New York, Day Five

Today was really toasty. We headed out into the world shortly before noon (aw, shucks, Finnur missed the last few minutes of the last World Cup game!) and settled for sandwiches for lunch. Then we tried out a new playground in Central Park, where the kids had a great time playing in sand and water. Somewhat surprisingly (to us anyway) we ran into yet another Icelandic mom with a kid in tow (Ásta, wife of Kjartan). She told us that the Upper West Side is home to quite a few Icelandic families, and then we proceeded to name all the people we knew in common (which included a large percentage of the Icelanders living around Stanford). It’s a small small world.

Around 2pm, I dragged an apprehensive Anna to the subway, and we made our way to Times Square for a Broadway showing of Mary Poppins, while the boys went to the store, and took a much deserved nap. We’d gotten nice seats in the 4th row, some four seats from the edge of the auditorium. (After a lifetime of sitting up in the rafters as a student, I’ve pledged to try and get decent seats for the few productions that I’ll go and see from now on – and it helped that I found a nice discount coupon online. 🙂 )

The show was good fun, and left sentimental old me teary-eyed in parts. I was particularly floored by the starring kids which sung and danced and did no less well than their adult co-actors. Anna did quite well too, although she was covering her ears for a good part of the show, since she thought it was a bit loud. She seemed to take great comfort in the huge lolly-pop she’d picked out prior to the show, and emerged with a violet face after the show was over. Now I just have to remember to show her the movie sometime soon, we never got around to it before.

When we returned to the hotel, it was time for dinner. We walked to a nearby restaurant that ended up having rather blah food, but made up for it by having an open-mike live jazz night. The band was really quite good, and seemed to do well playing whatever sheet-music the various singers had for them (two songs per singer). The kids enjoyed the music too, and I felt very New-York-ish all of a sudden. It’s conceivable that there might have been an open-mike jazz night on Castro Street in Mountain View, California at some point, but walking there wasn’t really ever an option. Around these parts, there seem to be restaurants within walking distance everywhere. This is sorely needed in CA.

p.s. Til hamingju með afmælið mamma! 🙂