In New York

Griffin sent me his Christmas list on Friday, November 21st.

I was like… HOLY SHIT. I can’t believe I didn’t have to nag this out of him before Black Friday! But I had sent him what his sister had for her bday/xmas list, and so he was motivated. He actually had some stuff that he needed on it (jeans, shirts, etc) but at the end of the short list said:

If like everyone rlly wants to get together and do something with everyone, i desperately want to go to new york to see jonathan groff in Just in Time, as well as maybe hadestown or wicked or
CHESSS pls chess

I had to laugh. I WANT TO GO TO NEW YORK!

Also, why can he capitalize Just In Time but absolutely nothing else, except for all caps CHESSSSS?

Teenagers.

I went and looked up Just In Time tickets on MLK weekend in January. Jonathan Groff was OUT. Argh. I sent the list over to J to see if he had any thoughts along with my comments of me “never minding going to NY”. He gave some input on the other things but said he didn’t see NY as a Xmas gift but whatever I wanted to do was fine.

I hemmed and hawed about it and the Grandma’s were nagging me for his list so I sent it along with some comments about MLK weekend not working out, blah blah.

My Mom immediately was like… What about Jan 1st?

Ooh. TRAVELING ON the first day of the year? That’s like TRAVEL KARMA for the rest of the year! And the weekend worked for everyone! Sam was off anyway, G would have to miss the first day of school back – because who wants to come home on a Sunday.

Anyway. Done.

Although I DID have to tweak Sam a little. She freaked out because of the cost and said, “Just let G go with JJ” and I said, “That’s fine but I’ll be going with them and I can let you know how Chess was”.

J played some of the same game and I finally had to email, “I can’t really tell from this, are you interested in going?” and he said, “Sure”.

Later, both Sam and J came into the kitchen and said, “We talked about it and we will be joining you” – or something like that. I had to laugh. Whatever, I’m going to New York and seeing all the shows with my baby!

It was raining SO hard on New Year’s Eve. Sam, Sharon, and I were at the Huntington Library all morning through the rain. Which was fun but I was tired. I got all packed, took a Tylenol PM for anxiety, and crashed at 9:30pm and did not even TURN ON the NY NYE’s ball drop at 9pm. I usually do that every year but for whatever reason, I just didn’t want to. I thought that was a little odd for me but am just accepting it.

I also finished a really good 5 star book, so I guess there is that.

G had pulled an all-nighter to finish his last supplemental for college and the rest of us were up at 3:30am. We left promptly at 4am.

The flight had a ROUGH landing. Apparently the pilot ‘missed his landing opportunity” the first time with the winds and had to re-circle around. J was sitting at the bulkhead with one of the flight attendants with that little gem.

G was about to throw-up and panicking. Sam was zenning out with headphones and refused to open her eyes. I was doing my 4-4-4 breathing and offering G sparkling water and salted almond-flour crackers to try and calm him down. Luckily he freaks out really quietly.

But we made it. We shook it off. We found an Uber.

We enjoyed the sunset as we drove into the city.

JJ and Auntie Trish were 20m ahead of us, coming from Newark but braved the check-in line at the Times Square Marriott and had our keys ready as we came in! Woot!

We were starving but took 20m to change and unpack before meeting down in the lobby for a quick pic.

There was no one around to take all 6 of our photos! Maybe another evening.

I had made reservations at The Independent from the car which had a 4.5 rating on Google and the first option I saw on the menu was “warm cheddar pull-apart brioche” which I knew would be a winner for everyone else since we were starving. Along with a bunch of other yummy options. Sierra, our server, was SUPER sweet and was the only waitress for all the tables so it was slow but it was fine. We enjoyed some cocktails, G said the lemonade was fab, and my salmon and roasted veggies were SO GOOD. No pic because I was feeling greasy, tired, and the wreath was attacking my hair so I never asked her to get one of the table.

We walked back – it was SO cold – and Sam got some video and photos in Times Square. We got G a scarf since he didn’t bring one.

We admired the ball. I sort of decided to pretend it was New Year’s Eve, there was still confetti floating everywhere!

We weren’t quite done yet and Trish wanted a drink, so we decided to go check out The View bar on the 48th floor of our hotel. We knew we would be going back to the restaurant in two nights but we wanted to explore.

It was MOVING.

I knew that the top floor restaurant and bar were super cool but I didn’t know it rotated.

I got a white wine, J and T got hot chocolate and baileys, JJ got sparkling rose… G got hot chocolate and promptly ran back to the hotel room to pass out since he was so tired and still kinda sick from the plane. And the restaurant was making him sick.

It was making me a little sick too but it was seriously so cool.

We chatted for awhile. I think J and Sam left? I can’t remember now. But I went back to the room and watched the last 30m of the final season episode of the Morning Show (SO GOOD) and closed my eyes at 11pm (8pm PST).

After I took a PM. SO thankful I do that now for traveling. I feel my sleep is so good when I do that so I can actually function. It also helped my headache.

I woke up a few times but finally popped my eyes open at 8am EST and went to work out!

LOVE LOVE LOVE working out at hotel gyms! Look at my view!

I got 30m in on the precor and a 10m arm workout with Rebecca and did a 10m meditation with Tamara because omg I needed it. I needed some zen, even if I was on vacation.

I went to take a shower and J was apparently scoping out breakfast but he stood in line and then the 3 of us cruised up to him when he was at the front since they wouldn’t eat him without us. LOL

It was a buffet and not that bad but I didn’t want to eat a ton since we had huge dinners coming up.

We came back up and then the 4 of us met at 11:30 to go to the NY Public Library which is what Sam wanted to do.

It was SO COOL! I had never been!

Had to get a selfie with the lions! Or, one of them anyway.

What a gorgeous building! It was also SO COLD outside, as we were all bundled up.

There were crowds but it was fun wandering around the 3 floors.

Still decorated all for Christmas.

I wanted to go to the Rose Room but apparently you could only reserve it if you were doing research. G really tried but they wouldn’t let him.

The New Yorker had an exhibit that J wanted to check out – and honestly, so did I! I adore the New Yorker. I should really get a subscription – but I have way too much to read anyway.

This one cracked me up and reminded me of Beverly at work. I need to show it to her. The magazine is KNOWN for its fancy type and immediately recognizable.

This letter was also hysterical to me.

I also found out that I had never made G read Charlotte’s Web, which I need to fix that ASAP.

It’s a little hard to read but E.B. White is writing to the New Yorker about a spider and I don’t know, it’s just completely entertained me. I want to go read it again later and look up more about E.B. White.

We wandered back down… ahh the architecture of this place was fantastic.

And bundled back up to brave the cold.

It was really cold. 28 or 30 but “felt like” 21. I had my electronic heaters in my pockets and was so happy for them.

Across the street was a Muji store, which I had gotten pens from Sam for Christmas – doodling! And my brother Kyle had given me a gift card to the store.

Which I did not have with me.

BUT, I honestly didn’t really know what else this Muji store had so I was like… yep, let’s go check it out!

Obsessed. So much good stuff. I took about 5 photos for future gifts for people – or gifts for me! But this was one example. A soft cushion pillow for naps, which you can fit your hands in the middle.

It was so cozy. Do I want it? Yes. Do I need it? No.

Can I fit it in my suitcase (or even on my bed)? Also no.

Alas.

We decided to go check out the NY Library kitty-corner which was the actual public library that had *gasp* BOOKS!

I think I underestimated how much my son likes libraries? He wanted to visit every floor! Which, I was fine with. The rooftop had a bar (closed!) but something that would be fun to visit again in a warmer time.

At some point Sam and J went down to the first floor and I followed G to another floor or two but then I went back to the first floor to wait for him – and they had COMMUNITY PUZZLES.

Why yes, I would LOVE to take a vacation and sit at the library and work on a puzzle! That sounds lovely!

I got 4 pieces before J and Sam wanted to leave and dragged us out. G from exploring all the books. I told him he should get a library card! Why not?

We walked through Bryant Park – so cold. Would have been fun to ice skate but since my knee is a black and blue constellation still from my last ice skating excursion, I was glad G didn’t suggest it.

I think we hit the Broadway Store – kids wanted “merch”! I was telling G how he needed to have a “flag” in his future dorm room – which caused confusion because any normal person thinks of a flag as, well, a flag.

However, I was meaning it as a piece of fabric with something fun printed on it to hang on the wall. And my point was that we were in a Broadway Theater store, and that’s what his flag should be… Anyway, I was confusing, but G went with my theme and found a bunch of theater postcards and wanted to hang them up in his future dorm room. J sort of had thoughts about it but G paired his 7 postcards down to 4 and I got them for him.

We wandered over to Crave Pizza – which had SO much more than pizza – and all had some sort of a snack. It was about 2pm, I think. I had fruit and my cashews, yum.

Kids went back to the room and J and I went back to CVS for more waters, and then I said I wanted to go back to the Broadway store for upcoming bday gifts for G. I got the rest of the postcards for his dorm room and a few more! I’m so excited for him.

We rested a bit, I worked on this blog, and then headed off to Del Frisco’s for dinner. This was Trish’s choice because she had gone here 10 years ago with her hubby and wanted to check it out again.

Great decision! I split a filet and seabass with my Mom. Such a good decision. We had a million potatoes (mashed, au graten, fries, more fries) and it was SO MUCH but also so good.

I ended up getting a cappuccino which, was delightful, and I wanted it to keep me up for the show but also a horrific idea for sleeping later. Whoops! Oh well.

We then headed over to our first show! The reason for coming!

The walk was also super cold but was so fun.

Just In Time!! The blue light was horrific for taking pictures – probably the point! Trish is back there, with her hair glowing!

But we were SO CLOSE! It was at the Circle in the Square and Jonathan Groff dances ALL over that stage and up and down the stairs.

I’m having a hard time deciding which show was my favorite but this was such a 10. 10 stars all the way.

At one point, Groff was dancing and singing RIGHT IN FRONT of G, and his eyes connected with G (and he saw G mouthing the words of the song) and Groff winked at him. G’s week was made.

Groff acknowledges he is a “wet” guy and that was so true. The amount that he was spitting, that sweat was flinging off him, wow. Hilarious but he was great.

The rest of the cast was so good too. Sarah Hyland was a stand-out. What an amazing voice. The actress playing Sandra Dee was her debut and she was fantastic.

The kids decided to not “stage door” since Groff was known to never sit and sign stuff. We headed back, and JJ and Trish went to the bar but I was done for the day.

Saturday morning, I could not get up. The coffee I had was a BAD idea the day before – especially at 6pm and I could NOT SLEEP. I even took a PM around 11pm and that didn’t help. I don’t know what sleep I got but I know I had the most live vivid dreams that I was trying NOT to have and by 8am, I felt like working out would be a bad idea. J’s alarm went off at 8:30 and he promptly turned it off and went back to sleep. We had a late start – I had my yogurt for breakfast and J grabbed some Starbucks – and met the kids at 12:15 and walked up to Central Park.

But it was SO FREAKING COLD that it was even hard to walk. 31 degrees but “felt like” 23. We stopped at the Nordstrom’s Cafe and I got a cappuccino and hoped I would stay awake for Ragtime and could ALSO sleep at night. It was early enough, right? Right.

We walked a little more and grabbed a quick bite at a cafe. I got an egg, bacon, avocado sandwich WITHOUT the sandwich part but they brought it anyway. Sigh. I just ate the insides and hoped for the best! Vacation eating, FTW! It was delicious though.

Ragtime. OH Joshua Henry. Wow. Griffin gave a great synopsis to Trisha and JJ later at dinner (they saw Rockettes!) but what a show. We had the understudies for Sarah and “Mother’s little brother” and they were FANTASTIC. AND we had the 3 main leads. Joshua Henry got a standing O during his main song, even before intermission. He was so good. He should definitely win the Tony this year.

The play was long but so good. I really need to go listen to some of those songs on Spotify again.

We immediately got OUT OF THERE (we were so lucky escaping up the stairs ahead of the crowd) and had a mini discussion figuring out how to get the dinner (metro or walking – we were split down the middle of what to do) but we ended up fast-walking. It was cold but we were walking so fast we could barely feel it. We got to the restaurant at 5:22 (even with reservations at 5!), and luckily JJ and T didn’t have much of a fight with the receptionist.

The restaurant was moving and I did NOT feel great but I rallied. I think it was mostly dehydration and not enough food. I also had cashews while eating oysters and salmon and didn’t throw up in the moving restaurant – but felt better after eating! I didn’t even look at the view. We probably should have switched the restaurant but it was “fine”.

We headed over to Chess. WoWWWWWW. While I adore Lea Michelle, and everyone was raving about Aaron Tivet, my main standout was Christopher Nicholas. It was his first lead and did he EVER deserve it. He held one of his notes for 20+ seconds – or longer – he fell to the ground on his knees singing. He was freaking amazing.

The story of Chess isn’t fantastic but everyone was so good.

G immediately ran out to Stage Door. We joined him, and then J immediately went back to the hotel.

JJ, T, and I hung out with G and Sam for about 15 minutes but T finally said no way, and JJ and I said we would go find a bar with her. (The kids later got to have a pic with Christopher Nicholas!)

Us old ladies found McCarthy’s Pub, which JJ and T had seen earlier in the day. They had live music starting at 10pm and it was almost 11pm at that time.

It was SO MUCH FUN.

All the waiters were Irish and my Mom was teasing all of them. They doted on us, and even while we were in the back of the restaurant we sung along to Springsteen, Garth Brooks, Cranberries, and Backstreet Boys. The musician was amazing.

We ordered french fries and scarfed them down and promptly ordered another one.

I need a NY Girls Trip stat.

We headed back around midnight (but it was really 9pm PST!) and I slept great.

At 8am I got up and went back to the gym. I got a 20m elliptical, 10m back and chest, did my 10m physical therapy, and then I sat down next to the window for a meditation.

There is something about meditating in a hotel, looking out a window to a foreign view.

Peaceful.

I went back and took a long shower. We decided to meet at noon because Sam wanted to go gift shopping. We went to a store or two and then I encouraged G to go off with J because their Hadestown didn’t start until 3pm while our Maybe Happy Ending started at 2pm.

G dragged J to go to the Metro (at which point we got the story of their ‘adventures’ and then once they got to their destination it was closed since it was a Sunday – lol!) but then Sam and I went off to another store or two. She was done and then I wanted to grab some protein. We went to the Yard House and sat at the window while she had some water and I grabbed a burger and veggies. JJ and T tried to meet us but they got a little lost and Sam and I went back to the room to drop off our purchases.

But we all met up at Maybe Happy Ending and wow.

This won a Tony last year for Best Musical and it delivered.

Sam said she “almost” cried but JJ, T, and I all cried.

I need to process this a little more.

Man, all the shows were love, betrayal, heartbreak, and so much more.

Helen Shen was SO good. I always love Darrin but her mannerism’s and facial expressions, just overall acting was fantastic.

Everything about the setting of this was so cool too. It rotated and the special effects were amazing.

Really well done.

We headed back to our hotel and decided to go to the bar again.

I kept sitting in the seat pointing inside. It didn’t bother me a LOT but I could definitely feel the restaurant moving.

We had blue sky earlier in the day though and a little peeking out. The sunset wasn’t the best I’ve ever seen but it was super cool to see the sky and a bit of the orange peeking out as the sun set.

It was fun! Sam was quiet but she had been quiet most of the weekend.

At 6, we then headed next door to our next restaurant – the Terrace and Outdoor Gardens at the Edition Hotel and it was super cool!

The setting was awesome. This was the “outdoors” but not? I dunno. Very cool. Food was good but not outstanding.

The desserts were outstanding! This was the chocolate souffle, it was adorable. I had a small bite.

This got the most attention though. They set s’mores on fire? SOOOO cool!

The best part was Tricia meeting us though – my Mom’s (and T’s!) friend Carolyn’s daughter who lives in NYC. She had been visiting her family in LA but had taken the red eye and came over to meet us for dinner. It was so fun, she’s such a fun ball of energy. Loved chatting with her.

The kids and J went back to their rooms and the 4 of us decided to go find a bar and continue chit-chatting. We tried to find something different but just went back to our Irish bar, haha.

They all remembered us there and JJ tried to set Tricia up with some of the Irish boys. Except they were at least 10 years younger than her, haha.

Ahh well.

That was our NYC adventure.

I did get gelato by myself after we walked back to the hotel though. It was in my head. I had to have it! Dark chocolate and mint, and I read my book while eating it. Heaven.

It really was magical to spend time with my Mom and also my Aunt. I was glad my Mom had my Aunt to pal around. Sometimes staying in hotels feels like I don’t get to spend enough time with everyone but we made it work.

I like to be sitting in a living room with people and seeing everyone in the quiet moments.

But I still got that time with my Mama, and my kids, in those different moments during the weekend.

As for my favorite show… argh.

I keep thinking about Maybe Happy Ending.

Just In Time was such a LAUGH. It was a little sadness but pure energy, heart, and delight. But, as my Mom also said, Maybe Happy Ending touched me.

Ragtime was awe-inspiring. The entire cast was huge, the story beautiful and heart-breaking, and gorgeous. Chess was all over the place but funny. We really went to see those big stars in all of these.

But if someone forced me, I think I would say Maybe Happy Ending was my favorite. By a little sliver.

What a joy to be able to go see all these shows.

Monday morning was nice. We grabbed breakfast downstairs with the four of us – JJ and T had to leave earlier. We grabbed an Uber and I snapped my final pic of Radio City as we passed by.

I listened to a full podcast on the way to the airport, started another one…

Finished my book in the first hour of the flight.

I’m finishing this blog on the plane and will either watch a show or start another book… definitely eat something shortly.

It was a beautiful start to 2026. Traveling makes me happy, it also makes me a little sad, I’m not sure why. But it makes me think. I’m so appreciative – and grateful – that I got to spend this time. What a gift.