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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