NYC to Home

All good things must come to an end (they say).  Our time ended on Monday at 8am when we pulled away from the apartment. 

Arturo recommended getting out of town before 8 or after 10am.  We opted for the earlier time, and actually made it out of there 15 minutes ahead of schedule.  Farewell to our abode…

    

The day was foggy to start.

Jeremy and I navigated (tensely) out of the city.  The tensely came from the fact that Google maps actually stinks at navigating you through and to specific tunnels in NYC.  But we made it.

Madison took over driving to get another hour in.  As she drove, the weather worsened – wind, then snow, then blowing snow, and then difficulty seeing.  Thankfully, we could pull into a rest area and switch drivers.   

    

We took a break at the outlet mall, grabbed supper at Panda Express, and finally pulled into our home sweet home. 

NYC: Day 3

This morning, Jeremy headed out early to pick up some bagels from the Bagel Pub down the street.  After breakfast, we started our day as we had every other day – riding the subway. 

This time, we were headed to see a Broadway show.  We had purchased tickets to a new musical out of Britain titled, Two Strangers Carry a Cake (Across New York).  It had good reviews, the tickets were reasonable, and the girls helped pick it out.  However, Jeremy and I realized that the themes in the movie were a little mature and the cast was only two people and the set was pretty much the same throughout.  So, he kept his eye on tickets to other shows.  The prices for the hit musical, Wicked, had dipped slightly, so Jeremy asked if Jen could look into exchanging our tickets and surprising the girls. 

We kept ourselves tightlipped for weeks.  On this day, Ellie was relentless in asking about the plans for the day – when are Jen and Arturo meeting us?  What time is the show? how will Jen and Arturo get tickets when the show is sold out?  and on and on… So, I said to just let us take care of things and relax, sometimes we have things up our sleeves like Grandma did.  That was a slight tip of our hand, and it got them thinking. 

We walked down the road to find the entrance and rerouted toward Gershwin Theater. 

Jeremy had them “check the tickets” again to be sure where we were.  The squealed and smiled and clapped their hands.

Then, we headed in.

    

Jen had selected good seats in the orchestra level for us.  The stage was intricately designed and ready to go. 

    

We enjoyed the show immensely, treated ourselves to some concessions at intermission, and found some souvenirs at the close of the show. 

It was fabulous!

From there, we went to Union Square and the Strand Bookstore – both more quaint and less busy than Times Square. 

Before heading to the bookstore, we stopped at Max Brenner for some hot chocolate.  It was very rich and very intense.  We wondered why the cups were so tiny, and we quickly realized we could hardly finish what we were given.  It was also delicious… or maybe decadent is the best word.

    

The Strand was on the bucket list, and it did not disappoint as we strolled from aisle to aisle and floor to floor. 

          

We tracked down supper at an Italian restaurant at 8pm to enjoy before heading back for the night.

And I took at token photo with a beaver in the subway…  (Go, Bluffton beavers!)

NYC: Day 2

We started this morning with scrambled eggs (I learned to make in the microwave) and monkey bread (from Christmas).  Then, we FaceTimed with our Minnesota family and Brooklyn family for family Christmas.  The MN Yoh kids are getting to be more personable – Theo was asking questions and engaged in the process; Zadie was talkative as well; Miles was on camera, but quieter. 

    

On our way to the subway (without Arturo guiding us!), we picked up coffee and hot chocolate at the neighborhood coffeeshop, CoffeeLand.  The subway picture of Ellie and I actually includes Jeremy and Madison in the reflection; we had fun trying to capture it.

        

Jeremy was excited when Arturo pointed out the soup kitchen restaurant that inspired the soup nazi on the show Seinfeld. 

Our first destination was to watch a performance of the Alvin Ailey dance company.  Jen works in their school and was able to get us tickets for their show.  They did three numbers (which dances they do vary by what day you see them), “Sacred Songs,” “T____,” and “Revelation.”  They were different from each other, but we enjoyed each one.  “Sacred Songs” had dancers in loose fitting clothing melding together, praising through dance.  The next section had two dancers who were incredibly athletic and physical in their dance; the girls thought it reminded them of an act from America’s Got Talent.  The final number, “Revelation,” was choreographed by Alvin Ailey and is a signature piece of the company.  It had a variety of dances to different Biblical songs.  It was fabulous.

    

Sandy tasked the girls with finding the biggest nutcracker they could.  We didn’t see many, but we did see this humongous thing!

    

A definite on the bucket list was to go to FAO Schwarz (toy store). So, we headed that way… only to find a line to get in that reached around the store and down a city block!  But, we hopped in the line and creeped along.  Jen had brought the Christmas gifts she and Arturo had for the girls, so while we waited in line, they opened gifts.  Jen made these really cute zipper pouches that had pictures printed on fabric with a handwritten message from Gloria and a picture of them with her.  They also got some spending cash.  Both things were appreciated. 

    

We we turned the corner to go into the store, we got another great view of the tree…. so we took more pictures!

         

Inside, it was all a little overwhelming, but the girls had fun looking at all the toys, stuffed animals, Barbies, and more.  Jelly Cat is apparently some exclusive brand which was all the rage.  They ended up buying these cute little stuffed bunnies before we headed out.

    

Of course, we wanted to see Macy’s.  It is a massive store; I am not sure how many entrance doors they had, but it went on forever.  We enjoyed looking at the section of windows done up with toys. We also rode the escalator up and down the 7 floors – some of them were the original, wooden escalators.

             

We took the subway to the Greek Kitchen to finish the night.

    

Goodnight after a good, long day.