New York

For Christmas this year, we got the girls tickets to see Hamilton on Broadway. We were a little nervous about buying Broadway tickets since the theaters have intermittently shutdown because of COVID over the last year. But we figured we’d give it a go and fortunately there were no issues. We headed up on a very cold mid-January weekend. We decided to make a weekend of it and booked a hotel right off of Times Square.

She show did not disappoint. Even though we have all seen it about a dozen times on Disney+ with the original cast, it was still so good and different with new actors.

After the show, we walked around Times Square and had a sushi dinner. It’s the first time we’ve all been out in a restaurant in over a year, and it was a little weird, but also great.

The next day we had a lazy morning in the hotel and then hit the Guggenheim before heading back home. It was our first weekend away in a long time and it was really great. As I write this it seems as if the pandemic (or at least the initial, very long phase of it), is winding down and we’re finally able to move around a little more freely. I’m cautiously optimistic that things will continue to move in a positive direction.

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At the beginning of April the Etude section of the Philadelphia Girls Choir had a field trip to NYC and I was a chaperone. There were 40 girls, ages 7-12, and 6 adults. It was nutty. But fun. We hopped on a bus from Philly and arrived at One World Observatory, where the girls gave a 20 minute concert. It was great because it’s the first time I’ve heard them perform a lot of the songs that I hear sung around the house.

Here’s the group. Sophie is in the front, third from the right.

Here’s a short video of the group. Unfortunately most of the video I took was too long to upload here.

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After the performance the chaperones took their group of girls and toured the building, which had pretty amazing views.

Here’s my group of girls.

After that we took everyone for lunch in a food court, which was absolute chaos. I’ve never been so paranoid about losing a child.

The day was nice, but cold. We walked around the City, saw the Statue of Liberty from a distance, and did some touristy shopping.

Here’s the whole group in front of the building they sang at the top of. It was a pretty good day and great experience for Sophie.

We got back to Philly around 7pm and were completely exhausted.

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This past weekend we took a day trip to NYC to see some America’s Cup racing. The boats are currently on a promotional tour around the world to promote the big race in Bermuda this summer. Unfortunately of the two days of racing they had in NYC we were there for the one that was delayed for weather. They ended up only getting one race it, but it was still cool to see. 
The American team on Oracle, Japanese team behind them
Keeping with the nautical theme we went to the Seaport Museum and toured their boat, anchored in the harbor. We let the girls get gummy candy, and Lauren is apparently unable to break her hand away long enough to take this picture.

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 Before Christmas we took a weekend and went to NY.  We did all of the touristy holiday stuff, including Rockefeller Center. 
Revisiting the proposal spot with the girls – almost 13 years to the day later!
And the best part of the trip was meeting new baby Kish, who was born just before Thanksgiving. The girls loved holding him. 

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Last weekend we took the girls up to New York City. We did a lot of the touristy things, which we were able to see from a whole new, toddler perspective.

 Sophie got a kick out of Times Square. So many TVs! 
 We went to Central Park and watched some of the remote control boats on the lake
 And then Sophie and Dave took one of the bigger row boats out themselves. 

 Mr Mom. We actually took this huge stroller on the subway too. It was quite the scene. 
 Top of Rockefeller Center
 Lauren is nonplussed. 
On Sunday we had brunch in Jersey City with an old friend of Dave’s. From the pier you could see the Statue of Liberty (which I’m pointing out here to Sophie). 
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