It's a Jolly Holiday with Meli (and Granda and Grandpa)

SO much.

Oh, so very much. That's what we've been up to this week.

My parents had the novel idea to take a vacation to celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary (no joke, this is the first time they've EVER gone on vacation together). They decided to visit their daughters and grandgirlies in New York and Boston. (Side note; my dad served his mission in New York and my mom served her mission in Boston. Dad also went to Boston University for the first of his many many degrees. This was a homecoming much overdue.)

So, because they are my parentals, and because I didn't want to deter them from vacationing while the concept is still so new to them, my sister and I decided to show them the best time we possibly could in our respective cities. This is what we did;

New York:

I showed the parents around my neighborhood so they could get a feel for our daily life in New York. We spent some time at the park across the street from our building. Here's Amelia showing "Bampa" her fav bench.



I also took them by our local grocery store so they could fully appreciate the obscenely high prices on just about everything. It's truly alarming. No photos here; I didn't think Mr. Gristedes would appreciated being exposed as an extortionist, and I still have to shop in his store for the next couple months.

We spent the afternoon visiting FAO Swartz and Central Park.







The next morning we headed out to see the Manhattan Temple. Not the most conspicuous of the Church's temples; one could pass by entirely and not notice it at all--in fact I did the first time I was in the area. When I announced we were there my dad couldn't see it at first. The temple is actually just a couple of floors in a church owned building. Understated. Yet when we walked inside it felt remarkably like all the other temples I've visited. Compact and a remarkably efficient use of space. It's the New York way. As my mother became fond of saying, "In New York, even the Lord lives in a penthouse."





Our next stop was the Staten Island Ferry. I knew we wouldn't have time to visit the Statue of Liberty, but the view from the ferry is pretty decent, as is the view of the New York City skyline. And Amelia loves riding the ferry. And it's free. So there were no down sides to this plan.

The trip to Staten Island was on the extremely packed and crowded side, but on the way back we found a secret deck and had the whole back of the boat almost entirely to ourselves. This provided optimal photo taking opportunities.







And that night we discovered Broadway. Dad and I stood in line for over an hour to get discount tickets. We saw this show:



And I loved it. So worth the three year line and the $80 a ticket that was the discount price. Likely to be a once in a lifetime experience at that.

And that was the New York part of the vacation. The next morning Pete, Amelia and I joined my parents on a bus trip to Boston. Boston adventures and photos (sooo many cousin photos) coming soon!