"I like to be in America" West Side Story

We slept until 10:00 on Saturday and rushed to get out the door to maximize our few remaining hours in the city with Jen. Jamie took us to Kitchenette in Harlem for brunch. My eggs were great, but I filled up on my biscuit and grits. You can take the girl out of the South, but you can't take the South out of the girl! The restaurant itself was so charming with its window of baked goods, and it was packed to the brim with people from all different walks of life. To me, that's when you know you're in a good restaurant!





We spent the next couple of hours at Ann Taylor Loft for their $40 dress sale. I found one for my rehearsal dinner. It's perfect with the damask{ish} print and I think it'll be suitable for January with with a sweater if I need it. {Side note: I've been pronouncing 'damask' incorrectly. It's not 'dahm-ahsk', it's 'dam-ehsk'.}

Then we had to say goodbye to Jen. It was so much fun having her on this trip! We are the best travel partners. Neither one of us care about not having a plan and we're really easy to please. I'm so glad you came, Jen!


After saying goodbye and freshening up, Jamie and I were on our way to see West Side Story! But not before stopping by for some pizza first.


About West Side Story...it really left both Jamie and me speechless. It was phenomenal! The cast was amazing and it was a surreal experience seeing such a classic production on Broadway. The current director is the same man who wrote and directed the original in the 1950's. Jamie and I figured he had to be around 85 years old. And the choreography was the same as well {from what we could interpret from the Playbill}. I've only seen the movie and that was years ago, so I didn't remember much about it. Maria was played by a 21-year-old girl from Argentina and she blew us away. Thank you Jamie!! This was actually my birthday present. You can read the story of how I received the present here. It's a really fun story!


Since we were in the neighborhood and Times Square felt so alive, Jamie decided to take me to Ellen's Stardust Diner. It's a total tourist trap with singing waitstaff aspiring to make it to Broadway, and exactly the kind of thing we love. We knew it was going to be fun when, as we were being seated, they started talking about taking a trip down the Atlanta Highway. Having lived in Athens and actually 'heading down the Atlanta Highway' ourselves, we were so excited and instantly began singing along. We loved most everything except the 9 minute Meatloaf song. Could have done without that.



After our dessert, we stepped out into the most beautiful New York City evening. Though we were 50 blocks from Jamie's apartment, we both agreed the walk would be much more enjoyable than a subway ride. It was really a perfect evening. The air was warm and the breeze was blowing. We discussed our favorite John Mayer lyrics and solved all of the world's problems on our walk home.