Coast 2 Coast Mom

Spectacular Macy's July 4th Aboard the Norwegian Epic Cruise Ship

WOW.

It's July 6th and we're still coming down from the high of our super swanky Fourth of July night. We were so excited about the event that we cut short our vacation in Michigan to awake at 3:30 a.m. on July 4th and drive back to NYC to make the party. Oh, and we splurged on a new DSLR camera so we could take better photos of the fireworks (so excuse the abundance of photos here, we had to practice!). You see, Macy's, Inc. invited us to celebrate the Fourth of July right on the Hudson River aboard the brand spanking new Epic cruise ship, the newest and largest ship to set sail from Norwegian Cruise Lines. DOUBLE WOW!

Needless to say, it was a night to remember. The combination of the freedom of a night away from the kiddo, the crystal clear summer sky, the balmy yet breezy air, our front row seats for the fireworks and the eighteen stories of luxurious merriment for us to explore left us feeling like we were kids let loose in a high-end resort.

Waking up in Cleveland

The snow and wintry weather made our drive back to New Jersey difficult, so we stopped in Cleveland to stay for the night. Thank goodness for my Hyatt Gold Passport points so we had a free stay. We stayed at the Hyatt Regency Cleveland at The Arcade right smack downtown, and had a very nice stay. It was snowing on our drive in past Progressive Field and Quicken Loans Arena, though the holiday lights in Cleveland's Public Square was still cool to see (we'd never seen that many red or blue lights at once before!). It was our first time in Cleveland, and it was fun learning bits and pieces about it during our brief stay. (Seriously - the first things that came to mind before when I thought of Cleveland were: 1-LeBron James, 2- Grover Cleveland and 3- the movie Howard the Duck.)

For example, the first indoor shopping mall in the U.S. was opened in Cleveland in 1890. That's what it looks like today up above. The Hyatt is attached to the mall, and the mall looked beautiful as we came in from the snow. We learned about the 57 floors of the Key Tower on Public Square which was beautifully illuminated in holiday colors, and was the tallest point between New York and Chicago when it was built in 1991, until the Comcast Center went up in 2007 in Philadelphia.

Before we took off in the morning, we walked down the restaurant row on 4th Street to Erie Island Coffee Co and were glad we ventured out before climbing back into the car home. We all split the French Toast Crush and the Applewood Bacon Crush - a crush being a mix between a bagel sandwich and a panini. c2cDad LOVED their Ivory Mocha, Li'l Boo enjoyed his whipped cream and kids hot chocolate and I had a very nice Chai. Because everything was so tasty, we took a strawberry smoothie to go (trying build up our Vitamin C reserves).

East 4th street looks like a fun summer hot spot, and a place we plan to explore when we return to Cleveland. Oh, we'll return alright - to check out the Great Lakes Science Center, Cleveland Metroparks Zoo (with the largest primate collection) and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and maybe see Progressive Field up close and continue Li'l Boo's tour of baseball fields this summer.

No Idle Hands, a Chris Pine Movie Marathon and What We Did For Thanksgiving . . .

I've been lax on blogging and Twitter over the Thanksgiving holiday, but our family needed the time together. One of the negatives to being busy and having cool opportunities and experiences is that it comes with a price. We knew before moving to the NYC area that we would not likely see my husband during the week and that he'd become a weekend dad by nature of his job, the industry and the commute to/from NYC itself. (It takes 30-60 minutes for him to get to/from work each day, depending on traffic, bus and train schedules - typical for suburban life.) We just don't spend time together at all, as even over the regular two-day weekend I have a honey-do list that takes usually one of the days, plus I want some time sans kiddo to just think, and for my hubby to spend time with Li'l Boo 1:1, so that doesn't leave much time for my husband and I to chat about important decisions or plans or goals. We have most of those discussion via text during the week. I hate it, but it is what it is. So although we travel a lot, the times we travel are literally the most time my husband and I are together, and by then we're stressed and tired. So,  we chose to spend this four-day Thanksgiving weekend home with just the three of us - and even with all of the amazing things we've done this year, this was the best time all year for us as a family. No crabbiness, no arguments, no guilt, no stress - we haven't had a truly relaxing and completely enjoyable time as a family since I can remember. I miss our family afar, but know that just because we have the time off from work doesn't mean that we have to take off to visit. Our families can just as well come to us. So paradigm shift in our planning, and my New Year's Resolution for next year: spend more time HOME together as a family.

So . . . what've I been doing? I kicked off the holiday by taking Li'l Boo to see Peter and the Wolf at the New Victory Theatre on 42nd St. We LOVED it!! I wanted to expose Danny to the story and music, and to more live theater in anticipation of taking him to see The Lion King next year. (I wanted to make sure he would remain attentive, interested and quiet for the show - and he did! :-) ) We then met C2CDad for dinner at one of Li'l Boo';s favorite places in midtown - Ted's Montana Grill. Li'l Boo gets such a kick out of the buffalo head on the wall and always refers to this place as the buffalo place. Then we toured the midtown department store holiday windows and lights (like Rockefeller Center, Barney's, Bergdorf Goodman, Saks', Lord 'n Taylor and Macy's; see my piece and recommendations from our tour on NYmetropolista.com) 

We skipped attending the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade in-person this year, and watched instead from home as we ate brunch and I knit. I'm knitting up a storm in advance of the holidays, and if I'm not on my laptop, then I'm cooking/baking, or knitting. My hands are never idle and I fear I'll develop early arthritis as my hands can't catch an idle break these days. We cooked our first whole turkey ever, (yeah, we've always traveled to distant family for Thanksgiving or ate out) and it turned out perfectly thanks to Ray from Fairway's advice! Then, because we live in Bergen County and the laws prohibit stores and malls from opening prior to 7 a.m., we went shopping on Black Friday as a family - heading to Bed Bath and Beyond to purchase my Tassimo Titanium, stopping in Best Buy for the new Carrie Underwood cd, and a portable hard drive - where Li'l Boo exhibited an uncanny ability to play the drums with the Beatles Rock Band display. (Must be all that time he spends playing Tap Tap Revenge on my iPhone.) Then we made our way to the mall and bought some holiday clothing gifts. C2CDad made out like a bandit clothing-wise. We spent the rest of Friday at home and made Hershey kiss cookies as a family and I went through my stash of to-file recipes, freeing up a whole new shelf on our bookshelf. Ahhh . . . Oh, and we took in a Chris Pine marathon movie weekend, watching Star Trek and Bottle Shock both over the weekend via Netflix. (Hmm . .. wonder how that happened?! ;-) )

Saturday we relaxed, organized some more, finished painting the stairway and hallway (phew!), and went out for Thai food so Li'l Boo could get "chicken on a stick" (chicken satay). On Sunday we finished up a lot of our work, stocked up at Costco and ate out at The Cheesecake Factory (since we were taking a vacation from our normal life, it wouldn't be complete without a trip to a vacation restaurant ;-) ) Then we put up the tree, decorated it and pulled out our Christmas and Hanukkah books, cd's and toys. For us, it was a perfect Thanksgiving weekend. . . now back to blogging and knitting. Well, who am I kidding? It's Cyber Monday - I'm shopping!

Radio City Christmas Spectacular Through the Eyes of A Four-Year-Old Boy

Last night I took Li'l Boo to see the Radio City Christmas Spectacular starring the Rockettes for the first time and it was just as magical and exciting as I expected it to be. From the second we saw the white pre-show lights in the sky along 6th Ave beckoning us to Radio City Music Hall, Li'l Boo practically ran to the will-call line to get our tickets. The Christmas decorations and lights outside the hall are so festive and add to the excited energy of the crowd before you even enter the doors. People in the crowd were dressed anywhere along the spectrum of casual jeans all the way to suits and formal dresses.

We located our seats - in row double P, and Li'l Boo thought it was funny that we were walking down the aisle looking for PP. ;-) I can hear the questions now, "Uhm, c2cmom, you took a four year old BOY to see the live show?!" Ahh . . .yes. And he loved it!

The orchestra band started to play in their festive red box at the rear of the stage, sliding forward to the front of the stage and then down to the orchestra pit - and my son was glued to the edge of his seat, craning around the adult sitting in front of him to not miss a thing. He was enthralled looking up and around at the use of lighting along the ceiling and walls to imitate snow or expand the show from the stage, and LOVED whenever Santa or the performers appeared alongside or among the audience. Li'l Boo enjoyed the 3D video flight around NYC, whisper-shouting "The Rockefeller Tree! And the Ice Rink! We just saw that. Time Square! Mom - we've been there!" etc. Li'l Boo was mesmerized by the tapping, dancing and kicks to Twelve Days of Christmas, and when they toured NYC on the double-decker bus.

When I asked him his favorite parts of the show this morning, he said "when the toy soldiers all fell (insert your own Li'l Boo enactment here) and the guy in back by the pillow was standing with his arms out to hold them all up and fell down too" "My second favorite part was the bear dance and the polar bears threw snow balls at Santa." "And the sheep and camel on stage, and the camels chewing their food." "And when the second kid was flying with Santa." I asked him if he liked seeing the pretty girls and his response was to use his litle hands and show me that "they weren't THIS beautiful (six inches apart), they were THIS beautiful (two feet apart)" So I guess on the little boy spectrum, that's about as gorgeous as you can get. ;-)

When I realized nearly an hour into the show that there would be no intermission, I started asking Li'l Boo if he had to go to the bathroom or wanted some cotton candy (I grew anxious that if we walked out in the crowded rush to exit the building and he glimpsed any of it, he'd throw a temper tantrum since it was past his bedtime, and I did NOT want to deal with that). However, Li'l Boo was enjoying the show so much that he did not want to head back to the lobby, for fear he'd miss something! So there you have it, even a little boy can enjoy the Radio City Christmas Spectacular show.

As for take-home reminders from the show, there are programs for sale ($20, and include a Christmas music cd by the Rockettes); spinning Rockette toys and light sticks are for sale too. Of course, what kid can pass up cotton candy (comes with a Santa hat too! Li'l Boo said he would wear the hat and be Santa for Halloween next year. Hee-hee.), or popcorn in a large Rockettes cup/tub. . . I'm looking at the popcorn tub as I sneak bites of day-old popcorn while I write this.

One last note, I mention a lot of places and people we are impressed with, or enjoy meeting on our adventures, and well, one of them blew me away recently. I mentioned how Li'l Boo and I enjoyed meeting one of the Rockettes, Alyssa Epstein, when I shared our experience at Radio City back in August, and she dropped me the nicest email recently. Seriously! Could she BE any more thoughful? Is being beautiful not enough? ;-) A real class act. I can only imagine how Li'l Boo will feel once he's older and realizes what a cool opportunity he had to hang with such lovely ladies and see the show . . .

For your own behind-the-scenes tour of the show, check out some of the vignettes on the Radio City Christmas site: http://radiocitychristmas.com/newyork/videos.html

Get your own tickets: MSG Entertainment is running a promotion if you purchase your tickets by this Sunday, November 22nd.

 
Full disclosure: I was provided tickets to the show by MSG Entertainment when I took Li'l Boo to help kick-off Christmas in August a couple of months ago.

Big Apple Circus Is An "Annual Must-Do" for Family Fun in NYC

Li'l Boo had the opportunity to experience his first circus at none other than the Big Apple Circus last weekend! He was so excited that we had to sing the song from the Big Apple Circus commercial over and over on the ride into the city. 

"Seats are never more than 50 feet from the ring, So even if you're really small you won't miss a thing . . . Big Apple Circus is YOUR circus, Big Apple is back in town!" (Then Li'l Boo would shout "Again!") 

Once we arrived, it was hard to miss the huge yellow tent and walkway next to Lincoln Center. . . and we were greeted by a photo crew taking commemorative photos of our experience. There was a stroller corral just inside the tent, and concessions (hot dogs, bottled waters, sodas, popcorn, cotton candy), so we grabbed some snacks and headed into the tent where we were escorted to our seats just like at the theater. True to their word, you get a great view and are not more than 50 feet from the ring.

c2cDad and I were surprised how much WE enjoyed the circus performance  - perhaps just as much as Li'l Boo! Bello entertained us with his antics and ability to play off the crowd no matter what happened, and Grandma the Clown came up into the crowd near us for photos during the intermission. The performances were based on family humor, tricks and acrobatics. Some of our favorite acts were the "Wheel of Wonder," the man standing riding horseback on TWO horses at the same time, the juggler (he juggles ping pong balls several feet in the air using his tongue!), the contortionists, the ariel silks, the trapeze . . . uhm, everything pretty much was entertaining! The part I was MOST impressed with was that the music is LIVE. As in, the Big Apple Circus has their own band playing music for the acts. It added such a nice touch to the performances, and the band was flexible enough to follow Bello's cues and act no matter what he did impromptu with the crowd.

We were invited to attend the Big Apple Circus with other local bloggers to experience it for ourselves, and I have to say that for our family, it was a hit! We found ourselves smiling and there was certianly no containing my son's excitement and wonder during the "Bello is Back" show. We happily plan to attend again next year, and make it an annual family tradition.

When scanning the program, it made me feel good to learn about some of the community outreach programs the Big Apple Circus organization participates in: Circus After School (to give at-risk children the opp to develop life skills after school); Vaudeville Caravan (performs at nursing homes and long-term care facilities ); Circus of the Senses (performances for vision or hearing-impaired children with sign-language interpreters and play-by-play audio descriptions of the action as well as braille and large-print programs); and Circus For All (discounted or free tickets for economically disadvantaged or physically challenged children).

Go visit the Big Apple Circus yourself while it's in NYC, now through January 18th, save up to $30 per performance with this code:

• Online: http://bigapplecircus.org/mommy.aspx and submit the code MOMMY10 in the Promotional Codes box
• By Phone: CALL 888-541-3750 and mention code MOMMY10
• In Person:  Big Top Box Office  from 10AM–6PM daily. No service fee. Bring a copy of this blog.

My Night at SNL Rehearsal with Taylor Swift

Last night Coast2Coast Dad and I were fortunate to experience one of the coolest events in all of NYC: we attended an SNL dress rehearsal. As if we couldn't top that, the icing on the cake was that Taylor Swift was the host and musical guest!! (Big fans!) I struggled to contain my excitement about attending for weeks for fear I would jinx it, and was actually giddy from the minute I woke up Saturday in anticipation.

When we arrived at 30 Rock and confirmed our names were on the list, we were given orange "golden tickets," and as I had an inkling that cell phones, cameras, etc. would be forbidden during the rehearsal, I snapped some photos of us waiting in line and of the ticket itself just in case they took the ticket once inside. (Sure enough, they did. . .) 

Here's some things I was impressed by, or surprised to learn attending the rehearsal:

• Lenny Pickett and the SNL band are AMAZING! Some guest hosts thank the band or comment on them being amazing, and I agree that they were in fact phenomenal. The band actually plays a larger role than appears from watching the show at home. They jam and keep the energy high for hours on end - from before the rehearsal begins as the audience moves in, all through the live taping. We could have had a wonderful evening just seeing and hearing the band play.
• To get things started, Don Pardo welcomed everyone - we actually got to see him, not just hear his voice! He introduced the dashing Jason Sudeikis, who was funny and explained what would happen during the rehearsal.
• Abby Elliott and Jenny Slate can sing! They kicked the rehearsal off with an energetic B-52's "Roam."
• The cast and crew must be exhausted after Saturday. Dress rehearsal wasn't just a walk-through, it was a full-out practice for the live taping - with full make-up, hair, music, cameras, etc. with no stops or do-overs. It is a true testament to the caliber of people involved with the show that they can  power through such long hours and still have energy for the live taping.
• Taylor Swift just keeps getting better - didn't think it was possible to like her more than we already did! (Did I mention my hubby's met her twice before and she spoke with Li'l Boo on the phone a year and a half ago? We have photos around here somewhere. Each time she's been incredibly thoughtful, friendly and such a savvy marketer with her fan base.) Taylor went through numerous costume/dress changes - literally running on and off stage all night in heels, while performing her songs and looking fresh, beautiful and happy the entire time. We were impressed - what a pro! (I think things went more smoothly during rehearsal than the live taping from what I saw on Tivo.)
• We laughed - a lot! I think things can get lost in the translation of broadcast because there are times that we watch sketches at home on TV where we don't laugh, or think the sketch is dumb and fast-forward through it. But sitting in the audience, and being there live, we laughed a TON. As an audience member, you can easily see how talented - and funny - the cast and writers really are. Everyone should be so lucky as to take in a rehearsal or live show.
• We gained a greater appreciation for the SNL show members as we saw all of the sketches in the dress rehearsal, then went home to see what sketches and lines made it in the show. It is interesting to see what they've changed in such a short amount of time post rehersal, and how flexible and professional everyone must be to make it happen for the live show. (For instance, an Obama sketch opened the rehearsal show, but was cut from the live show, and the Fox News "bad day for Obama" sketch was moved up to open the show instead. Maybe we'll see that Obama sketch retweaked in a week or two. . .)
• Lastly, my hubby had been to Studio 8H a couple of times before, but it was the first time for me, and it's always different seeing something someone else has described to you, with your own eyes. The creativity and intracacies involved with the multiple set and backdrop changes are impressive.

Even this afternoon, I'm still coming down from my high of getting to see one of my fave shows live - oooh yeah, and how about Amy Poehler dropping in to join the Weekend Update Desk with Seth Meyers? Love them both. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for me, and I hope that I get the opportunity to take a tour or see another taping again sometime. We had a blast!

 

Take Me Out To The Ball Game thisMoment

Like to take photos of your family, events, daily life, travels, or pets and post them to share with family and friends? Then have I got a new site for you to check out! I was on a call Friday with Vince Broady, founder of thisMoment, to learn more about the recently launched company. In their own words, thisMoment is “an inventive new place for people to save and share their life’s moments.” In my words, it’s a pretty cool site for packaging all of the photos, video, links, etc. that tell the story of your life. For free. thisMoment incorporates your own photos and videos with elements from FaceBook, flickr, Photobucket, or YouTube, and presents them with an interactive timeline, for you to post on FaceBook, Twitter, Kirtsy, your blog or on the thisMoment website. It’s like an “umbrella” sharing site.

Let me just say before I go any further that I have not been compensated by thisMoment for sitting on the call or exploring their free offering, and I do not have a family member or friend who works for the company.

I was so impressed listening to Vince describe what you can do with their offering, and thought that it seemed like such an easy way to gain some organization across all of the sites I use, that I started creating my own “life moment” that night. Li’l Boo’s first baseball game. It was easy to use because you can access it via email, iPhone, Facebook or thisMoment. I’ve already experimented with using the website, and with using the iPhone app. The only downside I experienced was that the website gave me an error message when loading some of the photos (but the uploading worked fine when I reloaded them a second time), and the iPhone app used a good amount of battery power during the Yankees vs Tigers game we attended today – but that was expected. (I gave my iPhone a good workout at the game creating a second mobile “moment.” ;-) ) I really like thisMoment, and I can see us using it all the time. In fact, we’re heading out on our “Midwest Summer Roadtrip ‘09” next week on our way to BlogHer, and it seems like another perfect excuse to use thisMoment to share our adventure with family and friends. Which has me thinking that I may use it to save and share some of my BlogHer experiences as well. Did I mention that thisMoment offers collaboration, so I could post a story and someone else can add their photos, video or comments to it too? (There's a hierarchy of privacy offerings too, don't fret!) How cool is that?

I was so excited about all that thisMoment had to offer, that I’m actually now co-hosting a Twitter party Monday night (July 20th - complete with prizes!) with KeepItClassyJen to show others how easy and cool it really is. Join us and check it out!

First Family 5k of the Season

Yay! I love 5k-10k walk/run season. Morning charity races get my family up and moving early enough that we can awake, breathe fresh air, appreciate the outdoors, and still complete our weekend errands with time to do something fun or relax at the end of the day. I love the post-race feeling of not being completely spent, but of having "moved" enough to get the endorphins pumping, purge some toxins and be refreshed to tackle the day - all the while knowing we are helping out a charitable organization, and instilling a fit lifestyle in our son. (Okay, to be honest, I really like to see the early season "before" and late season "after" pics of myself looking toned and tan come the fall.) We're fortunate living in the NYC area to have a host of fun places and races to choose from.  

Our first 5k walk/run this year was the Run For The Wild at the Bronx Zoo last week. It was a BEAUTIFUL day and we received free parking, admission to the zoo, and free tix to the Congo Habitat  (including the gorillas) to explore after the race. It was our first visit to the Bronx Zoo, so it was a win-win for us, and it was an amazing way to kick off our 5k season.

Race recap: Li'l Boo ran nearly the ENTIRE second mile of the race, the participant goodie bags included Diego toy sets (we had three Antartic Rescue sets and were able to trade two of them them with other racers for the Mountain and Deep Sea R escues - Li'l Boo's so excited!). Tiki Barber ran the race and signed autographs afterward (the line was waaay long otherwise we'd have had him sign Li'l Boo's race shirt.) We did however walk nearly another three miles around the zoo after the race. The highlight was seeing the gorillas - which were very active and social - coming right up to the glass in front of us! You could see how powerful  and human-like they are in real-life. A truly amazing part of our day at the zoo. We'll return many times to share this experience with out-of-town visitors and with Li'l Boo for years to come.

First Sunburn

Okay, so I had a bad mom day this weekend, but I don’t think I could have avoided it.

 

We woke up Sunday and checked the weather forecast to learn that it would be a high of 56 degrees in the NY area, and we dressed accordingly for our trip to Giants Stadium to watch the NY Giants take on the SF 49ers. Not knowing for sure if our seats would be in the sun or the shade, we wore long sleeves (Li’l Boo wore the requisite white mock turtleneck and Eli Manning jersey) and carried our coats should it be cold and windy. We lucked out and basked in the sun where it was nice and warm with a clear blue sky and felt like it was 68 degrees! (I seriously felt badly about putting Li’l Boo in a mock turtle as we were very warm the entire game.) By the end of the third quarter, I noticed Li’l Boo’s cheeks were majorly pink. I initially thought that it was due to him being warm, but I realized that it was the result of sitting in the sunshine for three hours. Aack!

 

 

So Li’l Boo got his first sunburn yesterday . . .

At a football game. . .

In the middle of October. . .

In 52 degrees. . .

In New Jersey. . .

Looking back, though I honestly don't think I would have possibly thought to bring sunscreen with us, but it’s one more thing that I have to feel guilty about for not being a good enough mom to have prepared for it. And it’s one more small lesson in learning flexibility, of letting go of my expectations as a mom, and learning that I can’t control everything despite my best intentions. That all I can do is the best I can at the time.