New York New York

A road trip adventure this week!  Nephew Thomas and James, Sister Catherine and myself headed to the big apple to celebrate Thomas's high school graduation.  We headed into NYC on Sunday evening in the hope of skipping most of the holiday tourist crowd.  We did pretty well on that front - but managed to run head on into a NYC heat wave.  OH BOY was it a warm weekend to hustle around the city.    We headed out on Sunday night to Time Square to see the Photon Tourist splendor.

Monday morning - we headed straight out to the Empire state building to gape at the splendor in 360 degrees. ( It almost felt that hot too..) 

Afterwards, tt was off to Central park to continue the march of sweat and tears - where I nearly lost the entourage to heat stroke. We did get a pic with the angel Bethesda ( one of my favorite spots )

After Central park - a quick detour to FAO Swartz and the 5th ave Apple store to wonder at the Glass elevator. It was almost like Willy Wonka!  That evening - we topped by a pinnacle of Kitch - the famous Trailer Park lounge.   We were lucky to get seated at the Elvis and Hula shrine.  There were Cheddar cheese Bacon and chili tator tots.  Nom Nom NOM!!

Tuesday morning consisted of a Double decker bus tour of lower manhattan and a stop at World Trade Center.  We wanted to tour the memorial - but did not have reservations. So planning to return the next day, we headed back up town to catch a boat tour of lower manhattan.

And the march continued after a much needed nap!  We headed to our dinner destination in the meat packing district by way of the newly opened Highline.  A elevated train track running part of the length of manhattan that is now a popular park.  From there it was on to Thai dinner! nom nom NOM!

Wednesday morning we headed down again to the World Trade center for an 11:00 tour of the WTC memorial site. On our way, we took a detour to visit Chinatown in search of "Rwolexes"  Our previous day guide pointed us to "Mott street" for the real china town experience". Well... it was too real in my opinion.  The street was an open air food market and there was ( too) much to see. It left me a bit Scheving.  We stopped in several stores to shop the wares.  I was in the back of one store when I spotted someones lunch on the back table

Pizza, take out and a soda right?

While moving on to the racks of Cats with waving paws and Lead painted toys, I thought I could hear a distinct scratching noise. After looking around from where I stood, I glanced back at the lunch table. With a little squinting, it became clear I my pizza assumptions were in error.

Yum Yum!

The WTC memorial was very inspiring and quite sad. I thought it was interesting to see certain names in the memorial with their finish rubbed off.  A must see for anyone.

From the memorial, we grabbed a cap to head uptown to stop back at FAO Swartz for a candy stop. I *thought* the cab would be more efficient than a 3 connection subway ride. But is was midday and I was in tragic error. But as an upside, The rest of the group found the cab ride to be an adventure in itself while I dozed off on our trip. So I guess it was a bonus right?  

A fine trip!  Hopefully more to come  :O)

...and the hits keep coming

 Grace and Cara

Grace and the folks going to the State Fair

 

Grace showing off...you deserve it Grace

Here is the video link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxoDXYPNuh8

The Monroe County Fair Talent Competition was this weekend...Grace had been working on 2 songs for a couple months...one was a group number and one solo. She did amazing on both. The first one I will post is the group number because they placed high enough to make the NYS Fair in August so we can all meet there and see her...her team got a trophy today and placed in the top 5 for the junior division...yea...The competition was very hard this year 20+ acts and all were good...the worst of them were still good. Much better talent than last year. I am excited for her because last year she did not place and she worked hard but her teacher just picked the wrong song. She has had it in her head for a year to come back and do better...and she did. I admire her courage to stay on task and remain undaunted in her goals.

So once again here's  Gracie with a B-way number from littlest mermaid called "She's in Love" - they are amazingly powerful when they are belting and they really mesh together well.

tearful goodbye

Grace leaves St John Neumann School after 7 wonderful years.

I can tell you truthfully I AM COMPLETELY ENVIOUS OF HER AND HER CLASSMATES.
Why? They had a gym. They had a playground, They had amazing teachers. They were all strong, centered and wonderful .... AND role models. They understood her situation. They helped, coached, pushed and gave it to her straight when she needed it. They had a nice computer lab with a great Lab Lady. They had swim nights, movie nights and the last day of school was at  an amusement park.

They , her classmates,  are incredibly dynamic group, head strong, talented and funny.  For example...some years...if there was a strong class they would do a "finale" during the annual talent show....this is one such class


 here they are ...I was going to edit this down a little but Grace said "No"...she wanted it left as a whole...enjoy

I love the opening bit..."We are young, we'll set the world on fire, brighter than the sun..."
I can here Grace backing the whole crew and she is barely trying.   I can't even fathom my 6th grade class at st pats doing this...This was an incredible night of entertaining...Grace also did Rolling In The Deep and the teachers and Fr Brian did dancing Queen...Her 6th grade teacher led them...awesome.

Envy of course is fleeting and pride beams through...they were planning to do a finale since second grade I think.