NYC - Day 2 - Metropolitan Museum of Art

On Friday morning, David and Grandad went for bagels. Oh my heavens! New York bagels are to die for! Other bagels just don't compare.

After breakfast, Baylie ditched us to hang out with the choir. We were glad she was having so much fun with her friends. They went to the New York Public library.

April, Baylie, Summer, Taylor

April's daughter, Alexa, is one of Baylie's best friends. She's not in the choir. She and her dad joined the New York group on Friday.

Meanwhile, the rest of us walked through Central Park to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

We saw black squirrels. The only other time we saw black squirrels was in Niagara Falls.

We tracked down the Alice in Wonderland sculpture. (Don't know this girl, but she wasn't interested in moving so she's in the picture.)

It was fun just spending time together. 

Grandad served his mission in NYC over 60 years ago. I've grown up hearing stories of his mission. He had mentioned to us that his old mission office was across from Central Park so we decided to hunt it down. He was so excited to find it again.

It's a beautiful building. I'm so glad we were able to find it.

It was kitty corner from the museum. In front of the museum was a gentleman selling piles of jewelry from Turkey. It felt like a treasure chest. Jalen bought a ring for Baylie for her birthday and Grammy bought some things. Sadly, she can't find hers.

 The museum of course was amazing. Here are some of our favorite things.

Theseus Fighting the Centaur, Antoine-Louis Barye, 1867, from Ovid's Metamorphoses.

Herakles the Archer, Antoine-Emile Bourdelle, 1909.

Les Bourgeois de Calais, Rodin, 1889 - depicts six prominent citizens of Calais who offered themselves as hostages to the English King Edward III in exchange for the lifting of the siege of their city. 

Sappho, Count Prosper d'Epinay, around 1895 - I was fascinated by her hand grasping the cloth.

Why Born Enslaved! by Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, 1873 - "This bust is perhaps the most well-known nineteenth-century sculpture of an enslaved Black figure." 

Ugolino and His Sons from Dante's Inferno - considered by some to be one of the most important works at the museum. It shows Ugolino and his sons dying of starvation. The realistic detail in the faces, hands, and the back of the father are really powerful.

Paris, from the workshop of Antonio Canova, 1822-23 - judging which of the three goddesses, Juno, Minerva, or Venus, was the most beautiful.

Perseus With the Head of Medusa by Antonio Canova, 1804.

Roman marble sarcophagus with the Triumph of Dionysus and the Seasons, dating back to 260–270 CE.

We were fascinated by the gallery of medieval armor.  

Armor of Henry VIII at the end of his life when he had gained a lot of weight.

Crossbows

The Egyptian gallery was fascinating. This laser light shows what the walls would have looked like in their day when they were painted.

You can see the detailed carving in the stone.

Look at all the detail!!

Fascinating

The mummy/sarcophagus section was incredible. 

A jackal

Grandad found his coffin.

Papyrus

Stone

So much history, it's overwhelming.

I thought it was amazing to see someone painting in the Met. How iconic!

We sought out Washington Crossing the Delaware. I had no idea how huge this painting is!

This angle gives an idea of how massive it is. Look at the people standing next to it.

Abraham Lincoln: The Man, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, 1911.

On to Liberty, Theodor Kaufmann, 1867

Grandad has long been a fan of Frederic Remington. He has a replica of this sculpture - The Broncho Buster - at home. It was originally cast in 1895.

Out front.

We went from the museum to Times Square to meet the choir for dinner. We didn't actually sit with them at these dinners, but at least we were in the same place.

We ate at Bubba Gump, from the movie/book Forrest Gump. This is the sign you show until you're ready to order. 

Once we were read to order, we flipped the sign.

I ordered Baja ceviche and it was delicious!

Dad got a stuffed crab sandwich.

David had shrimp fettuccini.

We did see Baylie and April for a few minutes.

Grammy found the perfect souvenir.

After dinner, we walked back to the hotel through Time Square.

Baylie spent more time there than we did.

She's usually so early to bed that I don't know how she managed to stay up so late every night. But she had a great time.

My plan was to keep our itinerary simple with just one main activity each day. But we still ended up spending all day walking and on our feet. We were exhausted!

NYC - Day 1 - Central Park & The Lion King

Last year Irmo High School choir announced that they would be going to New York City to sing at Carnegie Hall. We knew that we all wanted to go. So we started saving money. Baylie baked a million cookies and Jalen did yard work. We all pitched in and saved and saved. Grammy and Grandad decided to join us as well. We were all very excited.

Baylie was flying on American Airlines with the choir so we sent her up the night before the flight with April and some of the other girls. 

There are few people I would trust Baylie with, but April is at the top of that list.

David, Jalen and I got up at 3:30 in the morning to drive to Charlotte and catch a United flight. Grammy and Grandad took a redeye flight from Salt Lake.

We all ended up in Newark at close to the same time.

It ended up being a wonderful blessing because we were able to catch a ride on the choir's chartered bus to the hotel. That saved us a lot of stress and money. I had been worried about how to comfortably transport Grammy and Grandad and all the baggage. Plus I got to ride with April!

We stayed at the Park Central Hotel, which was conveniently located right across the street from Carnegie Hall and only a block from Central Park. It was the sight of the assassination of two mobsters and was home to the NFL draft in the early 80's.

It was close to several famous landmarks such as the Russian Tea Room,

the Plaza Hotel, 

New York Athletic Club, 

and a souvenir shop!

We dropped our bags at the hotel, picked up the electric scooter we had rented for mom, and headed for the park. Baylie decided to hang out with her choir friends.

Our first stop was to buy a pretzel. So delicious!

We strolled through the park. It's such a fascinating place. There were musicians, vendors, runners, and so many dogs! New Yorkers really love their dogs.

There were ice skaters.

And bridges over roads and ponds. And lots of ducks and geese.

It was pretty cold.

This skyscraper was under construction. Construction materials were brought in by helicopter.

This cool building is designed like a suitcase so of course it's Louis Vuitton.

This building was so pretty. I loved the rounded corners and detail in the architecture.

Lots of carriages with and without horses.

We had hoped to get rooms close together, but our room was with the group and Grammy and Grandad had an accessible room that was much higher up.

View from their 18th floor room.

Their room was huge!

View from our 7th floor room.

Definitely bigger than most rooms I've ever had in NYC.

The room was quite nice, but the bathroom artwork was a peculiar choice.

We met Baylie and the choir at the Stardust Diner for dinner. 

Jalen and David had massive burgers.

Grammy, Grandad and I had omelets.

It's a very popular restaurant because the waitstaff sings. Very cool! We were lucky and didn't have to wait at all. Later in the week the lines were long.

That night, the choir, David, and Jalen went to see The Lion King. I stayed at the hotel with Grammy and Grandad. It was Jalen's first time seeing a show on Broadway and he was impressed.

Of course he had to buy concessions.

The choir director, Mr. Turner, had a friend in the cast so he took pictures with the group after the show. Had the group not been so big, he would have given them a backstage tour.

Baylie joined the choir kids for some Times Square adventures after the show.

Love these two.

David went and got us some cheesecake from Juniors. So incredibly delicious!

It was only the first day and already we were having an amazing time.

All State Choir

Baylie was once again selected to participate with the South Carolina All State Choir. This time she scored the 4th highest score in the state for 2nd sopranos. She also achieved a perfect score in sight reading. Impressive!

All State was at Winthrop University. This year we didn't all go, just Baylie. She stayed on campus with her sweet friend Rachel Chorey who is a student there.

The rest of us went up on Saturday to hear her perform.

Rachel came to the performance with us.

We are grateful for sweet friends like Rachel that we can trust with Baylie safe and showing her a fun time.

And we're thankful that Mr. Turner has been such a wonderful teacher. Baylie even wants to pursue music education as a career!

We're glad this is something she enjoys so much.