Spring Break 2025
We left our house on Saturday morning and started the long drive to New York City. We stayed at a hotel in Mechanicsburg, PA the first night.
We got up Sunday morning and drove to Three Daughters Baking Co. in South Orange Village, NJ for some sweet treats. Everything we had was delicious! 
The bakery is owned by Chris Leahy and his wife. Chris and I went to grade school together, and he went to high school with Jim. It was fun to surprise him.
Then, we parked our minivan at a long term lot at the Secaucus Junction train station and took a train into Manhattan. We dropped our luggage at the hotel and walked to MoMA. En route, we got some pretzels from a street vedor.
We had seen a segment on The Clock exhibit on the CBS Sunday Morning Show, so it was neat to see it in person. It is a 24-hour video with snippets from movies that show clocks. These clips are synced with the current time. So, if we were watching the movie at 12:17, we would see clips from various films where a clock on the screen would show the time 12:17. It was impressive. Also, it took place in gallery 212 - Jack's favorite number.
Maggie loves pandas and there were several stuffed pandas in this artwork.
If they ever form a band, this would make a good album cover.
Charlie was unimpressed by Monet's Water Lilies.
Patrick liked Van Gogh's Starry Night. It was neat to experience art that we have heard about and seen in pictures, but never in real life.
I loved this bright and colorful background.
We had some time before Mass, so we visited the Microsoft store.
Then, a quick stop at the Lego store.
We went to St. Patrick's Cathedral for Sunday Mass.
After Mass, we took the subway to dinner.
Jim's friend recommended Old Town Bar. We enjoyed some burgers.
Then, we explored Times Square at night.
Maggie got a premium view on Dad's shoulders.
Jim, Patrick, and I got up at 5:00 a.m. to walk to Rockefeller Center to see The Today Show. It was rainy and cool. It was also St. Patrick's Day, so we got to see some Irish Dancing on the plaza.
Al Roker came and fist bumped us hello.
We were on TV!
After The Today Show, we gathered the rest of our crew for a walk in Central Park.
Jim and I took a picture of the kids by the fountain.
Then, they took a picture of us on a bridge.
We then visited The Met.
Life imitates art.
Some of them enjoyed the art more than others.
Maggie really liked the painting in front of her.
The Emanuel Leutze painting of Washington Crossing the Delaware is huge!
Jack wanted to explore the museum more, but the rest of us left to watch some of the St. Patrick's Day parade. There were a lot of police and fire departments.
We went back to The Met to get Jack.
We walked through the park again on our way to The Dakota, where John Lennon was shot.
Maggie is in the Strawberry Fields area of the park.
We became pretty decent subway travelers. Once we got on the wrong way and another time the payment machines weren't working and we struggled with the app. Otherwise, all was good!
Charlie wanted to see the Bull on Wall Street.
I won't be surprised if he takes another picture here later in life.
We visited the 9/11 Memorial. We went in the museum as well, but I didn't take any pictures there.
Once again, Dad provides a better view.
We took the Staten Island Ferry to dinner on Staten Island that night.
It was windy and cool, but there were good views of the skyline.
We viewed the Statue of Liberty from the ferry.
Maggie's dinner came out first. We were all very hungry and she kindly shared some fries with us. She moaned about how tasty her meal was. She's pretty fun to share a meal with.
The return ride was colder, but it was neat to see the city lit up at night.
The next day we had a tasty breakfast and then walked to Rockefeller Center. We explored the huge FAO Schwarz. We were all impressed with a magic show.
Maggie played on the big piano, just like in the movie Big.
Rockefeller Center. The ice skating rink is behind us.
We went to The High Line and walked above the streets of Manhattan. We enjoyed a little break with the warm sun on our faces.
Then, we walked to Washington Square.
Patrick played chess at one of the famous tables in the park. He won all three games he played. The hustler was impressed!
We walked to Crif Dogs, at the recommendation of our neighbors at home, for lunch.
The speakeasy Please Don't Tell can be accessed from the phone booth in Crif Dogs, but it wasn't open until later that night.
We then went to the Empire State Building.
There were great views of the city.
WE 🩷 NY.
We waited in line at TKTS to get tickets to a Broadway show. We let Jack choose the show and he picked MJ the Musical. It was great! We had four seats together...
...and another two seats together.
After the show, we walked the kids back to the hotel and we met our friends Jennifer and Shawn for drinks. We were excited to discover we were both in NYC at the same time, and staying really close to one another!
I got a picture with their girls. I remember when I was taller than both of them.
Maggie had fallen asleep in her brothers' room, so Jim carried her down to our room.
The next day, we took the train back to NJ to get our car and drive to Canada. These signs in the train station were pretty dang sad.
Our hotel room had an amazing view of Niagara Falls.
We walked down to the Falls before dinner.
The next morning, Jim went for a run and got some neat sunrise pictures.
Then we all went back to the Falls before driving to Toronto.
We ate lunch in High Park in Toronto. We found this sign humorous.
There were black squirrels!
We went to the playground. It was not great.
We drove along the lake and stopped at a beach.
It was cold and windy so we didn't stay long.
While in Canada, we had to try poutine.
Jim took the younger three to a glow in the dark mini golf place while Jack and I went shopping. These three had fun and Jack got a purple suit. Win-win!
