People started gathering early in front of the Netherlands Carillon for the DC 4th of July fireworks. I arrived around 6:30pm and met up with Patrick and Cassandra. Sundown wasn't until around 9pm so we killed some by playing Scrabble. Cassandra and Patrick are what I would call "Scrabble Grand Masters". I am what I would call a "Scrabble Trainee". Needless to say, the score was a bit lopsided. I guess all those hours of getting my ass kicked by iPhone Scrabble really didn't help improve my skills. Still, it was a good way to kill some time. A few others joined later so we had a decent group by the time the fireworks started. It was a good show, but I think I've got my fill of fireworks for a few years (unless, of course, I'm the one shooting them off).

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Our first 45 minutes with Vamoose was not the most pleasant. I initially decided something was wrong when the bus turned around and headed back to Arlington. I figured there was either a bus tour of DC included in the price which I was unaware of, or we were heading back to where we started. In DC there are several Vamoose employees that help load bags, check people in, etc. but do not ride the bus. One of these individuals left his bag on the bus. The bus had to turn around and give him his bag. 45 minutes … wasted.

We made it up to NYC in a little over 5 hours. The bus stopped at Penn Station and we caught a cab from there to our hotel – the San Carlos. My parents and sister arrived only an hour or so before us. As it was late we decided to all call it a night and hit the town Saturday morning.

We started Saturday morning at the Folk Art Museum. It wasn’t big, but I was impressed by the artwork. After the Museum we  walked over to the theatre district where my parents bought tickets to see Jersey Boys for that evening. The rest of us already had tickets for Wicked, but my mother had already seen it so wanted something different.

After that we took a walk up to Central Park. We spend some time playing in a playground clearly marked for children only. Somehow all of us missed the signs until we left. It did seem odd that we were older than everyone by at least 20 years. We continued our trek past the Sheep Meadow where there were several moderately talented bands performing around the “Quiet Area” signs. We continued on until we arrived at the Guggenheim Museum. I had been to the Guggenheim before, but it had been about 10 years so most of the artwork was new. My favorite “piece” was a night-vision video showing a boy obsessively biting his nails in the dark. Sometimes I think I’m just not smart enough to understand art. Upon leaving the Guggenheim we feasted on some sorbet and snow cones and made our way back to the hotel.

 For dinner on Saturday we feasted at Dos Caminos. It is a Mexican chain, but quite good – especially for a chain. My brother-in-law has coeliac disease which can sometimes make eating out a bit of an ordeal. Amazingly, the waiter was familiar with the disease and knew exactly which foods had gluten in them. I don’t often inquire about gluten free food, but rarely are the wait staff so knowledgeable on the subject. So, for all you gluten free folks out there – I recommend Dos Caminos.

Saturday night we all headed to the theatre. Katie, Jen Jeff and myself all went to Wicked while my parents split off an headed to Jersey Boys. Our seats were excellent. We were right in the middle about 16 rows back. The show was sold out and the crowd was enthusiastic which made it fun. After the show we altered our route home to pass through Times Square. Times Square is even more of a zoo than I remember. It was fun for the 10 minutes we spent there. Any more than that and the lighted billboards might send you into epileptic seizures.

Sunday morning we headed out to Chelsea to see a famous piece of landscape architecture (as I found out later from a group of professional landscape architects) – the High Line. The High Line was previously an elevated rail line that has been converted into an elevated park (well, partially converted, they’re still working on it). The completed section is about 1.5 miles long and offers some nice views. It also passes by Chelsea Market where we all had lunch.

After lunch we meandered over to Washington Square where Katie played in the water fountain – thus increasing the average age of those playing in the fountain by a factor of 10. After a few minutes in Washington Sq., we took the subway down to Battery Park for 30 minutes of sightseeing before heading up to Rockefeller Center for our tour of NBC Studios. Both Katie and I had already gone on the tour, but it had been quite a while – 10 years for Katie and about 17 for me. I didn’t remember too much of my tour in 1993(ish) other than I got to see Lenny Kravitz rehearsing as our tour was Saturday afternoon before a SNL show. It was sad to see Conan O’Brian’s studio has already been redone for Dr. Oz (whoever the heck that is).

Our final event was dinner at The View restaurant on top of the Marriott Marquis in Times Square. The restaurant rotates so guests get a nice panoramic view of the city. It makes one full rotation every hour so we were able to see the full view twice during our dinner. We made another trek through Times Square on our way back to the hotel.

Monday morning we took a cab back to Penn Station to catch our bus back to DC – a 4 hour (exactly) trip.

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