These vagabond shoes they're longing to stray ...

Our journey last week took us on a brief trip up to NYC with my parents and Tina's Mom, Linda.  For the most part the weather cooperated other than one day when we had a lot of snow and rain.  Nonetheless, we had a great time going to Broadway shows, seeing some sites, and enjoying each others company.

We got into town on Wednesday morning and got to the TKTS booth (half-price tickets) in time to take in the matinee showing of "The Mystery of Edwin Drood".   This is a hysterically funny play based on the final novel of Charles Dickens which he never finished before he died.  The musical production we saw lets the audience choose the ending of the story in deciding who actually killed Edwin Drood.  We were fortunate to get to see it since it quit showing the following Sunday.   It's hard to figure why it wouldn't be going for a longer run.

Then it was back to TKTS to buy the evening tickets where we took in a Disney production called "Newsies".  The story is based on the NYC Newsboys Strike of 1899 and  won 8 Tony's including Best Musical, Best Choreography, and Best Original Score.  Particularly watching some of the high energy dance sequences, it was obvious why it has become so popular and successful.

The Evening Showing of Newsies

Unfortunately, Linda lost her bright pink beautiful ear muffs the next day and we all spent hours collectively crying over such a tragic loss.

Thursday took us down to the 9/11 memorial.  The museum portion is still under construction but they do have to 2 large fountains which were built on the original foundations of the North and South WTC towers.  It's a stunning reminder of just what all our country lost on that day.  All around the edges of the fountains are the names of all who died that day at the WTC, Pentagon, and Pennsylvania.

The North Tower Fountain

Although the official museum has yet to be opened they do have an offsite museum telling the stories of some of the people who perished on that awful day.  Unfortunately we were running tight on time and the lines were long to get in, so visiting that will wait until next year.  Regardless, the outside of the building had beautiful artwork of it's own.

 That evening took us to see the musical "Nice Work If You Can Get It".  The production starred Mathew Broderick and Kelli O'Hara who teamed together with the rest of the cast to put on what I think we all agreed was probably our most favorite play of the trip.  As you can tell from the picture (sorry for it's blurriness) the temperature was starting to drop significantly as we headed into our cold weather day.

On a Cold Street Outside of Nice Work If You Can Get It

Friday brought on the snow, but it wasn't cold enough to keep us inside or let the snow stick much. The temperature for most of the day was mid-30's, and we've certainly experienced a lot worse than that back in our days of visiting NYC in January.  We took a walk down to Rockefeller Center and watched the crews trying to prep the ice skating rink for opening up later on that afternoon and evening.  We also visited St. Patrick Cathedral which is in the midst of a $123M restoration project.  Tina and her Mom bundled up under a single umbrella since the 2nd unbrella Tina brought broke, and this was only the 2nd time she'd ever used it.

Two Hotties on a Cold Winter Day

Rockefeller Center Ice Skating Rink

Friday evening took us uptown to Carnegie Hall and a concert by the NY Pops.  It was also the Carnegie and NY Pops debut for Megan Hilty who's a Broadway singer as well as a star on the musical-drama TV series called Smash.  It was obvious in no time that she deserved this appearance at Carnegie.  She traded time with a fellow Broadway singer Ryan Silverman (Phantom of the Opera amongst others) doing songs from Sinatra, the Rat Pack, Ella Fitzgerald, and on and on.

Outside of Carnegie

The New York City Pops Getting Prepared

By Saturday the temperature reached an extraordinarily pleasant 56 degree's and Tina, her Mom and I enjoyed a late morning stroll through Central Park.  Being this warm in March, the weather brought out thousands of runners (i.e. crazy people) as well as dogs, kids, and walkers (i.e. sane people).  

Tina and Her Mom

A Beautiful Sighting at Central Park

Looking Back at the Manhattan Skyline

I See Crazy People

The Two Love Birds on a Beautiful Day at Central Park

Saturday afternoon we split up and Tina and I went to see Rock of Ages (not recommended for our parents :) ) while Mom, Dad and Linda went to see the Fantasticks.  Unfortunately, they didn't like their production much, but Tina and I absolutely loved ROA.  (Again, apologies for the blurry pic.)

The Matinee Performance of Rock of Ages

Finally, we wrapped up the visit with a fantastic dinner with all of us and our niece Eva, her SO Corey, and my Mom and Dad's great-niece Heather and her husband Steve.  They took us to a small Mediterranean restaurant we had enjoyed last year and had as equally enjoyable time this year.

Hale Hale the Gangs All Here

Then Sunday brought the flight back home, getting up at 4:30 AM to catch a 5:15 van ride to the airport and then wait for 3 hours for our flight.  Given that was probably the worst part of the trip, I think we did pretty well.

More updates on the house coming soon.  Until then ...

Goodbye!!!