Meetings and Laughter and Sutton Foster and Dogs and Coney Island and Broadway and Joy

This past week my team and I were on the East Coast for our August Kickoff meetings (yes, already). This week always signifies the end of summer for me (SAD FACE), but it is always fun to head to NYC and catch up with colleagues before the crazy begins.

This week, we had a bit of free time....and of course I was going to fill it with wonderful NYC things to do. First Stop: Queens for the NY Pops/Sutton Foster concert. I had caught wind of this concert a few weeks before, but since we usually have a group dinner the night before departure, I figured it wouldn't have worked out....however, we ended up having a free night, so three of us hopped on the train right after work and for 10 bucks we got to sit outside, under the stars and enjoy the always delightful Sutton Foster, Megan McGuiness and Colin Donnell. They sang, they tapped and Sutton even brought out her dog Mabel during one of the songs. Very cute.

The sunset was just gorgeous that night and we could see the city skyline from a distance. These moments make me very happy. The entire night was so relaxing and enjoyable. We hit up a nearby pub afterwards to grab dinner and drinks.

Over the weekend, Friend A and I ended up heading to Coney Island (bucket lister) since I had never been there before. FYI folks, if you are ever heading to Coney Island, in search of a Freak Show, you will be sorely disappointed. 

I made that mistake and I was wrong. There are only rides and hot dogs and the ocean.

I know the term "freak" is probably not so PC, but whenever I think of Coney Island for some reason, I always thought there would be those old-timey "Freak" show exhibits. For the record, I did look up "freak synonyms to see if I could find something less....er, mean.. everything that came up was worse:


Regardless, of the normalcy of Coney Island, it was so much fun to go there. We went on a bunch of rides, including the famous 1927 roller coaster: The Cyclone. It was crazy and I can't believe that people rode that thing in 1927. I do believe that I may be past my amusment park prime----but I still had a lot of fun on the rides. I can't say it was better than Dollywood, but it was a great way to spend an afternoon. We also took sometime to frolic in the Ocean. I don't know if I have ever really been to a beach on the Atlantic, minus those few moments in Miami before I headed to Haiti, but it was so nice. I wish we had sand on the West Coast!

Of course, before leaving we had a Nathan's hot dog. Which to be honest was nowhere near as good as a Costco dog.

That night, Friend A and I headed to the theater....like I always make her do, though this time we picked a show that I was sure she would like (not to discredit the times I took her to Tupac: The Musical or Saved By the Bell the Musical) but we saw "An American in Paris." A beauiful show with lots of ballet, Gershwin tunes and a sugar sweet WWII storyline.

It was so much better than I thought it would be. I really enjoyed it!