The Meta-Vacation

Remember when I was telling y'all about our travels at Christmastime?  Well, I'm picking up where I left off...

I'm not sure what it says about your vacation when you take a vacation from your vacation, but that's just what we did.  On the Wednesday before Christmas we left the kids with their grandma and grandpa for a little overnight getaway for M and me.

 We drove from the D.C. area up to a cute little town in New Jersey, just outside Newark.

We stayed in a neat old hotel.  It was built in 1929.

It had this crazy brickwork on the exterior:

 

It was very cute, all decorated for Christmas.

 Front doors

Lobby

Downstairs hallway

Downstairs hallway

And what could be more romantic than a room decorated with law books?

That night we had dinner at the hotel restaurant. It was delicious.  Not quite Driskill Grill, but what is?  Except for the dessert.  We were running out of time before we had to leave to see our play, but we decided to risk it and order dessert.  I got the chocolate lava cake thinking, "Meh. Sounds a little cliche, but it's the chocolately choice."

BOY HOWDY!!!  (Is that a dorky enough way to say it for you?)  I am SO glad I ordered it!  I was so wrong about it being a bit run of the mill.  It was the finest dessert I have EVER tasted.  Words cannot do it justice.  Just know that it was a far cry from the underdone in the middle cake or brownie injected with chocolate syrup that one might expect from the description "chocolate lava cake."  Something closer to a truffle with a hot fudge center, then all of it covered in ganache.  But better.

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Oh!  Sorry.  I think I just drifted off there.  Lost in the memory of that dessert...

Anyway, with a little speeding and crazy U-turns, we found our way to the theater in the next town over.  With minutes to spare we pulled into the first parking we found and the parking attendant guy offered us valet parking even though it wasn't normally a valet lot.  We took him up on the offer!  That's how desperately close to being late we were!  (I'll end the suspense and let you know now that, don't worry, the car was still there when we came out.)

M and I had both always wanted to see Les Mis on the stage.  That was pretty much the whole point of this little trip.  It did not disappoint.  We THOROUGHLY enjoyed it.

The next morning, after sleeping in without anyone coming in and asking us for breakfast or asking to watch "Curious George" or anyone climbing into bed with us, and after a lovely full breakfast buffet at the hotel, we boarded the train to New York.

Can I just say now that I found the New York subway system VERY confusing?  It's not like I've never been to big cities.  I've ridden many public transit systems in many cities, including trains where everything was in JAPANESE, and I was BY FAR the most confused by the New York subway.  So there, I said it.  I was a NY subway dunce and I really peeved poor M.  But we found our way around in the end.

I had never been to New York city before and with only a few hours to work with, we knew there was no way we would come even close to seeing all the things we wanted to.  So we just promised ourselves we will go back again someday and picked one thing to do.  Our choice?

Some people might think the MoMA was a strange choice given the many choices we had.  But going to art museums is something M and I have always enjoyed doing together.  And I really enjoy modern art.  (And if you're thinking of telling me about how "anyone could do that" and all that crap, please, save your breath.  You won't change my mind and if you say anything to that effect it will only make me think you are a neanderthal.  I don't want to be forced to think less of you, so let's just leave it all unsaid, mmmkay?)  So anyway, it was really fun!  Plus it was something we really wanted to do that we figured we were less likely to do if we came back to New York with our kids in tow.


We were running out of time, so we forced ourselves to leave the museum and our last stop was for some pizza in Times Square:

Then we rode the train back to our car in New Jersey and drove back to M's parents' house.

As a final treat on our trip, we enjoyed driving by the Washington D.C. LDS temple all lit up at night:

(But, as you might have guessed, it's not this blurry in real life.)

We got back a good bit later than we had hoped, but it was a FABULOUS little getaway!