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It is fun to read the Playbill before the show.

As a kid growing up in Southern California I was no stranger entertainment. We are indeed the Entertainment Capital of the World. Radio, television, music, and film making, as well as the abundance of tourist and amusement attractions in the region, undoubtedly makes us the #1 entertainment place in the world, except for one thing, the stage.

To find the best musicals, the greatest musicals, there is only one place to go, and that is Broadway, New York City. They know, we know it, and if you ever go to a show on Broadway your pocketbook will know it.

Shows on Broadway are expensive. There are ways to try to mitigate. You can do what we did and try to find a show like Groundhog’s Day that is previews and rush it. That is when you go to the theater the day of the show you want to go to and see if there are any discounted tickets. There is a cost to that, in our case it cost us $119 dollars when we walked out during intermission when we discovered how much bad language can be crammed into a 4 minute song (it is a lot). It also means that you can you can find yourself 3 rows behind comedian Caroline Rhea. You just never know what is going to happen when you follow your dreams and perhaps that is why Broadway is so magical, because it is a not only a place of dreams, but it comes with a soundtrack.

Today (4/23/17), Charlie and The Chocolate Factory is opening on Broadway. It is amazing show. It brings in that magical mystical musical adventure that is Broadway. A mix of new and old songs, it brings new twist to the Roald Dahl classic. It is very different than both the 1971 Gene Wilder and 2005 Johnny Depp version.

It has the “Pure Imagination” song, it has some definite dark moments (when the oompa lumpas start singing you know something bad is going to go down), but it is unique, and they are my favorite part in the musical. How they do them is something you have to see for yourself.

As magical as seeing a show on Broadway was it was kind of eye opening. First of all the theaters are very close to each other, which is good because they are all in walking distance. The second was that they are all very small, or at least smaller than their Los Angeles counterparts. The term Broadway show does not necessarily mean that the show plays on Broadway, which is a street in New York, it more refers to how many seats the theater holds. If the theater has over 500 seats it is considered a Broadway show. The largest is the Gershwin Theater (currently playing Wicked) at 1,935 seats and the smallest is the Helen Hayes Theater (currently under renovation) at 597 seats. Compare that to the 2,703 seats at the Pantages and you notice the difference. The third thing was parking. At $38.01 an hour, you are not parking on Broadway. You are going to take public transportation in, which is fine because the streets.

It is very bright outside at 11 pm on Broadway.

Rush tickets can be a great deal if available.

The Neil Simon Theater currently playing a revival of Cats

The Wonka Emporium did sell chocolate but not Wonka bars, kind of weird

Hamilton playing at the Richard Rogers Theatre, next to the Marques playing On Your Feet, as seen from the Lunt Fontanne Theater

Caroline Rhea sat three rows up from us during the show.

A lot of people were pushing the button that was clearly labeled "Do Not Push." — A lot of people were pushing the button that was clearly labeled “Do Not Push.”

At $38.01 an hour, you should really find another way than your car to get to the theater

The production poster for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

We waited at the door to the Lunt-Fountanne Theater at 10am to get discount tickets but there were none.

We were that close to the Groundhog day show.

Side view of the Lunt Fontanne Theater showing Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

The inside of the August Wilson theater.

The August Wilson Theater playing Groundhog Day.

A look into the box office of the August Wilson theater.

I am very happy to have been able to have finished this experience for the list. Saying that however I am OK watching the new musicals preview at the Macy’s Thankgiving Day parade and waiting for the good ones to come out to Los Angeles.

It doesn't matter at what angle you view the statue, it always inspires. — It doesn’t matter at what angle you view the statue, it always inspires.

“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

-Emma Lazarus

We were anxious the morning we were to go and visit the Statue of Liberty. We got to Battery Park very early, too early. Arriving at Clinton Castle Fort (which is also a national monument) we found the line where we needed to confirm our reservation tickets, but we told that we could not get in the line until 30 minutes prior to our start time. I wasn’t sure why this was, when we finally did get to the line we found out that your start time doesn’t really matter. The ferrys just constantly run and when you get to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island you are allowed to stay on each island as long as you want.

The closest metro stop the Statue of Liberty is Staten Island Ferry.

An early morning view of the Statue of Liberty as seen from Battery park.

The sea glass carousel at Battery Park is definitely different than other carousels I have seen.

This statue is dedicated to the immigrants who arrived at Battery Park.

AJ boards the ferry after passing security.

AJ in front of Battery Park that used to protect New York.

On the way to the statue you can see the one world trade center.

This building used to be the immigration building for non-immigrants.

As soon as we got to Liberty Island we headed straight for the crown. You are not allowed to bring anything with you into the statue except a camera and one bottle of water. They have lockers you can rent for $5.00 at the gift store at the base of the statue.

Despite having gone through intense security before getting on the boat, to go to the statue you have to pass through security again. Inside the base of the statue, the first thing you see is the old torch, which is nice because from inside the statue, even at the crown, it is hard to see the torch. Not to mention the passageway up to the torch has been closed to visitors since 1916 when German spies blew up some ammunition and the shrapnel got lodged in the torch in what is now known as the “Black Tom” incident.

Going inside the base you can see the original torch.

The ladder goes up to the torch, but it is closed off to visitors.

After climbing a lot of steps you get to the pedestal. The pedestal viewing area is very windy and cramped. There are a lot of people and it can sometimes be hard to get past them. From the pedestal you can get a good view of the base of the statue and see the old walls of what used to be Fort Wood, which was what was on the island before the statue.

As Denise demonstrates there is not much passing room at the pedestal.

From the pedestal you can see the outline of what was Fort Wood.

This archway is leftover from Fort Wood.

Continuing upward in a very narrow (only one person can go at a time) spiral staircase, you get to the crown. There is very limited space at the top. When we went up there were two rangers keeping a watch on the statue and stairs. They were very informative and told us an interesting story about the real intentions of the statue.

Here is a video:

The beginning of the stairs up to the crown.

As you can see the stairs are very curvy, but every so often there are areas to stop and rest.

This shot kind of shows how many steps to the top.

The port holes at the crown are not very big.

This is a side of the statue's face that not many see. — This is a side of the statue’s face that not many see.

It took some effort but the Pedrozas made it to the crown. No elevators inside.

AJ got a souvenir coin than is the thickness of two pennies, just like the statue.

Going back down we got our backpacks once again out of the lockers. There are two gift stores at the island. The one at the base of the statue of liberty is very crowded, compared with the store at the landing with the food court, that has most of the same stuff (Denise said they had different postcards) and is less crowded.

AJ always enjoys doing the Junior Ranger program every time we go to a national park. It is a free activity and you get a cool badge for your adventure. The junior ranger program is much shorter than other junior ranger programs. We completed it rather quickly with the audio tour that is included with all tickets. The audio tour looks like a phone receiver with a lanyard and at different points you put in a number and the virtual guide explains what you are looking at. At the end of junior ranger program we got to meet ranger Louie, which was cool. He is one of three rangers that go up to the torch to make sure it is always lit (except for that one day, but that is another story).