Half-Days and Trip in In the Meadow

The kids had a half-day of school on Monday and they have another half-day today. Kind of a strange week. They go to a religious school and they have a school mass during the morning of the half-day. They have to be in their full uniforms for the mass. Most days the uniform requirements are flexible.

I have been in New York City for a conference for the past few days. I took a plane there on Tuesday evening. We were quite busy so that didn’t leave a lot of time for sight-seeing. The first evening we had a dinner reception. It was in a banquet room of the hotel. The hotel was near Grand Central. All of our breakfasts and dinners were provided, which was nice. On Wednesday and Thursday during the day we had classes. They went from 8:30 to about 1:45.

After the classes each day I went out for lunch. When I’ve been to New York City in the past I looked up which restaurants to go to. This time I just decided to wing it. On Wednesday I went to a restaurant called Madison and Vine and on Thursday I went to Vitae. The Vitae one in particular was expensive but I didn’t have that many expenses on the trip, and I decided to splurge. On Wednesday after lunch I went to the Museum of Modern Art. I didn’t have too much time so I went to the section with the 1960s art, since I like to look at the Andy Warhol Campbell’s Soup paintings.

On Thursday after lunch I went to the Build-A-Bear store. It was a big store with two levels. There were lots of different stuffed animals and outfits to choose from. There was a “Teddy Terrace” downstairs for birthday parties. It was so big that there were parts downstairs where I was the only one there. That was a little weird in Manhattan. I got a bear for each of the kids. I got a Yankees bear for Timmy, a ballerina bear for Kayla, and a Boy Scout bear for Aaron. After I went to the store I left to catch my plane back home.