The Fantastic Mr. & Mrs. Fox: DCI & A day in NYC with my Momma!

My very talented little sister has been a member of the Mandarins Drum and Bugle Corps for four years now. She has spent three of those years playing trumpet and this year is the backfield drum major. They spend practically all year rehearsing and then spend summers traveling the U.S. wowing people with their musicality and impressive field performances. Lucky for me they stop in Allentown, PA. Which just so happens to be a quick 2 ½ jaunt away. Trust me this show is all I have heard about from her for months and I was so stoked to finally watch. I continue to be in awe of Rebekah and how talented she is! Lucky for me again, my Mom had been traveling as a cook, and my Dad and Kayla as drivers for the past week. I was so happy to see all my family!! I miss them so much! We stole my Mom away with us and took her back to our incredibly chaotic apartment in the midst of a move.

We spent the best day in NYC! This is really saying something for me. I remember our first trip into the city and I was nervous, overwhelmed, claustrophobic, felt everything around me was dirty, and it was hard for to understand why people are so in love with NYC. This time everything just went perfect! The drive there didn’t really have traffic, we parked for $11 all day, we navigated the subway like pros, and my favorite we got an awesome deal on Broadway tickets! This was absolutely my #1 thing I wanted to do while we lived so close to NYC, and I’m so grateful to have parents that spoil me! We spent the morning wandering in shops and bargaining with street vendors. My Mom and I got matching hippie chic NYC bags (I wish we took a picture). After a yummy lunch at Hard Rock Café in Times Square we made the walk around the corner to see Mary Poppins! The show was incredible! The theatre was gorgeous, the set constantly changing, people tap dancing on the roof, Mary Poppins flying over the audience and pulling objects out of her magic bag, and just so much overall fun to this show. I have been humming nonstop since this weekend the practically perfect song. After our show we met up with my Dad and sisters who spent their afternoon watching a Yankees game, and went to the 9/11 Memorial Site. It was such a beautifully done memorial and so humbling to see all those names.

That evening we went on a lantern tour of Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. My Mother, the eccentric, strangely fascinated with cemeteries woman that she is, didn’t understand how we could live so close and not make it on a tour yet. So to please her we spent the next two hours wandering around a cemetery in the middle of the night, solely lit by lanterns, listening to stories of some of Sleepy Hollow’s most popular patrons. There is never too much fun in a cemetery to be had so the next day we walked around the cemetery on West Point campus. My Mom was actually giddy to be taking pictures, and looking at all the names. Who remembers General Custer? I however, had the most fun lying on top of people’s grave markers pretending I was sacrificing myself. Maybe that’s slightly irreverent to some, but I guess I am my Mother’s daughter a little bit. I love you Mom! Looking forward to the cemetery tours we will take you on in N.C. ;-)