Daphne

Being in NYC, we knew we had to watch a show on Broadway – the only question was which one to catch. I was all up for Book of Mormon or Wicked but those were pretty questionable on the kid-friendly scale so we settled on Spiderman instead. Ok, the reviews were pretty meh but it’s got a Bono-Edge score! And flying stunts! And hey, it is spidey after all.

We took our chances with the rush tickets and when we got to the box office at 9.30 in the morning, we managed to score 4 rush tickets with some pretty great seats at some pretty great prices.

The show turned out to be a fab choice – the husband loved the music, the kids loved the flying spidey stunts and I loved the fun and campiness of it. The green goblin was delightfully campy and he probably stole the show for me.

Truett and Kirsten were still struggling with jet lag but they powered on and sat through the entire 2-hour show like little seasoned Broadway pros.

***

In between, we had lunch at Shake Shack. Oh, the Shake Shack. Those guys make one tasty burger, is all I can say. This is how fast food is supposed to be done. A dogmeister, a shake stack, fries, a fair shake plus a bowl of custard ice cream to round things up and we were in fast food heaven.

And I hereby declare that indeed it was good.

***

We also managed to stop by the American Museum of Natural History, a really fun museum for kids. Tru was super excited about seeing the real dinosaur bones on display and actually, so was I.

Seriously, how is it that these things existed on the earth? Being there looking at these giant bones that palaeontologists dug up from the ground, that’s just of mind-blowing proportions.

The animal replica exhibits were pretty cool too. They looked incredibly real and I stood there for a while, half expecting them to move like when they came alive in that scene in Night at the Museum.

Definitely one of the funnest museums to visit with kids and it was so cute to see them so excited about learning stuff. They were fascinated with everything and Truett made me read all the write ups at every exhibit like “hadrosaurs were first thought to be primarily aquatic…” while he peered at them all deep in thought.

A whole afternoon exploring and we barely managed to cover  the popular exhibits. We’ll have to do this again soon.

First thing we did in NYC was to visit the 9/11 Memorial. It is sort of special because that was the day the husband and I had our first unofficial date. We were having our first meal together at a McDonalds 5 minutes from campus (I know, so romantic!) when the husband (who wasn’t even the boyfriend at that point) delivered the breaking news. And then we spent the next few days camped out in front of CNN watching everything unfold.

When we decided to visit NYC, we knew we had to check out the 9/11 Memorial. Not that the city is defined by this one great tragedy but it is a testament to the triumph of the American spirit in the face of tremendous loss.

Just being there where it all happened was an incredible experience.

The kids didn’t quite understand what it was all for and we were telling them about the heroism and sacrifice of the first responders when we walked past the 9/11 fire department and saw a couple of real firemen in a fire engine about to go about their heroic duty (they even had the sirens on and everything!) Truett was so thrilled.

***

The second stop: The Statue of Liberty. Day 1 was turning out to be a totally educational trip full of history and stuff!

We didn’t actually go to Liberty Island – we took the free ferry to Staten Island and waved to Lady Liberty on the way there and Kirsten was all “why the statue of liverty is so small?” and I was like “ok, it’s liberty, sweetheart, which is the whole point of the statue…freedom and progress and all that” and she was all “um ok can we have pizza now?”

History lesson fail.

Staten island was beautiful though.

//photo credit: Kirsten. She’s quite a photographer, this one.

Hey y’all, sorry for the radio silence – we’re here having an incredible time falling in love with New York City.

I didn’t think I’d love it as much as I do. I always thought I was more of a California girl but it’s just been 24 hours here in Manhattan and I think NYC has already stolen my heart. I’m beginning to see why everyone calls it the greatest city in the world.

We just had the most wonderful day and I was planning to write a long post with tons of pictures but on retrospect, that seems like too ambitious of a plan because a 23-hour flight + severe jet lag + an entire day of walking = a very comatose brain. In fact, I’m about 12% awake at the moment and words are very fuzzy in my brain so imma post progressively over the next couple of days.

I’ll also be updating Instagram on the fly so check that out here. Back in a bit!