from the desk of tara hope…

matts sister jill and her husband mitch came to visit us last weekend! mitch had never been to nyc, and jill hadnt seen where we live, so it was fun showing them around our neighborhood. mitch got the local/first-timer tour all jumbled into one 🙂

the first night they got there we ate some yummy pizza(of course…if matt had his way we would have eaten pizza every single meal…and we almost did!) after pizza we walked around times square a bit, then went to an improv comedy show. i love the one in raleigh, and this was just as fun! me and matt will definitely be going back to see them!

saturday we went to see memphis and it was so good! the music was incredible…the cast could SERIOUSLY sing!

continuing on with our southern theme for the day, we went to a mardi gras party that night. now, i have never been to mardi gras anything. ive never celebrated it ever. but these kids grew up in the bayou, right outside n’orleans and mardi gras is a big deal to them. so we joined a bunch of other creole-lovers and listened to some awesome trombone-rock-fusion music. i dont even know what its called but it was really fun!

my favorite part was when they played “the saints go marching in”, the trombone players started a conga line through the crowd! it was so fun!

afterwards we stopped by bleecker st. pizza for another taste-test comparison 🙂 i told you matt would have eaten every meal at a pizzeria!

the next day we took a little tour of chinatown, where they were setting up for the chinese new year parade! it was so festive, everyone was shooting off confetti poppers and there were decorations everywhere. we didnt get to see the actual parade but its going on the list for next winter!

we stopped at a little vietnamese shop for some sandwiches and bubble tea! the best part are those colorful straws! 🙂 i chose pink of course.

we walked back home through central park, which is always a pleasure…

it happened to be valentines day, so that night we went out to a jewish deli(because really, isnt that the most romantic thing you can think of ;)) where mitch proceeded to accidentally order the biggest bowl of chicken soup ever created.

we had so much fun with brother-in-law and sister-in-law 🙂 such great memories, and we cant wait for them to come back!