We took a weekend trip to NYC the weekend before Thanksgiving to see "Hamilton" on Broadway - a present Briana received for her 15th birthday. Briana LOVES "Hamilton" and she had been really, really, really wanting to see it. So why not see it in NY? Right?
We took a Delta flight from the Atlanta airport to the Newark airport...
Arrival in Newark...
We called an Uber to take us into the city at the perfect time - Friday evening at rush hour. Heh.
Luckily, our driver was super friendly. It took a LONG time to get to the hotel. He got us there in one piece and that is all we could ask for.
Views from the car (you will see the sky getting darker as we drove into the city)...
We approached the Lincoln Tunnel and it was a crawl...
Finally, we made it into the city...
We arrived at our favorite "go to" hotel in Times Square - the "W"...
I love the fountain at the entrance...
We checked into our hotel, and for some reason, they gave us a handicap accessible room (everything was lower to the ground) and it had a curtain that couldn't close (it was broken and they couldn't fix it at that time). So, they quickly moved us to a different suite.
Hello NYC...
Once we finally settled in, we ordered a pizza that was delivered to our hotel.
Because of Covid rules, vendors were not allowed to deliver inside the hotel
(and there's no room service either). Doug ran down and grabbed the
pizza at the lobby entrance when it arrived - no problem.
It was SOOOOO hot and delicious...
After eating, it was still kind of early. Doug and I really wanted to check out Times Square, but Bri was feeling tired after traveling. We left B in the room to chill, and Doug and I headed to out check out the square...
The month of November was good to our family, up until the very end of November (right after Thanksgiving), when Briana came down with a nasty cough. But, I will get into that a bit later.
I wasn't sure we would have a very colorful autumn, but in 2021, the leaves didn't disappoint in Georgia...
We were able to enjoy two important Marvel entertainment additions in November.
We waited to see "Shang Chi" until it came onto Disney+ because we still weren't comfortable with movie theaters. So, we invited our friends, the C family, to watch it with us one weekend...
We were super excited to start watching the "Hawkeye" series in November as well...
Hawkeye was never one of my Marvel favorite characters, but they did a great job with the series - and it really made me like him a lot!
Briana was doing great at school in November - volunteering, keeping up with her classes, etc. She did some more cooking/baking in culinary class. The class made a bunch of desserts one day...
(Briana has now started second semester of her 10th grade year which doesn't include culinary. I know she is missing it.)
Briana also invited a couple of friends over from school one day in November to watch a movie and hang out...
The very exciting thing we did in November was go to NYC to see "Hamilton" (the weekend before Thanksgiving) - the big present we got for Briana for her 15th birthday...
The trip was awesome, and I will blog all about NYC in my next few posts.
Finally, we celebrated Thanksgiving with my side of the family. We did not get together for the holiday in 2020 (just my parents came over), but we did this time. It was nice having our "traditional" Thanksgiving once again (the food was so delish)...
Briana breaking the wishbone with the cousins...
So, like I said - November had been really good for us. Until Bri got sick a few days after Thanksgiving. She coughed - a lot and very badly for about two weeks. She missed a couple days of school. And then I got very sick from her. My cough/chest cold turned into bronchitis and sinusitis. And I am still dealing with some bronchitis symptoms. I still have laryngitis as I type this. (She and I both had Covid testing - home antigen testing and PCR tests at urgent care - we both tested negative.)
If I could have taken a vaccine to stop/lighten what happened to me the month of December, I would have in a millisecond. Unfortunately, that wasn't an option and I'm still dealing with the after effects.
So, I will blog all about NYC next. I am very grateful we were there before the Omicron outbreak. That happened a couple of weeks after we visited. I guess timing is everything nowadays.
It's been 25 years today since Doug's brother Leo was involved in a fatal plane crash. I cannot let this day go by without commemorating his tragic loss.
October of 2021 was a great month. It really was. Our family was enjoying the Halloween season. Bri was back at school. Doug was traveling a little for work again. Life was feeling more "normal" - though our family never stopped being cautious. In the month of October, we visited two different art exhibits - the "The Art of Banksy: Without Limits" exhibit and the "Van Gogh Immersive Experience." Both required mask use, we were fully vaccinated and covid cases were a lot lighter then, so we were good with checking them out.
The Banksy exhibit was held at Underground Atlanta (which I had not visited in probably 20 years) and it was the perfect backdrop for the exhibit. Underground is really "dead" now and it's sad to see how no one visits it really anymore. There is very little there. When Doug was going to Georgia State in the mid 90's, it was a really cool place to visit, and he and I did often.
We visited on a quiet Sunday morning, and there were very few people there at the time. It allowed us plenty of time to view all the art.
Banksy is a pseudonymous England-based street artist and political activist. Quite controversial. But, that is what makes him super interesting. He speaks his mind.
The exhibit is not authorized by Banksy and a lot of what was displayed were reproductions of his work (there were a few originals), but it didn't deter us from appreciating his work any less. No one knows who Banksy is, so it's a bit difficult to ask for his permission.
His art was really something to see that day...
We really enjoyed ourselves that day.
Then about a week later, we visited the "Van Gogh Immersive Experience"...
When you first enter the exhibit, you are greeted by a wall of sunflowers.
You then enter the "informational" part of the exhibit...
Van Gogh really led such a tragic and sad life. And it is heartbreaking his work wasn't appreciated until after he passed away.
Then you enter a room for the "immersion" part of the experience. Van Gogh's art images are projected all over the room and set to music. Guests just sit and enjoy. It was really beautiful...
Here are some videos of the experience...
It was so incredibly peaceful watching it. I could have sat there for hours.
Finally, we tried out the Van Gogh virtual reality experience...
Guests put on virtual reality headsets and get a true 3D/360 degree experience.
Once you put the goggles on, you "wake up" in Van Gogh's bedroom. Then you take a 10 minute voyage - strolling along the streets, fields and scenery of Arles, France. Note - if you remove the goggles, the "voyage" starts over from the beginning, so try not to do that. Doug had that happen when trying to adjust his goggles a couple of times and eventually gave up trying to finish seeing it all. It happened to me once toward the beginning, so though my goggles weren't fitting perfectly, I kept them on the see the whole thing (having masks on made it a bit difficult for the goggles to fit just right). But, it was really neat.
Here is what it looked like (snagged images from the internet)...
It was a truly wonderful experience. (And Briana had a lot of fun buying items in the gift shop!)
I'm so glad we were able to go to both of these really cool exhibits when we got the chance. I know we will do more of them, we just need all the sickness to go away first.
(My quick PSA...please get vaccinated and get your kids vaccinated. These variants keep reproducing in different forms and spreading to this extent because there are still way too many unvaccinated people in this country/world. We need to get our lives back.)
Well,
I headed out of 2021 and into 2022 still struggling with a few
bronchitis symptoms. Recovery is unfortunately taking longer than I
would like, but I'm dealing. The last several years have kicked me
around a bit (they have kicked around a lot of us), so instead of saying
"Happy New Year," I am going to wish everyone a
"Hopeful New Year." I have no idea what 2022 will bring or look like,
but I truly hope that things/life/the world will improve, recover and
become more content, healthy and peaceful - for myself, for everyone.
Let's hope for the best.
I hope to start blogging again soon. I have so much to blog about from the last two months.
Hope you all have a good new year weekend. Be back soon.
