MindiTheMagnificent: DKMS Gala and Gregory's Bone Marrow Donor ~ Part IV

Part I ~ Back Story

Part II ~ Tuesday

Part III ~ Wednesday

"Today is the day I really didn't think would come. I certainly never imagined it would look like this! T minus 11 hours before we leave." ~ My first Twitter/FaceBook status for the day.

Thursday, Arpil 26, 2012 proved to be The Best Day Ever. Once again, I let The OffSpring sleep as long as possible. Aside from the gala, the only thing we had planned that day was lunch with my fellow 46 Momma, Susan. Little did I know that Susan was going to completely take The OffSpring under her wing and show us the day of our lives. She pulled up to our hotel at 11:00 and the four of us poured into her VW Eos. We headed up Church street to Times Square. What a sight to see. Cannot WAIT to get back there, someday.

The OffSpring were starving, after parking the car we headed to Bubba Gumps. The OffSpring had their drinks in sparkly glasses:

Sparkly glasses with The Queen of sparkle.....

The view from our table:

Another one, 'cause they are so stinkin' cute:

I had a blast. The OffSpring had not been properly indoctrinated to Forrest Gump before we went, so they were pretty clueless. I do have to tell you....... I was the Queen of Forrest Gump Trivia. Admittedly they were pretty generic questions, but we did get to keep our napkins. Having no access to napkins at a meal like that is a traveling mom's worst nightmare! Curtis fell in love with clams and mussels. They have the BEST Hush Puppies and Gregory still had pizza. Kid's pretty consistent.

We walked across the street to the GINORMOUS Toys R Us. Sheesh! Did not expect THAT. Place is like four stories high and has a Ferris Wheel.
Proof that Curtis was with us and proof that he is a teenager! Grainy cell phone pic, I know. Better than nothin'!

The more cooperative duo:

We spent the next hour or so being completely overwhelmed and overstimulated by the offerings there. They had a real life Spiderman and Iron Man. At first Gregory was all excited to have his picture with them, but the closer we got to them, the more freaked out he started to get. Ultimately he wanted nothing to do with them. Darn it! We spent quite a bit of time 'ooooooooing' and 'aaahhhhhhhing' over the fun sweet treats in Candyland. To the tune of $63- in CANDY! My inner granola was cringing. *shrug* Still can't believe how much time we spent there. Time has a way of slip, slip, slippin' away. We were starting to cut it close. I wanted to have a little down time before we had to start getting ready for the gala. So we began getting our hineys to the car.

Along the way...... walking down any street in that city can be an entertaining experience. Throw in Times Square and I could spend all day just people watching. AnnMarie and I picked up the requisite 'I [heart] NY' shirts and Susan and I had our picture taken with the Naked Cowboy. *tee hee*

We made it to the car, Susan put the top down and The OffSpring had the greatest car ride I think they have ever had. She plugged in Curtis' ipod and we cruised down Bleeker Street blaring metalish music with Curtis trying to act like he didn't know us and AnnMarie and Gregory rockin' out, fist pumping the air. Yes, it was terribly obvious we were tourists. Did. Not. Care. That's what we were!