Way back in the summer of 2019, I bought tickets for Kevin and I, along with our friends, Pamela and Cliff, to go and see Hugh Jackman perform in “The Music Man” on Broadway in September of 2020. Well, we all know what happened to Broadway in 2020, and so it was pushed back to April of 2021, and then it was for December of 2021. And then we moved to Texas, which was no longer a 3 hour car ride from NYC, but we were not going to miss our show. so we bought plane tickets and met Pamela and Cliff in the city for a fun get-away. Let me tell you, traveling a few days before Christmas is no joke between the crowds and all the delays, and I wouldn’t have done it for anyone less than Hugh Jackman ;).

By the time our plane finally arrived and we took the train in from JFK, we got to our hotel after 7:30 pm. It was misty and a little rainy out, but it made the city look magical as we walked through the streets. And I loved that our room was on the 17th floor, and so we had a cool view. (Oh, and it is hard to see, but behind the church in my picture, is totally the Empire State Building.  It was so hidden by clouds that I didn’t even realize it was there.)

After getting unpacked, we met up with Pamela and Cliff in the city for dessert.  We got ice cream, because nothing says a treat on a rainy and cold December night like ice cream – ha ha! I forgot to get a picture of the four of us together. After getting ice cream, we went on a quest to find an Insomnia Cookies for Cliff, as he didn’t want ice cream.

After walking to the one nearest us, we arrived only to discover that they were refusing to serve people in person.  What?? The led us to walk all over the city until we found him one that was actually serving people. Along the way, we passed this gorgeous old building, and I was shocked to look up and see that it was a CVS. What the what?? I had to go inside and get pictures of the inside of what had once been a spectacular bank, and is now probably the fanciest CVS in the world. What a place to buy your vitamins.

Sunday morning, we started outright and early and looking our best for church. We took the subway to the Upper West Side to attend a sacrament service at the chapel at the Manhattan Temple.  

Although I have attended that temple many times, I have never attended church there, and it was so cool.  I especially loved all the amazing and unique artwork on the walls of scripture stories and all done by the same artist. The meeting itself was a gorgeous Christmas program complete with primary children singing, but because of the location of this ward, the violinist who played was obviously in the symphony and the soloist was definitely from the Metropolitan Opera. Wow!! And there just happened to be a visiting member of the first quorum of the seventy, and he gave the most inspiring testimony.  We definitely left there feeling lucky to have been a part of it.

After church, I changed into jeans because it was FREEZING – especially coming from our beautiful Texas weather, and we walked across Central Park, exploring along the way. It was such a great trip, because although we had ideas of things we wanted to do, other than the show on Monday night, we didn’t have anything set in stone, so we were free to do whatever. I love Central Park, and I loved getting to see some parts of it I hadn’t been to before, like the little boat pond and the Alice in Wonderland statue.

When we got across the park, our first stop was Levain Bakery.  Kevin had never been, and their cookies are one of my favorite things.  Since it was essentially our lunch, I also got a yummy roll and a large slice of coffee cake, which was so delicious! I was so full after the roll and warm coffee cake, I got to save my cookie for later.

Our next stop was the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Kevin had never been, I hadn’t been in 11 years, and there was a really amazing exhibit there about how Walt Disney used European influences in his cartoons that Pamela and I really wanted to see.  It was spectacular, but we weren’t allowed to take pictures there.  We did make sure to visit their amazing Christmas tree and village, as well as lots of other amazing things. (I even found a tiny snake for Lily.

And Pamela and I had to get a picture in the beautiful rotunda, and Kevin took a picture of Cliff taking our picture, as well as the statue that was behind us.

One of my favorite things at the Met, is the Egyptian exhibit.  It is so cool with all the mummies and sarcophagi, and especially the amazing statues.

After we finished at the museum, we sat on the steps outside and ate some more of our yummy baked goods, and then walked on, exploring along the way. Because we were walking around and exploring, we happened upon this small gallery that intrigued Cliff because of the instrument panels from cool airplanes. We came inside and ended up spending almost an hour there talking to the owner.  It was so much fun and super fascinating, but my favorite part was hitting the button that was on the one panel to deploy the nuclear weapons. Crazy!

After that, we were starving for a real meal, so we found this cute Italian restaurant for an early dinner. It was delicious, and while Pamela and I entertained ourselves trying to get the perfect selfie – and trying out silly filters, we had to laugh because both of our husbands were watching different NFL football games on their phones. Good times!

After dinner, we stopped back that the hotel to bundle up a bit more, and then we hopped on a train to Brooklyn to go to Dyker Heights to see their famous Christmas lights display.  Wow! It was spectacular.

The only bad thing was that I accidentally left my phone in our hotel room when we stopped there before leaving, and so I either had to borrow Kevin’s phone to get pictures, or get them from Pamela and Cliff. The lights were so cool, and we had a fun, albeit freezing, time wandering around.  I may have splurged on the $5 hot cocoa because I was so cold, but it was totally worth it. I am so glad we got to experience it, and it made me happy we were there at Christmas time.

The train ride back from Brooklyn was really cool, as we road into the city after dark. I love looking at all the different sites.  And of course, there are always interesting characters in the subway stations, like the guy dancing with the lady skeleton. Yep.

When we got back to the city, we stopped at this fabulous Italian pastry shop.  It had too many amazing things to choose from, and I truly wanted to try them all.  I did cut myself off though, but maybe still got too many treats.

It was the perfect way to end a wonderful day in New York.