You may have heard, but in case you haven’t, my baby sister, GES, turned 40 this year!

And when your sister turns 40, then you have to do something big! So…after several months of working on schedules…you try arranging a weekend away with a mother of an 8 year old and 5 year old! This weekend it was!

We headed out by The Acela, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acela_Express, the high speed train run by Amtrak, it took a little over 3 hours to get from Boston to NYC and if you read my post on Friday, you know I missed the train GES was on by seconds! I hopped on the next one and came in about an hour after she got to Penn Station in NY. We found each other!

We headed out of the train station and walked to the Grand Hyatt, which was literally right next to Grand Central Station, an amazing classic train station. It was about a half mile between the two locations, but it was fun to walk through Times Square and see all the people, commotion, hear the noise, smell the different smells, it was fabulous! I know I’m a New Yorker because as we were pulling into Penn Station, I saw all the graffiti on the buildings, felt the vibe and I had an overwhelming sense of calm come over me, it felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders and my chest opened, I was home, sigh.

We got to the hotel, eventually got to check into the room, they were a little busy. Went up to the 31st floor, settled in and then went to the Grand Club level to get some drinks, membership does have its privileges…Then we went ventured out to see what we could bring back for a nosh, found some salad, back to the hotel to eat and watch Pitch Perfect 2, don’t bother, sorry, we were disappointed.

Eventually, we turned it, but not after a few times marveling at how great it was to be together and that’s what it’s all about!

Saturday, we slept until 9:30am, what a treat! For both of us! We got out of bed eventually, then headed back to the club level, you have to use your room key to get to the floor, how fancy! We had breakfast on the outdoor patio, it was really nice to be up that high and having breakfast outside. GES sent a text with our photo to some friends and said “We slept in and having breakfast at 10:30…I can go home now!”

After breakfast, we headed back to the room, showered and got dressed, then headed out up to Broadway to meet dad near the theater. What theater you ask? We were meeting at the Palace Theater to pick up tickets for “An American In Paris”! Dad was taking us to see a 4 Tony award winning musical! http://www.broadway.com/shows/american-paris/?gclid=CjwKEAjw__atBRDfqe-9voylym8SJAAOBeQ_2siOl7q4i8Ihd82lMMywru2hEbAWUWls-F29JOPjpRoCx9Lw_wcB

After we picked up the tickets we walked to the M&Ms store, a three level store with candy, clothing, housewares and more! It’s an experience and if you’ve never been, you must go! I’ve been to the one in NY and Las Vegas. We stocked up on some Chanukah and Christmas gifts, how good are we!

Then it was off to the theater! Our first show, as I said, was An American In Paris and after waiting on line to get into the theater for what seemed like forever, we were in for a treat!

This was a fabulous musical based on the 1951 musical film starring Gene Kelley and Leslie Caron, which is one of my all time favorite movies! http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043278/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1. The musical was a little different from the origianly screen production, but it was so amazing! Thank you daddy!

After the production, LaLa, dad, GES and I all walked around for a bit and went to Trattoria TreColore, http://www.trattoriatrecolori.com/menu.html, one of our favorite Italian restaurants in the Theater District. We had a lovely supper, celebrating my sister and dad’s birthday.

After dinner, we parted company and GES and I headed the few blocks to the next theater, the main reason for this trip…to see KINKY BOOTS!!! We have loved the movie Kinky Boots, Kinky Boots, The movie, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0434124/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1, since we first saw it years ago. I’ve probably seen it close to 50 times, I’m not kidding!

It’s based on a true story, about a shoe factory that makes shoes for men and when the factory is going under, Charlie, the owner of the shoe factory, meets Lola, a fabulous drag queen and he has an epiphany…they go from “making a range of shoes for men to shoes for a range of men” thus going from Price and Son Shoes to…The Kinky Boots Factory!

RG had a connection who got us fabulous seats in the orchestra, row K off the stage! The show was fabulous! It was produced by Cindy Lauper, who I la la la LOVE! She’s one of my idols from my childhood in the 1980s! I had a poster of her, ala “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” over my bed growing up! She’s one of my favorites and Harvey Fierstein wrote the book!

I cannot begin to tell you how fabulous this show was. We love this movie and to see it come to life on the stage, which amazing music, lyrics and choreography. We got some tshirts and I got…a bag! It looks like an old fashioned Pan Am flight bag, I’ll show it to you another time! GES said it’s a great bag, thanks for helping my problem!! I’m not complaining!

After the show we walked back to the hotel, reliving the show and every wonderful moment, from the sounds, the sights, the drag queens, all of it. And being together, that was the best part! We got to the hotel, got some hot teas and took them to the room where we relaxed, I wrote to you, watched movies and just enjoyed our time together.

Eventually we both fell asleep, my faster than GES, imagine that! Slept until 9:30 again, how nice! This time we showered before we went to breakfast, took our food out on to the patio again and just enjoyed ourselves again, deciding that we needed to do this again, at least once a year. Well, we said that numerous times over the weekend! So it’s going to happen!

After we went back to the room, we finished packing and headed out towards Penn Station, stopping at the Crocs store, I found some shoes for work, hopefully they will treat my feet right after 12 hours! Then the two blocks to Penn Station to stand and wait and wait and wait until the train came in and they told us what track to get to.

People can get a little testy while waiting for the train, oh well. We found some seats, settled in and started to watch a movie. The WiFi didn’t want to help us, so I pulled out my portable hard drive and we watched Better Off Dead, with John Cusack, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088794/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1. Then we started watching We Hot American Summer, I’ll keep you posted!

We got to the train station, headed to the house and had dinner with the family and some neighbors, then I headed out to the hotel to check on my kids, unpack, write to you and then sack out, I have to be at work at 6am tomorrow, gotta go!

If you have the opportunity, when Kinky Boots comes to your town, go see it! Kinky Boots, The Musical, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinky_Boots_(musical)

Happy Birthday GES! It was such an amazing weekend! I cannot wait to take another sister/girls trip with you!