Saturday in the Park with Tom*

I had high hopes of posting this on Friday, but mom duties won out and I had to shelve it. How on earth did you all handle the suspense of waiting the entire weekend to hear about the rest of the adventure?! Okay, I'm teasing...sort of.

Saturday morning started with a beautiful walk to Central Park. We planned to grab some breakfast on the way, but somehow all the restaurants disappeared so we had our first meal of the day from a cart. Cart food is expensive, did you know?

The highlights of that beautiful park included:

a giant chess competition surrounding Bethesda Fountain,

the awesome views from Belvedere Castle,

Photo credit: Brett 

Photo credit: Brett  

a tour through Shakespeare's garden,

Photo credit: Brett

a visit to the Strawberry Fields memorial,

Photo credit: Brett

and a celebrity sighting. Brett suggested we perform our favorite Shakespearean monologues while in the Shakespeare garden. I said no. Why? I felt super self-conscious performing in a garden whilst tourists ambled by, but I pushed through that and we retreated to a bench to look up monologues. While sitting there I saw a man dressed in black running clothes and a black baseball cap pulled low, jogging with his dog. He was talking on his cell phone and I heard him say a few words in a familiar English accent. As he passed us I realized why I recognized his voice. I gasped, grabbed Brett by the arm and said, "That was Tom Hiddleston!" She looked at me, a touch confused. She had no idea who he was. "Loki!" was my response. That's right, the actor that played Thor's mischievous brother in the Marvel movies ran by us in Central Park. She suggested we invite him to join us for our monologues. We really should have.

Yes, we have video footage of the monologues. No, I will not post it.

After Central Park, we were famished. Apparently cart food doesn't last forever. This may only impress my brother Jordan, but we got lunch from the Soup Nazi. Or rather, we got soup from the place on which Seinfeld based the Soup Nazi. There really were instructions posted to step up to the window, money in hand, order quickly, then move immediately to the left. We followed the rules, but there also wasn't a line when we got there.

The soup was amazing! I had the ravioli soup and it was one of the best things I ate all weekend. Bonus, it was also one of the most affordable. For $6 I got a cup of soup, a slice of crusty bread, and a banana, all part of the meal. I plan to go back next time I'm in the city.

Once our bellies were full, we went to our fourth Broadway show of the week. Come From Away is about what happened to the planes that couldn't enter US airspace during the 9/11 attacks and the days that followed. Thirty-eight planes were rerouted to the tiny town (that, for refueling purposes, had a giant and mostly unused airport) of Gander, Newfoundland. The locals jumped to action and fed, housed, and clothed seven thousand stranded passengers for at least five days.

You guys, it was transformative.

I'm sure seeing this musical the week of the eighteenth anniversary of 9/11 made it more profound for me, but beyond that, it was a fantastic piece of theatre. There are twelve actors, six men and six women, and they each play several characters. The character changes happened by adding a hat and changing how they walked or throwing on a different coat and suddenly speaking in a different dialect. The set was spartan, but the tables and chairs on that stage became airplanes and classrooms and restaurants and animal shelters and homes. Everything and everyone worked so cohesively.

This was the best show we saw during the whole adventure.

Afterward, we stumbled upon the stage door, so we got some autographs.

Photo credit: Brett

This woman was my favorite. She played Beverly, the first female pilot for American Airlines. If you have access to the soundtrack (I listened on Google Play Music), listen to her song Me and the Sky.

Photo credit: Brett  

He was so funny! His comedic timing was spot on.

Photo credit: Brett  

One other wonderful thing that happened after the show? All the audience members I passed on my way out were sharing their own experiences from 9/11, where they were, what they were doing when they found out, how it impacted them. When the show began we were mostly strangers. When it ended we were part of a community. That is the power of theatre.

Photo credit: Brett

Come From Away is a short show,  it doesn't even have an intermission, so we had a long stretch in the afternoon. One big park wasn't enough for us that day, so we made our way to Highline Park. We detoured at Carlo's Bake Shop first.

The carrot cake was shockingly not super sweet. I sampled it, sans frosting.

 Photo credit: Brett 

I had never heard of Highline Park until Brett said it was something she wanted to see. It's a park, populated mostly by wildflowers and cool art pieces, built on an old and unused elevated train line. We walked nearly the entire 1.45 miles. I'm really glad we did it.

Photo credit: Brett  

We were running out of time by the end of our walk, so we got on the subway and headed uptown, back to the theater district. We stopped at Kodama Sushi for dinner.

Photo credit: Brett  

It was scrumptious. Also, that girl totally photo-bombed our sushi picture.

 Photo credit: Brett 

After dinner and before our final activity of the night, I took a minute to call home and say family prayers with Bryan and the kids. I stood against a building near the restaurant in a well lit and populated area, Brett took the opportunity to pick up a few souvenirs. Just as I finished the call, out of the corner of my eye I saw two young men walk toward me. As they passed in front of me one of them whispered very quietly, "I have cocaine if you want some." I was so shocked my brain had trouble making sense of what I'd heard. By the time I figured it out, they had disappeared into the crowd.

I'm not sure what about me sent the message that I was interested in such a product, but they were quite mistaken. 

After my run-in with a drug dealer, we went to our fifth (Peter's reaction, "So, you're basically binge-watching Broadway") and final Broadway show: Tootsie! It was laugh out loud funny, but also had sooooo much profanity. I'm really glad I was able to see Santino Fontana in his Tony-winning role, but I don't think I'll be recommending this one.

 Photo credit: Brett 

We tried to find the stage door, but took too long and didn't get Santino's autograph. We did get to chat with the actor that played the best friend, the funniest person in the entire show, so that was cool.

Then we stumbled back to our hotel, because it had been a full day!

*Yup, this title is referencing something too!

Never Fear, Brooklyn is Here*

On Friday morning we slept in! I got a full nine hours of sleep. It was glorious. Then we made our way to the Stardust Diner just in time for the beginning of lunch. The servers all sing, which was really fun, though not conducive to conversation.

Do you see the server standing on the tables behind us? He was singing something from The Lion King (possibly He Lives In You?) and sounded fabulous.

Photo credit: Brett

Then we hopped on a subway and rode to Brooklyn, my first time in that borough. It didn't feel like NYC at all, there simply weren't enough people. We went to Prospect Park, which I know from the Danny Kaye movie Wonder Man, but Brett knew because the Battle of Long Island, a big Revolutionary War battle, was fought there. We hiked through the park, searching for the war memorials.

Photo credit: Brett

When we decided to head back to Manhattan we left the park on our search for the subway station and found this amazing Civil War memorial. After our year of reading about the Revolutionary War, we spent 2018 reading about the Civil War, so this was an especially cool discovery.

Then we made our way back to Federal Hall.

Photo credit: Brett

We saw a section of the balcony where George Washington stood when he was sworn in as the first President of the United States.

Photo credit: Brett

This is the bible that Washington placed his hand on to be sworn in.

Photo credit: Brett

After Federal Hall, we paid a visit to the Fearless Girl.

Photo credit: Brett

Then we saw her old neighbor, the bull.

Photo credit: Brett

Our next stop was unplanned, but delightful.We stumbled upon the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Customs House, which is home to the National Museum of the American Indian and various national archives. I do love archives, so we wandered inside for a bit.

Photo credit: Brett

After that we went to the 9/11 Memorial. It is a beautiful and solemn place. I felt a great sense of reverence while there. I'm sure it was even stronger because the eighteenth anniversary of the attacks had been just a few days before.

Photo credit: Brett

At this point we were very hungry. We wandered a bit looking for food and unintentionally walked into Chinatown. Well, we couldn't let that opportunity pass us by, so we ate some yummy Chinese food. While we were there a group of four men sat at the table next to us. I suspect one of them was famous because he wore his sunglasses the whole time he was in the restaurant and appeared to have a couple body guards with him. No, I have no idea who he was.

Then we went to our third Broadway show of the trip. Hadestown, winner of the Best New Musical Tony for 2019, was phenomenal! It's the story of Orpheus and Eurydice set in a depression-era post-apocalyptic world. I know, it sounds weird, but it worked. And the music! Oh man, the music was gorgeous. I think the Fates were my favorite part, their harmonies were so tight, I loved it!

Photo credit: Brett

Photo credit: Brett

You'd think we'd be crashing at this point, and we kind of were, but we had to stay up a little longer. We filled our time with scrumptious cheesecake at Junior's. Yes, I will sometimes eat cheesecake. I figure it's mostly protein, right?

Photo credit: Brett

Photo credit: Brett

Then we stumbled out onto Times Square just in time for the Midnight Moment, a semi-immersive art exhibit shown on the digital billboards in Time Square from 11:57 to midnight every night. We had the time slightly wrong so we sort of missed it. No, we saw it, we just didn't realize what it was until it was over.

Photo credit: Brett

Photo credit: Brett

And that's when we finally got our tired selves back to the hotel for some much needed sleep.

*What am I quoting now?

The Greatest City in the World*

Remember that brain reboot I needed? A nap was nice, but this past weekend I found an even better way to push reset. Early on Thursday morning Bryan drove me to the local airport where I caught a bus into New York City. That's where I met up with my dear friend Brett, the other half of my two-person book club, who had flown out from Utah for an adventure. We spent Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and a bit of Sunday packing in as much history, delicious food, deep conversation, walking/subway-ing/running, and Broadway as possible.

It was fantastic!

Want details? Here's what Thursday looked like:

After we found each other near Bryant Park, we walked to our hotel just half a block away from the iconic New York Public Library. Then we grabbed bagels for breakfast at Zuckers. I decided it was my job to take pictures of each place we ate. I missed two, but did well otherwise.

After that we booked it down to City Hall Park for a Revolutionary War walking tour. This is when we learned that Lyft is not effective in NYC. We stuck to our feet and the subway for the rest of the weekend.

Photo credit: Brett

We learned lots of cool facts and saw the graves of Alexander and Eliza Hamilton. One of the things we learned was that our year of reading about the Revolutionary War (2017) helped us sound like historians. We shared some knowledge our tour guide didn't have. I guess all that reading I do has some benefits.

Photo credit: Brett

We walked by Federal Hall. The next day we came back and actually went inside.

Photo credit: Brett

As soon as the tour (which I enjoyed a lot) was over, we hurried to the subway station to get to the next event on our itinerary. We had a traveling lunch of some delicious New York style pizza. And no, I didn't take a picture of this place, so I have no idea what it was called.

Photo credit: Brett

We made it to our first (yes, first) Broadway show of the weekend. Moulin Rouge was my choice.

Unfortunately, it's not one that I can recommend. 

The music is mostly great, lots of fun mashups of modern pop songs, and the sets were amazing. The choreography and costumes however, well, I spent a lot of time studying the ceiling of the theater rather than watching what was happening on stage. Afterward we learned that we had both thought about leaving, but didn't. The movie is rated PG-13, and so was the play, but a much stronger PG-13. Also, the speakers were all turned up so high, my head was pounding by the time we left the theater.

Photo credit: Brett

After Moulin Rouge we needed food. We went to Los Tacos No. 1, a hole-in-the-wall place that a friend in my ward had recommended. It was amazing! Seriously some of the best food we had all weekend.

They only had like four things on the menu, including tacos and quesadillas. Here's one of Brett's tacos, and look, I'm in the background waiting for my order.

Photo credit: Brett

After eating we finally checked into the hotel and rested for a few minutes. Then we headed to our second Broadway show of the week. I am thrilled to report that Aaron Sorkin's adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird made up for the disappointment of Moulin Rouge. It was incredible!

Jeff Daniels played Atticus Finch, which was cool, but the most interesting part for me was how he portrayed the character. It was as if Mr. Daniels had followed around my father-in-law doing a character study. The way he moved, delivered his lines, sat, sighed, it was like I was watching Bryan's dad on stage. So, surprise Ron, it turns out you're actually Atticus Finch.

Photo credit: Brett

After the wonderful play, we got our tired selves to the hotel and slept the restful slumber of two moms on breaks from their kids. Ah, sleep.

*What am I quoting?

Handsome Boys

Having kids at three schools means keeping track of three school calendars. This is doable, but does require organization and attention. One of the first scheduled activities of the year is picture day. Peter's picture day was the first week of September, Cooper's is today, the girls don't have their picture day until the last Friday of the month. I snapped a picture of Cooper before he got on the bus this morning so he could practice his smile.

We've already received the digital copy of Peter's picture. When I showed it to him he commented that his smile didn't look right. True that it's not quite his natural smile, but it's not a bad picture either.

Ice Cream Mustache