NYC: Let the Sun Shine!

I apologize for the barrage of blog posts today, but life has been CRazY and I'm trying to get caught up.  (My posts of the last few weeks are going to be horribly out of order.)

Did anyone catch the Tony's last night?  I did.  And in Kolby's words, we're bursting with happiness for Will today.

Last weekend Kolby and I left the girls with my parents, who were in Seattle after their Alaskan cruise, and we headed to NYC.

I'll skip the part about the altercation on a crowded plane with a 350lb. extra from Sopranos who thought his chair wouldn't recline properly because of us.  (It couldn't have possibly been, I dunno, his size?)

Forget Disney World.  NYC is the happiest place on Earth for me.  And we spent the weekend celebrating some of my favorite people, so what could be better?

We arrived early Saturday morning on the red-eye (NYC actually does sleep.  It was a ghost town at 6am), took a nap (bless you, W Hotel, for letting us check in early!), and then Kolby and I headed out for sushi before meeting up with the wedding party for Milo and Robin's wedding.  Kolby was best man, so he rode to the Brooklyn Bridge in the limo with the wedding party.  The rest of us hopped on the subway---my first time riding the subway to a wedding.  

The wedding was beautiful.  We walked out to the middle of the bridge, under the first arch.  Our friend Cameron married them.  Robin's daughter Lily was the maid of honor.  Plenty of tourists stopped to take photos.  It was sweet and beautiful and fun.

After that Kolby and I wandered around Canal St. (fake designer bags, woohoo!), and Soho.  This was the first time Kolby hasn't had to work when we've been in New York together, and we had SO MUCH FUN hanging out together.  I've said it before, I absolutely adore New York.  And I loved it even more when I there with Kolby.

The wedding dinner was at a fantastic Indian restaurant.  Lots of fun hanging out with friends and celebrating Milo and Robin (and Stephen Jack and Lily).  

Sunday morning I checked off one of the items on my "before I die" list.  I got up and ran through Central Park.  

(swiped this photo from here)

It's the first time I've ever taken the subway to go for a run.  Central Park is amazing.  There are many trails through the park, and it's fun to run past all the activities--baseball games, lacrosse,  remote controlled sailboats, rowboats on the lake, and so many families and bicyclists and runners and tourists.    Even a Salute to Israel Jewish parade.

I headed back to our hotel (Yikes!  Didn't think about how sweaty and stinky I'd be on the subway ride back).  And then Kolby and I went out wandering.  We had to pry ourselves out of this store in Grand Central Station.

Then we took the subway down to the village and walked up and down streets there.  We had lunch at a fabulous little sidewalk cafe.  

We did a little shopping, a lot of people watching, and just had a really fun day together.  Our friend Jeff met up with us while Sarah was watching one of her students in West Side Story.

And then we went to see our friend Will in the musical Hair.  This was the second reason we were in NYC this weekend.      Kolby and Will have been friends for almost 20 years when they performed in plays together in high school.    Will is such a fantastic guy, and we are soooo happy for his success.

Will arranged for us to have seats on the second row, on the aisle.  The actors interact with the audience a bit, so that meant Will positioned us so he could harrass Kolby.  I don't think Kolby or I ever stopped grinning through the whole show.  At the end, when they are singing "Let the Sun Shine!" they pulled us up on stage to dance and sing with the cast and other members of the audience.  What an incredible experience.  Just to look out at the audience and see the love and happiness, and realize that this is what Will experiences every night.  We were just so happy for him.  Such an incredible thing to realize your dream.  We both had tears streaming down our faces.

Waiting for Will on stage after the show.

And last night we watched him on TV and cried all over again:

Bump this one forward to the 3:22 mark. 

Will is the one in the loin cloth.  

After the show, we went out for a late dinner with Jeff, Sarah, and Cam.  

I'm not sure how many times I told Kolby that I could move to NYC.  And I meant it.