The Ride

Going back to my trip to New York City for a moment, the final thing we did in the city before we left was take a bus tour called The Ride. This is the infamous "sideways bus." Yes, the seats on this particular bus are situated so that all of the passengers have a window view. Instead of facing forward, the seats face the one huge window on the right side of the bus. The seats are set up stadium-style so the top row is higher than the bottom row and everyone has a good view of what is going on outside. The Ride has two tour hosts - Jackie and Scott. It is obvious that both of them have had improv training of some sort. Both of them were absolutely hysterical as they poked fun at the passengers and the people walking past on the street. In this case, the tour operators really do make the attraction much more fun and enjoyable.

It's a little difficult to explain The Ride if you have never been on it. It is a tour so you do get to see some of the touristy things in New York. You get some basic information on Grand Central Terminal and the Chrysler Building and some other notable places. What sets it apart from other city tours is the sidewalk entertainment. There are a couple of stops where entertainers, dressed as regular people on the street, perform for you. For example, a man in a UPS-type uniform sets his package aside to do some breakdancing for us. Since he is right there on the street, there are regular people walking past him. Not only are the performers awesome to watch, it's also funny to watch the reactions of the people trying to get someplace.

The Ride is on the expensive side of things. It costs $59.00 per person for an approximately 75 minute tour. (Note: The box office is located at Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum. It can be difficult to find but once you get to the museum, it is literally right there.) However, I do think that it is worth the price. All three of us spent the entire ride with smiles on our faces. I would love to do it again the next time I am in New York City.

Game review: Hidden Objects Fashion

The goal of Hidden Objects Fashion is to help children improve their recognition skills. It is a fairly basic hidden object game. The game gives you a list of fashion-related objects to find, like hats or skirts or earrings, then they bombard the the level with a ton of different fashion objects. You have to find all of the objects in your list in order to move onto the next level. Since the game is aimed at children and I play way too many hidden object games, I found this one to be pretty easy. Though I admit that I did have a difficult time finding some of the shirts. They look so similar! However, I do think that this would be a good way to help children hone more than just their recognition skills. I think that this would also help them with the skills they need to search for things. Instead of looking for a few seconds then giving up, the game tries to get the child to continue looking until they find what they need.

The one downside to the game is the audio. I found the music for the first level very annoying. The second level wasn't as bad but it was still a bit like elevator or mood music. I don't know that children will find that pleasing to hear. Other than that, I found the game very enjoyable and I would definitely recommend it to someone with younger children.

Julep Maven - May

My new Julep Maven box arrived on Saturday! Julep allows you to choose which package you receive so I already knew three of the colors I was getting. I upgraded to get a fourth mystery color. Julep has recently changed the rules for their Maven boxes though. I don't think you can choose which package gets delivered to you any more. Well, I'll see how it works when next month's box gets ready to ship.

Onto the May colors!

As I said, I received four colors this month. Most of them are spring-like pastel colors. The colors are: Paulette, Bess, Jules, and Iona.

Paulette is a sort of lavender color. Even though the color doesn't seem it, it is actually really shimmery. As a result, it does take a few coats in order to get it to show up well. Two coats worked fine.

Bess is a pretty baby blue shade. This is probably my favorite of the bunch. It covers very well. Only one coat is needed but I found that the second coat makes it pop more. This was the mystery shade I added onto my subscription.

Jules is a peachy pink color. I mainly picked this specific shade because my daughter loves all things pink. Unfortunately, this one is disappointing. One coat barely shows up on a naked nail. Two coats works a little bit better but it is still rather see-through. We tried to do a nail design with the Jules on top of Bess but the blue still shone through unless we really thickly applied the pink. Maybe we'll figure out what to do with it later.

Iona is my second favorite color, just behind Bess. It is a deep purple shade that matches Paulette very well. When I have some time, I might try to do an Iona/Paulette pattern to see what happens. It might be too awesome for words.

I have to admit that I am pretty happy with this month's selection. The Maven subscription is $19.99 and the mystery shade addition was an extra $4.99 so my total this month came to $24.98. The nail polish normally retails at $14 each but Mavens get a 20% discount off of anything in the store plus free shipping. Even though I'm not particularly enamored with Jules, I do like the other colors. I'd have to say this box was a success.

Concert: Zendaya

Last night, my daughter and I went to the Zendaya concert at the Keswick Theater in Glenside, PA. I was actually quite surprised to see that Zendaya was touring. I didn't even realize she had put out a solo album. Since my daughter likes her music, we bought the album and headed off to the concert. The Keswick is a rather small venue for a concert. It only has about 1300 seats. I believe this makes it the smallest concert my daughter has attended. Thanks to this, we were able to get seats rather close to the stage. We were about six rows from the stage on the left side. The funniest part of the show was the mere fact that there was an MC. Miss Kim came out to introduce the opening act, then she came out when he was finished to plug all of his stuff (website, Facebook, album, blah, blah, blah). After the intermission, she came back out to introduce Zendaya and again at the end to plug her stuff. I've never seen an MC at a concert so it was kinda weird but cute.

Liam Lis was the opening act. He played three or four songs. I liked one. No, I don't even remember the name of it. Liam is a 12-year old boy that looks like he really wants to be Justin Bieber. He came out wearing an oversized parka vest and a stupidly huge truckers hat that read MERCY across the front. He had two male backup dancers and a rap...sidekick, I guess? The whole thing was terribly confusing and looked really out of place for a 12-year old. I wish him well but maybe he should wait a few more years.

Zendaya, meanwhile, was awesome. My daughter and I have seen quite a few "tween" concerts, including Selena Gomez, Victoria Justice, and Miranda Cosgrove. We officially ranked Zendaya second best, just behind Selena Gomez. Zendaya danced all over the stage, interacted with the crowd, and was just a joy to watch. She had four backup dancers (including two poor guys who had to wear the same shirt-dress-things the girls wore except the guys had pants on underneath) and even they were awesome. Everyone looked like they were having the time of their lives. I know it sounds lame but that really does make a concert better.

Not only were they all having fun, but Zendaya can sing. Sure, the other Disney/Nick stars can sing but not nearly as well as Zendaya. Pop is fairly easy. Zendaya has a bit more of an R&B vibe to her voice that just fills a room. I hope that, like Selena Gomez, she can turn this into a real music career so I can see her on stage again. Go Zendaya!

Sapporo

Just a block or two from Times Square is one of the best ramen shops in New York City. Sapporo is on West 49th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues, about a block away from the M&M store. Keep an eye out for the red and white awning. Sapporo is a tiny little hole-in-the-wall type place. It isn't listed in the AAA New York City tour book. But the place is amazing. While they do serve other dishes, their main fare is traditional Japanese ramen. My daughter had the Miso Ramen, which is a basic ramen dish with both minced pork and two slices of roast pork. I had the very similar Tokyo Ramen, which added a fish cake and seaweed to the Miso Ramen. My aunt chose the Tomato Omelette and a mini Chahan - Japanese fried rice.

All of the food was delicious. I don't think I have ever had a better bowl of ramen. The best part was the size of our meals. Both ramen bowls were huge. The omelette and chahan were a bit smaller but both of those are listed either as appetizers or side dishes. And the price wasn't too bad either. Overall, we are extremely happy with our lunchtime choice. I was only disappointed the size of my stomach. I really wanted to eat more!