January started 2023 well this year. After returning home from Georgia, we celebrated the New Year with our traditional Chinese food take-out and the London fireworks. The kids began school again (yay! ;-)). Then the following weekend, we took Clara and Robbie up to NYC to see The Music Man with Hugh Jackman.
We got a sitter (well, one for Friday and one for Saturday) and took the train up from DC early on Friday morning. I was nervous about leaving the younger boys, but I was very glad the whole time that we didn't have all the kids with us because it would have been really tricky getting around NYC with a big group.
Our first stop after arriving at Penn Station was the Empire State Building.
No! I won't let King Kong take you!
We got to go up to the 102nd floor. So cool! Then we took the subway to our hotel and enjoyed a little rest before heading back out in the evening.
We braved the long line outside Ellen's Stardust Diner and enjoyed being serenaded by aspiring singers/actors/actresses as our servers. The food was honestly meh and it was very crowded, but it was a fun experience to do once.
We walked around Times Square and checked out the M&M store, the Lego store, and the Disney store before walking back to the Winter Garden Theater. It was so nice that the weather was clear, despite being chilly. I had been concerned about how Clara would do with all the crowds, smells, etc, but she really enjoyed it!
We arrived at the theater early and took our seats. It was such a fun show! Hugh Jackman was great and the crowd loved him. Sutton Foster was also a crack-up, and both of them lost character a couple of times and got the giggles. The dancing and singing was wonderful. Clara got a cough which I feared would cause us to miss the show, but some kind people next to us and behind us gave us cough drops (lesson learned: always pack cough drops in my purse).
The next morning, we headed out for breakfast at Carnegie Diner--my eggs hollandaise were very yummy, Michael got a Reuben sandwich, and Clara and Robbie enjoyed their pancakes with strawberries and bananas (and Nutella for Robbie) on top. Then we walked over to Rockefeller Center to see the Christmas tree, the ice skaters, and enjoy the overall atmosphere.
A highlight was playing the giant piano at the FAO Schwarz store. So fun!
Another favorite moment was when Clara and I visited Koreatown and stopped in this fun Korean bookstore. So fun to see all the toys and books in another language.
Similar yet different!
When we were in Koreatown, we came across bbq Chicken, the yummy fried chicken place they eat at in the K-drama Crash Landing on You. It was so fun! And the chicken really was delicious. I am not a huge fried chicken fan, but it was so good.
We were very grateful we had the privilege and opportunity to take Clara and Robbie on this trip. I felt so terrible when we found out afterwards that both Benjy and Henry had thrown up while we were gone . . . and then the following week I got the stomach bug and so did nearly everyone else in the family. We paid our sitters extra for having had to clean up/deal with all of that. Hopefully the next time we leave there will be no throw-up in our absence.
Clara keeps asking when we're going to go back to NYC, so I take that as a success. :-)
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