Missy Higgins Concert in NYC

You guys, I have been soooo crazy busy! This Friday is the last day of my summer classes, so I’ve been working like crazy to finish up everything I have to do before then.

Now I need to tell you about my awesome trip to NYC with my mom earlier in the week!

 

In the car on the way to the train station

 

We drove from my apartment in Rhode Island to the New Haven station in Connecticut, where we took a train to the city. The whole trip takes about 4 hours total.

 

New York Public Library

 

After dropping our bags off at the hotel (we stayed at the La Quinta on 32nd St.), we made our way over to the New York Public Library. My mom had some business to do for my dad, so we hung out there for a while. It was beautiful! I’ve been to New York tons of times, but never to the library.

 

Love this quote!

Beautiful architecture in the Quiet Study Area on the third floor

 

For dinner that night, we went to Benny’s Burritos in the West Village. It was so good!

 

Appetizer of fresh guacamole 

Chicken quesadilla

This was the best Mexican dish I’ve ever had. I wish the restaurant was a little closer to home!

 

Beef tacos

 

My mom ordered beef tacos. They do this special thing with their tacos where it’s a soft taco with a hard taco shell on the outside. She said they were good!

Next we headed over to see the concert! I was so freaking excited, you have no idea Because we had the wheelchair, we were actually able to bypass the line that was all the way down the street and around the corner! We used the back entrance that had an elevator and got to stand right in front of the stage.

I couldn’t believe that I was only a couple of feet away from Missy Higgins!

 

 

 

Missy Higgins, Butterfly Boucher, and the band

 

The show lasted about 2 1/2 hours. Butterfly Boucher opened the show with a few songs and then Missy came out and sang. Butterfly actually co-produced Missy’s new album and sang back up/played the bass for her entire set. I thought it was kind of cool that she used her opening act as part of her show (or the other way around, actually). I’d never seen that before.

I felt bad for dragging my mom to the show, but she ended up really liking it! She said that Missy reminded her a lot of Sarah McLaughlin.

Check out this video that I uploaded to YouTube of Missy Higgins singing my absolute favorite song The Special Two.

 

Me and Missy Higgins

 

Afterwards, we hung around for a while hoping that Missy would come out and sign a few autographs. Finally she came out and I got to meet her! I managed to get myself out of the wheelchair for a picture with her and to tell her how much I love her. She even gave me a personalized autograph!

I still can’t believe that I got to meet her and get my picture with her after ten years of listening to her songs. It was the best moment of my life I mean, how many people actually get to meet their idol?!

 

Autographed set list. My mom grabbed this off the stage for me after the show!

After the show, I was starving! We headed over to Gray’s Papaya a few blocks from where we saw Missy at Le Poisson Rouge. I’d always wanted to try this place after hearing about it on How I Met Your Mother. I wasn’t super impressed, but they still tasted good after a big night at the concert.

 

Eating a hotdog in my wheelchair.

Papaya Juice

 

I even got their signature Papaya Juice. It was gross, haha! I had to throw it out after only a few sips.

We were exhausted by the time we got back to the hotel and immediately passed out (after I uploaded all my photos to Facebook, of course ).

 

 

The next day, we got up at 10:30am and went to check out the Green Market at Union Square. It was 97˚ out, though, so we didn’t stay for long! Especially because my mom had to push me around in the chair. It was neat getting to see the market. My mom had done some research before we went and, apparently, there are twenty-five green markets in Manhattan alone! The market sold fresh vegetables, fruit, bread, cheese, meat, fish, and then other things like maple syrup products and one guy with homemade honey.

After we looked at all the little stands, we caught a cab over to ChinaTown and hit up our absolute favorite Chinese restaurant in NYC, the Nice Green Bo (formerly known as the New Green Bo).

 

Shanghai Vegetable Lo Mein

 

I got the Shanghai Vegetable Lo Mein (which is just like regular lo mein, except it has really fat noodles) and my mom got the Scallion Pancakes. We shared an appetizer of Soupy Pork Dumplings. Those are favorite, they’re so delicious! They’re kind of like potstickers, except they have soup inside. You bite a little hole in the side of the dumpling and suck the soup out before you eat it.

 

Pork Soupy Dumplings

 

After lunch, we got 30-minute foot massages at Foot Heaven on the next street over. They felt so good!

Then we went to Pinkberry and got some frozen yogurt. I’d never been to Pinkberry (or any frozen yogurt restaurant) so it was kind of cool to experience. The medium was so big - I couldn’t even finish it! I got chocolate with peanut butter crunch topping and it was pretty good

 

Me with my frozen yogurt from Pinkberry

 

That was my trip to New York! I had so much fun. I’m really glad that my mom was able to take me and that we were able to spend some quality time together (not like I never get to see her, but it was still nice!). It also felt really awesome to be able to go out and do stuff that I haven’t been able to do in a long time, like walk around the city or go to a standing-room only event. The wheelchair really helped with that.