Each of us has so many thoughts about our decade of life together, that we'll have to split up the blog posts. In Part One, K will focus on our recent anniversary trip to New York City...
Since it's impossible to see all of New York in just over 48 hours, we decided the focus of our trip would be culture. Art, music, theater, all the grown-up stuff that we could really enjoy without the kids. We'll have to do food, historical sites, ethnic enclaves and parks another time. Maybe in 5 years the kids won't be cranky standing in lines?
So, we arrived Thursday afternoon and spent the whole afternoon wandering gloriously in the Met. Incredible Greek, Roman and Asian sculptures. (K. really likes sculptures.) We had to find food eventually, in the basement cafeteria, which tasted very marvelous and reminded us of the rare time or two we ate at the Museum Cafe as BYU students.
That evening, we dressed up for Carnegie Hall and heard the Boston Symphony Orchestra perform the Rite of Spring. It almost wouldn't have mattered what they played, we would have enjoyed being in that beautiful concert hall and hearing live music together. We've only gone to one other concert in our marriage, and that was years and years ago when K. worked at a classical radio station and happened to get some free tickets, so this was really an occasion.
Friday we slept in a little and then spent the day doing all things modern -- modern art, that is. We pulled off both the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and the Guggenheim and enjoyed, among other greats, an all-you-can-see buffet of van Gogh's paintings, which was K.'s special favorite part of the whole trip. It's amazing and wonderful how moving some oil on a canvas can be in person.We also found time to wander around a little, to see Times Square and the Rockefeller Center's giant tree both in daylight and lit up at night. We took a look inside Saks Fifth Avenue that day too, and bought a little reindeer bell ornament to commemorate our anniversary. As an added bonus, it's nice and indestructable. We had looked at ornaments at the Met store and loved some pretty glass ones, but they were much too expensive and breakable. A $4 brass Rudolph was a much better fit.
Friday we also stood in the half-price TKTS line and got tickets to a show for that night, The 39 Steps. K. voted the play her second favorite thing about the whole trip, after the van Gogh. It only had a cast of 4, with two of the actors playing dozens of characters, sometimes nearly simultaneously, which was hilarious. It has been described as Hitchcock meets Monty Python, a spy novel cum comedy. Very fun. Noir and comic at the same time was just the right style for our taste.
Saturday was our last few hours in New York, and we headed up to the top of the Empire State Building to see the city in the clear early-morning air. Then we walked through Macy's to pick up some Christmas cheer from the crowds and lights. In fact, around lunchtime all of a sudden we saw hundreds of people dressed in Santa suits out on the streets. They appeared to be about college-age (both genders, the girls in short red skirts) and spoiling for a party. It was memorable, and a fun indication of what S. liked best about the trip, which was just being in the city and knowing that there was always something going on.
A special shout goes out to K.'s dad, who was the unsung hero in this adventure. He drove all the way out from Michigan to stay with the kids so that we could kick up our heels without them. And K.'s mom, who could spare him at this busy time of year and managed to very gracefully swallow her jealousy at not being a direct part of the anniversary event. Thank you, thank you! And we've tried to spare you too much mushiness and bragging -- or at least postpone it until Part Two is published -- but wow, what a wonderful 10 years with the best marriage on earth! We wouldn't trade it for anything.