NYC - Day 4 - Church & Carnegie Hall

Sunday was the big day - performance at Carnegie Hall!

It also turned out to be the New York City half marathon. We didn't realize the marathon was going to run right in front of the hotel. This ended up being a huge disappointment because we found out Conner Mantz - whose dad Rob was my classmate in Blanding and who is trained by our family friend, Iain Hunter - was in the race. We could have cheered him on! He ended up taking second and breaking his own American record. It would have been a great opportunity to cheer him on.

We caught an Uber to Church, which was harder than it sounds because of the marathon interfering with traffic. We had hoped to go to the building that is adjacent to the temple, but it is being remodeled. The building we met in was pretty cool and sacrament meeting was held in a gym on the 4th floor. We came to learn that it was a visitor's branch. There are only a handful of these in the church in areas that get a lot of visitors. They always have a testimony meeting. The regular ward met on the first floor. We would have preferred to attend there, but we didn't know that was the set up until after the meeting had started.

We took another Uber (or Lyft?) back to the hotel, but the race was still going.

We joined the rest of NYC in walking under the road by way of the subway tunnel.

For lunch, we splurged and got some pastries we had been spying for the previous couple of days.

Grammy approved!

So did Jalen.

After that, it was finally time for the reason we had come - the Carnegie Hall performance. That place is fancy!

Elevator

Café - so snazzy!

The venue is stunning.

We lucked out and ended up on the same side of the stage as Baylie. Our seats were up close, so we were lower than the stage. She was in the very back, but we still had a pretty good view.

You are not supposed to take photos or videos during the performance, but I snuck some as she was walking in and out.

Some of my friends - who will remain unnamed - snuck some during the performance...

Her group performed a very powerful piece called A Vision Unfolding by Kyle Pederson, who was the pianist for the performance. It was a piece on social justice with poetry readings by Shanelle Gabriel. 

It was so cool to see Baylie's name in the Playbill.

We ran into Ms. Gabriel at the elevator and I grabbed a quick picture. She was very kind.

We tried to catch Baylie for a photo inside or outside of Carnegie Hall, but it was pretty chaotic. So we took one without her.

She did get some pictures with the choir at Carnegie Hall and the hotel.

with Ava

At the hotel.

And finally we were able to get some pictures with her, and with her choir director, Frank Turner. He's such a good man - and a great educator.

He's been such a good role model that now Baylie wants to become a high school choral teacher.

We had to go back to Times Square for one more trip to Junior's Cheesecake.

Baylie spent her final night with the choir. I'm glad they're such a fun group for her to hang out with.

We hated for the trip to end, but we were ready to go home. (We don't usually spend five days in the same place when we travel.)