NYC and BelWels

Wayne and I  just got back from NYC for a teaching conference with Laura and Eric Belnap.  We love these friends of ours so much.  We have traveled a lot together, but this is the first for all of us in this city. Laura and I had an Innovative Shools Summit at the Marriott Marquis on Times Square that our school paid for so we invited our boyfriends to tag along.  

Here is a rundown of what we did:

We got there Wednesday went to Joe’s Pizza for a late night snack, then to sleep for the Thursday conference. Thursday morning we went to the Edge which is a tall building with a view and an outdoor deck with a glass floor on some of it.  Perfect view of the Hudson River and The Empire State Building.  Plus there was a Magnolia Bakery right there-- so we got our Banana Pudding.

Then we Uber’d down to Chinatown. We had massages at Kimberly Spa. They were delightful.  My Chinese grandpa worked me over GOOD!  We ate lunch at Joe’s Shanghai- it was a recommendation and it was only fair food- so not going back.  But then we had ice cream at the Chinese ice cream shop - so fun! The flavors are Asian…. Taro, black sesame, kochi, green seaweed, red bean, durian fruit etc..…. All really, surprisingly tasty– we would go back here.  We walked the streets of Chinatown and went to see the start of the Manhattan Bridge. 

Thursday night we saw The Notebook the Musical — it was really good. This is such a sweet story that had me sobbing by the end. Alzheimer's is a cruel fate. Interesting casting too –they play Noah and Ali as teens, in their late twenties, and then in 70’s— none of these couples looked alike in size, shape, or race.  Fascinating. 

Got me some milk cake and a german chocolate brownie from the Cake Boss. Both incredible

The Naked cowboy is still in Times Square....weird

Friday we had our teacher conference all day. The boys went to the 911 museum then they went to Chelsea Market for lunch at Los Tacos. They rented bikes and went on the bike lane expressway along the Hudson River up to 72nd St., and they walked their bikes in towards Central Park and stopped at Levaine Cookies and bought a big thing of cookies.  Then they biked back down Broadway to our hotel. We met them and had a delicious dinner at Carmine's a ton of Italian food - huge family-size portions. Then we played games in our hotel Suite.  

Saturday: Such a rainy day. We attended more of the conference. We were done by 12:15. The boys went walking up to Central Park and back in the rain with umbrellas, and then we decided to get show tickets because it was so rainy.  We couldn’t do anything else so we went to the Neil Diamond- A Beautiful NOise show at 2 o’clock. We loved it.  There were times when the entire audience was singing along– I love these moments of community connection. Sweet Caroline was a riot. The head actor sounded just like Neil Diamond. Such an interesting story and the price of fame on family and mental health.

We went to Shake Shack for dinner - burgers and shakes then back to our hotel for games. (The boys keep beating the girls at Skipbo.  We also play Yahtzee, and 10, 2, Oh Crap!) At 8 o’clock we walked across the street to see Kimberly Akimbo.   A story about a 16-year-old girl who has an aging disease so she looks 64 (and is played on stage by a 64-year-old woman)…. and her dysfunctional family.  We saw Victoria Clark play this part… she was amazing, and all of the original cast members.   Then New York cheesecake from Juniors.  

Sunday. Breakfast and a big walk to St Patrick’s Cathedral for Mass and a walk through Central Park. Laura’s body is killing her so she’s moving very slowly. She stayed at the hotel with her bad back and hips.  She really is a trooper and never complains, but we know she is hurting. We spent the rest of the day traveling back home.