Chesleys Take Manhattan... kind of

Last weekend we drove down to Greenwich, CT to visit my Aunt Donna and Uncle Dennis. They were wonderful hosts and we had such a fun time visiting with them. We arrived on Thursday night and came home Sunday afternoon.

Thursday: We stayed up late playing a pretty competitive game of Wizard. It's a fun card game. If you've never played go play.

Friday: This was our big day in New York City! John had never been before and I basically hadn't either because seeing it at 4 years old doesn't count. The weather was supposed to be perfect for walking around- 60s, overcast, 20% chance of rain for an hour or so. When we got in the car to go to the train station Donna asked if we were bringing jackets and we said we'd be fine. The train ride was about an hour long and Ellie loved it!

I forgot to bring the camera so we used John's phone, hence not a ton of pictures.

Grand Central Station was pretty cool. It was my first time in a big train station and I just loved looking up at the ceiling. It was covered with constellations. It was very pretty. When we walked out of Grand Central it was drizzling. Of course. Everyone had umbrellas. We didn't even have jackets. Luckily Ellie had a jacket. We decided to march on. We didn't really have a set agenda we just wanted to wander around. After walking a few blocks we were pretty wet and found refuge in a CVS. We stayed in the CVS for a while looking for an umbrella. Found one for like $20 bucks that broke a little the first time we opened it. Oh well, it kept us mostly dry.

The drizzle lasted for a couple of hours. In the meantime we walked by the Empire State Building (foggy at the top), and walked along 5th Ave. We popped our heads into St. Patrick's Cathedral, said hello to the Rockefeller Center and stopped into FAO Schwarz. Ellie was asleep for most of FAO Schwarz but John and I had fun looking at all the toys. John especially loved the Lego section. When Ellie woke up we took her to the baby section in the basement and she played with the books. Her New York souvenir was 2 new books.

Sleeping Ellie and giant Lego Man!

The rain finally stopped and we were able to have lunch at this delicious food cart that my brother recommended, The Halal Guys. It was delicious! After lunch we only had an hour or so before our train left. We wanted to get out of the city before all of the commuters. We walked to Central Park so that Ellie could walk around. We were only there for about 15-20 minutes, but she loved it! The sun finally came out and she was so happy to stretch her little legs.

Saturday- This was kind of a recovery day from all of our walking the day before. We mostly hung around the house while Ellie napped and chatted with family. It was nice to just relax and reconnect with everyone. That night John and I went back into the city to see our first Broadway Musical! We crossed through Times Square to get to the theatre and it was crazy! So many people, lights every where, unexpected nudity, and a guy with a snake around his neck. We were pretty happy when we left.

We saw Finding Neverland and it was so amazing! It's a new musical that just opened in March and it had Matthew Morrison (teacher from the t.v. show Glee), Kelsey Grammer (Frasier), and Laura Michelle Kelly (Mary Poppins on Broadway, I think). I was basically smiling through the whole show, except for when I might have shed a tear or two. The music was fabulous. I'm excited to buy the cast album when it comes out this month. It's crazy the things they can do with the sets. The lights looked liked ocean waves during multiple parts and the change between sets was so seamless. You're probably thinking, "Duh Jackie, it's Broadway!" It was just so magical (sigh) I can't get over it. Here's some clips from the show to give you an idea.

We sat in the 4th row Mezzanine. 

Sunday- We woke up and got ready for church. There's a joke in my family that if you try to go to church on vacation it's probably stake conference, just because that happened to us on multiple occasions. Sure enough, we pulled up to the church and it was completely empty. At least we tried. When we got back to the house Ellie napped, John read Calvin and Hobbes, and my cousin Christian and I watched/commentated on some nature shows. It was a good time. After lunch we drove home. It was such a fun weekend. I'm excited to go back to the city and see more of it!