Joan and Jess saw Matilda in London and brought back the soundtrack. Halle has been listening to it, and has been asking to see it ever since. We decided to take her to NYC over Spring Break as a last hurrah before David arrived. Eli stayed with Dustin and his family. Jared was also able to squeeze in a few business meetings, which helps us with the expenses. We invited my mom to come and I’m so excited she joined us. We flew out on April 7th and checked into our hotel, grabbed a bite to eat, and went to bed. Wednesday the 8th was a busy one.
Jared’s first meeting was in the Financial District, so we took the subway down with him and went to the 9/11 memorial site. As Jared headed to his meeting, the girls went to the 9/11 Tribute Center to explore, then my mom and I went on a guided tour. The tour with the Tribute Center is cool because your tour guide is a survivor, first responder, or family member of someone who died. Our guide was the sister of a man that died in one of the towers. She went through the day in depth, and gave us some cool facts. If I remember right, she said that typically there are 50,000 people in the twin towers each day. However, on 9/11 there were only about 17,000. This is because the previous night was a big football game, so many people chose to go into work late after the previous night. Also, it was an election day and in NYC employers are required to give employees an hour off at the beginning or end of the day to vote. Most people take the hour off in the morning. Third, it was the first day of primary school, so many parents were taking their children to school. A lot more lives would have been lost had it not been for all of those things happening.
After the Tribute Center my mom and I met up with Joan and Halle and went to a church at the end of Wall Street. There are SO many cool churches there!
New York Stock Exchange.
Then we got on the free Staten Island Ferry to see the Statue of Liberty.
Manhattan Skyline from the ferry.
We headed back to the room for a quick nap, knowing we’d be out late seeing Matilda. Can you tell how excited Halle was for the play?
After the plays there is a stage door that a lot of the actors come out of and will sign your playbill. Jess bought Halle a playbill that was already signed by all the actors, but Halle really enjoyed seeing them and trying to figure out which part they played. They look so different than in the play.
April 9 was a bit more relaxed. Joan and my mom went to the Rockettes who were doing a show with Derek Hough. I’m not a big Dancing with the Stars fan, so Halle and I let them go and we shopped and explored more churches.
This is the church where JFK was married.
Rockefeller Center
Halle was so excited to eat at Becco. It’s owned by Lidia & Joe Bastianich. Joe was a judge on Masterchef Junior, which Halle loves to watch.
Jared, my mom, and I went to Les Mis while Joan and Jess to Halle to Wicked. Jared saw Les Mis on Broadway a year or so ago and was so excited for me to see Ramin Karimloo play Jean val Jean. Unfortunately, we got the understudy. He was very good, but I really wanted to see Ramin. As an exciting side note, Alfie Boe is going to be Jean val Jean on Broadway starting in September. He played that part in London and on the 25th Anniversary special on PBS. He is AMAZING; we got to see him sing with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir for their Christmas concert a couple of years ago. Within hours of finding this out we booked a trip to NYC to see him. It’s our post baby get away. We SO better not get the understudy. 
We stood around and got autographs, and I got a picture with the understudy.
The next morning Jared had a business breakfast across the street from Grand Central.
After breakfast we took the subway back to the financial district to go to the 9/11 Memorial Museum. We also stopped by Alexander Hamilton’s grave.
9/11 Museum
We went back uptown to grab dinner before our last play. Our hotel was in Times Square and across the street from all of our plays. We ate at Carnegie Deli.
The final play of our trip was Finding Neverland. It’s a musical based on the movie with Johnny Depp. My mom said it was her favorite. It starred Kelsey Grammer and Matthew Morrison.
The crowds afterward were insane, and we were at the back of the crowd, just holding our cameras in the air hoping to get a picture of someone famous. Jared and I gave up and walked down to Les Mis to try to get Ramin’s autograph. But my mom hung around, and somehow managed to get Matthew Morrison’s autograph. I have no idea how she managed to shove her way forward.
Our final morning was spent at Central Park and surrounding sites.
We didn’t pay to go inside AMNH (where Night at the Museum was filmed), but we went inside the entrance so Halle could see what it looked like.
Then we walked down to the NYC Temple.
Columbus Circle.
Then it was time to get our bags from the hotel and head to the airport. Halle saw a limo driving toward us and said, “Wouldn’t it be so cool if that was for us?” She was pretty thrilled.
