You know what happens when your miracle sister has a 40th birthday?! You CELEBRATE!!!!! Oh yeah!!!! To quote my sister, "We are totally going to be adulting all over NYC!"
Adulting - (verb) - to act like a grown up and do awesome things that grown ups do on a daily basis
I don't use the "miracle" term lightly. If you know our family's history you understand. If you have ever doubted, God is real and he does perform miracles. Laura's life is a miracle of God.
After a full day of teaching, the grey bullet shuttle, AKA our 2004 Honda Odyssey headed out to pick up Sarah, then Mom, then Laura! I surprised everyone with matching birthday shirts. Thank you, MOZTrends on Etsy. The birthday party entourage has arrived!
Our flight departed at 7:25 pm and arrived in LaGuardia at 12:20 am.
We pulled up to Oma and Opa...AKA Ursula and Steve's beautiful apartment on the 12th floor of Trump World Tower at 1:00 am and crashed. Yes, we teachers are a lively bunch on a late Friday night after a full week of teaching.
The next morning, We were up and ready to go for a full and fabulous day of adulting in NYC!!!! Check out the amazing view of United Nations from their living room window!
We were ready to hit the town!
After our tasty breakfast, we hit the subway for Destination #2, the Met #MUSEUMHACK! I carried my lovely purple handbag the entire trip in honor of Becky.
The Museum Hack at the Met was a backstage tour of some of the most famous pieces of art housed at the Met. I highly recommend checking out this special tour if you're visiting NYC. My favorite story was the one of the Walking Cane/Flute/Oboe made of a giant Narwall tooth!!!!
I also found my Spirit Statue of a dancing, naked bacchant carrying a baby and drinking wine.
Isn't she fabulous?! I've never seen such a happy bronze statue in my life!
After the Met Museum Hack, we hit the subway again and raced to Destination #3 at Times Square for a stop at the M&Ms store then our 2:00 matinee.
As a gift for the birthday girl, Oma and Opa let Laura pick a Broadway show to see. My genius sister did her research and chose a little musical none of us had heard of. Ursula and Steve picked out the seats and less than 2 weeks later this little unknown musical was nominated for 14 Tony's!!!!
"Fun Home" won 5 of the 2015 Tonys including Best Musical and Best Male Lead! Oh yes, we were in for a treat! The best part was the tickets were purchased before the Tony nominations came out, so we had FRONT ROW seats!!!
That's the stage!!!!! We were so close I even got spit on a few times. The actors were incredible, but this was quite a heavy, dark musical. I loved every second.
After the depressing rendition of singing and suicide we decided we were ready for Destination #4, traditional Italian dinner at Rossini's. Yum!!!! We started our fabulous meal with a bottle of Prosecco and bruschetta with a toast to the birthday girl.
Our next course was a series of appetizers of tomato caprese and figs with prosciutto. The main entree of choice was risotto with shrimp, asparagus, and sundried tomatoes, then we topped it off with a fruit torte and homemade orange sorbet served inside the orange peel. Yum!!!! My mouth is watering just thinking about it.
We rolled out of Rossini's...literally, I felt like Violet on Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, and hit the streets for our evening stroll to Destination #5, a surprise Manhattan tour on "The Ride"!
We strolled through Grand Central Terminal, back through the city, and returned to Trump World Tower just before midnight. Mom's Fitbit said we walked over 26,000 steps, and these Cinderellas had turned into pumpkins. I was asleep before my head hit the pillow. What an incredibly memorable day.
Sunday morning, we were up and ready to go for our brunch Destination #7, Ellen's Stardust Diner.
Aren't our birthday shirts super fun?! Random strangers shouted "Happy Birthday" to Laura at every street corner in New York. We look like we could be called "Steve and his Ladies" with our matching shirts. Opa was so patient with us the entire weekend.
Elken's Stardust Diner is where aspiring Broadway actors work, sing, and serve, and pray to get casted in a musical or play. We had the cutest server who serenaded us with Mustang Sally and the whole restaurant sang Happy Birthday to Laura.
I couldn't leave NYC without a New York bagel, so I ordered the Smoked Salmon Plate and enjoyed every bite!
How's that for a little food porn?! Yum!!! After brunch, we hit the streets again for a walk to St. Peter's Cathedral, and we arrived just in time for the Lord's Prayer during morning Mass. We sure had a lot to be thankful for after this wonderful weekend with family and friends. Thank you, God, Amen.
We stayed for a passing of peace, then headed for our final Destination #8, a horse drawn carriage ride through Central Park.
We stopped at Strawberry Fields for a picture of the mosaic "Imagine" in honor of John Lennon. His assassination happened exactly 35 years ago this weekend.
Senseless act of violence....so sad.....
Our driver was a very knowledgable man from Brazil who spoke many languages and pointed out all the beautiful buildings in NYC.
We ended our downtown stroll with a walk through a street fair where we picked up NYC shirts for the hubbies and a final pic of the sisters.
We headed back their place at Trump World Tower for our final NYC stroll down by the UN and Katherine Hepburn Garden.
We packed our bags and the driver arrived to take us back to real life. This weekend was filled with fun, family, and friends, and is one I will never forget. Praise God for health and wellness. Happy Birthday, Laura! Love you!
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