Day 2: Page, Arizona
​After breakfast we drove three and half hours from Sedona to Page. On our way out of Sedona we stopped at the beautiful Chapel of the Holy Cross, a small Catholic chapel built into the rock face. Unfortunately it was closed and we didn't get to go inside but we did get to explore the outside and take in the awe-inspiring views. You can see a Frank Lloyd Wright inspiration in the design - although he didn't ultimately build it, he was involved in its initial planning in 1932. The chapel was finished over 30 years later in 1956. As an added bonus we met a man with an adorable Corgi (in case she hasn't mentioned it to you, Emerson LOVES Corgis!).

Our main objective in Page was exploring the Antelope Slot Canyon. The pictures below just provide a small sample of the fascinating forms in the canyon. The guy in traditional Navajo regalia is Joseph. He was our guide on the canyon tour - you are not allowed to go to the canyon without a Navajo guide. He is also a hoop dancer (we saw his routine before the tour and later found out he has auditioned for America's Got Talent).

Mission Antelope Slot Canyon accomplished, we found some other interesting hikes and overlooks. We ended the day with dinner and ice cream. Tomorrow we're off to the Grand Canyon. (Wish us luck - Emerson wasn't too keen on heights today.)

​

Day 1: Sedona

After landing in Phoenix, we piled into our sweet SUV and drove toward Sedona. The drive took us from congested freeway traffic and strip malls to the open road and red rock vistas. It was amazing to look out and see the beautifully colored rock formations in the distance.

Our first stop in Sedona was Slide Rock State Park. It is aptly named because the creek that runs through the park, formerly Pendley Homestead and apple orchard (1912), does indeed create rock slides - very slippery rock slides! We had a great time wading in the frigid creek water (56 degrees!) and sliding down the mini rapids. It was not easy keeping your footing - que slapstick banana peel type falls! Lenny's response when I asked if he was hurt after a particularly spectacular fall - "just my pride..." Slide Rock also featured a cool little cliff jump, too.

I once read an interesting editorial about how trying to take pictures or video to document important moments in life actuallyprevent you from completely experiencing those events - making you an observer instead of a participant. That article really stuck with me, only partly because it gave me a good excuse for why I always forget to take pictures of things. It is hard to stop enjoying the moment to make sure you take a picture to remember it. Perhaps the same sentiment applies to blogging. I have been so caught up in the moments, I haven't taken the time to document them all.

I have so enjoyed this holiday week, not only getting to spend time with my family, but also having some down time to reflect on what has happened during this eventful year. I know I truly have so much to be thankful for.

I live my life according to the school calendar, which has three seasons - summer, fall, and spring. If you've read my previous posts you know about our summer adventures to NYC, Maine, Hutchinson Island, and New Orleans. I am thankful for that exceptional summer after a pretty stressful spring.

I am also thankful to have a job that I love. This summer I transferred from the instructional side of Florida Virtual School to the curriculum team as a content writer. It has challenged me and given me the opportunity to research, explore,learn, and create. I get to work with a great team of people. I'm looking forward to the new projects we will be starting in the next month. 

This fall, Emerson also started attending a new school. It was a hard decision to make because she was very attached to her former school and we held our breath for quite awhile worrying about whether it was the right decision. I am thankful that it has gone well. She seems to enjoy school most days, has made new friends, and gets to experience new things everyday. It amazes me how quickly she adjusts to pretty much everything. She is very brave and I am very proud of her.

I am thankful for change. The stressful spring lead to an eventful summer and fall and a creation of a new charter school. It is hard to believe, but I can check -Start a school-off the to-do list. I am thankful to have embarked on this journey with Maile and Tammi. I am amazed by the momentum, excitement, and support that have built over the course of this project. I am looking forward to what the future holds.

I am thankful to live where "everybody knows your name." When we first visited Lakeland, I thought it was the most horrible place and I couldn't imagine why anyone would want to live there. Now, I can't imagine living anywhere else. It is nice to see people we know in the places we go. There are so many excellent things to be involved in here and each little community has welcomed us with open arms - St. John Neumann Catholic Church, Lakeland Community Theater, Rebekah's Sole in Motion Dance Studio, Haka Fitness...

I am thankful that Emerson has found a true joy and passion for dance and music and that she has people like Rebekah McLeod and Rachelle Moser who encourage her to pursue her interests.  I am also thankful that these are indoor activities!

I am thankful for the new crop of cousins coming up on the Gaspary side of the family - it is so fun and exciting. I can't wait to hold all those babies!

I am thankful that we have all that we need and lots that we want with some left over for a rainy day.

I am thankful for my family in more ways than I can write. I love each and every one of them so much. 

This is my favorite time of year. I'm predicting another blog drought because there is so much to enjoy and I don't want to miss a single bit of it. Hopefully I'll remember enough to write it down later. If we're lucky, I'll remember to take a picture of it. 

With a grateful heart and a belly full of turkey, I wish you and your family peace and love this holiday season and throughout the new year.

Last weekend, Lenny and I traveled to New Orleans so I could attend an in-person audition for Jeopardy.
There's not much to tell about Jeopardy, but since you asked...I took the online test in March and then received a random email at the end of June telling me I had earned a chance to audition in person. So, we cashed in all of Lenny's United miles and away we went. The audition was on Monday afternoon in a small Sheraton meeting room. My group had 16 hopefulls in it, mainly from Florida, Texas, and Louisianna. The Jeopardy casting people were lots of fun and helped everyone shake their nerves. We took a 50 question written test and then got to play mock games in groups of three. I think I did pretty well, but more importantly I had a good time (probably because they didn't keep score). It was a fun experience and if at some point in the next 18 months they call me to be a contestant in LA - you'll be the first to know.
This was Lenny's first trip to New Orleans and we picked an awesome day to get there. Saturday was the Red Dress Run - a fundraiser held by a local drinking/running club and there were hordes of people in red dresses throughout the French Quarter all day long - most of them were large-ish men with hairy chests and tight red dresses. Oh, and all of them were totally drunk. Awesome. That night was also Dirty Linen Night on Royal Street where lots of funky art galleries were open with music playing and cocktails flowing. It was a really cool scene - probably too cool for us - which is okay because we were on a haunted history tour instead.
Unfortunately the scariest thing about the tour was the amount of money we wasted on it - the streets were crowded and our guide was not that interesting - as with most tour guides we have - I think he made pretty much everything up. The best part of the tour was when we took a break at Turtle Bay bar and watched Olympics track and field. Another highlight of the evening was Leonard's first taste of a Cafe Du Monde beignet - Delicious!

On Sunday morning we went to Mother's for breakfast and had their famous ham and some very tasty biscuts without homemade raspberry preserves. Just the thing to foritfy our bodies for a walking tour of the French Quarter. We signed up for a tour with a non-profit historic society, but as is our luck - the guide did not show up. We dashed across the French Quarter to Bourbon Street to catch a tour with another company - praying that it would not be another Gaspary Tour disaster. We were in luck! No one else was there so we got an excellent personl tour of the French Quarter from a very knowledgeable guide name Leonce. We learned quite a bit about the French and Spanish history of the area. We ate lunch at the Acme Oyster House -which is sort of a waste on us because we didn't order any oysters, but the po boys were good. Then we picked up some souvenirs at the French Market and picked up a bus tour to the Garden District. I was raining, so inside a bus was a good place to be. We traveled through Treme, over to City Park, and then to the Garden District. Not so much historic information on this tour, but it was dry, air conditioned, and sitting down - so it was great! We saw Sandra Bullock's house, John Goodman's house, and Eli Manning's dad's house.
We had dinner Sunday night at Muriel's on Jackson Square. The restaurant was beautiful and the food was fantastic - I had the most delicious burnt bottom butterscotch pudding for dessert. But, the best part of the restaurant was the seance lounge and drinking cocktails on the balcony overlooking Jackson Square. The restaurant is said to be haunted by a man named Antoine who once owned the house but hung himself upstairs after losing the deed in a game of cards. We thank him for his hospitality.

On Monday morning we went to breakfast at Brennan's - a New Orleans (and a
Fleischman family) tradition. I did not know an extravagance like a three course
breakfast existed, but I'm glad it does! That was probably a once in a lifetime
meal and it was worth every calorie from the baked apple appetizer to the eggs
benedict to the chocolate cake and crepes for dessert. Amazing.

Other trip highlights include:
The World War II Museum. It is incredible how much I didn't know and still don't know about World War II - particularly the Pacific front. This first visit barely scratched the surface. The museum itself is beautiful. I remain in awe of the sheer scale of the war and the sacrifices made by the brave men and women involved. I am so thankful to not know what it is like to live in that world. 

We said, "That's weird" a lot on this trip, but the guy who won the "that's weird" award was the silver guy in Jackson Square. You've seen street performers who paint themselves silver or white and stand impressively still like statues and that takes talent. However, the talent of the silver guy in Jackson Square this weekend seemed to just be that he was silver. He walked around talking with all the other people with tables set up around the square, drank red bull, and at one point even recurited a second silver guy to sit around and talk with him - we saw him spray painting his jeans. He was always there, too - we should have taken a picture with him to document this weirdness, but he was too scary.

Yoga at the Cabildo. One of my goals is to do yoga around the world - or at least in as many cool places as possible. So far, the most interesting places have been the beach in Hawaii and the rainforest in Costa Rica. Now I can add inside the spanish government building turned state museum on Jackson Square in New Orleans. It was a great way to end our trip and Lenny was a good sport to come with me.

Princess Bride Slots. We stopped by the Harrah's casino for a bit one night and I was disappointed that they did not have a war table. However, I found an equally entertaining way to lose my money - the Princess Bride slot machines complete with Vizzini and Fezzik inspired bonus rounds.

"Wow! You are so grown up!" said Plantation Beach Club Unit 308 as the Fleischman family walked through its doors this summer. 
It is amazing how the friends and family you see only once in a while seem to change so much each time you see them. As time goes by it is hard to remember them any other way. 
Vacationing at Plantation Beach Club on Hutchinson Island is like traveling back from Narnia through the wardrobe - we have adventures throughout the year and then step back through those doors to find things at the beach much as they always were. We have walked though that wardrobe 27 times. Each year the apartment, the patio, the pool, and the ocean are there waiting for us as if no time has passed.

After a brief stop at home last night, we are on the road again - headed to Hutchinson Island, Florida for The Great Gaspary Vacation Part 2. We will spend the next week there not doing much of anything and it will be great!

The only trouble is we have to drive to get there! So we are back in the car again. So far we have racked up 3100 miles on this vacation. Luckily Hutchinson Island is only 135 miles from home. 

We have made it through two stretches of 24 hours on the road thanks to some excellent travel companions, Percy Jackson, Jason Grace, and the rest of the Heroes of Olympus. We listened to books one and two of the Rick Riordan series - The Lost Hero and The Son of Neptune.  The books are exciting, entertaining, and they expertly  weave Greek and Roman mythology into the adventures of modern day demi-gods. Emerson was turned on to Percy Jackson because her teacher read The Lightning Thief to the class. She liked it so much, she read it again herself and then quickly finished the second book Sea of Monsters. She is now reading the third book in the series The Titan's Curse. The Heroes of Olympus series picks up after the Percy Jackson and The Olympians series ends. We are all excited for the next book in The Heroes of Olympus series to come out this fall:  http://disney.go.com/official-sites/heroes-of-olympus/the-mark-of-athena

I remember hating car trips when I was Emerson's age. The only things there were to do were watch endless fields of sugarcane pass by and fight with my sister about who got use the arm rest. While we have spent a lot of time in the car on this trip, I can honestly say it has actually been fun - I was able to work and write these blog posts, Lenny and Emerson watched a movie, we listened to books, and got to laugh with each other through several rounds of the alphabet game. The only time Emerson asked if we were there yet was when we got pretty close to Florida on the last driving day. The car is small, but the company is great so the time actually went by pretty fast. 

One thing I will not miss about life on the road is fast food in the car. I've had my fill of chicken nuggets/strips/fingers and french fries and am looking forward to eating at tables on a regular basis. 

We arrived in Harpswell, Maine late Sunday and chatted with Nana and Granny Great before turning in for the night. In the morning we headed down to the beach after breakfast – the weather was a bit cool, but very comfortable. Lenny gave Emerson some rock skipping lessons and introduced us to the other rock games he played with his brother and cousins on their summer visits. The most fun was “knock the rocks off the rock” in which you throw smaller rocks at medium sized rocks placed on top of a really big rock until you knock them all off. I came close a few times, but Emerson and Lenny got them all. Things in Maine are pretty laid back, but the time seems to fly by anyhow. After we went in for lunch, Emerson and Lenny headed back to the beach and I went to the Vegetable Corner with Granny Great. There we bought lobsters for dinner, some very delicious Maine strawberries (it would be really nice if they shipped these to Florida), and some even more delicious homemade cookies. The only time I ever eat lobster is in Maine. That means it has been about three years since I last ate a lobster and only about four times I’ve eaten lobster. Looking around the table after dinner, my inexperience definitely showed. I had lobster juice all over myself and the table. It all seemed to land everywhere expect on the cute lobster print apron I got to wear.  I was very impressed with the neat way Granny Great polished off her lobster without missing a single bite or making a mess. It was worth the mess and the challenge because the lobster was very tasty. 

The next day Lenny, Emerson, and I headed down to Portland on another food related adventure. We are by no means foodies, but we do love to eat and watch people cook and eat food on TV. You have probably already gathered from previous posts that we are fans of Chopped on the Food Network. Two previous Chopped winners hail from a restaurant in Portland called DUCKFAT. We decided since we were in Maine we would check it out. It was definitely worth the drive. The restaurant is called DUCKFAT because they do have several duck dishes on the menu. More importantly they serve the most crunchily delicious Belgian French fries – fried in, you guessed it, duck fat. They also come with an assorted variety of gourmet mayo and truffle ketchup. To accompany our fries we ordered Panini sandwiches. For dessert we ordered milkshakes – Lenny chocolate and me the Original Milkshake. This milkshake was extra think make with vanilla bean gelato and a vanilla crème anglaise. It came with a side car that turned out to be a whole second milkshake and I finished it all. I cry a little when I think of how much fat and how many calories were in that meal – but it was probably a one-time visit so I’ll spread those numbers out over the next few years and it will be okay.  The rest of the day was spent relaxing at the cottage and playing hearts until bedtime. 

On Wednesday, our last day, we made a trip to Land’s End – which I did not realize and couldn’t accept was not the Land’s End where we order school uniforms, but a gift shop at the end of the island, the land’s end. They have cute Maine related souvenirs and locally crafted goods. Emerson got to pick out some birthday gifts from Nana. It was a fun place to visit. We left Land’s End and made another food related quest to Cole Farm in Gray. This is about 45 minutes away from Harpswell, but we have gone there on each of my previous visits to Maine, so it is sort of tradition. I thank everyone for indulging me and trekking over there for me. We spent the rest of the afternoon playing on the beach until Emerson slid off a rock and cut her leg on some barnacles. We also learned a new dice game called Farkle and had fun losing to Nana in one game and Granny Great in the other. We had dinner out on the deck and enjoyed the peaceful view. Before she went to bed, Emerson got us to play a crazy card game we bought for the trip called Quelf which made us do all kinds of crazy stunts and had Granny Great and Nana laughing. It was a great way to end our trip.

Getting ready to leave in the morning, Emerson hit her head on the corner of the bathroom counter and got a pretty good gash. However, she soldiered through the pain to visit the beach one last time for a few more rock throws. Now we are driving toward home, monitoring Emerson for signs of concussion. Thankfully, she seems okay. (Update: we actually had to stop at the emergency room in Massachusetts because her head started bleeding again, but she made it out without stitches or a staple and all is well). We had an excellent time in Maine. It went by too fast. Hopefully we can stay longer next year.

The Great Gaspary Vacation of 2012 continues next week with a stay at a very different kind of beach. We will be at our annual Fleischman family reunion/retreat on Hutchinson Island near Stuart, Florida. Stay tuned for updates from the road. 

We got an early start to attend mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. It was a beautiful church and it was neat to experience mass in such an historic setting. I was expecting a very long and formal mass, but St. Patrick’s doesn’t mess around – it was the most compact and efficient mass I’ve ever attended. There was almost no transition time between any portions of the mass. The priests back in Florida could take some lessons from them.

After mass we grabbed some breakfast at a café under Rockefeller Plaza and took the Subway to the Staten Island Ferry. The ferry ride was a great (and free) way to see Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. It was a nice way to end our time in NYC. After that it was back to the hotel for check-out and we were on the road to Maine. 

Yum…breakfast at a little café called Good Enough to Eat Saturday morning (http://www.goodenoughtoeat.com/). Lenny picked it because he didn’t want to walk for waffles again and it was an awesome choice. It is a local place that turned out to be very popular – we made it just before a huge line formed at the door.

From there we took the subway to the American Museum of Natural History where we saw the show at the Hayden Planetarium and learned about the origin of the sun and stars. We did the super fast forward tour of the museum swinging through the dinosaur fossils, a visit to Lucy in the Human Origins Hall, and the giant blue whale in the Ocean Life Hall. 

After the museum we made our way over to Radio City Music Hall for a tour. The theater has an awesome history and some impressive credentials – the stage is 10,000 square feet and it features the world’s largest indoor curtain. The theater is currently hosting Cirque de Soleil’s Zarkana so we got to see a sound check for that show along the way. We also got to meet a Rockette and see her sparkly costume – I was excited to learn that I still have a chance to become a Rockette –I meet the height requirement (between 5’6” and 5’10”) and there is no age limit so the dream is alive. Another cool part of the theater was the lounges –each level of the theater has uniquely designed men’s and ladies’ lounges featuring the original art deco furnishings and décor. Emerson and I lounged in the ladies’ powder room on the third level. 

Because our hotdog lunch on Friday was so delicious (and affordable) we ate them again, but we added a tasty soft serve cone from an ice cream truck for dessert. We made a quick stop at Rockefeller Plaza and then I dragged Lenny and Emerson on another quest. We went on a “short walk” to Mood Fabrics (http://www.moodfabrics.com/), the fabric store where the designers shop on Project Runway – it was really a long walk and Emerson was particularly annoyed because we were only in there for about 5 minutes once we got there. It looked just the way it does on TV and I thought it was cool to see. As a side note, Project Runway was filming in Times Square while we were there, so it will be neat to see that on the show. 

Then, we rode the subway to the 9/11 Memorial – advanced passes in hand. The memorial is located in the center of the ongoing construction of all the buildings at the World Trade Center. Because of this construction, the walk to get to the memorial itself is about a 2 mile spiral through traffic and construction. This was a very frustrating trek and Lenny was about ready to throw some punches by the time we finally got there. Like the Empire State Building, the journey to get there was stressful, but worth it. The Memorial was a beautiful and poignant tribute to the lives that were lost on 9/11. We got to experience the Memorial for about 10 minutes before Emerson announced that she needed to go to the bathroom. Of course there are no public restrooms anywhere near the Memorial, so we trekked back through the construction and traffic spiral to the first place with a bathroom – Burger King. The problem is, every single person who had visited the memorial and needed to use the bathroom also stopped by the Burger King so we waited about 30 minutes to use the one stall in the restaurant. To become paying customers we had a French fry snack afterward.

After such a walking intensive day, it was nice to get on the tour bus again. We finished up the downtown loop of the tour with a guide named Mel. Picture Donald Sutherland. Mel was very subdued but told us some interesting facts about Chinatown and Little Italy. 

We made it back to Times Square on the tour bus in time to ride the night tour one more time. We took a quick dinner break at Famiglia pizzeria and picked up some dessert and hot chocolate at a deli nearby. Since we had such an interesting time with Lee on our first night tour, we figured we might have a better experience with another guide so we tried it again. At least we would get to see the city lights one last time.  I don’t know the name of our guide. Picture an older Kel Mitchell (of Nickelodeon’s Keenan and Kel) mixed with a little Tracy Jordan (Look, it’s the Statue of Liberty, Liz Lemon). He was definitely more coherent than Lee, so that was a good start. However, I think I might have been able to give the same level of information about the city. As we drove down the road he shouted out the names of different stores and buildings. I’m pretty sure he made a bunch of stuff up, too. He had an ongoing joke about how all the buildings in the city were being renovated to create more “high priced residential living” and told it every time we passed by a building under construction or recently completed building –which is about 75% of the buildings. So, we heard this joke a lot!  Thank you for such a varied tour experience, Grayline.

Lenny carried sleeping Emerson back to the hotel again on our last night in the Big Apple. 

We were up early and on a quest for waffles. Lenny and Emerson indulged my desire to hunt down the Wafels and Dinges (http://www.wafelsanddinges.com/ )food truck recommended by Joe Jonas in People magazine. The internet sort of told us where to find them and we walked really far to get there. Once we made it, we found the cart not quite open for business. The guys there asked us why where came all the way there when there was a stand open in Columbus Circle – which we walked by about 10 minutes earlier. So, we jumped in a cab and made it to Columbus Circle for delicious waffles – Joe Jonas doesn’t lie. Emerson had a waffle with strawberries, Lenny a waffle with chocolate, and I had the WMD – waffles of mass deliciousness – with strawberries, whipped cream, chocolate, and maple syrup. I think they were worth the trek (with zero net calories after all that walking) and I love Lenny and Emerson for humoring me! 

After waffles we made our way back to the double decker bus tour and continued our journey around the city – stopping off at the Empire State Building. Bound and determined to not go to the top of the building, Emerson was in a foul mood. However, when she heard there was a ride involved she perked up a bit. We were given the option of buying a tour package that featured an awesome IMAX journey around NYC – being Soarin’ fans we thought this sounded awesome so we signed up. We may have gotten an excellent deal that featured the advertised SkyRide and allowed us to skip the huge line to ride up to the top of the Empire State Building, or we may have overpaid to stand in an extra line and ride a crappy motion simulator before standing in a huge line to get to the top of the Empire State Building. I’m inclined to believe it was the latter. After the nauseating motion simulator ride narrated by Kevin Bacon back in the late 90s (Emerson liked it though, so it was okay) and an enormous line, we finally made it to the 86th floor observation deck. The views of the city were amazing and Emerson forgot she was ever scared to go up there. It was worth the wait in line and (almost) the price of admission. The most disconcerting part of the whole experience was that the Empire State Building employee uniforms look strikingly similar to those worn by cast members at Disney’s Tower of Terror.

Having survived our journey to (almost ) the top of the Empire State Building, we grabbed a quick hot dog lunch on the street.  It is amazing how delicious a hot dog bought from a guy on the side of the road can taste, especially when you are starving. We jumped back on the bus tour where we met another interesting tour guide – Steve or Stevie as he referred to himself in the third person. Picture a more jolly Lewis Black. He was very knowledgeable and delighted in informing us that he had graduated from Columbia University.  He was quite impressive compared to our first guide Lee –who we ran into on an adjacent tour bus. Stevie and Lee traded barbs across the bus tops for a block or two. Stevie told us about the architecture of the Flat Iron District and his favorite architect Cass Gilbert. He also took great pleasure in berating Steve Madden and exposing the time he spent in jail for insider trading as we drove past the Steve Madden store. Stevie was a great guide, but we said good bye and hopped off the bus to try to visit the 9/11 Memorial. Since we are such excellent planners, we knew that we needed to reserve tickets ahead of time and arrived prepared. Actually (had you shocked for a minute there), we had no passes and we were flatly denied admission to the memorial and Lenny was very annoyed. We decided to try again tomorrow (we did reserve tickets for the next day when we got back to our hotel) and instead headed in quite the opposite direction to FAO Schwartz. 

Emerson had been looking forward to FAO Schwartz ever since Papi and Aunt Sam told her about it. I was afraid she might be a little let down once we finally got there, but I was wrong. She really loved it. She danced on The Big Piano. They had a cool section with rocks and minerals and another section with skulls and creepy science stuff. Emerson was mesmerized by the magic demonstration and decided her souvenir should be a magic kit (she’s still trying to learn it, so play along when she offers to do a trick for you). 

After FAO Schwartz we made a mad dash back to the hotel to get ready for dinner and show. We were running a little late so we thought it might be a good idea to take a taxi to the restaurant. We were very wrong. Traffic was terrible and the cab ride was scary and sickening all at the same time. Eventually we made it to the restaurant, thank goodness! We ate at Scarpetta, the restaurant owned by Scott Conant (http://www.scottconant.com/restaurants/scarpetta/new-york). You may know him as a judge on Food Network’s Chopped. He is always commenting about how people don’t know how to cook pasta and I once saw him preparing spaghetti on TV – it did look delicious, but I wondered what all the fuss was about. I can honestly tell you the spaghetti at Scarpetta lived up to the hype. We also had a yummy assortment of breads with a citrus scented olive oil, sundried tomato and eggplant tapenade, and a soft mozzarella cheese. We ordered a brazed short rib appetizer that Emerson liked, so that is saying something! Emerson also cleaned her spaghetti bowl. Lenny ordered taleggio mezzalunai and I had the dry aged sirloin with veggies. The dessert menu was really unusual (check it out http://www.scottconant.com/restaurants/scarpetta/new-york/menu/dessert) – Lenny had a chocolate cake with salted caramel gelato and I ordered a rhubarb tart with Chianti sorbet. Emerson did not like either of these! 

Show time! We traveled via Subway to the Nederlander theater to see Newsies (http://newsiesthemusical.com/about). For anyone not familiar with the Disney movie of the same name, it is the story of Jack Kelly who leads a newsboys strike against Joseph Pulitzer after his paper, The World, raises the prices of the papers they sell in 1899 New York. The show was awesome. They made some improvements to condense the movie plot for the stage. The singing and acting were excellent, but the best part was the dancing. It certainly deserved the Tony for best choreography. The show was exciting and super fun. For So You Think You Can Dance fans – Alex Wong, Evan Kasprzak, and Thayne Jasperson were part of the cast. The audience, including us, clapped and hollered and had a blast.

After the show we headed back to the hotel and snuggled into our slabs for the night.