Fun get away

Mat and I had a chance to get away this past weekend for our anniversary. We have been married 12 years as of November 1st. We have been together for 18 1/2 years total. It is hard to believe that we have been together longer than we were not.

But Mat had planned a trip to New York City for us a few months ago. We both are musical lovers and love going into the city. We lived too far away from NYC for 8 years, so we have missed a lot of really great shows! So this weekend we went to see three shows. Two of them were things we wanted to see, and the third was a wild card. We planned on seeing "Wicked", but couldn't get tickets. Ah well - that will be an excuse to go to the city again in the near future.

Anyway, we arrived in NYC on Friday night after a 2 1/2 hour train ride. We decided to take Amtrak so we wouldn't have to worry about our car in the city. Riding the train was nice and the time passed quickly. We were able to sit at a table the whole time and spread out and read and relax. We arrived in the city and went right to our hotel. We stayed in the Corinthian Condos where Pfizer has suites for its employees and guest. Here is the site so you can see it: Corinthian Condos (click on the name). The rooms was really great and we had an amazing view.

We could see the Chrysler building from our room. Pfizer has the whole floor. They even have their own check in desk and continental breakfast. It was pretty great.

Saturday was Halloween. If you have never been to NYC over Halloween, you really must go. There were more adults in costumes than kids! And by night fall, oh my goodness. Every other person was dressed up. It was pretty interesting to see. Times Square was packed, but it was fun.

Anyway, I am getting ahead of myself. We had breakfast at the hotel and then started our walk to TKTS where we would get our tickets for our first show. There wasn't a long line, so that didn't take long. Once we had our tickets, we spent the rest of the time before the show walking around and people watching. We had Mat's favorite - Jamba Juice - for lunch and just strolled from store to store.

We also watched some ice skaters skate at Rockefeller Center.
There were even people skating in their costumes.



We did take the subway to the World Trade Center site. I thought I took a picture, but it doesn't seem to have come out. But it was interesting to see. They are starting to build the new buildings and green that is going there, and it is going to be amazing when it is done. We visited the church across the street from the WTC site and we could not believe that it survived the fall. We also visited the little "future of the WTC site" building and got to see all kinds of memorabilia and what the new site would look like. I am glad we got to visit.

It was a windy day and it rained off and on, but it was really warm - around 70 degrees. After the show (see our show list below) we went to dinner at a nearby Chinese restaurant:



The food was really good. We then headed back to Times Square to TKTS so we could get tickets to our evening show (you cannot buy the tickets all at once, which is kind of a pain). We didn't have to wait again, so we were quickly on our way. We didn't have a lot of time before our evening show, so we just walked around and looked at all the people in costumes. They were everywhere by now and having a great time. The police were out in full force.

After our evening show, we went back to the hotel. by this time it was nearing 11pm, and the streets were getting crowded with adults dressed up for Halloween. (We found out later than more than 2 million people dressed up and went to the Halloween parade).

Sunday we were grateful for the time change. We got up and got packed and took everything with us for the day. We had to check out by 10am, so we would have to carry our load the whole day. We knew this ahead of time so packed really light. We checked out and went and found a breakfast place (sorry mom, I forgot to take a picture). It was right down the street from our hotel, and was pretty yummy. Actually - I don't think it had a name. It was just called "cafe" or something.

After breakfast (or at this point, it was almost lunch) we went to TKTS to get tickets. Everyone decided that this would be a good day to take in a show in NYC, so the line was pretty huge. But it moved quickly and we were out of line within 45 minutes I would say. Today we saw the "wild card" show. It was a toss up between two (Toxic Avenger and Rock of Ages) - and I even wanted to throw in a 3rd (Hair), but Mat made the ultimate decision.

We had a good bit of time until our show after we got out of line, so Mat took us to the Museum of TV and Radio. It was pretty neat. Also, pretty empty. But, it was a Sunday in November, so they probably aren't that busy at this time of the year anyway.
It was a lot of fun, and it was a place for us to sit and relax for a few hours.

After the museum, we walked to the American Girl store. Arlington read an entire series of books (7 books in the series), so we told her we would pick her up a little something from this store. She wanted a "Get better set" (crutches, bandaids, casts, etc) for her Bargain Girl. We also picked up an outfit for Bargain Girl that we will give her for Christmas.

After the American Girl store, it was time for our show. And after our show, we did got out and eat dinner before heading back to the train.

We ate at Aoki, which my cousin Kirsten recommended. I love sushi, and the sushi here was really good (Thanks Kirsten!)
After that, it was time to head back home. We took Amtrak back home (this time we had playing cards to pass our time) and were home around 10:30pm. We had a great weekend and hope we have a chance to do it again. We thank Mat's parents very much for coming in to watch the kids so we could go.
So we saw:

Avenue Q, In The Heights, and Toxic Avenger. The first two are the two we were hoping to see, and the third was Mat's pick (I really wanted to see In The Heights more than he did, so I let him pick the third show). All three were excellent and very different. (If you click on their names above it will take you to their sites so you can see what the shows are about).

So we enjoyed all three shows. "In the Heights" was my favorite. I am not sure which was Mat's. If anyone knows the show Avenue Q - we saw two little girls around 10 years old in that show with their mom! Not very smart. They did leave at intermission and not return - obviously she didn't see the sign about "not a show for kids".

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Meanwhile, back on the homefront:

Mat's parents arrived last Thursday night to watch the kids for us. They stayed all the way until this morning, and we really enjoyed their visit.

Friday night, after we left, was our town's annual book sale for the Library. It was a lot of fun last year, and I am so sad I missed it this year. Mat's parents took all of the kids over and in all got about 30 books! (the books are really cheap). She took some pictures of the kids at the book fair:

Saturday was also a full day of fun here in our home town. In the morning was the annual Apple Festival in town. A ton of people turn out for this event and the food is very yummy.

The kids had a great time:

After the apple festival was our school's basket raffle. (Do we live in a small town or what?)
(Arlington and some of her buddies)

Mat's parents bought some tickets and the kids picked which baskets they wanted to bet on. And guess what?? Arlington won a basket for me! She is very lucky. She picked a sewing basket for me, and won! I love it - here it is:
Here are some of the other baskets that the kids wanted to win (but didn't of course):

(Arlington's choice)
(Cainan's choice)

(Finley's choice)Saturday night was trick or treat. Our good friend, Emma, (Arlington's BFF's mom) and her family invited the kids over to trick or treat in their neighborhood. That worked out really well since we weren't here, so Mat's parents took the kids over and they all trick-or-treated together.


This was the first year the little ones went to more than one house, and Sally (MIL) said they had a wonderful time. They didn't go to as many houses as Arlington, but they did get a lot of candy!

Sunday, Arlington woke up with a fever. The flu is circulating in our area, and so I was pretty sure she got unlucky and caught it. She had a fever the whole day, and so she just rested on the couch. The original plan was to take the kids out to breakfast and then to a movie, but that got foiled. Ah well.

Arlington still had a fever all day Monday as well. The other kids seemed to be doing okay, so I hope they don't catch it. Her fever got up to around 103 at the highest point. And she had a terrible headache. Apparently on Monday there were 9 kids absent out of her class at school (that only left 6 kids there!).

Today Arlington is fever free. It looked like Finley might be getting sick, but she fooled me, and seems to be fine. We will see if that changes when she gets up from a nap. I hope that she and Cainan can escape getting the flu.

Speaking of the fun flu (hardy har), the elementary school where I work got hit hard with it. It started last week when we jumped from having around 4-10 kids absent a day (for various things) to 24 kids being absent. The high absent rate continued the whole week and by last Friday we had 58 kids out sick. And by yesterday, we had (drumroll) 93 kids out and 90 of them reporting fevers. That was 33% of our population!! And I sent 4 kids home with a fever. We only have 269 kids at our school, so to have almost 100 of them absent made a big difference. Luckily, our teacher population seems to be okay so far.

I am glad we had the day off. There wasn't school today because of election day. Hopefully the day off will give everyone a chance to recover, and hopefully when I return tomorrow, our absences will be far less.

Today I had a conference with Arlington's teacher (today were scheduled conferences at the school for everyone). She had all positive things to say about Arlington, and she is doing exceptionally well. She said she is going to continue to give Arlington extra work to keep her challenged. She said she is chatty, but nothing terrible. I think that will always be a report about Arlington - she is just a social butterfly. As long as it isn't interferring with her work, or disturbing others (which her teacher assured me it wasn't), then I am okay with it. I am finding that this teacher is a perfect fit for our girl, so I am grateful!

That is it. If you aren't asleep yet, then you are a trooper! I am back to my regular posting, so I will see you Saturday!