Caitlyn decided she wanted to see the play The Cursed Child in New York. I guess it was originally her mother-in-law's idea, but she (Robin, Dallin's mom) was talking about going after the New Year, and Caitlyn thought she might be too pregnant to enjoy it. So, she stole their idea, talked to Crista about it, then invited me. I thought it'd be fun, but I didn't want to go without Roy; especially to New York. After we agreed to go, Caitlyn basically planned all the flights, hotels and tickets. I didn't want to go all the way to New York for just one play, so we looked at a bunch of others (including prices) and settled on Wicked. We would have loved to see Hamilton, but tickets were $750 and higher. Roy and I have only been to New York once in our lives and that was in 2001, just months following 9-11. At that time we took Elise and Dan, wanting them to get a glimpse of history. We visited Ground Zero while it was still smoking.
I took very few pictures, but my girls took hundreds.
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| Boarding the plane |
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| Crista and Caitlyn at the Minneapolis airport. |
| We experienced delays getting to New York (from Minneapolis)--not unexpected. We heard it was because of wind. In any case, we landed hours later than planned. This meant a very late dinner. We were very glad we didn't try and travel on the same day we had play tickets. |
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| First glimpse of Time Square |
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| Checking into the hotel we were disappointed because, even though we booked a king size bed for Roy and me, we were down-graded to two doubles. Our reservation through a third party didn't guarantee we'd get what we signed up for. |
We got to the restaurant, Ichiran, 15 minutes before closing. It was a ramen place. I've never been to a restaurant before that specializes in ramen. This was our first encounter with New York sticker shock. It was $22-$29 for a bowl of noodes. If you sat at a table (desk), you were not allowed to share. We got a kick out of the seating. There were dividers between every guest. When they saw we were together, they opened the dividers between us. The sign said it was a "Ramen Focus Booth."
"Our unique solo booths are designed to draw your senses to the ramen in front of you. The booths block the bustling servers and customers from your view and allow you to focus completely on enjoying your ramen."
We had a New York experience watching the manager try to shoo about 10 men out of the lobby who were wanting to get Door Dash orders. They were all dressed in black with coats and hats, etc. The lobby was small and they were taking up a good portion of it. They didn't leave easily or quietly, but they eventually moved outside. I think they were not only hoping to get the order, but to warm up, too.
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| The ramen was hot and delicious. Perfect for a cold night |
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In the picture at left Roy would not look at me
Our first stop: Ground Zero. We planned the wrong day for this excursion because the museum was closed on Tuesday. Unfortunately we didn't know that until we arrived. Still, the monument was beautiful (only one was properly on exhibit) and it was a very serene and even reverent place. Caitlyn and Crista had both heard that the museum was depressing (as you might expect). Sadly, we knew we didn't have time to return on Wednesday.
 | Ground Zero Monument
 | Buildings surrounding Ground Zero
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Next was the ferry around the Statue of Liberty. It is stunning when you first see the grandeur of this statue. It's truly awe inspiring. The museum at the statue was open--thankfully, because it was a very cold day; it was good to get inside to warm up.
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| The ferry |
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Statues of the famous people who helped build the statue (the lady at the end was a poet that wrote a poem that is engraved on the base of the statue).
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| Crista, eating an apple in the Big Apple (and on the ferry) |
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| You can't see the feet on the statue unless you go to the top. They had a replica in the museum. This was large enough that one toe was big enough for one person to sit on. |
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| The model on the end was the model for the actual base of the statue. The other two were ideas that went unused. |
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Ellis Island
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| New York Pizza for lunch |
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| Roy and Crista |
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| I'll add this picture since Roy looks pretty awful in the one he's in with Crista 😄 |
The final activity for the day was a stop at the Harry Potter store (after all, we went to New York because of Harry Potter). The store is an adventure in and of itself. Not quite like the London Harry Potter museum, but pretty good for a store.
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| Cait and Crista shared a Butter Beer. It was way too sweet for my taste. It also cost $13.50 |
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| I'm not well versed on famous chefs, but Cait and Crista wanted their picture taken in this guys store. |
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We had dinner at Bubba Gump's
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| Roy had the mahi mahi. |
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| It was tight quarters in the theater. I could see pretty well from my seat, but the girl in front of me had fixed her hair in a bun on the top of her head, so I had to shift often for a better view. The guy next to me said he was a huge Harry Potter fan. He was from Columbia. |
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In this picture we're in line to go through security. Tom Felton, who played Draco Malfoy in all of the Harry Potter movies, played Draco Malfoy as an adult in the cursed child. He didn't have a very big part, but you could tell the audience was excited that he was performing. I would say he kind of owns his part.
After the play, Crista and Cait stayed behind to wait for the actors to come out and sign autographs. They were out there for an hour with a large group of people hoping to see Tom Felton and get his signature. While they were waiting they met a lot of the actors and got their autographs. Tom Felton waited until last to give all the other actors a chance for their minute of fame. Around 11:00, he finally came out, running down the line of people, giving everyone he could reach high fives. He then allowed people to take photos and he signed as many autographs as he could. Crista and Cait were not right at the front, so they didn't get a signature. They did, however, get a photo with him from the people standing in front, as he told everyone, "I'm a simple man, just get in and air drop the photo!" Caitlyn said, "It was really fun to still get something from all that waiting." Crista told me that she had a lot of fun meeting and talking to lots of people while they waited out there for that hour.
 | | Tom Felton signing autographs. See Crista in the background. Caitlyn is talking to someone in the background. |
 | Crista. on left, Caitlyn middle left, Tom Felton, front
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On our last full day in New York, we got a bagel for breakfast and headed to Central Park. After the park we found Chelsea Market. We'd been told it was a fun place to visit, but it was mostly just a big mall of eateries. Still, it was fun. We had a light lunch to tide us over till dinner.
  | Catharine and Cait in front of the ice skating rink at Central Park. Sadly, I haven't been ice skating for a year, and Cait is not ice skating right now, either, partly because of her pregnancy. The rink was large; probably even bigger than the one at the rec center. The one at the Rockefeller Center was dinky.
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View of New York City from Central Park
 | Roy wanted a picture in front of the Fox News Building
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There were a lot of fun stores, but most of them we had to skip because of time. We went into one of only two Nintendo stores in the US. I called Elise to see if Harvey had Luigi or Mario stuffed toys, because I thought that'd be a great Christmas idea. Of course, he already had every Mario Brothers stuffies there were. We took our picture in a photo prop. There are about 10 poses of the picture before the family got my attention to join them.
Our last dinner out was at a place called Pasta Lovers. It was a very nice restaurant, and the food was very good, but again--sticker shock. It made me glad it was a short trip.
😊
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| In the airport on the way home. |
Our flights home went without delays or any other inconveniences. We arrived home in time to have a light dinner of scrambled eggs with Crista before she left for home. Her kids were eager to have her back! Zack was very excited to see her.
Roy and I are trying to get on Medicare, so we had a 1:30 phone interview with the SSA on Friday. After that was over, we took off to the cabin. We did it to be nice because Jennie wanted to use our home for a "Friendsgiving" but I think it was a good excuse for Roy to get up there to check on things. Our boat is 20 years old and needs some seats repaired. He was able to get the seat parts out of the boat to bring home and to check on the repairs to our poor Escalade. I worked on a puzzle Saturday morning, and we took a side X side ride down to the lake before we left, just to get outside. We saw a huge 5 point buck while we were riding.
Saturday, Nick and his kids, Dan, Jieun and their kids, and Jennie and Jordan, all helped Caitlyn and Dallin move into their new home in Kaysville. Roy and I have yet to see the house. Caitlyn is very happy with it. Roy and I are both getting to where helping someone move is not an option. My back and Roy's neck would not be happy. I'm just thrilled to be pain free for a few more weeks (hopefully); I don't want to jeopardize that.
We had to be home for church on Sunday because it was our primary program and Roy's a teacher (his class is fairly unruly with several kids with autism or other mental issues, so he definitely needed to be there). Jennie and Jordan spoke in their ward and we went to hear them and watch the kids at the same time. It was fun to play with Elijah and Foster. Jennie and Jordan both spoke about gratitude. Their talks were short and sweet and the meeting ended about 5 minutes early; even after the song and prayer. It was great!
Funny story: Jennie and Jordan cleaned up well from their dinner, but there was one thing they didn't check. I was woken at 6:30 by an alarm going off. Roy wouldn't have heard it if it hadn't bothered me because the tones were high. However, after I opened our bedroom door, he definitely heard it too. Foster had played with Roy's little motorcycle clock and had inadvertantly turned on the alarm. It's a good thing I lover her so much.
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5 point buck in Manilla
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