some yummy Quiznos. Then we came back to the hotel to just hang out until it was time to head into "The City" (that's what Nony said they all call it when they go into New York City). I was completely exhausted. After getting back from the cast party last night and eating all the sugary yummy foods and with all the excitement of leaving this morning. I didn't fall alseep until almost 12:00, which doesn't sound too bad, until you remember that I got up at 3:30! So, I was very tired. I laid down on the bed in the hotel and it wasn't long at all before I was in a hard, hard sleep. And anyone who knows me well, knows that I'm a very light sleeper, so I was surprised at how well I slept with Grandma-Mona bustling around doing stuff.

When I woke up, it was time to get ready to go! Our plans were to go and show Grandma-Mona and Dad where Nony went to school, then "grab a slice" (another "New York thing" that Nony showed us) and then go to the Lunt-Fontane Theatre to see "The Little Mermaid On Broadway"!!

Soon, Nony got to the hotel, and we were off! We had to teach Grandma-Mona and Dad how to swipe their Metro Cards.

When we emerged from the Subway, we were right in the middle of the hustle and bustle and beauty of Times Square! And New York has a specific smell, that I immediately recognized. My first thought, as I walked up onto the sidewalk from underground was, "Ahhh...It's good to be back!"

We went to see the school and Nony pointed out some of her favorite stores to shop at. Then we went to a pizza place to "grab a slice"! Nony showed us the proper way to eat the giant slices of pizza. Since they're like 2 or 3 slices in one, you fold it in half and that's how you manage to hold it. It was fun. By the way, New York Pizza is very yummy!

After that, we were ready to go to the theatre!!!!!!! On the way, though, we made the terrible discovery that Grandma-Mona's shoes were cutting into her feet! They were even bleeding! When we got there, Mom and Grandma-Mona and Mom went to the bathroom to take care of Grandma-Mona's feet (thankfully we got there early!) and Dad and I went to the gift shop because I wanted to buy myself a shirt and Natalie Sibille wanted one and we were getting a "Dinglehopper Brush" for Lydia.

This is the shirt that Natalie and I got. I love the color of it!

And I thought the "Dinglehopper Hairbrush" was SO cute...and very creative...perfect for Lydia.

The very, very kind people at the Lunt-Fontane Theatre were gracious enough to give Grandma-Mona some band-aids for her feet.

We found our seats, which were actually VERY good seats, much to my excitement! Then we sat and waited for the show to start.

We didn't have to wait too very long before that magic of Theatre began. The lights dimmed, the orchestra began playing the Overture, and the curtain rose! The next hour or so was just amazing. The acting, singing, choreography, costumes, sets, and even the lighting brought us "Under the Sea" and into the world of mermaids and talking fish.

When Act 1 was over, Dad, was nearly speechless. This was his first time seeing a professional theatre performance. All he could say was, "That was awesome! That was....amazing!" I asked one of the ushers if I could take some extra Playbills for some friends and family, and she pointed to a stack of Playbills and said "Sure! Take as many as you want!" I will again mention how nice the people were at the Lunt-Fontane Theatre. I also asked them for an extra bag to put Natalie Sibille's t-shirt in, so she could have a bag of her own. Without a second thought, they just handed one to me! And I asked them where the stage door was, where all of the actors and actresses exited, so we could get autographs and hopefully pictures. They told us right where to go!

During Intermission, Mom took a picture of me in front of the stage!

Here's me, Dad, and Grandma-Mona during Intermission sitting in our awesome seats!!

The second act was just as great as the first. I was thoroughly enjoying myself! Well, actually, that's not quite true. One recurring thought was "I wish that were ME up there! One day....that just HAS to be me up there.....one day..."

During curtain call, Mom and I rushed near the door, so we could hurry out to the stage door. We wanted to be first in line to get autographs and (hopefully!) pictures.

Then we waited....and waited....Mom took a picture of me in front of the door that had a picture of the poster:

But...she kinda missed me because Sierra Boggess, the actress who was the STAR of the show had come out!! I asked her to sign my Playbill and if she could take a picture with me, and she did!! I got to meet the original Broadway Ariel!!

And then, Mom got that picture of me in front of the door... :-)

Next to come out was Tyler Maynard, who played Jetsam, one of Ursala's eels...

Then out came Brian D'Addario. He was the adorable little boy who played Flounder! He was so mature and professional when I talked to him...

Then, Lyndy Franklin, who played Adella, one of Ariel's many sisters came out.

I also got Joe Abraham's, who played Scuttle, autograph, but for some reason, I didn't take a picture with him. I don't know why...

I would've really loved to meet Rogelio Douglas Jr., who played Sebastian, and Faith Prince, who played Ursula, but we had to leave to get Grandma-Mona some shoes that weren't killing her feet. To say I was dissapointed, would be a pretty big understatement...and I was a little imature about it. And I wish I wouldn't have been because I just made the others aggravated with me, and myself more miserable.

Anyway, we got Grandma-Mona outfitted with some bright pink Crocs from the biggest Walgreens I've ever seen. People, the Walgreens had THREE floors!!

We got back to the hotel pretty late. It didn't take us long at all to jump in pajamas and fall fast asleep!

Well, this has been the first installment of a 5 part series of our "New York Trip".

To be continued....

Easter Break

Well, my Easter break, so far has been quite enjoyable...and I very much expect it to keep going that way! Because tomorrow (at the crack of dawn), me, Mom, Dad, and Grandma-Mona are leaving to go to New York City!!!!! Well, actually we're really staying in Jersey City, but it's close enough. We'll be going into the city plenty enough. Before I talk about that, though, let me tell all about my lovely weekend, and the beginning of my week.

Saturday, we had a little different experience for Easter. Instead of going to the Ousse's (my Mom's sister's house) we had alot of people over at our house, which was extremely fun! It was a little strange at first. I kept getting confused and thinking it was Thanksgiving because that's the holiday that we usually have everyone at our house for. This was the first time we ever had Easter at our house in my entire life! But, it was fun!

We had Jade, Jennifer, Claire, Ethan, Blythe, Owen, Evelyn, Grandma-Mona, Paw-Paw, Nony, Frank, Uncle Steve, and Aunt Dianne.

We did the normal egg paquing. It was the first time Frank had ever paqued eggs. I think he enjoyed it!

Here are a few pictures from the day:

Frank and I paquing

Nony and I before we paqued :-)

Nony and I after we pacqed...

Frank accepts a challenge from Nathan and his egg: The Beast.

Now, what I haven't metioned was that Saturday was also my birthday! And Grandma-Mona's birthday was 2 days before mine. So Mom made us each a cake. Grandma-Mona's was a lemon cake with almond butterflies. It was very very pretty. Mine was a chocolate cheesecake!!! :-D

We also sat down right after lunch and watched some old home videos. They're from back when Jade and Nony were in high school and I was about 2. That was fun. There was one part in it, that showed Jade laying on the floor and me standing on his hands while he lifted me up in the air. He used to do that with me all the time. So, Jade and I decided to see if we could still do it. I ran to my room and grabbed some shorts to put under my dress, then came back, and here's what happened:

Yay! We can still do it!

Saturday night, we had the last performance of "The Complete Works Of William Shakespeare Abridged". I was sad that it was the last performance. But, I was looking forward to a little surprise that Natalie, Megan, and I had planned for after the show. We had been plotting and planning to perform the very last scene of the play. Which is the part where they perform "Hamlet" backwards...

We learned all the lines and practiced the lines and the blocking for about an hour Saturday afternoon. We did it again and again and again until we had it perfect. Natalie was doing Casey's part, Megan was doing Duncan's part (much to Natalie's dismay...Natalie wanted to do Duncan's part...), and I was doing Jay's part. That meant Natalie was Hamlet, Megan was Horatio/Polonius/Laertes, and I was Ghost/Ophelia/Gertrude/Claudius. We also planned to dress just like them. So, Natalie wore pink tights with black shorts and a black shirt, Megan wore purple tights with black shorts and a dark green shirt, and I wore green tights with black shorts and a white shirt (and I twisted my shorts the way Jay's always ended up near the end of the show).

When the show was over, sweet Mrs. Sonja gave us all some pretty roses. Then after the audience left, Casey announced that our cast party was gonna be Wednesday. We weren't gonna do anything big, just a little party at the theatre and we were all gonna bring something yummy.

After that, we told Casey, Duncan, and Jay not to move, we had something planned for them. Then I told Jay that I needed his shoes and Natalie told Casey she needed his shoes and Megan got Duncan's shoes. Then we ran backstage and got dressed.

When Natalie finally got Casey's shoes on, we went out on the stage and gave it our all. I had to wear the lovely blonde curly Ophelia wig that was on Jay's sweaty head every night, Natalie had to wear the Hamlet hat that was on Casey's sweaty head every night, and Megan had to wear the Polonius beard....you can't imagine the smells coming from those costumes after 10 performances. But we had fun! And I could hear Casey laughing his heart out and Jay and Duncan were laughing alot, too. It was fun to do that for them...I'm glad we did. :-)

Sunday was Easter. It was a pretty normal Easter Sunday. We woke up, read the Easter story from the Bible, and received the treats in our Easter baskets. Then we went to church.

Monday, Natalie Sibille had some sort of rehearsal in Opelousas, so she came to my house after her rehearsal and spent the night with me. Yesterday we were really bored and it was a beautiful day outside, so we put on some old fashioned looking dresses, packed up a picnic basket and a quilt. Then we went out in the backyard with our barefeet and had the most lovely, peaceful, and relaxing time. We sat in the shade of a tree and listened to soft pretty music. It was wonderful. And we took a bunch of pictures...here are some of my favorites:

Later, we walked to the snowball stand near my house...in our dresses! :-)

Then I went to Natalie's house to spend the night. We had a wonderful time, of course!

Today, we packed and packed and got ready for our New York trip all day long! Natalie S. had another rehearsal for something. So, she came to my house after her rehearsal. We had the cast party for "The Complete Works Of William Shakespeare Abridged". So we decided to fix our treats together. She did a crackers and cheese and ham and pepperoni platter thingy. And I made a Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate Cake! :-) If only it would have looked like the picture. Ya'll, that was an ugly cake. I'm not ashamed to admit it...it was really ugly. And I tried sticking a flower in it to make it prettier, but that didn't even help. It looked like a pile of mud with some plant growing out of it. I did not wanna walk into the theatre carrying that! Casey, Jay, and Duncan were definetely gonna make fun of me...I was sure of it. I could only hope that it would taste better than it looked...

So, I summoned up my courage and marched into the theatre with pride. Surprisingly neither Jay or Duncan said a word about my work of art. Well...Duncan did mention some little remark about a plant growing out of my cake, but they didn't mention anything about the frosting falling off the cake or that the cake was extremely lopsided...

Natalie and I went to the bathroom near the beginning of the party and she was taking forever (Natalie Catherine Sibille is the Head Queen of slowness) so I opened the door to go out, and she said, "Gracie, don't you dare leave!"

So, of course I left, but I had more motive than that. I stood right outside the door waiting for her to come out. When she did, I jumped out and scared her to death! :-D

Her reaction was, "AAAAA! I hate you!"

My reaction was a fit of giggles. Then we went into the main part of the theatre and Jay and Duncan looked a little confused. But, once they figured out what had happened, they were laughing their heads off too....it was great....a very priceless moment...

Casey finally arrived at the theatre. And he had gifts for us all. :-D

Ya'll, I would've never expected Casey to be a really good gift giver! But he is! He gives awesome presents! He just gave everybody the perfect gift. For Michael he had an autobiography of Anthony Rapp, Mikie's favorite actor. For Natalie, he had the "Into The Woods" original Broadway cast soundtrack. He gave Duncan some book about ninjas. He gave Jay "The Encyclopedia Of Imaturity" (which is actually a really cool book...hahaha). He gave Megan a book that she likes alot and I think it's called "Watchmen" but I don't know what it was about and I don't remember if that's the name or not. He gave Ashley Brown a book that the director of the "Twilight" movie wrote about making the movie. And he gave Angie a book by C.S. Lewis. I don't remember which one. For me, he had SUCH an awesome present! He gave me Kristin Chenoweth's autobiography: "A Little Bit Wicked: Life, Love, and Faith In Stages". He got such personal gifts for each of us. I thought that was so awesome. And he even wrote us a note on the inside of each of our books. He was a really good director.

Jay's sons were at the cast party, too. Their names are Jude and Gabriel, they're 6 and 3. And they are SO cute! We had a sword fight with them. Only it was very unfair. Mikie was on their side and Jude and Gabriel both had two long swords, but I only had two of those little short daggers that have the springs in the blade so that looks like you're stabbing somebody when you pretend to stab somebody. So, they all kept killing me... But it was fun. Those 2 little boys were some of the cutest little boys ever! And I thought it was cool that they were the exact same ages as my nephews, Ethan and Owen.

Eventually, it was time to go home...we said some sad goodbyes....This cast in particular seemed to have grown really close to each other. We usually do get pretty close during plays. I mean, we see each other almost everyday for a few months! But for some reason, I just LOVED this cast! And I will miss spending everyday with them... :-(

Left to right: Jay Mentel, Gracie Feucht, Casey Harmon, Natalie Sibille, Duncan McBride, and Mikie laying on the floor in front of us...

Casey as Titus Andronicus/Paula Dean and Jay as Lavinia. They performed Titus Andronicus as a cooking show.

The comedies all in one lump...

Duncan as Romeo and Jay as Juliet


Casey narrating "Romeo and Juliet", Duncan being dead, and Jay discovering that the dagger was the springy kind.

And by the way, nobody made fun of my cake after they tasted it! That was the best chocolate cake ever!! (Jay even took a big ole slice home with him!)

Tomorrow morning...off to New York!!!!!!!!!