MOMA Mia, Goodnight Moon and SRO

Garrett and Libby arrived last night after midnight after a rookie wrong way turn on the subway and late night skirting of revelers.  It was fun to see them arriving pulling their suitcases from way down the block.

For Dilara's last day we decided on the MOMA and an early start meant an uncrowded morning there.  

However, Garrett and Libby decided to detour over to Book of Mormon to see if they could win the ticket lottery for the 2 PM show (for all performances 25 tickets are available in a lottery for $27).  

They joined a friendly line of folks who were doubling their chances by also standing in the Standing Room Only tickets line (20 available for $27).  This meant a short wait for the lottery and a 2 hour wait for SRO.  They lost on the lottery, but they managed to get the SRO tickets (Book of Mormon tickets can be over $300 a piece).  They were so excited.

Meanwhile Ben, Dilara and I explored the MOMA starting on the 6th floor and working down.  The art is amazing and the museum is one large art piece as well. 

  Often we gazed from windows that framed the views inside and out perfectly.  We were stunned by many of the iconic artworks and enjoyed the experiential installations.  Describing great art is hopeless!  Suffice it to say, the museum is wonderful.  

Art appreciation makes us hungry so we hopped a taxi to Nam Pang - a fabulous Vietnamese inspired sandwich shop.  Double WOW on the food and the great folks who work there.  We insisted Dilara take the subway from Grand Central Station so she could see it, but she was distracted by the time crunch of getting back to the apartment in time to pack up and catch her shuttle.  She did fine.

Now just two, Ben and I started walking and realized we were right in front of the New York City Library.  How could we resist going into this spectacular and friendly building?  Necks craning, gazing all around, we were drawn right into a special exhibition on children's literature and a tour that was just beginning.  What a fascinating and cleverly staged exhibit.  Move over Met!  The Library is world-class!

We learned that child education theories greatly influenced children's literature.  For example, the Puritans believed the Bible was the purpose of 

learning to read, so early primers featured Christian rhymes and vocabulary designed to scare children from a life of sin and simultaneously prepare them to read Bible text.  

New theories came into fashion - children needed to learn about the "real world", then they needed to learn to develop their imaginations, then they needed to learn to confront fear.  Each idea spawned children's books.  Did you know Goodnight Moon was written under the influence of a child development theory that children found most comfort in reading about real life objects and people? 

Hence:

In the great green room 

There was a telephone 
And a red balloon 
And a picture of 
The cow jumping over the moon

An hour passed by in a blink in this exhibition - we and our tour mates kept exclaiming over books we read as children or read to our brothers or our own children.

Heading out into the late afternoon, the air was warming, the sky was crystal clear and Manhattan just glowed with people happily strolling, shopping, kissing and posing.

We met Garrett and Libby post-show and they were just "over the moon" themselves about Book of Mormon. They loved the irreverent humor and said the time flew by. They did not mind standing a bit and said they had a great spot for watching the show.  Ben and I are now thinking of doing it ourselves, though I had been swearing I can't do SRO!

Libby and I sashayed into the Ritz Carlton to use the loo (EVERYTHING about the hotel is posh).  Garrett and Ben chatted up the doorman who recommended an Irish Pub for a pint.

Nice Irish waitress charged my iphone (which I drain daily from overuse).  Kids decided to find dinner and Ben and I finally walked through Central Park to get home.  Blissful Day!

The kids messaged this picture to from their perch in a bar high above Times Square.  More bliss!