Weekend in New York City

Our drive was great… until we got to the Lincoln tunnel and 6 toll roads merged into 2 lanes...I don't know how people do that commute. We did finally reach our hotel, right in the heart of Times Square, the Marriott Marquee.

Inside, the elevators looked like giant tubes for transporting mail. It was like something from the Jetson’s or Willy Wonka’s Glass Elevator. We had a lovely view of the city.

We went to a wonderful dinner at a quaint little Italian restaurant. They had great onion soup, steak, and fish.

We then walked to the play called “The 39 Steps.” The show had very interesting humor. Four people played over 100 characters. We are not sure we can recommend it to people because it's for the quirky sense of humor type. But there were definitely some creative and funny things. It’s like Napoleon Dynamite- when you reminisce about it, then it’s funnier and you almost want to go see it again so you can really appreciate it.

We had dessert at Junior's (famous for their cheesecake) after the show- strawberry shortcake, cheesecake, and hot chocolate. Yum! And yes, it was our second dessert for the evening.

The next day we drove out to Mary Payne’s in Connecticut. We first saw the house where we lived and hospital where I was born. My mom told stories about Trevor running up the street naked and Nathan disappearing until a stranger brought him home.

Mary was so excited to see us and to meet Jeff & Laura. She feels like she is our second mom so she was happy to see our spouses. She told Jeff that he was a hottie and was happy to know he makes me laugh constantly.

We ate lots of junk food to celebrate her birthday. In fact, we ate lots of junk food the entire weekend. In fact, I'm still full off all the junk food we ate.

Jeff played with my/Mary’s old turtle Jewel. Jewel still has marks in his shell from when our dog Foxy tried to eat him and bury him in the dirt (See the hole in the picture- teeth puncture marks). We really had a wonderful visit.

The drive back was great until we were 0.9 miles away from the hotel. From there it took one hour to get back. Now we understand why people in movies are always jumping out of their cab to run the remainder of the distance...much faster.

We stopped by my Dad’s booth to visit. Ja relayed that other doctors had said that Dr. DeVore is their hero and a very intelligent man. I am interested in knowing how many doctors start wearing bow ties at the next conference...then we'll be able to gauge how much influence he really has.

We walked a few blocks to dinner at Benjamin’s Steak House. We had three or four waiters for our table. Once again, we had great food.

After dinner, we enjoyed strolling around 42nd street on our walk to see “Guys and Dolls” with Lauren Graham from Gilmore Girls and Oliver Platt. We loved it! We laughed, enjoyed the good music, and funny one-liners. It was very entertaining. However, I kept waiting for the song "Guys and Dolls" that was sung in the Simpsons, but apparently it was written special for the cartoon and not in the original score.

Before we went home, we had dessert again- great devil’s food cheesecake. And yes, I am still full.

The next morning we had breakfast at Junior’s and then heard my Dad's lecture. This reminded me of why I want him to do my ultrasounds. I'm pretty sure a lot of people there had no idea what he was talking about.

We had a fabulous trip and a wonderful time with family...until next time :)